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THE UNIVERSITY 
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LIBRARY 


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WAR OF THE REBELLION: 


A COMPILATION OF THE 


OFFICIAL RECORDS 


OF THE 


UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES. 


PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
The Hon. ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of War, 
BY 
BRIG. GEN. FRED C. AINSWORTH, 
CHIEF OF THE RECORD AND PENSION OFFICE, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
AND 


MR. JOSEPH W. KIRKLEY. 


SERIES IV—VOLUME II. 


WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 
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PREFACE. 


The work of preparing the records of the war for public use was 
begun, under the resolution of Congress of May 19, 1864, by Col. EK. D. 
Townsend, assistant adjutant-general, U. 8. Army (then in charge 
of the Adjutant-General’s Office, and subsequently the Adjutant- 
General), who caused copies to be made of reports of battles on file 


in his office and steps to be taken to collect missing records. | 


Under the provisions of joint resolution of July 27, 1866, Hon. Peter 
H. Watson was appointed to supervise the preparation of the records 
and to formulate a plan for their publication, but he performed no 
service under this appointment, which expired July 27, 1868, by limi- 
tation. This resolution having also repealed the former one, the 
project was suspended for the time being. 

The first decisive step taken was the act of June 23, 1874, providing 
the necessary means ‘“‘to enable the Secretary of War to begin the 
publication of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, both 
of the Union and Confederate Armies,” and directing him “‘ to have 
copied for the Public Printer all reports, letters, telegrams, and gen- 
eral orders, not heretofore copied or printed, and properly arranged 
in chronological order.” Appropriations have been made from time 
to time for continuing such preparation. Under this act the prelimi- 
nary work was resumed by General Townsend. 

Subsequently, under meager appropriations, it was prosecuted in 
a somewhat desultory manner by various subordinates of the War 
Department until December 14, 1877, when the Secretary of War, 
perceiving that the undertaking needed the undivided attention of 
a single head, detailed Capt. Robert N. Scott, Third U. 8. Artillery 
(subsequently major and lieutenant-colonel same regiment), to take 
charge of the office. 

The act of June 23, 1874, enlarged upon the first scheme of publi- 
cation. On this more comprehensive basis it was determined that the 
volumes should include not only the” battle reports, correspondence, 
etc., in possession of the War Department, but also ‘‘ all official docu- 
ments that can be obtained by the compiler, and that appear to be of 
any historical value.” Colonel Scott systematized the work, and, 
upon his recommendation, the Secretary of War approved the follow- 
ing order of publication: 

The first series will embrace the formal reports, both Union and Confederate, 
of the first seizures of United States property in the Southern States, and of all 


military operations in the field, with the correspondence, orders, and returns 
relating specially thereto, and, as proposed, is to be accompanied by an Atlas. 


6792 Br III 


IV PREFACE. 


In this series the reports will be arranged according to the campaigns and sey- 
eral theaters of operations (in the chronological order of events), and the Union 
reports of any event will, as a rule, be immediately followed by the Confederate 
accounts. The correspondence, etc., not embraced in the ‘‘ reports” proper will 
follow (first Union and next Confederate) in chronological order. 

The second series will contain the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns, 
Union and Confederate, relating to prisoners of war, and (so far as the military 
authorities were concerned) to state or political prisoners. 

The third series will contain the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns of 
the Union authorities (embracing their correspondence with the Confederate offi- 
cials) not relating specially to the subjects of the first and second series. It will 
set forth the annual and special reports of the Secretary of War, of the General- 
in-Chief, and of the chiefs of the several staff corps and departments; the calls 
for troops, and the correspondence between the National and the several State 
authorities. 

The fourth series will exhibit the correspondence, orders, reports, and returns 
of the Confederate authorities, similar to that indicated for the Union officials, 
as of the third series, but excluding the correspondence between the Union and 
Confederate authorities given in that series. 


The first volume of the records was issued in the early fall of 1880. 
The act approved June 16, 1880, provided ‘‘for the printing and bind- 
ing, under direction of the Secretary of War, of 10,000 copies of a com- 
pilation of the Official Records (Union and Confederate) of the War of 
the Rebellion, so far as the same may be ready for publication, during 
the fiscal year;” and that ‘‘ of said number 7,000 copies shall be for the 
use of the House of Representatives, 2,000 copies for the use of the 
Senate, and 1,000 copies for the use of the Executive Departments.” 
Under this act Colonel Scott proceeded to publish the first five volumes 
of the records.* 


*All subsequent volumes have been distributed under the act approved August 
7, 1882, which provides that : 
‘‘The volumes of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion shall be dis- 
tributed as follows: One thousand copies to the Executive Departments, as now 
provided by law. One thousand copies for distribution by the Secretary of War 
among officers of the Army and contributors to the work. Eight thousand three 
hundred copies shall be sent by the Secretary of War to such libraries, organiza- 
tions, and individuals as may be designated by the Senators, Representatives, and 
Delegates of the Forty-seventh Congress. Each Senator shall designate not exceed- 
ing twenty-six, and each Representative and Delegate not exceeding twenty-one, of 
such addresses, and the volumes shall be sent thereto from time to time as they are 
published, untilthe publicationiscompleted. Senators, Representatives, and Dele- 
gates shall inform the Secretary of War in each case how many volumes of those 
heretofore published they have forwarded tosuch addresses. Theremaining copies 
of the eleven thousand to be published, and all sets that may not be ordered to be 
distributed as provided herein, shall be sold by the Secretary of War for cost of 
publication with ten per cent. added thereto, and the proceeds of such sale shall be 
covered into the Treasury. If two or more sets of said volumes are ordered to the 
same address, the Secretary of War shall inform the Senators, Representatives, or 
Delegates who have designated the same, who thereupon may designate other 
libraries, organizations, or individuals. The Secretary of War shall report to the 
first session of the Forty-eighth Congress what volumes of the series heretofore 
published have not been furnished to such libraries, organizations, and individuals. 

He shall also inform distributees at whose instance the volumes are sent.” 


PREFACE. Vv 


Colonel Scott died March 5, 1887. At his death some twenty-six 
books only had been issued, but he had compiled a large amount of 
matter for forthcoming volumes; consequently his name as compiler 
was retained in all the books up to and including Vol. XXXVI, 
although his successors had added largely to his compilations from 
new material found after his demise. 

The Secretary of War, May 7, 1887, assigned Lieut. Col. H. M. Lazelle, 
Twenty-third U. 8. Infantry, to duty as the successor of Colonel Scott. 
He had continued in charge about two years, when, in the act approved 
March 2, 1889, it was provided— 

That hereafter the preparation and publication of said records shall be conducted, 
under the Secretary of War, by a board of three persons, one of whom shall be 


an officer of the Army, and two civilian experts, to be appointed by the Secretary of 
War, thecompensation of said civilian experts to be fixed by the Secretary of War. 


The Secretary of War appointed Maj. George B. Davis, judge-advo- 
eate, U. S. Army, as the military member, and Leslie J. Perry, of Kan- 
sas, and Joseph W. Kirkley, of Maryland, as the civilian expert mem- 
bers of said board. The board assumed direction of the publication 
at the commencement of the fiscal year 1889, its first work beginning 
with Serial No. 36 of Vol. XXIV. 

July 1, 1895, by direction of the Secretary of War, Maj. George W. 
Davis, Eleventh U. S. Infantry (subsequently lieutenant-colonel Four- 
teenth U. 8. Infantry), relieved Maj. George B. Davis as the military 
member and president of the Board of Publication. Subsequently 
Col. Fred C. Ainsworth, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, War 
Department, was appointed the military member and president of the 
board, relieving Lieut. Col. George W. Davis June 1, 1898. 

December 1, 1898, under the provision of the sundry civil act of 
July 1, 1898, relative to the War Records Office, the Board of Publi- 
cation was dissolved, whereupon, by direction of the Secretary of 
War, the continuance of the work, beginning with Vol. VI, Series IJ, 
devolved on Colonel (now Brigadier-General) Ainsworth. 

By operation of law (contained in ‘‘An act making appropriations 
for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Govern- 
ment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900,” approved February 24, 
1899), the War Records Office was merged into the Record and Pen- 
sion Office, July 1, 1899, and since that date the work of publication 
has been conducted under the supervision of the chief of that office. 

Each volume includes a copious index, and for the further conven- 
ience of investigators there will be, in addition, a separate general 
_index to the entire set. 

Nothing is printed in these volumes except duly authenticated con- 
temporaneous records of the war. The scope of the compiler’s work 
is to decide upon and arrange the matter to be published; to correct 
and verify the orthography of the papers used, and, wherever deemed 
necessary, to add a foot-note of explanation. 


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CONTENTS. 


Page. 


Correspondence, Orders, etc., from July 1, 1862, to December 31, 1863-_--. 1-1074 


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SHREIBS EV .—V.O1. EF. 


CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, REPORTS, AND RETURNS OF 
THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES, JULY 1, 1862-DECEM- 
BER 31, 1863.* 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 46. Richmond, July 1, 1862. 


I. The following regulations are published for the information of 
the Army: — , 

1. Paragraph III, General Orders, No. 24, current series,+ is so 
modified as to permit the appointment of brigade ordnance officers, 
who shall have the rank and pay of first lieutenants of artillery. 

2. Brigade ordnance officers so appointed will be subject to the 
division ordnance officers, so far as relates to ordnance duties, and 
will make requisitions on them. They will also make such reports as 
may be required to the division ordnance officers. 

3. Ordnance-sergeants of regiments will be subject to and make 
reports to the brigade ordnance officers. 

4. Sinee the act of April 19, 1862, providing an ordnance-sergeant 
to each regiment, the acting appointees, authorized under General 
Orders, No. 24, current series, and made by colonels of regiments, 
will be reported for appointment under the above act in cases where 
such report has not been made to the Ordnance Bureau. Hereafter 
the appointments will be made to regiments as to military posts, by 
the Secretary of War, and upon the recommendation of colonels of 
regiments, through the Ordnance Bureau, the non-commissioned offi- 
cers recommended being at once placed upon duty in anticipation of 
the appointment. 

II. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 44, current series, { is hereby 
rescinded, and the following paragraph is substituted in lieu thereof: 

Persons under eighteen and over thirty-five years of age who have 
re-enlisted for three years or the war are not entitled to their discharge 
under the conscript act. Persons of the ages above mentioned who 
enlisted for twelve months, or for a shorter term, will be entitled 
to their discharge ninety days after the expiration of their term of 
service. . 

* * * * * * * 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


*The letters-sent books of the C. S. War Department from May 23 to Septem- 
ber 12, 1862, were never received by the U. 8. authorities. This will explain the 
want of continuity in the letters from that office covering the period mentioned. 

+See Vol. I, this series, p. 1065. 

¢ Ibid., p. 1154. 

(1) 
1 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


2 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, July 3, 1862. 
Surg. T. H. WILLIAMS, 
Medical Inspector, Danville, Va.: 


Sir: You are instructed to inform the medical officers within your 
district who examine recruits that they should not be rejected for 
trivial defects, but all passed who are capable of bearing arms. A 
certificate of disability from any medical man is not a sufficient cause 
for the: rejection of a recruit. It is requisite that such certificates 
should come from a medical officer designated or detailed for their 
examination. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
S. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 47. ftichmond, July 9, 1862. 


I. The reception of unnaturalized foreigners as substitutes in the 
Army is hereby forbidden. 

II. Commissioned officers of new companies, battalions, and regi- 
ments coming into service will take rank from the date of acceptance 
in the service of the Confederate States; which date of acceptance 
will not precede the complete organization of the company, battalion, 
or regiment, the proof of which will be considered in the act of mus- 
ter, or of any exercise of authority by the Confederate States over 
the company, battalion, or regiment. 

III. Where companies of the same battalion or regiment enter the 
service on the same day, the relative rank of the officers of the same 
grade therein will be determined by lot, except in the case of former 
commissions in the Confederate service, when the fifth paragraph of 
the General Regulations of the Army will govern. 

IV. The relative rank of commissioned officers of companies, bat- 
talions, or regiments, who continue in service by re-election to the 
same grade in the same corps, will be fixed by the date of their origi- 
nal election or appointment; but those who change their grade or 
corps by re-election will take rank from the date of such re-election. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., July 10, 1862. 
Governor JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
| Atlanta, Ga.: 

DEAR SIR: I have received your letter of the 21st ultimo and would 
have contented myself with the simple acknowledgment of its receipt 
but for one or two matters contained in it which seem to require dis- 
tinct reply. I deemed it my duty to state my views in relation to the 
constitutionality of the conscription law for the reasons mentioned 
in my letter to you, but it was no part of my intention to enter into 
a protracted discussion. It was convenient to send my views to 
others than yourself, and for this purpose I caused my letter, together 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 3) 


with yours, to be printed in pamphlet form. I am not aware of hav- 
ing omitted any part of your observations, nor did I anticipate any . 
further correspondence on the subject. I supposed you had fully 
stated your views, as I had stated mine, and no practicable benefit 
could be attained by further discussion. Itis due, however, to myself 
to disclaim in the most pointed manner a doctrine which you have 
pleased to attribute to me, and against which you indulge in length- 
ened argument. Neither in my letter to you, nor in any sentiment 
ever expressed by me, can there be found just cause to impute to me 
the belief that Congress is the final judge of the constitutionality of 
a contested power. I said in my letter that ‘‘when a specific power 
is granted Congress is the judge whether the law passed for the pur- 
pose of executing that power is necessary and proper.” I never 
asserted, nor intended to assert, that after the passage of such laws 
it might not be declared unconstitutional by the courts, on complaint 
made by an individual, nor that the judgment of Congress was con- 
clusive against a State, as supposed by you; nor that all the co-ordi- 
nate branches of the General Government could together finally decide 
a question of the reserved rights of a State. The right of each State 
to judge in the last resort whether its reserved powers had been 
usurped by the General Government is too familiar and well-settled 
a principle to admit of discussion. As I cannot see, however, after 
the most respectful consideration of all that you have said, anything 
to change my conviction that Congress has exercised only a plainly 
granted specific power in raising its armies by conscription, I cannot 
share the alarm and concern about State rights which you so evi- 

dently feel, but which to me seem quite unfounded. 
I am, very respectfully, yours, 
JEFEF’N DAVIS. 


—————————— 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 48. Richmond, July 11, 1862. 


I. The appointments of general officers and officers of the general 
staff in the Provisional Army, being made under special authority 
and for specific objects, terminate with their commands, except in case 
of assignment to other appropriate duties. _ 

Il. General Orders, No. 17, Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, 
November 7, 1861, authorizing discharges from the service and fur- 
loughs by brigade commanders, are hereby revoked. 

III. Paragraphs 160 and 161, Regulations for the Army, published 
March 13, 1862, are revoked, and the following regulations are sub- 
stituted: | 

160. When a non-commissioned officer or soldier shall be unfit for 
military service in consequence of wounds, disease, or infirmity, his 
captain shall forward to the commandant of the department, or of the 
army in the field, through the commander of the regiment or post, a 
statement of the case, with ‘‘certificates of disability,” signed by the 
senior surgeon of the regiment or post, according to the form pre- 
seribed'in the Medical Regulations. If the recommendation for the 
discharge of the invalid be approved, the authority therefor will be 
indorsed on the “‘certificates of disability,” which will be sent back 
to be completed and signed by the commanding officer of the regiment 
or command to which the invalid’s company belongs, who will also 


A CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


sign the discharge and cause the final statements to be made out, and 
forward the certificates of disability to the Adjutant and Inspector 
General. 

161. When a non-commissioned officer or soldier is absent from his 
regiment or company, in hospital, and shall be unfit for military serv- 
ice for the reasons set forth in the preceding paragraph, the senior 
surgeon of the hospital will make out ‘‘ certificates of disability” and 
forward them through the commander of the company or regiment to 
the commander of the department or of the army in the field, whose 
approval being given the commanding officer will complete and for- 
ward the certificates of disability to the Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral and send the papers of discharge to the surgeon. But when 
access to commanders is difficult, and attended with great delay, the 
certificates of disability may, in urgent cases, be forwarded by the 
surgeon to the Surgeon-General for approval; which being given, the 
discharge will be authorized from the Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, and the surgeon will make out final statements. 

IV. Medical officers are prohibited from recommending leaves of 
absence and furloughs to sick and wounded officers and soldiers, 
except when it is absolutely necessary for them to go home to be 
restored to health; in which case the soldier only will be entitled to 
transportation, to be given in kind. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, July 18, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: Without designing to criticise the conduct or policy of the 
War Department, I will offer a suggestion, which may only receive 
such attention as it may merit. The large number of partisan rangers 
authorized, or claimed to be authorized, to be raised by the Depart- 
ment is interfering sadly with the enrollment of conscripts, and would 
therefore seem to be working a serious injury to the service, unless 
some great good was to be accomplished by them. I think the teach- 
ings of experience show that a long and thorough trainage of both 
men and horses is absolutely required to make cavalry effective, and 
a rare combination of talent is required for officers to drill or com- 
mand or use cavalry to advantage. Without these advantages they 
are useless except for couriers or pickets. They are very expensive 
and contribute far more than any other corps to exhaust the resources 
of a country. The idea of being mounted is agreeable to the habits 
of our people and has attractions which will carry every one into the 
cavalry that will be allowed to join either cavalry or rangers, to the 
great detriment of the infantry. If I had not refused to receive 
cavalry and artillery companies there would not have been five infan- 
try regiments from this State. I speak partly from experience, as I 
have raised and equipped two full cavalry regiments for the State, 
and I know the difficulty and expense of equipping ‘and drilling 
them, and I fear that thus far they show but little return of service. 
Partisan rangers have a kind of separate and independent command, 
which is another attraction and, I might add, source of detriment. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 5 


Now, the eagerness of our conscripts to avoid enrollment by enlist- 
ment in those independent corps of partisan rangers sadly conflict 
with the progress of the enrolling officers. The substitutes, particu- 
larly, are placed in the rangers. Not believing they will accomplish 
much good and witnessing the difficulties they throw in the way of 
enrollment has prompted this communication, and I would suggest 
that any legal means to check them would be beneficial, particularly 
should the enrolled conscripts, or their substitutes in particular, be 
not allowed to go into the partisan rangers. I fearthe move may even 
now be too late. 
Iam, most respectfully, yours, 
HENRY T. CLARK. 


[Indorsement. | 


A list of the companies of partisan rangers will be furnished. It 
is not numerous and none were authorized who were not recommended 
by the general commanding. Probably companies have been raised 
without authority. If so, they will not be recognized, and the officers 
enrolling conscripts cannot exempt the members of partisan corps 
not authorized by the Department. 


G. W. R. 
GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 49. Richmond, July 14, 1862. 


All persons engaged in enrolling conscripts are hereby authorized 
and required to arrest deserters from the Army and to deliver them to 
the commandant of the nearest camp of instruction, or to lodge them 
in the nearest jail, and to return their names, company, and regiment 
to the Adjutant and Inspector General. 

Jailers are requested to detain them, and will be allowed the fees 
and charges for the detention of prisoners prescribed by the laws of 
the State in which the jail is situated. 

Enrolling officers are also required to report to the Adjutant and 
Inspector General the names and address of all persons absent from 
the Army without leave, whether by the expiration of their leaves of 
absence, furloughs, details, or otherwise; and where this unauthor- 
ized absence exceeds the time required to correspond with the War 
Department the enrolling officer will arrest the person and send him 
to the nearest camp of instruction, reporting the arrest to the Adju- 
tant and Inspector General. 

Commandants of camps of instruction are required to forward 
deserters and persons absent without leave to their regiments, and 
have the powers of arrest conferred upon enrolling officers. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

| S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, July 14, 1862. 
OFFICERS ENROLLING CONSCRIPTS: 
Agreeably to General Orders, No. 49, current series, this day pub- 
lished, you are required to arrest all deserters, and, under certain cir- 
cumstances, all persons absent from the Army without leave. 


6 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The public welfare requires you to discharge this duty and the 
more important duty of enrolling conscripts with the utmost activity, 
and without fear, favor, or affection. 

Our capacity to improve the recent victories now favoring our arms 
depends mainly upon your exertions to fill the ranks of our armies. 

If you are zealous and active we shall make our enemy taste the 
bitterness of war; if you are negligent we shall continue to witness 
its ravages on our own soil. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 163, © Richmond, July 15, 1862. 
* * * * * * * 


XIII. Lieut. Gol. Larkin Smith, assistant quartermaster-general, 
will assume the duties of Quartermaster-General during the tempo- 
rary absence of Col. A. C. Myers. 


* * * ** * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[JuLY 16, 1862.—For Bragg to Cooper, in relation to the perplex- 
ities and difficulties growing out of the existing laws and regulations 
touching army organization when enforced, &c., see Series I, Vol. 
XVII, Part II, p. 647. ] 


SPARTA, GA., July 17, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: I address you a line in behalf of a number of our citi- 
zens in different parts of the State. After the passage of the conscript 
act and before enrollment was authorized to commence quite a num- 
ber volunteered in new regiments, organized under authority pre- 
viously granted, and procured substitutes and were received by the 
officers, as they supposed they had a right to do under the law. The 
enrolling officers now hold these parties subject to service, notwith- 
standing they have substitutes in their places, upon the grounds that 
not more than one substitute per month could be received into any 
company. ‘This is deemed hard and oppressive. I suggest to you 
that instructions be given to Major Dunwody that all persons in this 
State liable to conscription shall be exempt who honestly and bona 
fide has a substitute not liable to conscription in service in his place. 
The clear intention of the conscription act was to allow such substi- 
tution, and when for want of proper information proper form has not 
been followed, but the substance obtained, any evil ensuing ought to 
be corrected, for if these parties had waited a few weeks and reported 
themselves to Major Dunwody with their substitutes they could, I 
take it for granted, have been received without question. I know of 


& 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. q 


my own knowledge several very clever gentlemen, highly patriotic, 
whose brothers were all in the war and whom it would have injured 
seriously in their private and business matters to leave home, and 
whom nothing but the most important considerations could have kept 
from the service, who procured substitutes in this way promptly and 
willingly, some of them at very high rates. It would certainly be 
hard now to require these men to go into service or to procure 
another substitute when they already have one in their stead. You 
understand me, I trust. All is very respectfully submitted to your 
attention and consideration. The extent of my suggestion is that 
those who now have substitutes in the service not liable to conscrip- 
tion shall be exempt, notwithstanding they may not have pursued 
strict form in the matter. — 
Yours, truly, 
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 


P. S.—I am here for a few days on a visit and shall be at home in 


a week. 
tad 5 airs) 
CONFIDENTIAL CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
CIRCULAR. Richmond, July 17, 1862. 


Stir: Our armies are so much weakened by desertions, and by the 
absence of officers and men without leave, that we are unable to reap 
the fruits of our victories and to invade the territory of the enemy. 
We have resorted tc courts-martial and military executions, and we 
have ordered all officers employed in enrolling conscripts to arrest 
both deserters and absentees, and offered rewards for the former. 
In Virginia the sheriffs, constables, and jailers have also been 
employed by the permission of the Governor, but still the evil con- 
tinues, and unless public opinion comes to our aid we shall fail to 
fill our ranks in time to avail ourselves of the weakness and disor- 
ganization of the enemy. 

Their resources enable them to repair defeat with great rapidity, 
and they are more numerous now in Virginia than they were before 
the recent battles near Richmond. | 

I must therefore beg Your Excellency’s aid in bringing back to our 
eolors all deserters and absentees. If you will authorize their arrest 
by State officers, and bring to our assistance the powerful influence 
of public opinion in your State, we may yet cross the Potomac 
before a fresh army is raised to oppose Us. 

It is desirable that this cause of weakness should be concealed as 
much as possible from the enemy, but we cannot adopt measures to 
remove it without risking to some extent a disclosure of its existence. 

Very respectfully, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 
(Sent to the Governors of States. ) 


[JULY 17, 1862.—For Blanchard to Randolph, inclosing Hindman’s 
order for the enrollment of all white men between eighteen and 
thirty-five in volunteer infantry companies, the State authorities 
assenting, see Series I, Vol. XV, pp. 779-781. ] 


8 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ) WaAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 50. Richmond, July 18, 1862. 


I. Conscripts engaged on Government work, either directly or by 
contractors, will not be taken from the work on which they are 
engaged, except for the purpose of enrollment, after which they will 
be returned on the certificate of the officer under whose charge the 
work is being performed, or with whom the contract is made. Such 
certificate will be presented to the enrolling officer, who will there- 
upon order the detail of the men specified for a period not to exceed 
sixty days. A duplicate of such detail will be forwarded at once to 
the Adjutant and Inspector General, and a triplicate to the chief of 
the department or bureau for which the work is performed. 

Extensions of these details will be made when deemed necessary, 
on application through the heads of the departments or bureaus. — 

* * * * * * * 


IV. Conscripts will be paid from the date of their departure from 
home for camp of instruction. Troops raised by the States under 
requisitions made on them by the Confederate States Government 
will be paid from the date of their assembling at the rendezvous for 
service, being already enlisted, or from the date of the enlistment, if 
that takes place at the rendezvous. ; 

V. The only authority giving mileage or transportation to officers 
or soldiers in the field emanates from the general commanding the 
particular army. 

VI. Arms and munitions of war belonging to States are strictly 
prohibited from being seized by any Confederate officer; and public 
arms and supplies will not be diverted from their legitimate desti- 
nation by any officer of the Army. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

5. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


Nassau, NEW PROVIDENCE, July 19, 1862. 


Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


DEAR SiR: I have a word to say in regard to Mr. Hart and Mr. Isaac, 
who represent the interests here of 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., of Lon- 
don. They have shown a disposition to presume on the alleged 
services they have rendered to Government, services for which I sup- 
pose they have been most. amply remunerated. Mr. Hart (for I have 
had no intercourse with Mr. Isaac) is a resident of New York, and, as 
the uncle of the latter, came out here to superintend the business 
transactions of the London firm. He has been sufficiently adroit not 
to address himself directly to me as regards his supposed grievances, 
but Ido know that Isaac has openly boasted that the Government 
owes everything to his house, and that his reason for coming to Nas- 
sau was to take the business of running the blockade into his hands 
and monopolize it to the exclusion of John Fraser & Co., who, as he 
alleges, have not done one-half for the Government which his con- 
cern has accomplished. Of course you will estimate this braggadocio 
at its proper value, but I have cited it to show the animus by which 
he is guided. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 9 


The steamer Columbia arrived a few days since with a cargo con- 
sisting of two batteries of cannon complete. You will remember 
this is the boat I alluded to in my communication of the 28th 
ultimo. Unwilling to incur much risk, Mr. Hart has decided to 
unload a portion of the cargo and fill up the steamer with outside 
freight. He applied to Adderly & Co. for some of the Government 
freight, which, adhering to the plan of incurring no risk, he was will- 
ing to take at £40 per ton, payment to be made here, or its equivalent 
by satisfactory guarantee equal to about $370 at home; payable in 
advanee. This in itself was conclusive as to my decision, but I told 
Adderly to say to Hart that if he would take something on the terms 
I have hitherto shipped, say from $265 to $360 per ton, payable in our 
currency, and on the landing of the goods, I might consent to ship a 
portion hereafter. Adderly advised Hart to address himself to me 
personally, but he replied that he only wished to deal with Adderly 
direct. Mr. Hart seemed little disposed to entertain this proposition, 
and muttered something about representing the matter in its proper 
light to Captain Huse and Messrs. Mason and Slidell. To Adderly 
I had no hesitation in saying that John Fraser & Co. were the 
staunch friends of Government, and that so far as I was concerned I 
should always give them the preference on equal terms. I feel con- 
vinced, moreover, that you will bear me out in this decision, aware 
as Iam of the eminent services the house has rendered, and of the 
high sense of patriotism by which all their transactions with Govern- 
ment have been influenced. I dislike to intrude aught personal to 
myself, but I do trust you will receive the assurance in the spirit it is 
conveyed, that a sense of duty alone actuates me in the course I have 
pursued here as agent of the Government, that no inducement can 
swerve me to depart from the rule I have laid down to deal only with 
the real friends of dur cause, and that as far as my interest is concerned 
it is simply identical with that I have been called upon to watch over. 
My intercourse with Mr. Lafitte, the agent of Fraser & Co., has been 
of the most satisfactory character. He has never failed to respond to 
any request I have made in behalf of the Government, and I consider 
it fortunate indeed that a gentleman of such sterling worth has been 
here, to whom on all occasions I could freely apply for advice and 
assistance. 

Ihave deemed it proper to make these statements to you. The 
threats of outside parties who vaunt their attachment to Government, 
because, forsooth, it is for their interest to do so, cannot affect me. 
I look solely to you and the Government for approval of my course. 
It may hereafter be a matter for consideration how far the boasted 
services of S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. has been offset by the prices they 
_ have charged the Government for their supplies. 3 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER. 


OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, 
Atlanta, Ga., July 20, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

DEAR SiR: Please allow me to call your attention to a few evils 
which are being practiced in this country by men who ought to be in 
service, but by their wits succeed in keeping out. There are hun- 
dreds of men strolling through the country without any visible means 


10 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of support or papers to show who they are. Some of them are tray- 
eling through the country on orders forged by themselves purporting 
to be signed by a commander at some distant post; others stop over 
at a place long enough to steal money to get away on, &c. One of 
these parties I had arrested, and the report of the court of inquiry 
goes forward with this. 

This being one of the most important places in our Confederacy on 
account of the great number of railroads centering here, all this 
class of men congregate at this point, as do also officers and soldiers 
absent from their commands without the proper papers; and as we 
are not in possession of such orders as warrant the arrest of such 
parties, I very much desire that instructions may issue from the 
Department that will cover all these points. 

The pernicious practice of trading with the United States is carried 
to a very great extent through this city, and men are engaged in it 
who are indorsed by men who I am loth to distrust, but who will at 
the same time give $225 in Confederate notes for $100 in gold, and 
who will also give $120 or $125 for $100 of the issues of the banks of 
Alabama, Georgia, or South Carolina, in order to carry on this illicit 
trade. On this point I am anxious to have orders also. 

Again, parties who are now residents and have been for years of 
this country, but were born and raised North, are now often slipping 
away and will be gone one, two, or three months to the North, and 
then return and stay here perhaps the same length of time and leave 
again. Another class, who come forward and say plainly that they 
have property North and desire to go there in order to secure it, or 
for their health, or to school their children, all of which looks to me 
as if they were only anxious to leave the country. On these points 
also I would like advice. | 

A thousand other things present themselves, but I have already 
trespassed too far, and I beg of you to excuse me for the intrusion. 

Hoping that instructions will be issued that will cover all the points, 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
G. J. FOREACRE, 
Provost-Marshal. 


P. 8.—To turn any case over to civil authorities in times like this, 
at this particular point, is almost equal to allowing them to pass 
unnoticed. 

Go Sees 


ooo 


. ATLANTA, GA., July 22, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS:- 

DEAR Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of the 10th instant, and I am very happy to know that you dis- 
claim the doctrine which I think every fair-minded man has attributed 
to you who has read your letter of the 29th of May last, and has con- 
strued plain English words according to their established meaning. 

When a writer speaks of a tribune that is to be ‘‘the judge” of a 
ease without qualification we certainly understand him to mean that 
this judge has the right to decide the case. And if the judge has this 
right, the decision must be binding upon all the parties, and no dis- 
tinct and separate tribunal, as a different department of the Govern- 
ment, for instance, has the right to decide the same case after it has 
been decided by the judge having competent jurisdiction. It would 
seem to be a contradiction in terms to say that ‘‘ when a specific power 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 11 


is granted, Congress is the judge whether the law passed for the pur- 
pose of executing that power is necessary and proper,” and that ‘‘the 
true and only test is to inquire whether the law is intended and calcu- 
lated to carry out the object, whether it devises and creates an instru- 
mentality for executing the specific power granted, and if the answer 
be in the affirmative the law is constitutional,” and then to say, after 
this test has been applied, and Congress has passed judgment, that 
another department of the Government, as the President, or the judi- 
ciary, or another government, as a State, may take up the case thus 
decided by the tribunal having, under the Constitution, competent 
jurisdiction, and make a different decision. It is, I believe, an estab- 
lished principle in all civilized nations that when a court of competent 
jurisdiction, unless guilty of fraud or mistake, has finally decided a 
ease, the judgment is conclusive upon all parties. 

But you say you never asserted nor intended to assert that the 
judgment of Congress was conclusive against a State. Pardon me 
for saying that you did assert that Congress is the judge, and that you 
did not qualify the assertion by saying ‘“‘the judge ” in the first 
instance, nor did you annex any other qualification or exception in 
favor of the rights of a State or any other party. I had, therefore, no 
right to suppose that you intended to ingraft exceptions upon a rule 
which you laid down in the plainest terms, without exception. 

I make the above references to your former letter to show that I 
had no disposition to do you injustice, and that I do not consider that 
I misrepresented your position as contained in your letter. The 
thousands of intelligent citizens in different parts of the Confederacy 
who have placed upon your letter the same construction which I had 
will doubtless be gratified that you now disclaim the dangerous doc- 
trine as to the power of Congress to which your strong, unqualified 
language seemed clearly to connect you. 

In reference to the publication by you of the two letters containing 
part of our correspondence, I need only say that you had devoted a 
large portion of your letter to a reply to my argument, which was 
before you, and had, in the same letter, for the first time, given the 
arguments by which you maintain your own position. These I had 
never seen, and, as you had replied at length to my argument, it was, 
I think, but fair and just, according to all rules of discussion, that I 
have an opportunity to reply to yours, and that the whole case be 
submitted to the country together. Unless there were important 
reasons of state which, in your judgment, made it necessary to place 
the discussion before the country incomplete, in order to satisfy the 
discontent which existed in the public mind on account of what a 
very large proportion of our people regard a dangerous usurpation, or 
unless other good reasons existed for a departure from the usual rule 
in such eases, I am unable to see why the whole correspondence, when 
given to the public, should not have gone through the usual official 
channels. : 

I have certainly had no wish to protract the discussion of this 
question further than duty and justice to the people of this State 
required. I feel that I cannot close, however, without again ear- 
nestly inviting your attention to a question which you must admit is 
“practical.” I think I have established beyond doubt in my former 
letters the constitutional right of the State of Georgia to appoint the 
officers to command the regiments and battalions which she has sent 
into the service of the Confederate States in compliance with requisi- 
tions made by you upon her Executive for ‘‘ organized bodies” of 


12 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


troops. You admitted in your letters that these bodies ‘‘ organized 
by the States,” when called forth by the Confederacy to repel invasion, 
never came otherwise than with their company, field, and general 
officers. Your former Secretary of War, now Secretary of State, has 
also admitted the right of the State to appoint the officers to command 
the troops sent by her into the service of the Confederacy under 
requisitions from you. You have not thought proper in either of 
your letters to give any reason why the State should be denied the 
exercise of this clear constitutional right. In this state of the case 
you still exercise the appointing power which belongs to the State, 
and commission the officers who are to command these troops. The 
laws of this State give to these gallant men the right to elect their 
own Officers and have them commissioned by the Executive of their 
own State. This question is of the more practical importance at 
present on account of a large number of gallant officers belonging to 
these regiments having lately fallen upon the battle-field, whose places 
are to be filled by others. The troops volunteered at the call of the 
State, with a knowledge of their right to elect those who were to com- 
mand them, and went into the field with the assurance that they 
would be permitted to exercise this right. It is now denied them 
under, the conscription act. Some of them have appealed to me to 
see that their rights are protected. As an act of justice to brave 
men who by their deeds of valor have rendered their names immortal, 
and as an act of duty which, as her Executive, I owe to the people of 
this State, I must be pardoned for again demanding for the Georgia 
State troops now under your command permission, in all cases in 
which they have already been deprived of it or which may hereafter 
arise, to have the company, field, and general officers who are to 
command them appointed by election and commissioned from the 
Executive of Georgia, as guaranteed to them by the Constitution of 
the Confederacy and the laws of the State. I make this demand with 
the greater confidence in view of the past history of your life. I 
have not the documents before me, but if I mistake not President 
Polk during the war against Mexico, in which you were the colonel 
of a gallant Mississippi regiment, tendered you the appointment of 
brigadier-general for distinguished services upon the battle-field, and 
you declined the appointment upon the ground that the President 
had no right under the Constitution to appoint a brigadier-general to 
command the State volunteers then employed in the service of the 
United States, but that the States and not the General Government 
had the right under the Constitution to make such appointments. If 
Congress could at that time confer upon the President no right, under 
the Constitution, to appoint a brigadier-general to command State 
troops in the service of the Confederacy, Congress certainly cannot 
now, under the same constitutional provision, confer upon the Presi- 
dent the right to appoint not only the brigadier-generals, but also all 
the field and company officers of the State troops employed in the 
service of the Confederacy. May I not reasonably hope that the 
right for which I contend will be speedily recognized, and that you 
will give notice to the Georgia State troops, now under your control, 
who went into service under requisitions made upon the State by 
you, that they will no longer be denied the ‘‘ practical benefits ” 
resulting from the recognition. 

You conclude your letter by saying you ‘‘eannot share the alarm 
and concern about State rights which I so evidently feel.” I regret 
that you cannot. The views and opinions of the best of men are, how- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. (E33 


ever, influenced more or less by the positions in which they are placed 
and the circumstances by which they are surrounded. It is probably 
not unnatural that those who administer the affairs and disburse the 
patronage of a confederation of States should become to some extent 
biased in favor of the claims of the Confederacy when its powers are 
questioned, while it'is equally natural that those who administer the 
affairs of the States and are responsible for the protection of their 
rights, should be the first to sound the alarm in case of encroachments 
by the Confederacy which tend to the subversion of the rights of the 
States. This principle of human nature may be clearly traced in the 
history of the Government of the United States. While that Govern- 
ment encroached upon the rights of the States from time to time, and 
was fast concentrating the whole power in its own hands, it is worthy 
of remark that the Federal Executive, exercising the vast powers and 
dispensing the immense patronage of his position, has seldom if ever 
been able to ‘“‘share in the alarm and concern about State rights,” 
which have on so many occasions been felt by the authorities and 
people of the respective States. 
With renewed assurances of my high consideration and esteem, 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH HE. BROWN. 


SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, July 22, 1862. 
Surg. T. H. WILLIAMS, 
Medical Director and Inspector, Danville, Va.: 


Str: The attention of medical directors is again called to pamphlet 
of March 21 and circular of April 2 from this office urging upon medi- 
cal officers the necessity for collecting the indigenous botanical reme- 
dies of the South and employing them liberally in the treatment of 
the sick. Medical directors are now specially instructed to bring the 
subject promptly to the notice of the medical officers of their respec- 
tive districts, and will be required to report to them what articles have 
been collected and in what quantities, in order that this office may be 
kept informed of the progress of this work. 

The indigenous astringents, the crane’s-bill, marsh rosemary, black- 
berry, sweet gum, &c., should be made available in the treatment of 
the bowel complaints of the warm season. In malarious districts the 
dogwood, tulip-bearing poplar, willow, boneset, centaury, and other 
indigenous tonics should be used as prophylactics as well as curatives. 
Especially should medical officers be instructed to procure an ample 
supply of articles of mucilaginous properties as the bene, the leaves 
of which are now about falling; the twigs, bark, and pith of sassa- 
fras; the bark of the elm, seed of the flax, or other accessible sub- 
stances which might in a measure be substituted for the acacia or 
other imported articles of like character. Attention should also be 
particularly invited to a further investigation of the medicinal virtues 
of the Pineckneya pubens or calico bush (not the Kalmia latifolia or 
calico bush) frequenting South Carolina, Georgia, and more abun- 
dantly Middle Florida, it being closely allied in character to the cin- 
chona, and having been used successfully in intermittent fever. Any 
interesting information elicited on this subject will be transmitted to 
this office. 

With the ample supply of indigenous remedial agents afforded by 
the materia medica of the South and at their disposal in the vicinity 


14 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of every camp and garrison, it is considered an injustice to their pro- 
fession and to their corps that medieal officers should complain of a 
want of means of treating the sick under their charge, and it is to be 
hoped that the example of some few regimental medical officers who 
have had collected and used and have reported upon the beneficial 
results derived from the use of these remedies will be generally emu- 
lated. The receipt of these circulars will be acknowledged. 

Ss. P. MOORE, 

Surgeon- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 52. Richmond, July 23, 1862. 


I. It will be the duty of the commanding generals of separate armies 
to cause to be entered, in some conspicuous place on the standards 
of regiments, battalions, and separately organized squadrons of their 
commands, the names of the several battles in which their regiments, 
battalions, and separate squadrons have been actually engaged. ~ 

II. With a view to carry into effect so much of the act of April 21, 
1862, as provides ‘‘that the President may, when in his opinion it is 
proper, fill any vacancy by the promotion of any officer, from any 
company, battalion, squadron, or regiment in which the same may 
occur, who shall have been distinguished in service by the exhibition 
of extraordinary valor or skill, and that when any vacancy shali occur 
in the lowest grade of commissioned officer of any company the same 
may be filled by selection, by the President, of any non-commissioned 
officer or private from the company in which said vacancy may occur, 
who shall have been distinguished in the service by the exhibition of 
extraordinary valor and skill,” it will be the duty of the several com- 
manding officers herein referred to to furnish reports setting forth 
the facts and circumstances of the ‘‘extraordinary valor and skill” 
displayed by such officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates as 
may be recommended by them for promotion, agreeably to the pro- 
vision of this act. These reports will be passed through the ascending 
channel of communication provided by the Army Regulations to the 
commanding general, who will forward the same, with such remarks 
as he may deem necessary, to the Adjutant and Inspector General 
for the action of the Secretary of War. 

Ill. Theemployés of railroad companies are authorized and requested 
to examine the passes and furloughs of soldiers passing over their roads, 
and to arrest all deserters and persons absent without leave from the 
Army, whenever they may be found on said roads, and to deliver them 
to an officer of the Army at the most convenient post or station, or to 
lodge them in jail and report their names and regiments to the 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond. Thirty dollars will be 
paid for all deserters delivered to an officer, and $15 for each deserter 
lodged in jail. No allowance will be made for the expenses of appre- 
hension and transportation. All jailers receiving deserters are re- 
quested to detain them. The usual allowance for prisoners will be 
made. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 15 


DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 
Richmond, July 24, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: Your letter of this date propounds to me the following ques- 
tion: ‘‘The first section of the conscript law requires all persons under 
the age of eighteen years and over the age of thirty-five years to 
remain in their respective corps for ninety days, unless their places 
be sooner supplied. Does this mean ninety days from the passage of 
the act, or from the expiration of their term?” 

The intention of the law-makers must be gathered from the language 
used in the law and from the context, looking at the mischief felt and 
the object and remedy in view. The language of the proviso to the 
first section of the act is: 

That all persons under the age of eighteen years or over the age of thirty-five, 
who are now enrolled in the military service of the Confederate States, in regi- 
ments, squadrons, battalions, and companies hereafter to be reorganized, shall 
be required to remain in their respective companies, squadrons, battalions, and 
regiments for ninety days, unless their places can be sooner supplied by other 
recruits not now in the service who are between the ages of eighteen and thirty- 
five years, &c. 


This language is plain, and, according to well-established rules of 
construction, it must govern, unless there is something in other parts 
of the act which makes it necessary to disregard the particular intent 
thus manifested in order to accomplish the general purpose of the 
law-makers, made manifest by the whole of the parts compared 
together. 

From what time shall we commence to count the ninety days? In 
our Government all laws take effect from the day of their passage, 
unless otherwise expressed. As no period is fixed by this law from 
which to commence the ninety days, we must commence from the day 
of the passage of the act. This is the grammatical as well as the 
legal construction of the language used. After a careful analysis 
and examination of the whole act, I can discover nothing which 
ereates a doubt on the subject. This proviso applies to all persons 
under the age of eighteen and over that of thirty-five in companies, 
squadrons, battalions, and regiments which have the right given by 
the first section of the act to reorganize, 7. e., those enlisted for a term 
not longer than twelve months. As the contract with the Govern- 
ment binds the twelve-months’ men for the whole stipulated term, I 
do not suppose that any over the age of thirty-five or under the age of 
eighteen can, under this law, be discharged on account of age until the 
expiration of their stipulated term, although some might be retained 
longer than ninety days after the passage of the act. My opinion is 
that all over the age of thirty-five and those under the age of eighteen 
whose term of service, according to enlistment, expires on or before the 
end of ninety days from the passage of the act are entitled to dis- 
charges at the end of said ninety days. All twelve-months’ men over 
thirty-five and under eighteen years of age whose term of service, 
according to enlistment, does not expire within ninety days from the 
passage of the act will be entitled to discharge at the expiration of 
their term of service. - 

I have the honor to be, &c., 
TH. WATTS, 
Attorney-General. . 


16 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


HEADQUARTERS STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Columbia, July 24, 1862. 


Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I received yours dated 17th instant marked confidential. I 
have issued an order to the sheriffs and deputies of the different judi- 
cial districts of this State, a copy of which is herein inclosed.* I have 
inquired of the adjutant-general if there are many cases in this State 
such as your letter has reference to, and he informs me, he thinks 
there are but few of that kind in this State. I deeply regret to know 
of this source of weakness to our armies. I have known for some 
time that one great source of disorganization in our forces has been 
the long furloughs given to supposed cases of permanent illness and 
wounded men. If we had some safe central place where permanent 
hospitals were erected on a large scale, one for the east and one for 
the west, where all sick and wounded could be sent in all cases that - 
required time, it would obviate this difficulty in a great measure. 
Never let them be sent home unless where it is evident they never 
can be again fit for service. In that way they would always receive 
the best medical attendance and be sent back to their post in the 
earliest possible time. In many cases in the fights, particularly 
around Richmond, many have been sent home at a very warm time 
on crowded cars, when no surgeon who discharged his duty ought to 
have allowed it, for many die on the ears, and are left at the roadside 
hospitals to languish and finally die, who, if properly taken care of 
and not allowed to leave, might have been saved and gone back soon 
to the Army. I most respectfully call your attention to the loose 
manner in which furloughs have been granted and men sent off. In 
the Army of the West I believe it was worse, for in one of our regi- 
ments at Corinth of 1,000 men I believe near 600 came home, or, at 
least by report sent on, not more than 360 were reported for duty at 
one time. I have sent a copy of your letter and of my order to local 
officers to Lieut. Col. John S. Preston, your enrolling officer for this 
State, to receive from him any suggestions he may have. It will 
afford me great pleasure to do anything in my power to aid or 
strengthen you in effecting the purposes you desire. I would most 
respectfully suggest that the conscripts now here in camp be imme- 
diately sent on to you, for they can be trained better and quicker by 
being assigned to different regiments now in service than here, and 
if kept here they will become totally disorganized, and you will lose 
many of them. I earnestly call your attention to this point. 

Iam, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
FF. W. PICKENS. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., July 26, 1862. (Received August 7.) 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH: 

Str: Your confidential letter in regard to men and officers absent 
from duty was received this morning and shall receive prompt atten- 
tion. No effort shall be spared to fill up the ranks of our armies. 

Please say to the President that the arms he sent me have not yet 
arrived and I have the militia ready waiting for them. 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 17 


Your commandants of camps for conscripts are calling them out 
and will soon get in service all liable to that duty. 
Jed. be LL US. 


STATE OF NorRTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, July 26, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: The numerous appeals made to me for my influence to exempt 
certain very hard cases under the conscript act induces me to call 
your attention to three classes who seem to have pressing claims for 
your consideration: 

First. Tanners—There are many small establishments of this sort 
which contribute essentially to the supply of a most necessary article, 
whose services cannot well be stopped. They supply neighborhoods, 
while larger tanneries supply the public. 

Second. There is a class of millers who are directly and immediately 
necessary for a supply of food, and too poor to employ a substitute 
like their brethren on a larger scale, who are exempted without a 
substitute. 

Third. Physicians themselves are not entitled to more than other 
professions or trades, yet it so happens from the number in the Army, 
either soldiers or surgeons, many large districts of country are likely 
to be without physicians if the conscript act is rigidly enforced. 
Doctors are an admitted necessity. All of them should not be 
excused, but a regulation which would leave one to each district 
would be most favorably esteemed. The law gives you no power or 
discretion about discharges or exemptions; but they may be enrolled, 
with permission to remain at home “ waiting orders.” If these cases 
have any merit they will at once occur to you, and I leave them for 
your consideration. ; 

Yours, most respectfully, ‘ 
HENRY T. CLARK. 


[Indorsement. ] 


The Secretary of War has considered all these cases and many 
more. 


TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 26, 1562. 

Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 

, Secretary of War: 

Str: I herewith inclose you a copy of a representation made to this 
Department, stating that General H. KE. McCulloch, of Texas, seized the 
war tax collected in that State. This interference is likely to produce 
the greatest confusion, both in this Departmentand inthe War Depart- 
ment. I had appointed a depositary in Texas, to whom I had directed 
the war tax to be paid, and have drawn Treasury warrants on him to 
pay requisitions made by the War Department. These warrants will 
now be dishonored. The Treasury Department will have no means 
of administering the war-tax arrangements, as it seems that the gen- 
eral will intercept the money before it reaches the chief collector or 
depositary. It appears to me that the transaction is so illegal and so 
irregular as to call for the immediate interference of the Government. 


2 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


18 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The evidence is not complete, but it seems sufficient to enable me to 
ask your interference. Mr. Sorley, who writes the inclosed letter, is 
the collector of customs at Galveston and the depositary for Texas. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


{Inclosure. | 


RICHMOND, July 26, 1862. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond: 

Stk: [learn from Capt. William M. Armstrong, of Colonel Debray’s 
regiment mounted Texas troops, that on his way to this city he saw 
posted at the post-office in Nacogdoches, Tex., an order from Brig. 
Gen. H. E. McCulloch, addressed to the collectors of the Confederate 
war tax, instructing them not to pay over the funds in their hands to 
any person whatever, except to persons authorized by him to receive 
it, under penalty of being deemed enemies and traitors. Mr. Jack 
Davis, who is now in this city, as bearer of dispatches from General 
McCulloch to the War Department, confirms this statement, and adds 
that under the order General McCulloch has collected from $100,000 
to $150,000. As you have given orders to the collectors of the war 
tax giving another direction to the disposition of the funds, I deem it 
my duty to communicate the above. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES SORLEY, 
Depositary of Galveston, Tea. 


NASSAU, NEW PROVIDENCE, July 26, 1862. 


Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH,. 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Sir: Inclosed you will find duplicate of my last communication of 
the 19th instant per Hero.* The steamer Herald arrived here yester- 
day and the steamer Kate to-day, but brought me no letters. The 
former was fired into by the Yankee gun-boat Adirondack in sight of 
Nassau; that is, only five miles from shore. It appears that the lat- 
ter must have been close to the island during the night, and at day- 
break steamed off, which deceived the Herald, then coming in, into 
the belief that she was a British man-of-war. Under this impression 
the Herald approached within a quarter of a mile of the Yankee, 
when the latter opened fire and threw a number of shot and shell at 
her. The Herald was struck three times, but sustained no injury. 
Captain Hickley, of Her Majesty’s ship Greyhound, got up steam and 
sent off a boat bearing a written protest against this infringement of 
neutral and maritime rights. The captain of the Yankee responded 
by citing Vattel and other writers on international law, and main- 
tained that he had committed no trespass, the firing having been done 
beyond the prescribed distance of one league. Here the matter rests, 
but reference will be had to the home authorities. Subsequently the 
Adirondack came into the outside anchorage and fired two salutes, 
one of which was responded to from shore and the other from the 


* See p. 8. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 19 


Greyhound. This afternoon application was made to the Governor 
for permission on the part of the Yankee to coal to an extent sufficient 
to take her to Hampton Roads. I have not been able to learn the 
Governor’s decision. In addition to the numerous outrages recently 
perpetrated by the enemy I will mention the capture of the British 
brig Lilla, from Liverpool for Nassau with an assorted cargo, including 
200 tons of saltpeter. She was taken off the Hole-in-the-Wall and has 
been earried into Boston. England has shown a degree of patience 
under these repeated aggressions for which hitherto she has not 
received due credit. 

In relation to the steamer Columbia, of which I wrote you on the 
28th ultimo, Mr. T. F. Smith, another agent of 8S. Isaac, Campbell 
& Co., and of Mr. T. Stirling Begley, the owner of the vessel, has 
informed me that by the last mail he received intelligence that the 
entire cargo was the property of the Confederate States Government. 
He read to me an extract from a letter of Mr. Begley under date of 
July I, to the following effect: 

You will at once deliver the cargo of the Columbia to any known representa- 


tive of the Confederate Government, taking a receipt for the same, so that I shall 
obtain payment here, as there may be no funds in Nassau to pay for the same. 


The Columbia has unloaded about one-half of her cargo, and the 
portion remaining on board consists of the following: One battery of 
eight guns, caissons, limbers, &c.; two mountain howitzers, with sad- 
dle and harness complete; one forge, complete; one reserve wagon and 
harness, complete; 2,500 shells and fuses. Mr. Smith stated that his 
object was to obtain my approval of the shipment of the above per 
Columbia to the Confederate States. I replied that the extract from 
the letter above cited was not conclusive evidence to my mind of own- 
ership, though it would certainly bear that interpretation; but that 
if it was the property of the Government I had no hesitation in letting 
it go forward, the rate of freight to be fixed at home. He asked for 
a receipt for the remainder of the cargo, which I agreed to give, but 
in such a shape as not to commit the Government to the ownership of 
the same. I presume that ere the receipt of this you will have been 
apprised of the change, if it has really taken place. I have no other 
information on the subject. 

By the Herald and Kate I shall send further supplies of arms and 
munitions, but will reserve the cannon until [hear from you. Messrs. 
John Fraser & Co. write that the supply of field artillery is fully ade- 
quate. 

The testimony in the case of the Preto has been concluded, and I 
am unable to discover a particle of evidence that can condemn her. 
The argument of counsel will take place on the 30th, so that by the 
1st proximo we will have the decision. It will be favorable. 

We have all read with feelings of intense interest the details of the 
great battles before Richmond. It is needless to say that these signal 
successes have produced the most beneficial influence on the public 
mind here. They cannot fail also to create a powerful impression in 
Europe. With 18 pence for cotton in Liverpool and a stock adequate 
only to a few weeks’ ordinary consumption, the screw will be tight- 
ened to a degree that must inevitably give rise to the very gravest 
apprehensions, and the British ministry will find it difficult to resist 
the clamor for immediate recognition and subsequent mediation, to 
use the new expression for intervention. 

I must call your attention to what I conceive to be a most unpatri- 
otic procedure and gross exaction on the part of our pilots. Four of 


20 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Charleston branch pilots arrived on the Kate this morning. They 
have fixed their demands at $1,500 to be paid here and $3,500 at home. 
We have offered the exorbitant rate of $1,000 here and $3,000 on 
arrival, which they have thus far refused. This bears very onerously 
on the vessels and may prove a formidable hindrance to the trade. 
The steamer Scotia, a private venture, will leave in a day or two with 
a cargo of 1,600 Enfield rifles, 600 barrels of powder (of which about 
600 cannon), 250,000 cartridges, and 250,000 percussion-caps [sic]. 
The rifles have been inspected by our viewers. The Leopard will sail 
early in the morning, and the Minho on the following day. The 
steamer Ladona, from England, via Bermuda, arrived this evening. 
I have not yet heard what cargo she has. 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER. 


[JULY 28, 1862.—For orders assigning Brig. Gen. Richard Taylor 
to the duty of carrying out the enrolling act in Western Louisiana 
and hastening forward recruits, &c., see Series I, Vol. XV, p. 789. | 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Montgomery, Ala., July 29, 1862. 
Brig. Gen. R. E. RODEs, 
Richmond, Va.: 


GENERAL: The Governor is in receipt of yours of the 29th instant, 
and desires me to assure you that nothing would afford him more 
pleasure than to be more instrumental in filling the ranks of the Ala- 
bama regiments, which under your command have by their gallantry 
in the field so well sustained the honor of the State. You may not be 
aware, however, that the regulations from the War Department have 
prescribed the rules by which the apportionment of the conscripts to 
the regiments, battalions, &c., shall be governed, and have left but 
little, if anything, to the discretion of the officer charged with the 
superintendence of the enrollment and the disposition of the con- 
scripts. 

I herewith inclose you a copy of these regulations,* and, with the 
view of furthering your object, would direct your attention particu- 
larly to paragraphs 5,6,and 7. You will see from these paragraphs— 

First. That it is only to such regiments, battalions, squadrons, and 
unattached companies in service on the 16th of April last that con- 
scripts can be allotted. 

Second. That they are to be apportioned to these regiments, bat- 
talions, &¢c., according to the deficiencies in each, unless when other- 
wise directed by the War Department. 

Third. That they are to be distributed by commanders of regiments, 
first, to fill up existing companies to the minimum standard, and sec- 
ond, where a regiment has not the requisite number of companies to 
organize new companies up to the number required. 

The Department, as you will observe, has the power to discriminate, 
but the exercise of this power would probably result injuriously. If, 
however, it should be done, I know of but one principle that can be 
adopted. While there may be no difference in the bravery of our 

eee CAAT ON HOT 6 NMC Se OMe IS 


*See General Orders, No. 30, Vol. I, this series, p. 1094. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. yal 


troops, there is a wide difference in the merits of their officers, and if 
the discretion reserved to the Department to change the order of 
the distribution be exercised, the good of the service would seem to 
require that the best officered regiments should be preferred. Should 
this test be adopted you would have little to fear for your brigade. 

The number of conscripts in this State will probably not exceed 
10,000, unless we can expel the enemy from North Alabama. If we 
ean do this and ean enforce the law in that section of the State we 
may get 3,000 more. Counting the unattached companies and bat- 
talions in service on the 16th of April last and they would be equal 
to about thirty-two regiments. From the best information I have it 
will require an average of full 400 to a regiment to bring it up to the 
minimum standard. 

You will observe also that the inclosed regulations require the col- 
onels of regiments, &¢., to send copies of their muster-rolls to the 
commandant of the proper camp of instruction in their respective 
States, with officers to take charge of such recruits as may be fur- 
nished to each regiment, &e. 

Maj. W. G. Swanson has been detailed under paragraph 1, and has 
established one camp in Macon County and another at Talladega, and 
will, I suppose, hereafter designate the camp to which the conscripts 
from the different counties will be assigned. The commandant of 
camp No. 2 has not yet been appointed, but as Major Swanson is 
charged, under the paragraph last referred to, with the disposition 
of the recruits, I suppose his camp, which is No. 1, is the proper 
camp, within the meaning of the regulations. I inelose you a copy 
of General Orders, No. 1, from the headquarters of Major Swanson.* 

In conclusion I have only to add that both the Governor and myself 
will take much pleasure in doing anything that can properly be done 
to advance the efficiency of your command. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. GOLDTHWAITE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[JuLy 29, 1862.—For authority to D. H. Hill to raise partisan 
rangers in Gates County, N. C., and Nansemond County, Va., see 
Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 601. ] 


[JuLy 29, 1862.—For Davis to Harris, In regard to recruiting for 
the Tennessee regiments serving in Virginia, see Series I, Vol. LI, 
Part II, p. 333. | 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., July 30, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Iam credibly informed that a company of responsible men, 
citizens of the Confederate States, propose to ship cotton out of the 
port of Mobile in exchange for salt. The salt is to be first imported 
through the blockade by permission of the U. S. officers, and the cot- 
ton then carried out to pay for the salt. The arrangement is to be 


* Not found. 


22 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


made directly with General Butler and Commander Farragut, who 
will, it is said, permit the exchange to be made in the Gulf, and the 
salt to come into Mobile or Pensacola, and from the latter place to 
pass through the enemy’s lines into the interior. These U. S. officers 
are reported to have agreed to the arrangement stated, and which is 
said to be unlimited in extent. What is now wanting, it seems, is the 
permission of the War Department for the company to take out the 
cotton and make the exchange proposed. They have frankly disclosed 
this plan to me, and requested me to submit it for your consider- 
ation, and advised me that from some intimation received it would be 
approved by you. I informed these gentlemen that as the proposed 
Scheme was forbidden by the law and contrary to my own decided 
convictions as to the policy and interest of our Government, I could 
not indorse it or even refer it for your consideration except as a mat- 
ter of information, to be looked at with a view of ascertaining whether 
the Government could, by tolerating it in any form, bring about any 
complication of the blockade question which might promise a public 
advantage; and that I was quite sure the Secretary of War could have 
given no intimation in favor of such a project unless he had the best 
reasons for believing that some important result could be attained 
beyond the mere introduction of salt, however great a necessity the 
article might be at this time; and it is upon this ground that I have 
Submitted the statement herein made for your consideration. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


HEADQUARTERS, 
Marietta, Ga., July 30, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your confidential 
circular, and must express my regret that the embarrassments exist 
to which you refer. While I have in a few instances had reason to 
believe that persons with furlough have overstaid their time at home 
without sufficient cause, I had not supposed that the regiments from 
this State had been reduced to any considerable extent either by deser- 
tions orabsenceof members without leave. If justcause of complaint 
in these particulars exist against the Georgia troops I am ready to do 
all in my power to assist you in correcting the evil. On account of 
the fact that you desire the existence of the evil kept as much as pos- 
sible from the knowledge of the enemy, I am somewhat at a loss how 
I ean best accomplish the object you have in view. After a little 
reflection I have concluded that I cannot better serve you than by 
issuing a proclamation, of which I inclose a copy herewith.* I have 
been the more guarded in the power given to the sheriffs and other 
State officers on account of the fact that your sub-enrolling officers in 
some parts of this State have, I think, taken ‘pride in annoying the 
authorities of the State by evading your instructions (which are no 
doubt intended in good faith to exempt all State officers) upon a vari- 
ety of technical pretexts, and in some instances without even a plausi- 
ble pretext. 

Permit me to cite an instance: A few days since the sub-enrolling 
officers for Baldwin County enrolled an important clerk in the adju- 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. Pta| 


tant-general’s office without conference with the head of the depart- 

ment and ordered him to camp of instruction, with notice that he_ 
should publish his name as a deserter if he failed to go. In acaseof 
this character, as the act of your officers was illegal, I could not of 
course permit any State officer to assist him in the execution of his 

threat, if he attempted to treat one of the State’s officers not subject 

to conscription as a deserter. On the contrary, it would be my duty 
to employ the State officers for the protection of the officer unjustly 
attacked. Hence I have limited the proclamation to the case of 
deserters who have been in Confederate service beyond the limits of 
the State or members of a volunteer regiment within the State. If 
your enrolling officers, in cases of conflict of opinion between them 

and the State authorities, would stop the execution of their orders on 

notice from me to them to do so till the question could be referred to 

you for decision, I should be very careful to raise with them no false 

issue, and it would save many of our officers and good citizens who 

have sent substitutes, &c., great expense and trouble in having their 

rights recognized. I assure you that much dissatisfaction exists in 

the public mind on account of their course, amounting in some 

instances, it is thought, to petty tyranny. You may suppose from 

your knowledge of my views on the conscription act that it would be 

a gratification to me to see them act amiss. Notso. Did I desire to 

render the act unpopular in the State I could wish no change of policy 
on the part of your officers. I trust you will excuse this plain state- 

ment of truth, as we all are corresponding confidentially for the 

publie good. 

I have been much gratified at your energy and the administrative 
ability you have shown as the head of the War Department. For- 
tunately for the country the tide of success has turned in our favor 
since you have taken control of this most difficult and important 
Department. It is greatly to be hoped that you may have the means 
to carry our victorious arms into the enemy’s country before the fall 
season has passed. Our people look with great anxiety to the deliver- 
ance of Tennessee and the transfer of the seat of war to Kentucky. 
It will at all times afford me pleasure to serve you or the cause in any 
way in my power. 

I am, very truly, &c., 
JOSEPH EK. BROWN. 


[Indorsement. ] 


Inclose Governor Brown copies of printed instructions, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 
to officers commanding camps and enrolling officers, and call his 
attention to the order given to them [to] confine themselves to a 
remonstrance in case of difference with State authorities. 

G. W. R. 


EO od 


VicHy, July 30, 1862. 
Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, 
Department of State, Richmond, Confederate States of America: 
Str: I have just received notice from Mr. Fearn that he leaves 
London on the 2d of August for the Confederate States, and have 
only time to write a few hasty lines in consequence of the lateness of 
the advice given. 
In consequence of the want of communication between Nassau and 
the rest of the world I was detained there three weeks, and only 


24 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


reached London by the West India mail steamer on the 29th of June. 
I found public opinion there very much in the same condition as 
when I left that place in January, with a tendency to depreciation in 
consequence of the series of reverses our Army had experienced. I 
sought and obtained an interview with Lord Palmerston, as a private 
individual, in which I exposed to him fully the real position of 
affairs and the certainty of our approaching successes. He was 
politely incredulous as to the latter, but listened very seriously to my 
statements and explanations, and asked a great many questions as fo 
what he considered our weak points. On these I think I gave him new 
lights. Hespoke very candidly on the subject of recognition, and said 
he thought we must do much more before we were entitled to it, refer- 
ring more particularly to the occupation of New Orleans and to the 
blockade of our Southern ports. When asked the question ‘‘ whether 
the repulse of the army before Richmond and a transfer of the siege 
to Washington would be regarded as sufficient?” he still replied in 
the negative. These views he clearly expressed three weeks later in 
the debate on Mr. Lindsay’s motion. I saw Mr. Mason immediately 
after the interview, and gave him the details of our conversation. I 
was careful, of course, to say nothing to Lord Palmerston relative to 
any separate action of France, confining myself to the English view 
of the question. The fixed conviction of my mind was and is that 
England will insist on a ‘‘ masterly inactivity,” as she regards it, and 
will restrain France from acting also as long as possible. The reasons 
for so.doing you can comprehend as well as I could explain them to 
you. The pretext is ‘‘fair play.” It is but just to add that the 
popular sentiment in England before and especially since the tidings 
of our late glorious victories, as far as I can judge, is decidedly in 
our favor; but they are not willing to pay the price of a war to 
indulge the sentiment, and the course taken by the Tory party (in 
opposition) proves this. 

Immediately after my interview with Lord Palmerston I left London 
for Paris, first writing a letter to The Times, describing the actual 
condition and prospects of the Southern States, purporting to be 
written by a traveler. I sent this with my ecard and a private note 
to the editor, who is known to me, and was served as The Times 
frequently serves contributors—the substance of my letter was 
hashed up in editorials; the letter itself suppressed. After waiting 
a week I wrote another version of the same letter to The Telegraph, 
which published it, omitting all remarks about the conduct of 
Southern negroes, whose loyalty to their masters I had dilated upon, 
and some remarks relating to our President. Inclosed you will find 
a copy of that letter.* The Telegraph is the most widely circulated 
paper in London. At Paris I immediately put myself in communi- 
cation with the press and with gentlemen of influence and position 
who are friendly to us. Chief of these is M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, 
cousin to the Empress, who wields a great influence at court and else- 
where. I have been guided greatly by his advice as to the proper 
mode of proceeding here. The journals I have found very accessible 
and amenable to reason. We have The Patrie, The Constitutionnel, 
and The Pays, all three semi-official papers; against us are the radical 
journals and The Orleans, but since the return of the young princes 
I think we can secure the latter. The effort is now being made. 

Although the Emperor is absolute master of the situation, he yet 
desires that public opinion should march with him, and the only diffi- 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 25 


culty we have to contend with is the slave question. We are trying 
to change this issue by proving that not to be the matter in dispute. 
The Emperor is here, in the house next to my hotel. I have made 
the acquaintance of some, and the intimacy of one of his personal 
suite, and have been enabled indirectly to throw much light on the 
question. I have my wife with me and came as a private individual. 
By advice of my French friends I have just written and sent to his 
private secretary an intimation of my desire as a South Carolinian, 
just from the Confederacy, to pay my respects to the Emperor, and I 
shall probably receive his reply to-day or to-morrow, but too late to 
give you results. Should anything of importance transpire soon, I 
shall find, or rather make, a way to give you sure information. I am 
busily organizing this now and will arrange it if necessary. I find 
the only means of communication now is the very uncertain one via 
Nassau, which works badly. 

Mr. Slidell will doubtless give full details of his interview with the 
Emperor. I therefore refrain from touching upon that subject. It 
was the premier pas to which I am desirous of adding another. That 
the Emperor is most anxious to intervene, all his people here tell me. 
He has now with him Mr. Fould and Mr. Baroche, chief of the council 
of state, and Mr. Thouvenel has just left. The immense moral gain to 
us from our late victories and present attitude of the two sections you 
cannot overrate. Whether it is sufficient to enforce recognition, the 
utterances of the Sphinx who rules Europe will not permit us to judge. 
As to the fate of the proposition brought over by me, Iam as yet in 
ignorance. Upon the whole, I think the prospects of an early recogni- 
tion (which will involve intervention) to be most probable and in fact 
imminent. A week hence I hope to be able to give you exact infor- 
mation on this subject, and will certainly do soifI getit. Impossible 
should not be a word in our vocabulary, and as regards communica- 
tion, is simply absurd. I have been received with great courtesy by 
Messrs. Mason and Slidell, and have to acknowledge many acts of civ- 
ility from both. It is but just to Mr. Hotze to say that his labors are 
most zealous and unremitting, and the paper he has established, the 
Index, is a proof of both. I complied with your instructions with 
regard to him. With reference to the purchase of arms, &e., I feel it 
my duty to inform the Administration that the chances of obtaining 
more depend upon further supplies of funds. Captain H. informs me 
that he has no funds nor credits of any kind, and is deeply indebted 
for the Government. The establishment of credit abroad is essen- 
tial. ‘This can be done in Paris with ease by the Government sending 
cotton to parties here, who will immediately advance several millions 
upon it. If the Government will authorize me to make such an 
arrangement, one of the great capitalists here will do it forthwith, the 
Government delivering the cotton in the Confederate States to agents 
named or sent by the capitalists here. Should the continuance of the 
war demand new and large supplies of arms, I would further suggest 
the expediency of sending out more agents for their purchase, since 
no one or two men, however energetic or intelligent, can properly and 
efficiently attend to this work. To this point I most earnestly invite 
the attention of the Government, as illness or any other cause might 
now leave us without help in this vital matter. The other matter of 
providing funds is also equally pressing, since Confederate eredit has 
not yet risen upon the ruins of the Federal, now far below par. Our 
friends abroad are now as unreasonably sanguine as they were unduly 
depressed on my first arrival, before our victories had brightened the 


26 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Southern sky. Ido not share in these illusions, and see the long road 
we still have to travel through the chaos that Northern madness and 
folly has occasioned. I do not send you the journals I have filed, 
nor other things collected, because time and opportunity have not 
[been] given me. 

Trusting that this may also plead the apology for this hurried and 
informal communication, which I have barely had time to write in 
haste, 

Very respectfully, 
‘EDWIN DE LEON. 


P. §8.—I have discovered that Bishop Hughes is busily beating up 
recruits in Ireland and haranguing for the North. I have taken 
active, and I believe efficient, measures to counteract his labors, and 
have myself many Catholic friends in Ireland in the priesthood 
and elsewhere. He boasts he can bring 20,000 men to the rescue of 
the North. We shall see. 


Ko 
GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 43. Richmond, July 31, 1862. 


I. Persons who are liable to conscription under the act of April 16, 
1862, will not be taken to serve as partisan rangers. Such as may be 
engaged for that branch of service must be over thirty-five years of 
age. 

II. Only aides-de-camp are to be considered as the personal staff of 
general officers; all other general staff officers assigned to the com- 
mands of general officers, or who may be attached by assignment to 
their respective headquarters, will be regarded as forming a part 
of their entire commands; and any change of commanding officers in 
such commands will not imply a change in the assignment of the gen- 
eral staff officers. 

* **k * * * * * 


IV. All seizures and impressments of any description of property 
whatever, and especially of arms and ordnance stores belonging to 
the States of the Confederacy, are hereby prohibited, and officers 
of the C. 8. Army are enjoined to abstain carefully from such seiz- 
ures and impressments; and in case they are made by mistake, such 
officers are ordered to make prompt restitution. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
NITER AND MINING BUREAU, 
Richmond, July 31, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, | 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I have the honor to present a report of the operations of this 
Bureau from its organization, in April last, to July, 1862. Under 
instructions from the Chief of Ordnance especial attention was first 
given to the home production of niter, after that to lead, next to 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. eit 


sulphur, and incidentally to all mineral information useful to the 
Department. Previous to this organization public attention had 
been extensively directed by the Ordnance Department to the manu- 
facture of niter. Works had been commenced and a considerable 
amount of private capital invested in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, 
Eastern Tennessee, and Western Virginia, but unfortunately in 
exposed localities. Under the military reverses of last spring all but 
one of the important caves in operation passed into the hands of the 
enemy, and that cave (in Bartow County, Ga.), under faulty manage- 
ment, produced not one-third its capacity. Of the smaller caves, the 
owners had generally become discouraged or indifferent. On the Ist 
of May last the entire home production of niter from all sources 
within the Confederate States, as ascertained from the powder-mill 
books, did not reach an average per diem of 500 pounds. Under these 
adverse circumstances the following plan of operations was submitted 
to the Department and approved: 

First. To explore rapidly, but with system, for niter caves and 
deposits. | 

Second. To stimulate private enterprise by circular and newspaper 
publications, personal appeal, and instruction, and by affording 
facilities for work in prompt payment and a liberal supply of tools 
and utensils. 

Third. When advisable, to start work on Government account. 

This plan of exploration embraced all the Confederate States sub- 
divided into districts, and with the offices named in No. 1 of the 
accompanying papers.* As rapidly as competent agents could be 
found a commencement was made in each district, and during May 
the survey was in full progress. Known localities were first exam- 
ined and afterward new ground; the caves were explored, earth tested, 
and when practicable measured, and the results communicated to the 
Richmond office to be mapped and registered. The survey is still 
incomplete, but enough has been developed to determine the question 
of our interior resources. Exhibit sheets on file in the Bureau office 
already contain entries of caves and nitrous deposits sufficient in 
quantity and quality to meet the ordinary demands of the Confed- 
erate Army until niter beds can be’ made to yield. But our power to 
work these natural deposits is controlled by three conditions—labor, 
hostile interruption, and transportation. As this exploration went on 
the Bureau agents spared no effort to induce private parties to work 
every available source of niter supply—caves, plantation deposits, 
tobacco barns, old cellars, and artificial niter beds—and these efforts 
are continued. In particular districts much has thus been accom- 
plished; but the general result has made clear the fact that a large 
and regular supply from private sources cannot enter into the esti- 
mates of the Department. Work has accordingly been commenced 
on Government account, and to the full extent that time and means 
at command permitted. | : 

On August 1 the furnaces were up and work under way at sixteen 
Government caves, with an average force of 272 white hands and 115 
negroes. This does not include labor on private works. The locality 
for niter-producing caves in the Confederate States can be approxi- 
mately referred to the lines of secondary limestone, which are shown 
in brown tint on the accompanying map No. 2.* Two important belts 
of primary limestone are indicated by the green tint. Available caves 
a 


* Not found. 


28 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have not been found in the primary limestone, but its presence in the 
soil frequently affords a necessary mineral base for the accumulation 
of nitrous earth under plantation buildings, which in the absence of 
caves is found to be a valuable source of the niter supply. Good work- 
ing caves should contain at least 5,000 cubic feet of earth. The 
nitrous earth, which usually covers the cave floor or fills up its side 
chambers in crevices, must be dry, and should yield 1 per cent. and 
upward of nitrates. Potash, wood, water within easy access outside 
are essential to the manufacture of niter from the natural deposits. 
These conditions are mentioned to explain the fact why out of so 
many known and explored caves so few can be advantageously 
worked. 

Referring to the niter districts in detail—in Vireinls fifty contracts 
have been closed with private parties, some of whom have worked 
well, but from their slow progress and the frequent loss of caves by 
the enemy in Greenbrier and Monroe Counties, work has been under- 
taken on Government account as follows: One large cave in Tazewell, 
one in Giles, and six small caves in Wythe, Smyth, Pulaski, and 
Montgomery. These caves are in good working order and beginning 
to yield. The interruption from recruiting officers having generally 
ceased upon publication of General Orders, No. 41, the only draw- 
back upon a large future yield is the scarcity of labor. The artifi- 
cial production of niter has been commenced in Virginia near Rich- 
mond, the city affording material for 30,000 pounds at least per 
annum, which will be made use of if labor can be retained, which is 
almost impossible, for such work, so near the army. Beds have also 
been commenced at Petersburg. 

In North Carolina the secondary limestone belt borders on the 
extreme western counties, where niter caves are few, small, and inac- 
cessible. Our effective labors must be confined to the plantation 
earth in the tobacco and primary limestone counties. Several locali- 
ties have been examined for niter beds on a large scale, but they do 
not present the facilities for work obtained elsewhere. 

In South Carolina there is no known niter cave. The rich marls in 
the lower districts promise favorably for niter beds. One nitriary 
has been commenced by State authority at Columbia, one by Govern- 
ment agents near Orangeburg, and one on the Georgia side of the 
Savannah River near Augusta. At the last there are unusual facili- 
ties in climate, water carriage, and the supply of materials, organic 
and inorganic, for niter works of a permanent character upon the 
most improved European system. 

In Georgia there are several niter caves in the northwestern coun- 
ties—one in Bartow County, very valuable. This last, under impera- 
tive necessity and upon consultation with the adjutant-general of 
the State of Georgia—the State authorities having taken preliminary 
steps to seize the cave—was taken possession of by order of the 
Department on the 15th June, and has since been put in order and 
worked on Government account. During the last two weeks of 
private management the yield of the cave did not reach eighty 
pounds per day; under Government management it was raised to 400 
per working day, and would have been much higher but for the inter- 
ruption of potash transportation on the Georgia railroads owing to 
the movement of General Brageg’s army. 

In Tennessee are several very large and rich caves. The most 
valuable are under hostile control. From Jonesborough down to 
Chattanooga fifteen more caves have been commenced on Govern- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 29 


ment and private account, but work has been seriously interrupted 
by the advance of the enemy. Two fine caves (private) were taken 
and the works destroyed. . Two Government caves, together with the 
potash works near Chattanooga, have been temporarily stopped from 
the same cause. The Nickajack and Lookout Caves were shelled 
during the attack of June 5, but it has been deemed advisable to con- 
tinue operations, though at a loss, at the Lookout and partially at the 
Nickajack, to reassure private parties. The yield from ‘Tennessee 
must continue uncertain until the country becomes more settled. 

In Northern Alabama the presence of the enemy has occasioned a 
general suspension of work, including the valuable Santa Cave. But 
two or three caves are now worked. More will soon be started by 
Bureau agents and under a contract made with the owner of the 
Cahaba Powder Mill. 

In lower Alabama a vigorous effort is being made to induce planters 
in the limestone and marl counties to work plantation earth, but the 
results have not yet been reported. 

In Mississippi the Bureau has an agent for similar objects, to attend 
also to receipts from Tennessee and the west, and to explore the 
northeastern counties. | 

In Florida the most promising cave localities have been examined, 
but thus far with unpromising results, the caves being small and gen- 
erally wet. Attention has therefore been given to plantation earth. 
The superintendent has commenced work on Government account 
and already reports a small return. 

The trans-Mississippi.—The recent transfer of the Texan contracts 
to this office have rendered an organization necessary west of the Mis- 
sissippi. A party of three, selected for this service and under charge 
of Captain Read, start this week under the following instructions: 
To arrange in Texas, if practicable, a reguiar transportation of 
receipts from Mexico; to examine and, if miners can be procured, to 
start lead mines in Arkansas; to examine a reported saline deposit of 
value near New Iberia, La., and to have work resumed in the very 
valuable caves of upper Arkansas as soon as accessible. 

Results: From April 15 to June 1 about 25,000 pounds of niter were 
collected and forwarded; from June 1 to July 1, 24,393 pounds, with 
10,945 pounds on hand subject to order. From obvious causes, the 
collection of tools and materials, construction of furnaces, and the 
instruction of agents and foremen, work was not fairly commenced on 
Government caves until late in June. On the other hand the large 
Arkansas percentage made previous to May 1, 17,000 pounds, cannot 
again appear on our returns until the events of the war permit. The 
yield during August will probably be from 1,600 to 2,000 pounds per 
working day. It should have been over 2,500 pounds per day, but the 
prevailing anxiety to save the crops, the unwillingness to send negroes 
far from home and the consequent scarcity of labor, and the lament- 
able condition of public transportation have prevented. The last two 
drawbacks are receiving the earnest and anxious attention of the 
Bureau, and when met should raise the home niter production to 
3,000 pounds per diem. 

Mining service.—The most available lead veins of the Confederacy 
are being surveyed and registered. Under the great scarcity of mining 
labor it has been thought advisable to concentrate our small force upon 
leading mines that promise the quickest results. By a change of con- 
tract the yield of the Wythe lead mines, Virginia, has been doubled 
within the past month and will soon be raised to three and one-half 


30 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


tons per working day.a The Silver Hill Mine, North Carolina, can be 
improved, and in case of urgency the yield quickened by neglecting 
for a time the silver percentage.b The Petersburg Smelting Works 
are in fine order to desilverize this ore. The opening Jackson mine 
near Jonesborough, Tenn., is being pressed and stocked with labor 
drawn off from experimental work in Albemarle and other localities 
in Virginia that were not yielding well. The necessary machinery 
will be sent out and put up at an early day. 

In Arkansas, if labor and machinery can be procured in time for 
results, lead mining will be started under instructions on Government 
account. 

The present yield from our mines averages between three and four 
tons per working day. This is not equal to the Army demand. The 
residue has thus far been more than met by importation and the eollee- 
tion of scrap lead, in which the Bureau agents have been quite active. 

Copper.—The Bureau has been instructed not to press the subject, 
the Ducktown, Tenn., mines yielding sufficient for the present 
demand. The Virginia mines, Carroll and Grayson Counties, can be 
worked. 

In sulphur the same instructions have been received. Good local- 
ities have been selected for sulphur works when necessary; contracts 
have been signed with private parties, but no returns have yet been 
made. 

To systemize the supervision of mining interests, a mining desk is 
about being arranged in the Bureau under charge of a competent offi- 
cer. Inacknowledging the valuable aid of the gentlemen in our corps, 
I beg to refer to the accompanying list of their names. * 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
I. M. ST. JOHN, 
Major and Superintendent. 


RICHMOND, July 31, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: To obtain a full supply of clothing for the Army is becoming 
more embarrassing and difficult as the raw material is diminishing 
and the machinery employed in its manufacture becomes worn out. 
Every exertion has been made to render all the resources of the 
country available; but if, in the matter of clothing and shoes, there 
were ample supplies of the raw material the capacity to manufacture 
them is wanting, thereby rendering it certain that a reliance upon 
our own sources of supply will be in vain. The prices of all goods 
are enormous, those from abroad bringing readily in open market 
300 or 400 per cent. on their cost in Europe. In view of these facts, 
I respectfully recommend as the only effective mode of relief from 
these difficulties and embarrassments that an officer be dispatched 
to Europe to purchase cloth, shoes, blankets, and other indispensable 
articles of issue to the troops. The Government would save largely 
by purchasing abroad, even if one of every three cargoes were lost. 
To depend upon private enterprise to import these goods is to trust a 


a'This remains to be seen when the cold weather comes on.—[J. G.] 
b Which has been ordered.—[J. G.] 


——— ae 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. Dil 


very unreliable source of supply and to pay enormous profits to the 
importers. Major Ferguson, of this department, who has been 
employed in providing materials for the clothing department at Rich- 
mond, is fully competent to purchase goods abroad, as in addition 
to his knowledge of quality and prices he has the mercantile ability 
and integrity to disburse advantageously the large sums which would 
be intrusted to such agent as may be sent to Europe. The necessity 
of almost immediate arrangements for these supplies leads me to ask 
your early consideration on this subject. 
LARKIN SMITH, 
Assistant Quartermaster- General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, | July 31,| 1862. (Received August 2.) 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I am under the necessity of asking your attention again to the 
subject of partisan rangers. The means of avoiding the conscript 
law and the idea of being in a mounted company, independent and 
on detached service, render that service popular and desirable, while 
there is but little prospect of their being of much service, unless a 
few with well-chosen officers and in peculiar localities. They being 
mostly mounted, an almost exhausted country will be drained of its 
subsistence for their support, and every company will have a separate 
and independent quartermaster’s and commissary department. But 
difficulties occur to me in administering our State laws to clothe and 
equip North Carolina troops. I fear if they are entitled to the same 
clothing and equipments with our other State troops already in serv- 
ice that it will absorb the provisions made for our regular troops. 
Inform me, if you can, what companies have been reported to you as 
accepted, or who have come within your regulations, and what regu- 
lations you have adopted, which may serve as a guide to me in recog- 
nizing a lawfully raised and accepted company. The second section 
of the partisan-ranger act stipulates that they shall receive the same 
‘* pay, rations, and quarters as other soldiers.” Do ‘‘rations” refer to 
anything but subsistence, and do ‘‘ quarters” mean anything more than 
tents? Or, in other words, is clothing or equipments included under 
any words of that section? ‘These inquiries are necessary to guide my 
course, and I hope you will excuse this intrusion on your valuable 
time. There are so many companies forming claiming to be partisan 
rangers, and the authority to raise and accept them is so broad that 
I cannot recognize them for the payment of State bounty till I know 
they are properly organized and accepted by the Confederate Gov- 
ernment. If such regulations have not been made the number now 
offering would suggest the propriety of establishing regulations for 
their organization and government. But I still further suggest the 
propriety of converting them into infantry, for in our country cavalry 
have only proved available as couriers or pickets. 

Some of these views have been presented to you in a former letter, 
and the principal object of this communication is to know what com- 
panies I am to provide for in bounty, clothing, and equipments. 

Very respectfully, 
HENRY T. CLARK. 


82 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., August 1, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Sir: Will you please advise me at as early a day as possible if the 
provision made by the Confederate Government of blankets and 
clothing for our Army is of a character which can be relied on to 
carry it through the coming fall and winter. My object in ascertain- 
ing this information is to insure a sufficient supply of clothing to the 
troops from this State if the State resources will enable me to do so. 
As to cotton goods, I do not anticipate any great difficulty, but have 
great fears as to blankets and woolen goods generally, as well as shoes 
and socks. The little wool we have in the State is bearing an enormous 
price, and the condition of the Mississippi presents serious obstacles 
to obtaining supplies from Texas. Shoes also are difficult to contract 
for in large quantities at any price. I will thank you to be as definite 
as possible as to each of the articles referred to so that I may under- 
stand clearly in what direction and to what extent the capacities of 
the State should be exerted. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 55. ftaichmond, Va., August 2, 1862. 


Paragraph IH, General Orders, No. 42, current series, is hereby 
revoked, and the following is substituted in lieu thereof: 

Where martial law has been proclaimed the civil tribunals are 
authorized to grant injunctions, to make orders, and to take such 
steps as may be necessary to prevent irreparable mischief; to secure 
the possession of infants in the persons entitled thereto; to decide 
suits for divorce; to make orders for alimony, and to secure the per- 
sonal safety of the parties to such suits; to recover rents and the 
possession of real estate and slaves, and to restore the possession of 
property tortiously changed. 

By command: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 2, 1862. 
His Excellency Governor CLARK, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

My DEAR Str: I have the honor to acknowledge yours of the 31st 
ultimo, and to thank you for your good offices in the matter of enroll- 
ing men to fill up the regiments of North Carolina now in the field. 
The irregularities and negligence noted in the camp near to you exceed 
even the allowance I have been accustomed to make for inexperience. 
In appointing an officer to take charge of a camp of instruction it was 
not my purpose to interfere through his agency or otherwise with the 
enrollment by the State officers of those subject to military service in 
the armies of the Confederate States. For every consideration it was 
desirable to avail of the aid of the Executives of the States, and where, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. aba 


in your case, it was freely given, I wish it to be received with every 
mark of consideration and courtesy. The matter will receive prompt 
attention, and a further reply will be made to you when I am better 
informed of the action of the War Department. In the meantime I 
have wished to assure you of my regret that anything should have 
happened which evinced the least neglect of that which I recognize 
as due to you, not only in virtue of your office, but also because of 
your cordial and efficient aid to our efforts to provide for the common 
defense. 
Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[AuGust 4, 1862.—For Price to Pettus, invoking his assistance by 
ealling out militia in Mississippi, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XVII, Part 
II, p. 664. | 


[Auaust 4, 1862.—For proclamation by Governor of Virginia call- 
ing on ‘“‘militia not now in service to unite with him in a prompt and 
vigorous effort to repel the enemy,” &c., see Series I, Vol. XII, Part 
III, p. 923. | 


———_—___—_. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
| Richmond, August 5, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President, &c.: 


Sir: I have the honor to inclose an opinion* of the Attorney- 
General upon the question whether persons under eighteen and over 
thirty-five years of age in service at the time of the passage of the 
conscript act are required to remain ninety days from the passage of 
the act or ninety days from the expiration of their respective terms 
of service. 

He decides that those whose terms expired within ninety days from 
the passage of the act were required to serve during the ninety days, 
but that all others of the class must be discharged at the expiration 
of their terms of service. 

I submit with all due deference to the learned Attorney-General 
that his distinction between those whose terms expire within ninety 
days from the passage of the act and the remainder of the class is 
unsupported by the language or the policy of the act, and is produc- 
tive of inequality and injustice. 

The language of the act is that all persons under eighteen and over 
thirty-five years of age shall be required to remain “‘for ninety days.” 
(Section 1.) The Attorney-General says that some shall remain ninety 
days from the passage of the act, and others much more. 

He equally violates the policy of the act as declared in its pream- 
ble. It was passed to ‘“‘keep in service our gallant Army,” and yet 
he discharges a considerable portion of it at the end of their term of 
enlistment. They are not kept a single day, although they constitute 
a part of the Army required to be kept in the service. His construc- 
tion produces inequality and injustice, for it is neither equal nor just 


*See Watts to Randolph, July 24, p. 15. 
38 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


o4 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to keep men whose terms expire within the ninety days and not to 
keep others of the same class, who only differ from the former in the 
date of enlistment. 

In my opinion, the language and policy of the act are better observed 
and equality and justice better attained by requiring all under eight- 
een and over thirty-five years of age to serve three months beyond 
_ their term, and all between those ages to serve two years beyond their 
terms of enlistment. This construction keeps all for a period longer 
or shorter, according to age, and thus conforms to the letter and the 
policy of the act. It works no injustice, because the difference made 
between one class and another rests upon a difference of age or fitness 
for military service and of usefulness in civil pursuits. 

The objections to the construction adopted by the Attorney-General 
apply equally to that which proposes to discharge all under eighteen 
and over thirty-five years of age within ninety days of the passage of 
the act. The language of the act requires all to be kept in service; in 
other words, to be retained longer than they contracted to stay, but 
this construction actually shortens the term of many. The policy was 
to get rid of the evil of short terms, but this construction shortens 
them yet more. And it does this arbitrarily, releasing some who have 
Just enlisted, and retaining others whose terms have nearly expired. 
This distinction is made without the slightest reason for it, and is 
therefore unjust. 

Unless otherwise directed by yourself, I shall, in view of these con- 
siderations, retain the construction of the act adopted by the Depart- 
ment and promulgated in General Orders, No. 46, paragraph II, a copy 
of which is herewith inclosed.* 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, . 
GEKO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


ATHENS, GA., August 5, 1862. 

DEAR GENERAL:+ I venture to intrude some suggestions which my 
observations in Georgia have brought to my mind. They can do no 
harm, if they do no good, and will not consume much of your time. 
This war must close in a few months, perhaps weeks, or else will be 
fought with an increased energy and malignity on the part of our 
enemies. I look for the latter result, and at all events think it is the 
contingency for which we should prepare. That preparation requires 
a large increase of our Army. How is it to be effected? The con- 
script law has performed its work. It retained the twelve-months’ 
men in the service. Besides that, it compelled large numbers to vol- 
unteer and thus fili up the ranks of the regiments already in the field. 
These two results have been accomplished, and beyond that it will be 
unwise to calculate upon the conscript law as the means of furnishing 
troops for the Army. The number of conscripts will be very small— 
not worth considering in calculating the strength of our Army. Such, 
I am sure, is the case in Georgia. It is true I have been confined to 
my own house since I have been here, but I have seen and talked 
with a great many people, whose opinions I respect, and I give you 
the concurrent opinion of all with whom I have conversed. Why it 
is so it is useless to inquire, though I may say in passing that the 
law is unpopular—almost odious—and the officers charged with its 
execution young and inefficient. 


*See July 1; p. 1. + Randolph, Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 35 


The fact exists, however, and with that fact we have to deal. I 
venture now to suggest the remedy, based upon the idea that the con- 
script law has done all that it will do in the way of filling up the 
Army. I would say, then, repeal the conscript law so far as the 
future is concerned, retaining all that you have made by it, and then 
either call upon the Governors of the different States to furnish their 
quotas or authorize the formation of companies, regiments, and even 
brigades and divisions, to be accepted by the President and officered 
by him. In this work he might profitably employ many officers now 
in commission. Both these plans will at once add to the number 
from which recruits are to be got—all the men under eighteen and 
over thirty-five in the different States, and the latter constitute a very 
large element. It besides relieves the new recruits from the odium 
of being conscripts, and will give a new impulse to the work of vol- 
unteering. Of the two plans, the first is the best, as in the event of 
a failure to get as many as you want, the machinery of the State 
governments for drafting can at once be resorted to, and is far less 
offensive to the pride of our people than the conscript law. Such is 
the result of my observations and reflections in my quiet home. I 
give them to you for what they are worth. 

While writing I will refer to another matter that is creating some 
unpleasant feeling in our State. General Mercer is impressing negroes 
to complete the fortifications at Savannah, and is going to the planta- 
tions, where our planters give up their cotton crops to raise corn and 
provisions for the Army and country, and he goes just at the time 
when they are saving their fodder and when all their hands are 
required. Our planters very naturally say that we ought to take 
the negroes working upon railroads, accustomed therefore to such 
work, and besides the railroads can wait. Corn and fodder cannot 
wait. In addition to this, the offer has been made to General Mercer 
to do the whole work by contract at less expense to the Government. 
I mention this matter because it is creating much bad feeling. Our 
people are willing to make any and all sacrifices, but they like to see 
reason and common sense in the officials of Government. My health 
has improved much slower than I had hoped, but I shall still return 
to camp next week and try it, anyhow. 

Your friend, 
HOWELL COBB. 


The order of General Cooper and the letter of President Davis 
about General Pope and his officers meet universal and enthusiastic 
approval.* 


—————— 


HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION, DISTRICT OF GEORGIA, 
Savannah, August &, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, ! 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to inclose a memorial presented by a commit- 
tee of the citizens of Liberty County, in this State, a community noted 
for their respectability and worth. The subject presented, I would 
respectfully submit, is one that demands the early notice of the Con- 
gress when it shall reassemble, and the instructions of the War 
Department (in accordance with such legislation as may be adopted) 
for the government of military commanders. The evil and danger 


*For these documents see Series II, Vol. IV, pp. 830, 836. 


36 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


alluded to may grow into frightful proportions unless checked, but the 
responsibility of life and death, so liable to be abused, is obviously too 
great to be intrusted to the hand of every officer whose duties may 
bring him face to face with this question. It is likely to become one 
of portentous magnitude if the war continues, and I do not see how 
it can be properly dealt with except by the supreme legislature of 
the country. I deem the action of Congress in this regard as needful 
for the protection of military commanders as for their guidance. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

H. W. MERCER, 
Brigadier-General, Commanding. 


[Inclosure. ] 
Brigadier-General MERCER, 
Commanding Military District of Georgia, Savannah: 

GENERAL: The undersigned, citizens of Liberty County, of the 
Fifteenth District, would respectfully present for your consideration 
a subject of grave moment, not to themselves only, but to their fellow- 
citizens of the Confederate States who occupy not only our territory 
immediately bordering on that of the old United States, but the whole 
line of our sea-coast from Virginia to Texas. We allude to the escape 
of our slaves across the border lines landward, and out to the vessels 
of the enemy seaward, and to their being also enticed off by those 
who, having made their escape, return for that purpose, and not 
infrequently attended by the enemy. The injury inflicted upon the 
interests of the citizens of the Confederate States by this now constant 
drain is immense. Independent of the forcible seizure of slaves by 
the enemy whenever it lies in his power, and to which we now make 
no allusion, as theindemnity for this loss will in due time occupy the 
attention of our Government from ascertained losses on certain parts 
of our coast, we may set down as a low estimate the number of slaves 
absconded and enticed off from our sea-board at 20,000, and their 
value at from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000, to which loss may be added 
the insecurity of the property along our borders and the demorali- 
zation of the negroes that remain, which increases with the continu- 
ance of the evil, and may finally result in perfect disorganization and 
rebellion. The absconding negroes hold the position of traitors, since 
they go over to the enemy and afford him aid and comfort by reveal- 
ing the condition of the districts and cities from which they come, and 
aiding him in erecting fortifications and raising provisions for his sup- 
port, and now that the United States have allowed their introduction 
into their Army and Navy, aiding the enemy by enlisting under his 
banners, and increasing his resources in men for our annoyance 
and destruction. Negroes occupy the position of spies also, since they 
are employed in secret expeditions for obtaining information by trans- 
mission of newspapers and by other modes, and act as guides to 
expeditions on the land and as pilots to their vessels on the waters of 
our inlets and rivers. They have proved of great value thus far to 
the coast operations of the enemy, and without their assistance he 
could not have accomplished as much for our injury and annoyance 
as he has done; and unless some measures shall be adopted to prevent 
the escape of the negroes to the enemy, the threat of an army of 
trained Africans for the coming fall and winter campaigns may 
become a reality. 

Meanwhile the counties along the seaboard will become exhausted 
of the slave population, which should be retained as far as possible 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 37 


for the raising of provisions and supplies for our forces on the coast. 
In the absence of penalties of such a nature as to insure respect and 
dread, the temptations which are spread before the negroes are very 
strong, and when we consider their condition, their ignorance and 
credulity, and love of change, must prove in too many cases decidedly 
successful. No effectual check being interposed to their escape, the 
desire increases among them in proportion to the extent of its suc- 
cessful gratification, and will spread inland until it will draw negroes 
from counties far in the interior of the State, and negroes will con- 
gregate from every quarter in the counties immediately bordering on 
the sea and become a lawless set of runaways, corrupting the negroes 
that remain faithful, depredating on property of all kinds, and resort- 
ing, it may be, to deeds of violence, which demonstrates that the 
whole State is interested in the effort to stop this evil; and already 
have negroes from Middle Georgia made their escape to the sea-board 
counties, and through Savannah itself to the enemy. 

After consulting the laws of the State we can discover none that 
meet the case and allow of that prompt execution of a befitting pen- 
alty which its urgency demands. The infliction of capital punish- 
ment is now confined to the superior court, and any indictment 
before that court would involve incarceration of the negroes for 
months, with the prospect of postponement of trial, long litigation, 
large expense, and doubtful conviction; and, moreover, should the 
negroes be caught escaping in any numbers, there would not be room 
in all our jails to receive them. The civil law, therefore, as it now 
stands cannot come to our protection. 

Can we find protection under military law? This is the question 
we submit to the general in command. Under military law the 
severest penalties are prescribed for furnishing the enemy with aid 
and comfort and for acting as spies and traitors, all which the negroes 
ean do as effectually as white men, as facts prove, and as we have 
already suggested. There can be but little doubt that if negroes are 
detected in the act of exciting their fellow-slaves to escape or of 
taking them off, or of returning after having gone to the enemy to 
induce and aid others to escape, they may in each of these cases be 
summarily punished under military authority. But may not the case 
of negroes taken in the act of absconding singly or in parties, with- 
out being directly incited so to do by one or more others, be also 
summarily dealt with by military authority? Were our white popu- 
lation to act in the same way, would it not be necessary to make a 
summary example of them, in order to cure the evil or put it under 
some salutary control? If it be argued that in case of the negroes it 
would be hard to mete out a similar punishment under similar cir- 
cumstances, because of their ignorance, pliability, credulity, desire 
of change, the absence of the political ties of allegiance, and the 
peculiar status of the race, it may be replied that the negroes con- 
stitute a part of the body politic in fact, and should be made to know 
their duty; that they are perfectly aware that the act which they 
commit is one of rebellion against the power and authority of their 
owners and the Government under which they live. They are perfectly 
aware that they go over to the protection and aid of the enemy who 
are on the coast for the purpose of killing their owners and of destroy- 
ing their property; and they know, further, that if they themselves 
are found with the enemy that they will be treated as the enemy, 
namely, shot and destroyed. 

To apprehend such transgressors, to confine and punish them 
privately by owners, or publicly by the citizens of the county by 


Soka CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


confinement and whipping, and then return them to the planta- 
tions, will not abate the evil, for the disaffected will not thereby be 
reformed, but will remain a leaven of corruption in the mass and 
stand ready to make any other attempts that may promise success. 
It is, indeed, a monstrous evil that we suffer. Our negroes are prop- 
erty, the agricultural class of the Confederacy, upon whose order and 
continuance so much depends—may go off (inflicting a great pecuni- 
ary loss, both private and public) to the enemy, convey any amount 
of valuable information, and aid him by building his fortifications, 
by raising supplies for his armies, by enlisting as soldiers, by acting 
as spies and as guides and pilots to his expeditions on land and 
water, and bringing in the foe upon us to kill and devastate; and 
yet, if we catch them in the act of going to the enemy we are power- 
less for the infliction of any punishment adequate to their crime and 
adequate to fill them with salutary fear of its commission. Surely 
some remedy should be applied, and that speedily, for the protection 
of the country aside from all other considerations. A few executions 
of leading transgressors among them by hanging or shooting would 
dissipate the ignorance which may be supposed to possess their 
minds, and which may be pleaded in arrest of judgment. 

We do not pray the general in command to issue any order for the 
government of the citizens in the matter, which, of course, is no part 
of his duty, but the promulgation of an order to the military for the 
execution of ringleaders who are detected in stirring up the people to 
escape, for the execution of all who return, having once escaped, 
and for the execution of all whoare caught in the act of escaping, 
will speedily be known and understood by the entire slave popula- 
tion, and will do away with all excuses of ignorance, and go very far 
toward an entire arrest of the evil, while it will enable the citizens to 
act efficiently in their own sphere whenever circumstances require 
them to act at all. In an adjoining county, which has lost some 200, 
since the shooting of two detected in the act of escaping not another 
attempt has been made, and it has been several weeks since the two 
were shot. 

As law-abiding men we do not desire committees of vigilance 
clothed with plenary powers, nor meetings of the body of our citizens 
to take the law into their own hands, however justifiable it may be 
under the peculiar circumstances, and therefore, in the failure of the 
civil courts to meet the emergency, we refer the subject to the gen- 
eral in command, believing that he has the power to issue the neces- 
sary order to the forces under him covering the whole ground, and 
knowing that by so doing he will receive the commendation and cor- 
diaf support of the intelligent and law-abiding citizens inhabiting the 
military department over which he presides. 

All which is respectfully submitted by your friends and fellow- 


citizens. 
R. Q. MALLARD, 
P. W. FLEMING, 
EK. STACY, 
Committee of Citizens of the 15th Dist., Liberty County, Ga. 


[AuGusT 5, 1862.—For Milton to Randolph, in relation to certain 
Florida organizations, &¢., see Series I, Vol. LU, Part II, p. 336, | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 39 


GENERAL ORDERS, | Wark DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 56. Richmond, August 6, 1862. 


I. Military commanders have no authority to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus; nor does martial law, when declared by the President 
under the act of Congress, justify the arbitrary establishment of the 
price of commodities in the trade of the citizens of the Confederate 
States. 

II. Necessity alone can warrant the impressment of private prop- 
erty for public use; and wherever the requisite supplies can be obtained 
by the consent of the owners at fair rates, and without hazardous 
delay, the military authorities will abstain from the harsh proceeding 
of impressment. 

_ III. Paragraph V, General Orders, No. 38, current series, is hereby 
revoked; and all discharges will hereafter be made under the eleventh 
Article of War, and General Orders, No. 26, current series. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 6, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


The policy of the Northern leaders in the war for the subjugation 
of the Southern people has been to take our chief sea-coast cities, so 
as to cut off all supplies from foreign countries, get possession of the 
border States of Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, which are the 
great grain-growing States, properly belonging to the Confederacy; 
cut the railway connections between Virginia and the cotton States, 
and cut the cotton region in two divisions by getting full possession 
of the Mississippi River. By getting possession of the sea-coast cities 
on the one side and the principal grain-growing region on the other; 
by separating the cotton region of the Confederacy from Virginia and 
cutting it into two separate divisions; by commanding completely the 
Mississippi River, they expected to starve the people into subjection, 
or crush out one division after another by the great advantage they 
would possess in concentrating heavy forces upon any given section 
or division. The lull brought upon the people of the Confederate 
States by their great success during the first six months of the con- 
test has enabled their persevering enemy to half succeed in their 
well-laid schemes for the complete subjugation of the Southern people. 
The late victories of the Confederate forces, and the repulses which 
the Northern troops have met with lately, have stirred up the Northern 
Government and people to such exertions as will in their opinion 
complete our subjugation at no distant day. The object of first mag- 
nitude, under existing circumstances, upon our part, is to get posses- . 
sion of Western Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. By securing a 
firm foothold in these States and arming the people loyal to our cause, 
all the land forces within the limits of the Confederate States proper 
belonging to the enemy, and not protected by the sea or inland navi- 
gation too wide to be commanded by cannon, may be taken or driven 
beyond our limits; the Mississippi River and all the railway connec- 
tions we have lost may be regained. The shortest way, then, to clear 
our coast of the invaders (provided a majority of the people of the 
Northwest could first be brought to favor an honorable peace) 


40 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


would be to plant an army of sufficient power to completely control 
all direct communication between the people of the Northwest and 
those of the commercial and manufacturing States of the Northeast, 
by selecting and holding a military line from the most suitable point 
in Kentucky or Western Virginia, to a point above Lake Erie, where 
the communication between the lakes could be commanded with artil- 
lery on land. As the people of the Confederate States could under 
such circumstances live much better than those of the Northeast, we 
might reasonably expect them to give up the contest as hopeless. 
Next in importance to obtaining full possession of the Border States 
and Tennessee is the holding of Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile, 
and the regaining of Norfolk and New Orleans. Without extraor- 
dinary exertions in a very short time on the part of our Government 
and people to add greatly to the effective defenses of the first three 
named cities, they must fall before the great force which the enemy 
is now energetically preparing for their possession or destruction. 
The heavy guns which the enemy are now preparing to arm their fleet 
of iron-clad steamers with will be able to batter down any of the forts 
as they were last season. Unless the forts are greatly strengthened 
and guns placed in them sufficiently powerful to disable their iron- 
clad steamers, we should not calculate on being able to hold those 
cities. The possession of these important places in addition to that 
of New Orleans on the part of the enemy would make the war at 
least one year longer than it would be, provided we hold them. 
Through these cities we would receive many necessary supplies from 
abroad. If we lose them, then the war must go on entirely within 
ourselves. The timely completion or procurement of the most sub- 
stantial iron-clad steamers or gun-boats, with as heavy ordnance as 
the enemy are preparing, is one of our great necessities for coast 
defense. With the present progress of the work upon those at 
Charleston, they are not likely to be finished in time to be of any serv- 
ice in defending that city. The proposed plan of flanking Wasbhing- 
ton, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston was communicated verbally 
to you last March through Colonel Withers, of Jackson, Miss. 
The foregoing views are very respectfully submitted for your con- 
sideration. 
Very respectfully, yours, &c., 
J. B. GLADNEY. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 7, 1862. 
Governor HENRY T. CLARK, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

DEAR SIR: Since my letter of the 2d instant the following com- 
munication has been sent from the War Department with relation to 
the camps of instruction in North Carolina.* 

I inclose copies of the printed regulations + sent to the commandants 
of camps of instruction, and hope you will find in the action taken 
evidence of a desire to co-operate with the State authorities, and as 
far as possible to use the officers of the State in executing the law for 
an enrollment of a class of its citizens for the military service of the 
Confederate States. 

Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
* Not found as an inclosure or otherwise identified, but see quotations there- 


from in Clark to Davis, August 22, p. 67. 
+ Probably General Orders, No. 30, Vol. I, this series, p. 1094. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 4] 


RICHMOND, VA., August 7, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


DEAR SIR: Last winter there was to a limited extent put on foot a 
plan of operating upon the people of the Northwest, through the press, 
with a view of getting them to take a proper view of the war raging, 
and its ultimate ruinous results if successful according to the views 
of the people of the Northeast. Among other papers prepared in part 
to this end there was a report submitted to the planters’ convention 
held at Memphis, Tenn., in February last, the main object of which 
was to bring new issues before the people of the Western States. 
The paper has been examined by the editor of the Mississippian, Prof. 
J. D. B. De Bow, and other well-informed gentlemen, all of whom 
approve of its main features. _ By agreement with Prof. J. D. B. De ~ 
Bow it will appear in the next number of his Review. In the mean- 
time it is to be printed in circular form because the present is consid- 
ered a favorable time for its circulation in the West on account of 
your recent victories. Should you favor the document and its objects, 
your patronage in giving circulation and effect is considered to 
be highly important. In connection with this a large army of 
observation is proposed occupying a military line between a suitable 
point on the Ohio River and a point above Lake Erie, not for the pur- 
pose of invading the Northwestern States, but with the view of bring- 
ing about an honorable peace before the power of the American 
people is reduced to suit the views of European governments, and for 
the purpose of opening up the natural highways and markets for the 
Southern and Western people. 

I remain, very respectfully, yours, 
J. B. GLADNEY. 


[AueustT 8, 1862.—For Harris to Davis, in regard to recruiting for 
the Tennessee regiments serving in Virginia, see Series I, Vol. LII, 
Part II, p. 339. | 


RICHMOND, August 9, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, ; 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR SiR: I have the honor to acknowledge yours of the 5th instant, 
inclosing an opinion of the Attorney-General as to the effect of the 
act of the 16th of April, 1862, on persons who are of the classes 
exemptfromenrollment. After a careful consideration of the opinion, 
it does not appear to me that the construction of the law given by the 
Attorney-General would shorten the term of any one now in service. 
The period of ninety days would seem from the language of the law 
to have been considered by the Congress as necessary to obtain 
recruits to supply the places of men who were to be discharged by 
expiration of term of service and exemption from military conscrip- 
tion. In the last proviso to the first section of the act it seems to 
have been contemplated that less time would suffice, and therefore 
provision was made for an earlier discharge in the contingency that 
their places were sooner supplied, from which it would appear that 
the intent was to limit the detention beyond the period of enlistment 
to the shortest space which the public exigency would permit in all 


42 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


cases where the soldier did not belong to the class which was to con- 
stitute the Army of the Confederate States. 

I have said this much not to sustain or combat any particular 
opinion, but the rather to show how well you might have entertained 
a doubt as to the true meaning of the law, which warranted you in 
ealling upon the Attorney-General for an official opinion, and also 
to sustain me in suggesting to you the propriety of accepting the 
opinion, although your judgment may not be entirely convinced. 
The opinion of the law officer of the Government, though it cannot 
bind the conscience of the head of a Department, nor therefore entirely 
relieve him from responsibility, may well be relied upon to solve a 
doubt, and in questionable cases to sanction official action. Comity 
between the different Departments indicates the propriety of aeccept- 
ing an opinion on a question of law which has been given by the 
Attorney-General in response to the request of a member of the 
Cabinet. 

I am, very respectfully and truly, yours, 3 
JEFE’N DAVIS. 


SPECIAL nein ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 186. Richmond, August 11, 1862. 
* * * * * * * 

V. Whereas doubts have arisen with reference to the term of serv- 
ice of the men of the First Maryland Regiment, it is ordered that 
the said regiment be disbanded, and the members thereof, with all 
other native and adopted citizens of Maryland desirous of enlisting 
into the service of the Confederate States, are invited to enroll and 
organize themselves into companies, squadrons, battalions, and regi- 
ments, the officers of which are to be elected. The organization 
hereby authorized will be known as the Maryland Line. 

* * * k * ES * 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
fichmond, August 12, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States: 


Sir: Although it is not customary for the heads of Departments to 
make reports at extra sessions of Congress, yet, in consideration of 
recent changes in the organization of the Army, and of the necessity 
for further legislation, it is deemed best to depart from this usage on 
the present occasion. 

It became apparent in the course of the last spring to all acquainted 
with the condition of the Army that the acts of Congress providing 
for re-enlistments would not effect the desired object. The privilege 
allowed of re-enlisting for different corps, and even for different arms 
of the service, coupled with the love of change always found in camps, 
and heightened in the case of our armies by the monotony and dis- 
comfort of winter quarters, caused such extensive changes that the 
re-enlistments tended to the disorganization of the Army. 

Large numbers of our men, yearning for home, weary of the dis- 
comfort of camp life, and deceived by the apparent inactivity of the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 43 


enemy into the belief that their services were no longer necessary, 
declined to re-enlist, and prepared to turn over the burden of the war 
to those who had as yet borne no part of it. Efforts to procure 
re-enlistments and the expectation of change relaxed the discipline 
of the Army, impaired its efficiency, and rendered it incapable of 
accomplishing what otherwise might have been achieved. 

While our armies were thus passing through successive stages of 
disorganization to dissolution, those of the enemy, recruited and 
reorganized, had reached a high state of efficiency, and were ready 
at the opening of the campaign to enter upon it, with every guarantee 
of success that numbers, discipline, complete organization, and per- 
fect equipment could afford. 

The success they obtained under these circumstances, far from being 

a matter of surprise, were necessary consequences of the relative con- 
ditions of the armies, and it is truly surprising that these successes 
' were not greater and more complete. 
The plan of voluntary enlistment having failed to preserve the 
organization, and to recruit the strength of our armies ata time when 
the safety of the country required both to be effected, a resort to draft 
or conscription was the only alternative. To all acquainted with the 
true condition of things there could be no ground for doubt. In a 
period of thirty days the terms of service of 148 regiments expired. 
There was good reason to believe that a large majority of the men 
had not: re-enlisted, and of those who had re-enlisted a very large 
majority had entered corps which could never be assembled, or, if 
assembled, could not be prepared for the field in time to meet the 
invasion actually commenced. : 

There was, therefore, an interval of disorganization and weakness 
impending, and the enemy had already entered Virginia with an 
army now known to have had more than double the numerical 
strength of our own, and superior to it in everything but courage and 
a good cause. It was obvious that conscription alone could save us, 
and it could hardly be supposed that a Constitution adopted in the 
midst of war inhibited the only possible mode of raising armies. 

Influenced by these and other considerations, Congress adopted the 
measure popularly known as the conscript act. Four months have 
not elapsed since its passage, and the present condition of the Army 
and of the country sufficiently proves its wisdom. Four months ago 
our armies were retiring, weak and disorganized, before the overwhelm- 
ing force of the enemy, yielding to them the sea-coast, the mines, the 
manufacturing power, the grain fields, and even entire States of the 
Confederacy. Now we are advancing, with increased numbers, 
improving organization, renewed courage, and the prestige of victory, 
upon an enemy defeated, disheartened, and sheltering himself behind 
defensive works and under cover of his gun-boats. ¢A military sys- 
tem which has done so much in so short a time should be cherished 
and perfected and its defects speedily corrected. 

Soon after the passage of the conscript act the Department pre- 
pared to carry it out, and on the 28th of April published General 
Orders, No. 30, a copy of which is herewith returned, prescribing 
regulations for the enrollment, mustering in, subsistence, transporta- 
tion, and disposition of conscripts. * 

It was determined to establish one or more permanent camps in 
each State at points selected with reference to health and facilities 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 1094. 


44 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


for subsistence and transportation. Each camp has its commanding 
officer, its drill officers, its commissary, quartermaster, and surgeon. 
The conscripts are to be assembled, drilled, taken through the camp 
diseases, and distributed among the regiments of the State in propor- 
tion to their respective deficiencies. ) 

The necessity of sending them immediately into the field has inter- 
fered with this plan of operations, but it has been carried out as far 
as practicable, and during any period of comparative inactivity it 
ean be fully executed. Recruits thus prepared for the field will be 
little inferior to old soldiers, and the Army will be relieved from its 
crowded hospitals and the long train of ineffectives that now drags in 
its rear. 

The greatest difficulty encountered in the execution of the law has 
been that which constitutes the chief impediment in all involuntary 
military systems—the enrollment of recruits. The third section of — 
the act requires the enrolling officers of the State to be used with the 
consent of the respective Governors, and it. is only on failure to 
obtain such consent that the President is authorized to employ Con- 
federate officers. 

The military systems of many of the States are fallen into such 
disuse that there are either no enrolling officers, or none that can be 
relied on. So far the experiment of using State officers has proved a 
failure, and I would suggest that permission be given to resort to 
other measures for enrolling recruits. 

This may be done either by the appointment of a certain number of 
enrolling officers for each Congressional district, or by giving each 
corps supernumerary officers to act as enrolling officers for the corps. 
The latter plan would probably give more activity and efficiency to 
enrollments than the former, as the enrolling officers would be under 
military control, and if inefficient, might be ordered back to their 
regiments and be substituted by others. 

The fourth and thirteenth sections of the act require all conscripts 
and volunteers to enter companies in existence at the passage of 
the act, thus cutting off recruits for companies mustered into service 
after that time. The object of this restriction was apparent, the new 
companies then forming were allowed thirty days to complete their 
organization, and had the advantage over companies in the field in 
recruiting. It was supposed necessary, therefore, to restore equality 
by giving the conscripts and volunteers after thirty days to the old 
companies. 

The effect will be that many fine regiments brought into service 
since the passage of the act will go down for the want of recruits. I 
think it will be well to permit conscripts to be assigned and volunteers 
to enter all companies in service. 

It is true that the number of regiments is already too great, and that 
it is impossible to keep them allup. This may have been a motive for 
restricting recruits to old regiments and permitting the others grad- 
ually to decline. But it will be better to discriminate in the reduc- 
tion of the number of regiments, and to consolidate such as become 
too weak to be recruited. The power of consolidating regiments, 
battalions, and companies is so essential that our armies cannot be 
maintained in a tolerable state of efficiency without its exercise. The 
Department has been compelled to disband corps because useless 
from loss of men or other cause, but as the law now stands this can 
only be done by discharging the entire corps and enrolling the men 
within the conscript age for service in other companies. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AD 


Two inconveniences attend this mode of proceeding: First, all the 
men over thirty-five and under eighteen are lost, even though they 
have enlisted for the war; secondly, it is doubtful whether conscripts 
ean be enrolled out of their own States, and a company, therefore, 
eannot be disbanded out of the State in which it was raised without 
losing the whole company. 

Isuggest, therefore, that whenever a corps becomes so much reduced 
as to be unfit for service, and there is no reasonable expectation of 
recruiting it, the President be authorized to disband it, to put the 
officers out of commission and to transfer the non-commissioned officers 
and privates to other corps from the same State. It may be objected 
that this violates the contract of enlistment, which is for service in 
the company selected by the volunteer, and thus the Government in 
accepting the volunteer impliedly engages to keep him in the com- 
pany of his choice. I think that the engagement of the Government 
is fulfilled by retaining the volunteer in his company so long as it is 
fit for service, but that there is no implied promise to discharge him 
when his company can be no longer preserved. Such a promise would 
be a premium to inefficiency. A company anxious to leave the sery- 
ice would secure its object by rendering itself unfit to remain. 

I also further recommend that power be given to enroll conscripts 
wherever they may be found. Military service is a debt due to the 
Confederacy, and the power of exacting it should not depend on the 
accident of place. Conscription may be altogether avoided by large 
numbers of men, if merely crossing a line exonerates them from it. 
The practice of employing substitutes at pleasure, supposed to be 
authorized by the ninth section of the conscript act, has led to great 
abuses. The procuration of substitutes has become a regular busi- 
ness. Men thus obtained are usually unfit for service and frequently 
desert. The Department has restricted the practice by prohibiting 
the reception of unnaturalized foreigners as substitutes, but the 
evils of the system are still very great, and further restrictions are 
necessary. 

It would be well to authorize substitution only where the services of 
the principal are equally useful to the public, at home as in the field. 
Such is the case with experts in trades necessary for the prosecution of 
the war, with overseers in districts of country having few whites and 
large numbers of slaves, and generally in such callings as are essen- 
tial to the public welfare. It is unwise to injure the public service 
for the benefit of individuals, and therefore no substitution founded 
merely on considerations of private interest should be tolerated. 

In this connection I desire to call attention to what seems to be an 
omission in the exemption act. Millers, tanners, and salt-makers are 
essential to the prosecution of the war. Without them armies can 
neither be subsisted nor properly clad. They are equally essential to 
the community at large, and the restriction of such callings to per- 
sons under eighteen and over thirty-five years of age inflicts injury 
upon the Army and upon the people. I recommend, therefore, that 
they be included in the exemption act. 

The greatest defect in our present system is to be found in the rule 
of promotion established by the tenth section of the conscript act, 
and by the acts of the Provisional Congress, approved December 11, 
1861, and January 22, 1862. They require promotion to be by senior- 
ity. To this rule no valid objection could be made if provision were 
made for exceptional cases in which it becomes impracticable. In 
long-established armies seniority implies experience, and the rule is 


46 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


applied to individuals who, by previous examination or other test, 
have been found qualified for their position. In our armies there is 
little or no difference in the experience of our officers, and no test is 
applied to ascertain their moral or intellectual fitness for a commission. 

As the act provides that commissions shall be granted by the Presi- 
dent, it was supposed that this was intended as a safeguard against 
the admission of unqualified persons to important public trusts. 

Accordingly, by General Orders, No. 39, a copy of which is herewith 
returned,* boards of inquiry were directed to be summoned in all 
cases of promotion or election where the fitness of the claimant was 
doubtful. This, however, only keeps out unfit persons, but makes 
no provision for filling vacancies in case there be no unfit person in 
the corps, or in case all entitled to promotion decline it. Such cases 
occur and they contribute an element of disorganization and ineffi- 
ciency in the Army. 

I earnestly recommend, therefore, that in all cases where election 
or promotion by seniority fails to fill a vacancy with a qualified offi- 
cer, such vacancy may be filled by appointment. It may be objected 
that this increases Executive patronage, and by the intervention of 
examining boards that promotion by seniority and by election may 
be cut off. If the increase of Executive patronage be necessary to 
remove a great evil, its possible abuse is a poor argument against 
such increase. It is unwise to prefer certain evils to contingent 
abuses. Practically it has been found difficult to get the examining 
boards to be rigid enough; they are too apt, from indolence or good 
nature, to scrutinize slightly the qualifications of brother officers, and 
would prove to be very unfit instruments for Executive usurpation. 

In this connection another serious difficulty in filling vacancies will 
be mentioned. It is generally supposed that the rule preseribed in 
the tenth section of the conscript act applies only to corps organized 
under that act; that the rule prescribed in the act approved Decem- 
ber 11, 1861, applies only to reorganizations of re-enlisted corps, very 
few of which reorganizations actually took place, and that the act 
approved January 22, 1862, applies only to troops raised under an act 
approved May 8, 1861. But troops were authorized to be raised by 
acts approved May 11, 1861, and August 8, 1861, and questions arise 
as to what act troops come under, and what rule of promotion is pro- 
vided for corps which come in under the act last mentioned. It is 
said that troops mustered directly into the C. 8. service receive their 
laws of promotion from Congress, and that those raised by the Goy- 
ernors of States, under requisition on them by the President, are 
governed by the laws of their respective States. It is maintained that 
the latter class are militia, and that under the Constitution Congress 
cannot provide for filling vacancies occurring in the militia. 

Great confusion, uncertainty, and inequality result from this state 
of things, and it is very important that a uniform rule should be 
applied to all. I know of no better rule than that already adopted, 
providing the power of appointment be given as recommended, and — 
there be no constitutional impediments to its general application. A 
difficulty arises from the act authorizing the appointment of general 
officers, which should be removed. The sixth section of the act 
approved March 6, 1861, authorizes the President to organize brigades 
and divisions and to appoint commanding officers for them, who are 
to hold office only while such brigades and divisions are in service. | 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 1128. 


CONFEDERATE. AUTHORITIES. AT 


If the casualties of service destroy a brigade or a division the com- 
mission of the general expires, and if separated from his command by 
ill-health, wounds, or detached service, it is left without a head, there 
being no authority to appoint a successor without vacating the com- 
mission of the first appointee. 

The Army, moreover, requires the service of generals not attached to 
brigades and divisions. There are ertain duties which can be better 
performed by general officers than by officers of lower grade, but the 
merit requisite for the discharge of these duties secures promotion in 
the line, and officers of the line are therefore unwilling to surrender 
_their positions for staff appointments. Brigades and divisions are 
sometimes temporarily deprived of their commanders by the casual- 
. ties of service, and it is desirable to assign general officers to such 
commands. It will be well, therefore, to increase the number of gen- 
eral officers to a definite excess above the whole number, not exceed- 
ing 8 or 10 per cent., for the purposes above mentioned. 

Congress at its last session authorized the appointment of eighty 
artillery officers for ordnance duties, the addition of fifty engineers 
to the Provisional Corps, and the organization of a Signal Corps, and 
a Niter Corps. | 

All of these acts have been carried into execution. Eighty artil- 
lery officers for ordnance duty have been appointed and their duties 
prescribed and systematized. General Orders, Nos. 24* and 46}, here- 
with returned, require that every army corps shall have an ordnance 
officer with the rank of major, every division one with the rank of 
captain, every brigade one with the rank of first lieutenant, and every 
regiment an ordnance-sergeant. These form a corps under the Chief 
of Ordnance at Richmond, to whom they are required to report. 
Their services are important for the proper distribution and preser- 
vation of arms. Ordnance officers are also required for arsenals. 
For the proper discharge of ordnance duties at arsenals and in the 
field it will require a corps of at least 150. 

I recommend, therefore, that application be made for the enlarge- 
ment of the corps to that number, and that a limited number be 
authorized with the grade of major for service with army corps. 

Most of the additional engineers have been appointed and the corps 
has done good service. The present law permits no higher grade 
than that of captain, while the other corps of the Provisional Army 
are organized in conformity with corresponding corps in the C. 8. 
Army. This discrimination is unjust and impolitic. If men of tal- 
ent and acquirement are needed in this. corps, promotion should be 
offered equal to that attainable in other branches of the service. 

Engineering talent is of a higher order of endowment, and should 
- be stimulated by proper rewards. I recommend, therefore, that the 
grade of the Provisional Engineer Corps should be made to conform 
to those of the same corps in the C. 8. Army. 

A Signal Corps has been organized by General Orders, No. 40, a 
copy of which is herewith returned.{ For the purpose of systematic 
instruction a confidential pamphlet has been prepared by a member 
of the corps and printed with due precautions to avoid publicity. 
Should it, however, fall into the enemy’s hands no great harm would 
be done, as it contains the principles of the art merely, and does not 
disclose the key to any signal or cipher. 


*See Vol. I this series, p. 1065. + See July 1, p. 1. 
t{See Vol. I, this series, p. 1131. 


48 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


A Niter Bureau has also been organized, and under its able and 
indefatigable head, Maj. I. M. St. John, is doing good service. Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 41, herewith communicated, was issued to facilitate 
the operations of the Bureau.* The production of niter is already 
1,000 pounds a day, and there is good reason to think that it will 
reach 3,000 pounds a day and supply our consumption. 

A map of a reconnaissance and Major St. John’s report are herewith 
returned.+ The Bureau has been directed to turn its attention to the 
mining of such materials as are required for the Army, and will do 
much to develop their production. 

The act authorizing bands of partisan rangers has been carried 
into execution. Apprehending that the novelty of the organization, 
and the supposed freedom from control, would attract great numbers 
in the partisan corps, the Department adopted a rule requiring a 
recommendation from a general commanding a department before 
granting authority to raise partisans. Notwithstanding this restric- 
tion, there is reason to fear that the number of partisan corps greatly 
exceed the requirements of the service, and that they seriously impede 
recruiting for regiments of the line. 

The precaution has been taken to require their organization to con- 
form in all respects to that of other troops, and it will be only neces- 
sary to brigade such of them as are not needed for partisan service 
to make them in fact troops of the line, although nominally partisans. 
I recommend that this be authorized. 

Since the adjournment of Congress our stock of arms has been 
largely increased by importation and capture. Oursmall-arms alone 
have increased from these sources not less than 80,000. Our supply 
of ammunition has also been increased by importation and manufac- 
ture, and, as already stated, we may expect at no distant day that the 
active and methodical operations of the Niter Corps will supply our 
demand and make us independent of foreign importation. 

I deem it unnecessary to say anything of the operations of the 
Army since the adjournment of Congress. The time has not arrived 
for their complete disclosure, but enough has appeared to show the 
ability of our generals and the courage and patience of our troops. 

It is to be regretted that we cannot reward such services as the 
Army has rendered. They are infinitely above all compensation, but 
something may be done to show our appreciation of them. Courage 
and skill cannot always command promotion. Happily for us they 
far exceed our means of reward, if confined to mere material benefits. 
It would, however, be doing our high-toned soldiers great injustice to 
suppose that rank and pay are their only incentives to exertion. I 
think that medals conferred as rewards for good conduct in the field 
cultivate the spirit which distinguishes the patriot soldier from the 
mercenary, and afford means of reward without injuring the Army by 
excessive promotion. 

I recommend, therefore, that application be made for authority to 
confer medals upon such officers and men as distinguish themselves 
in battle. 

A right to control the operations of our railroads to some extent is 
necessary to insure quick and safe transportation and to maintain the 
roads in a proper state of efficiency. The regular transportation of 
the roads is so much deranged by the movements of troops and muni- 
tions of war that a common head during the war is indispensable. I 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 1139. + For report see p. 26. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 49 


recommend that application be made for authority to exercise such 
control as may be necessary to harmonize the operations of the roads 
and to maintain their efficiency, and to appoint a superintendent who 
Shall be charged with the supervision of railroad transportation. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


as 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, Fla., August 12, 1862. 
TO THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA: 


FELLOW-CITIZENS: The highest number of votes cast at any election 
in the State was 12,988. In response to requisitions made for troops 
a sufficient number who were liable to militia duty volunteered to 
form thirteen regiments to serve during the war and have been mus- 
tered into the Confederate service as regiments, battalions, or inde- 
pendent companies. 

Nearly all who held commissions as militia officers—generals, col- 
onels, captains, and lieutenants—volunteered as private soldiers. The 
consequence is there is no militia organization in the State, nor can 
the militia be reorganized agreeably to the requirements of the statutes 
in force. 

‘The inquiry has been made, ‘‘Are the few ieft in the State holding 
commissions as militia officers, and between the ages of eighteen and 
thirty-five, subject to be enrolled as conscripts?” I know no good 
reason why they should not volunteer to aid in filling up the gallant 
regiments whose ranks have been attenuated upon the battle-field or be 
placed shoulder to shoulder with such in the State as are subject to be 
made conscripts. To maintain the Confederate Government in the exist- 
ing war in support of constitutional liberty, in support of the right of 
free men to govern themselves for the protection of life, freedom, and 
property, is a sacred duty which brave and honorable men should 
cordially and proudly perform. Let no man who claims to be a 
Floridian hesitate to offer his services as a volunteer until liable to be 
made a conscript. 

By the vicissitudes of war the First Florida Regiment, which was 
honorably known at Pensacola, was reduced to a battalion, and as the 
First Florida Battalion distinguished itself in the battle at Shiloh and 
Farmington. The Second Florida Regiment in the many hard-fought 
battles near Richmond by soldierly endurance and noble daring 
immortalized itself. 

The battalion and regiment command admiration among the bravest 
of the brave and reflect honor upon the State. Their invincible valor 
is appreciated by the brave men who in regiments have since left the 
State to become their companions in arms and to compete with them 
in honorable service. 

Many of the noble soldiers who formed the battalion and regiment 
have died upon fields of battle. Gloriously and nobly they fell, vin- 
dicating with their hearts’ blood the rights of free men. The ranks 
should be filled and their organizations preserved. Who will volun- 
teer to supply the places of the noble dead upon future battle-fields ? 
It is a proud privilege. 

Let such as are willing and ready report to St. George Rogers, 
assistant adjutant-general, now in Tallahassee, and transportation 


4 R R—SERIES IV, VOL IL: 


50 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and subsistence will be furnished to enable them to join the First or 
Second Regiment. 

If in the State there should be any belonging to regiments who in 
obedience to orders have left the State, they should immediately join 
the respective regiments to which they belong. If they hesitate or 
fail to do so, it is the duty of all State officers, civil as well as mili- 
tary, and of every patriotic citizen to aid in their arrest, to be sent to 
their respective regiments. 

Fellow-citizens, it is probable as the winter shall approach, if the 
enemy shall not in the meantime be conquered, raids will be made at 
various points in this State for the destruction of our liberty, lives, 
and property. Let us be prepared to meet the enemy in defense of 
our rights, especially in defense of the women and children in the 
State. 

In the several counties throughout the State all capable of bearing 
arms under the age of eighteen and over the age of thirty-five years, 
and all between the ages who are represented in the service by sub- 
stitutes, should immediately form themselves into volunteer com- 
panies, not to consist of less than sixty-four, rank and file, in popu- 
lous counties, and not less than forty-four, rank and file, in counties 
sparsely settled; elect company officers—to each company a. captain, 
first lieutenant, and two second lieutenants—and send the election 
returns, certified, to Col. Hugh Archer, adjutant and inspector gen- 
eral, at this place, whereupon commissions will be issued agreeably to 
the elections, companies formed into battalions and regiments, and 
supplied with ammunition. Each man should bring into service his 
own firearms until the State can supply better arms. 

It is possible that the act of Congress will be amended so as to 
embrace as conscripts men upward of thirty-five years old, in which 
event, doubtless, all who shall have been enrolled and organized as 
herein recommended will be retained in the State for local defense, 
although they may and should be mustered into the Confederate 
service. 

Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA, 
Camp Narrows, August 13, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I am informed that under the recent proclamation of Governor 
Letcher the officers encolling for General Floyd claim all the men in 
this department between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five. On 
the passage of the conscript act the quartermasters and commissaries 
were compelled to employ agents for their department over thirty-five, 
and the niter caves have also been to a considerable extent worked by 
the same class. If these men are now enrolled in General Floyd’s 
command the quartermaster’s department and the caves will be alike 
swept of employés. Under these circumstances I have the honor to 
request that you will issue some order which may arrest the progress 
of enrollment. Pending your action I have directed that such pro- 
ceedings be stopped. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
rae UN ayy) UORING. 
Major-General, Commanding. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 51 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 57. } Richmond, August 14, 1862. \ 


I. The transportation by railroad of cavalry and artillery horses, 
unless orders be given in each case permitting such transportation, is 
hereby prohibited. 

II. Hereafter all soldiers under eighteen and over thirty-five years 
of age will be discharged at the expiration of the term for which they 
have engaged to serve. 

Ill. The words “either directly or,” first line General Orders, No. 
00, will be omitted. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


—— 


GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 58. Richmond, August 14, 1862. 


I. The following rules in relation to the examination of conscripts 
are published for the guidance of the enrolling and medical examin- 
ing officers: | 

1. At each camp of instruction and at such military stations and 
other points as may be designated, an experienced army surgeon 
from a different section of the country will be detailed to examine 
conscripts. 

2. All conscripts capable of bearing arms will be received. 

3. Conscripts not equal to all military duty may be valuable in the 
hospital, quartermaster’s, or other staff departments; and if so will 
be received. 

4. Blindness, excessive deafness, and permanent lameness, or great 
deformity, are obvious reasons for exemptions. 

5. Confirmed consumption, large incurable ulcers, and chronic 
contagious diseases of the skin are causes for exemption. 

6. Single reducible hernia, the loss of an eye or of several fingers 
will not incapacitate the subject for the performance of military duty. 

7. A certificate of disability of a conscript given by a private physi- 
cian will not be considered unless affidavit is made that the conscript 
is confined to bed or that his health and life would be endangered by 
removal to the place of enrollment. 

8. But when a conscript is incapacitated by temporary sickness he 
must present himself so soon as recovered to the enrolling officer or 
to the nearest school for conscripts. 

9. No previous discharge, certificate, or exemption from any source 
will be acknowledged, except those granted to foreigners not domi- 
ciled, and to those persons who have furnished substitutes. 

10. Medical officers of the Army are not allowed to examine con- 
scripts and give certificates unless they are regularly detailed for that 
duty. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


52 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


List of steamers which have arrived since April 27, 1862, with the date and place 
of arrival, and a statement of the arms on board of each one. 


Number 

Date. Names. Place of arrival. stand 
of arms. 
DES Fp CONO woah. 0b bean atcaee Meee ceeneek chs Charleston... .2.5:-i3.00 ¢daecee eee 3, 000 
Sd WON GBIEVIUO NG ees tccus ans ceMat ee te te ne ce Wihnington so..s:.2.¢-- 95. <p ee 6, 420 
May 24 | Kate and Cecile .....-..........2.....-. Charleston -.° £0.22. 5205. eee sare tans 5, 000 
OM NETIU OPaera tee tee: Se OEE LNA ee oem eal tae CO Jes aa nts ec ewe de ea eee 5, 010 
PUNO aee CMOMNIIS «nec oe wena Tease So rmda eee e cal, eck GO cen vis ne ge aes ss 1st e cee an 11, 600 
ICA COig. Socom ae tek Heys Se PEs Savannah 4.52220 Jc. 2. s ahs eee eee 2, 060 
2am LOG erty GTCCCO. <= sues. onus cee ess coekse Wilmington = A.n.5 0% -- sean sae 7, 000 
Vee OM PLOPAML bere Rate Comes fe cure tb aata nae te Charléston ~...-..-....:82-004 «eee 1, 280 
Ba Nashville, co voetus bees norek cosce lates Savannah: 3:20. 5. sod. © gee eee 2, 600 
Be ORO. eerste tage Senor | hs ae cose a tet Charleston... 0... .<6.o. asset eee 140 
WANG 7 AS Th MUBOVATU En ge po oe Secs Sas coe hls cece Soaked ees GO sac ced Sec os ec east ek eee en 4, 000 
OSS ie cise ue wins ain s cipis an > ea sack Ded dave sun Banee seen e ae ae 500 
PAT seo seats dein seg emaiass s ewes star sts oe ty ck ae aleitieaiee cmc s acta ene 500 
otal. Jicenc aud << se esangud sep ibe «plas cope iide'e se aeee cee ete ane 48, 510 

J. GORGAS, 
Colonel. 


[AuGusT 16, 1862.] 


RICHMOND, August 18, 1862. 


TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFED- 
ERATE STATES: ° 


It is again our fortune to meet for devising measures necessary to 
the public welfare whilst our country is involved in a desolating war. 
The sufferings endured by some portions of the people excite the deep 
solicitude of the Government, and the sympathy thus evoked has 
been heightened by the patriotic devotion with which these sufferings 
have been borne. The gallantry and good conduct of our troops, 
always claiming the gratitude of the country, have been further illus- 
trated on hard-fought fields, marked by exhibitions of individual 
prowess which can find but few parallels in ancient or modern history. 
Our Army has not faltered in any of the various trials to which it has 
been subjected, and the great body of the people has continued to 
manifest a zealand unanimity which not only cheer the battle-stained 
soldier, but gives assurance to the friends of constitutional liberty of 
our final triumph in the pending struggle against despotic usurpation. 

The vast army which threatened the capital of the Confederacy 
has been defeated and driven from the lines of investment, and the 
enemy, repeatedly foiled in his efforts for its capture, is now seeking 
to raise new armies on a scale such as modern history does not record, 
to effect that subjugation of the South so often proclaimed as on the 
eve of accomplishment. 

The perfidy which disregarded rights secured by compact, the mad- 
ness which trampled on obligations made sacred by every considera- 
tion of honor, have been intensified by the malignity engendered by 
defeat. ‘These passions have changed the character of the hostilities 
waged by our enemies, who are becoming daily less regardful of the 
usages of civilized war and the dictates of humanity. Rapine and 
wanton destruction of private property, war upon non-combatants, 
murder of captives, bloody threats to avenge the death of an invading 
soldiery by the slaughter of unarmed citizens, orders of banishment 
against peaceful farmers engaged in the cultivation of the soil, are 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. — 53 


some of the means used by our ruthless invaders to enforce the sub- 
mission of a free people to foreign sway. Confiscation bills of a 
character so atrocious as to insure, if executed, the utter ruin of the 
entire population of these States, are passed by their Congress and 
approved by their Executive. The moneyed obligations of the Con- 
federate Government are forged by citizens of the United States, and 
publicly advertised for sale in their cities with a notoriety that suf- 
ficiently attests the knowledge of their Government, and its complicity 
in the crime is further evinced by the fact that the soldiers of the 
invading armies are found supplied with large quantities of these 
forged notes as a means of despoiling the country people, by fraud, 
out of such portions of their property as armed violence may fail to 
reach. ‘Two at least of the generals of the United States are engaged, 
unchecked by their Government, in exciting servile insurrection, and 
in arming and training slaves for warfare against their masters, citi- 
zens of the Confederacy. Another has been found of instinets so 
brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against the women of a 
captured city. Yet the rebuke of civilized man has failed to evoke 
from the authorities of the United States one mark of disapprobation 
of his acts, nor is there any reason to suppose that the conduct of 
Benjamin F. Butler has failed to secure from his Government the 
sanction and applause with which it is known to have been greeted by 
public meetings and portions of the press of the United States. To 
inquiries made of the commander-in-chief of the armies of the 
United States whether the atrocious conduct of some of their military 
commanders met the sanction of that Government, answer has been 
evaded on the pretext that the inquiry was insulting, and no method 
remains for the repression of these enormities but such retributive 
justice as it may be found possible to execute. Retaliation for many 
of them in kind is impracticable, for I have had occasion to remark 
in a former message that under no excess of provocation could our 
noble-hearted defenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed 
men, On women, or on children. But stern and exemplary punish- 
ment can and must be meted out to the murderers and felons who, dis- 
gracing the profession of arms, seek to make of public war the occasion 
for the commission of the most monstrous crimes. Deeply as we may 
regret the character of the contest into which we are about to be 
forced, we must accept it as an alternative which recent manifesta- 
' tions give us little hope can be avoided. The exasperation of failure 
has aroused the worst passions of our enemies. A large portion of 
their people, even of their clergymen, now engage in urging an 
excited populace to the extreme of ferocity, and nothing remains 
but to vindicate our rights and to maintain our existence by employing 
against our foe every energy and every resource at our disposal. 

I append for your information a copy of the papers exhibiting the 
action of the Government up to the present time for the repression of 
the outrages committed on our people.* Other measures now in 
progress will be submitted hereafter. 

In inviting your attention to the legislation which the necessities of 
our condition require, those connected with the prosecution of the war 
command almost undivided attention. The acts passed at your last 
session intended to secure the public defense by general enrollment, 


*See Lee to General Commanding U.S. Army, August 2, 1862; General Orders, 
No. 54, August 1, 1862; Randolph to Lee, June 29, 1862; Lee to General Command- 
ing U.S. Army, August 2, 1862; Halleck to Lee, August 7, 1862; Halleck to Lee, 
August 9, 1862; all in Series II, Vol. IV, pp. 329, 836, 792, 328, 350, 362, respectively. 


54 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and to render uniform the rules governing troops in the service, have 
led to some unexpected criticism that is much to be regretted. The 
efficiency of the law has been thus somewhat impaired, though it is not 
believed that in any of the States the popular mind has withheld its 
sanction from either the necessity or propriety of your legislation. It 
is only by harmonious as well as zealous action that a government as 
new as ours, ushered into existence on the very eve of a great 
war, and unprovided with the material for conducting hostilities 
on so vast a scale, can fulfill its duties. Upon you who are fully 
informed of the acts and purposes of the Government, and thoroughly 
imbued with the feelings and sentiments of the people, must reliance 
be placed to secure this great object. You can best devise the means 
for establishing that entire co-operation of the State and Confederate 
governments which is essential to the well-being of both at all times, 
but which is now indispensable to their very existence. And if any 
legislation shall seem to you appropriate for adjusting differences of 
opinion, it will be my pleasure as well as duty to co-operate in any 
measure that may be devised for reconciling a just care for the public 
defense with a proper deference for the most scrupulous susceptibili- 
ties of the State authorities. 

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit in detail 
the operations of that Department.* It will be seen with satisfaction 
that the credit of the Government securities remains unimpaired, and 
that this credit is fully justified by the comparatively small amount 
of accumulated debt, notwithstanding the magnitude of our military 
operations. The legislation of the last session provided for the 
purchase of supplies with the bonds of the Government, but the 
preference of the people for Treasury notes has been so marked that 
legislation is recommended to authorize an increase in the issue of 
Treasury notes, which the public service seems to require. No grave 
inconvenience need be apprehended from this increased issue, as the 
provision of law by which these notes are convertible into 8 per cent. 
bonds forms an efficient and permanent safeguard against any serious 
depreciation of the currency. Your attention is also invited to the 
means proposed by the Secretary for facilitating the preparation of 
these notes and for guarding them against forgery. It is due to our 
people to state that no.manufacture of counterfeit notes exists within 
our limits, and that they are all imported from the Northern States. 

The report of the Secretary of War, which is submitted, contains 
numerous suggestions for the legislation deemed desirable in order 
to add to the efficiency of the service.+ I invite your favorable 
consideration especially to those recommendations which are intended 
to secure the proper execution of the conscript law, and the consoli- 
dation of companies, battalions, and regiments when so reduced 
in strength as to impair that uniformity of organization which is 
necessary in the Army, while an undue burden is imposed on the 
Treasury. The necessity for some legislation for controlling military 
transportation on the railroads and improving their present defective 
condition forces itself upon the attention of the Government, and I 
trust you will be able to devise satisfactory measures for attaining 
this purpose. The legislation on the subject of general officers involves 
the service in some difficulties, which are pointed out by the Secretary, 
and for which the remedy suggested by him seems appropriate. 

In connection with this subject, I am of opinion that prudence die- 
tates some provision for the increase of the Army in the event of 


*See August 18, p. 59. +See August 12, p. 42. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 55 


emergencies not now anticipated. The very large increase of forces 
recently called into the field by the President of the United States 
may render it necessary hereafter to extend the provisions of the con- 
script law so as to embrace persons between the ages of thirty-five 
and forty-five years. The vigor and efficiency of our present forces, 
their condition, and skill and ability which distinguish their lead- 
ers inspire the belief that no further enrollment will be necessary, 
but a wise foresight requires that if a necessity should be suddenly 
developed during the recess of Congress requiring increased forces 
for our defense, means should exist for calling such forces into the 
field without awaiting the reassembling of the legislative department 
of the Government. 

In the election and appointment of officers for the Provisional 
Army it was to be anticipated that mistakes would be made and 
incompetent officers of all grades introduced into the service. In the 
absence of experience, and with no reliable guide for selection, exec- 
utive appointments as well as elections have been sometimes unfor- 
tunate. The good of the service, the interests of our country, require 
that some means be devised for withdrawing the commissions of offi- 
cers who are incompetent for the duties required by their position, 
and I trust you will find means for relieving the Army of such officers 
by some mode more prompt and less wounding to their sensibility 
than the judgment of a court-martial. 

Within a recent period we have effected the object so long desired 
of an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners, which is now being 
executed by delivery at the points agreed upon, and which will, it is 
hoped, speedily restore our brave and unfortunate countrymen to 
their places in the ranks of the Army, from which by the fortune of 
war they have for a time been separated. The details of this 
arrangement will be communicated to you in a special report when 
further progress has been made in their execution. 

Of other particulars concerning the operations of the War Depart- 
ment you will be informed by the Secretary in his report and the 
accompanying documents. 

The report of the Secretary of the Navy* embraces a statement of 
the operations and present condition of this branch of the public 
service, both afloat and ashore; the construction and equipment of 
armed vessels both at home and abroad; the manufacture of ordnance 
and ordnance stores; and the establishment of workshops and the 
development of our resources of coal and iron. Some legislation 
seems essential for securing crews for vessels. The difficulties now 
experienced on this point are fully stated in the Secretary’s report, 
and I invite your attention to providing aremedy. 

The report of the Postmaster-General* discloses the embarrass- 
ments which resulted in the postal service from the occupation by the 
enemy of the Mississippi River and portions of the territory of the 
different States. The measures taken by the Department for reliev- 
ing these embarrassments as far as practicable are detailed in the 
report. It is a subject of congratulation that during the ten months 
which ended on the 31st March last the expenses of the Department 
were largely decreased, whilst its revenue was augmented, as com- 
pared with a corresponding period ending on the 30th June, 1860, 
when the postal service for these States was conducted under the 
authority delegated to the United States. Sufficient time has not vet 


* Omitted. 


56 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. / 


elapsed to determine whether the measures heretofore devised by Con: 
gress will accomplish the end of bringing the expenditures of the 
Department within the limit of its own revenues by the 1st of March 
next, as required by the Constitution. 

I am happy to inform you that in spite of both blandishments and 
threats, used in profusion by the agents of the Government of the 
United States, the Indian nations within the Confederacy have 
remained firm in their loyalty and steadfast in the observance of their 
treaty engagements with this Government. Nor has their fidelity 
been shaken by the fact that, owing to the vacancies in some of the 
offices of agents and superintendents, delay has occurred in the pay- 
ments of the annuities and allowances to which they are entitled. I 
would advise some provision authorizing payments to be made by 
other officers, in the absence of those specially charged by law with 
this duty. 

We have never-ceasing cause to be grateful for the favor with which 
God has protected our infant Confederacy. And it becomes us rey- 
erently to return our thanks and humbly to ask of His bounteous- 
ness that wisdom which is needful for the performance of the high 
trusts with which we are charged. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


WAR DEPARTMENT, SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, August 18, 1862. 


In conformity with paragraph II, General Orders, No. 53, War 
Department, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, July 31, 1862, 
medical directors, chief surgeons of division, and senior surgeons of 
brigade are not to be considered a part of the personal staff of their 
commanding generals. They are general staff officers, and are to be 
required to attend to all the particular duties of their position in the 
army, division, or brigade, and any change of generals of these com- 
mands does not involvethem. Should different armies be consolidated 
under one commander, the medical directors of the armies thus 
absorbed cease to act as such. They must report to, and will be gov- 
erned by the orders of, the medical director of the commanding 
general. 

Ss. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon- General. 


STATE OF FLORIDA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, F'la., August 18, 1862. 


The Honorable Senators and Representatives of the State of Florida, 
Richmond, Va.: 


GENTLEMEN: Should the act of Congress relative to conscripts be 
amended so as to embrace persons over the age of thirty-five years 
there should be a saving clause in the act to retain in this State for local 
defense such of our citizens as shall be made subject by the amend- 
ment. 

A very large proportion of those now in the service as volunteers 
are over thirty-five years old. 

Some over that age are substitutes, and those who furnished sub- 
stitutes should be made subject to perform duty for local defense 
against invasion. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 57 


After the most diligent inquiry, I believe the number left in the 
State capable of bearing arms is insufficient, unless judiciously organ- 
ized into military bodies, to keep the slaves subject to authority. 

I am receiving information daily, and from various parts of the 
State, of an increasing disposition on the part of the slaves to go to 
the enemy, and unless we shall have a force apparently sufficient to 
prevent it, they may accomplish their purpose by violence, especially 
if any attempt shall be made by the enemy to invade the State by 
land. 

The exposed condition of the State geographically, the large number 
of slaves in it, and the immense number of our citizens absent in 
arms, under existing circumstances, are facts worthy the most serious 
consideration. Allow me tosuggest most respectfully that you should 
advocate such measures of legislation as the safety of the State may 
require without compromising the honor and dignity of the State in 
her obligations to her sister States for the maintenance of the war. 

There - is another matter to which I would invite your attention. The 
ability of the Confederate Government to command the respect and 
the recognition of European Governments and maintain the war suc- 
cessfully with the United States depends very much upon the wise 
control of cotton. 

The villainous traffic which is carried on by speculators under the 
plea of furnishing the people of the South with the prime necessities 
of life should be suppressed. 

In November last I opposed vessels leaving Apalachicola with cotton, 
but agreed, after consulting the Secretary of the Navy, to let them 
depart with turpentine. In violation of this understanding an attempt 
was made to leave the port with a shipload of cotton, which was pre- 
vented by my order to General Floyd, then in command of the forces at 
Apalachicola. The Secretary of War, the Hon. J. P. Benjamin, inter- 
posed, insisting on the right of the vessels to depart. 

Inclosed you will receive copies of the telegraphic correspondence. * 
Agreeably to the views of the Secretary of War five vessels were per- 
mitted to leave port and were captured by the enemy in transit, as 
will appear by the statement of the collector at the port. 

Since then other vessels have left our ports with cotton, some of 
which have returned with coffee, salt, and other articles of merchandise, 
which the owners or their agents have disposed of at the most exorbi- 
tant prices to the citizens of this and adjacent States. Some of the 
goods were manufactured in the United States, and over the manu- 
facturers’ stamps upon the goods the names of English manufacturers 
were stamped, which upon being removed exhibited the cunning 
device of Yankee villainy, thus confirming a suspicion which I had 
entertained and expressed, that frauds were Bere Aver under the 
pretense of loyalty to the South. 

After patient inquiries of several months the evidence obtained 
satisfied me beyond doubt that individuals residing in New York, 
Boston, Havana, and Nassau, and in some of our Southern cities, had 
formed copartnerships by which to carry on the most nefaricus and 
profitable traffic under false pretenses—partners residing at the 
South professing loyalty to the South, partners residing at the North 
expressing loyalty to the North, and partners at intermediate points 
loyalty only to circumstances. The owners or agents in Havana or 
Nassau receive merchandise sent from Northern cities, and received 


* Not found as inclosures. 


58 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


also cotton shipped from the Southern ports—the merchandise to be 
sent to the Confederate States, the cotton to the United States—and 
thus the people, North and South, were and are fleeced by speculat- 
ing traitors. By such base means our citizens have been and are 
subjected to the vilest system of extortion for the ‘‘ prime necessities 
of life;’ and not only has cotton been thus obtained by the enemy, but 
information prejudicial to our interests has been obtained, our slaves 
have been corrupted and decoyed off, and some of the more ignorant 
portions of our white population made disloyal by the influence of 
traitorous speculators. 

What would be the effect of an act of Congress prohibiting, under 
severe penalties, shipments of cotton or other products from our 
ports, and under like penalties prohibiting the introduction of mer- 
chandise from not only the United States, but all. foreign countries 
which refuse to recognize the independence of the Confederate States 
of America? Our people, by industry and enterprise, can make all 
they absolutely need. The citizens of foreign nations, anxious to 
trade with us, if prevented while our ports shall be blockaded by our 
own Government and the patriotism of our people, will have a direct 
and powerful interest in the removal of the blockade. The love of 
speculation and profit, which makes thousands anxious for the con- 
tinuance of the war, will, if all commerce shall be interdicted, make 
the lovers of traffic in the United States and Europe anxious to ter- 
minate a war the existence of which shall be ascertained to be the 
cause of cutting off all trade, legitimate or by smuggling, witl: people 
of the Confederate States. But it may be said that some commerce 
is necessary to enable us to get guns, firearms, and munitions of war. 
Have not the United States captured as many of these articles which 
were purchased by the agents of the Confederate Government as | 
have run the blockade? 

‘With the arms and munitions of war now possessed by the Con- 
federate Government, courage and daring deeds well directed will 
make us take from the enemy what we need at less expense and with 
more glory and honor than we can obtain them otherwise while our 
ports shall continue blockaded and foreign nations shall quietly sub- 
mit to the blockade. | 

It was said to be important to encourage a violation of the blockade 
to prove to foreign nations its insufficiency, and thus invite their 
opposition to it. The proof of its inefficiency has been ample, but 
without producing the desired effect. 

Foreign nations will not recognize the independence of the Con- 
federate States until commerce with the Confederate States will 
become not only desirable but necessary to their own prosperity. 

Then, and not till then, will our independence be recognized and 
suitable treaties be made to regulate our political relations and pro- 
tect our commerce with other nations. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


(To Hon. James M. Baker, Hon. A. E. Maxwell, Hon. J. B. Daw- 
kins, and Hon. R. B. Hilton, Richmond, Va.) 


P. S.—A few weeks ago cotton was taken from the South, was 
placed upon the mail steamers Columbia and Roanoke at sea, and 
sent to New York. 7 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 59 


I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy for- 
warded to the Florida delegation in Congress. 
EDW. BARNARD, 
Private Secretary to His Excellency John Milton, 
Governor of Florida. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 19, 1862. 


The SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE 
STATES: 


I herewith transmit for your information the report of the Secretary 
of the Treasury and accompanying estimates, to which reference was 
made in my message of yesterday, and invite your careful attention 
to the statements and recommendations contained in them. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[Inclosure. ] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
: Richmond, August 18, 1862. 
Hon. THOMAS 8S. BOCcOcK, 
Speaker House of Representatives, 
Confederate States of America: 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report of the condi- 
tion of this Department and of the estimates and supplies requisite 
for the support of the Government until the lst of January ensuing. 

The receipts at the Treasury up to August 1 from all the various 
sources of income are as follows: 


Me IME eee og ee eager SP ULE Oly ek tle $1, 487, 399. 96 
PP ormraiscellancons sources a.) 09 Uske dasa. seen se lout ee ack 1,974, 769. 33 
Paemerom acy ebruary 25,1861 0 3... ou. Jaud die le fn leek 15, 000, 000. 00 
Pee EAU OUSE LO EGG) yg ey wah ee os 22, 613, 346. 61 
From call deposits under act of December 24,1861_.__.___..-_____ 37, 585, 200. 00 
From Treasury notes, act March 9, 1861 _....................-_.-- 2,021, 100. 00 
Brame reasury notes, act May 16)186biw 2.422 se8es Lele ol. 17, 347, 955. 00 
rom Treasury notes, act August 19,1861 -._..-.............-...-- 167, 764, 615. 00 
Pron. Lrcasury notes, act April 17, 1861__.... 2-22... 2628 22,799, 900. 00 
Peers ADi me treasury notes 22... - 2 ee ec 846, 000. 00 
From temporary loans from banks—balance .---_.- sce WADE LS eatin rk ed 2, 625, 000. 00 
eenmnaetNanT 2 tome on eee (plenty Meet ke ale nti ees 10, 539, 910. 70 

TEASE US Bae CR? Be oes eer Oe eee ee eee Siege te teal fd oa ca 302, 555, 196. 60 

The expenditures at the same date are as follows: 

SE RTUEENE ae re ee ee $298, 376, 549. 41 
Seen UREPOPEYAS LPTOTI fee et SEA, REESE Y Bed RS | 14, 605, 777. 86 
Peer inasCollaneous? 55070. 2) lune Se OG Aw oleae 15, 766,.503. 48 

I ES ok aR a ae RS A a 328, 748, 830. 70 


The difference between this sum and the receipts, amounting to 
$26,193,634.10, is made up of the various balances on the books of 
the Treasury to the credit of disbursing officers, which are not yet 
paid. 

There are also outstanding requisitions upon the Treasury, upon 
which warrants are not yet issued, as follows: 


(else 2 tga el og ria Me ORR I a ih $18, 112, 192.15 
SeeeuMeO ODER ITICNG ott oor Fe) a es ae do et tA03 411, 936. 00 


1, Sag os leant ee ipa Oo PRP aan) pea ae nS 18, 524, 128. 15 


60 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


This sum must be added to the expenditures paid as above in order 
to exhibit the whole expenditures of the Government from its com- 
mencement to the Ist of August, and the aggregate is $347,272, 958.85; 
and for still greater accuracy it should be stated that as about 
$5,000,000 of the amount charged as expenditure has been paid for the 
redemption of deposit certificates, the aggregate above stated is sub- 
ject to that abatement when considered in the light of actual expenses. 

The Treasury notes issued to the same date are as follows: 


General currency notes of $5 and over_....------------------------ $180, 956, 985 
General currency notes under $5_..-..-. 2,-2.2. 7-42 - sso eee eee 846, 000 
Interest-bearinig: atwate’S:G5i). a0). Scud dc 224 Pe 1, 441, 200 
Interest-beaning at wate. 7130.0 8 22 oa ee 4 fe ie Re See 22, 799, 900 
AD Oller eet tar see ae an cs ere PO a ce ae ce 206, 044, 035 

To pay the balance against the Treasury as above set forth there 
must be. furtaer issue Of 225.0 a. 2s el Le oe ee 26, 193, 634 
And to pay the outstanding requisitions, as above stated __....----. 18, 524, 128 
Total... ccc ect d obese dace toed oon eee 250, 761, 797 
The issue already made of these notes amounts, as above shown, to. 1838, 244, 185 
Leaving authority to issue only. 22222... 2-0 Ue ee ee 16, 755, 865 
POtGe ee Soo oece eae ee be ee eee 200, 000, 000 


The differences between the balances now due by the Treasury, 
$44,717,762, and the above $16,755,865 is $27,961,897. 

Unless this balance ean be paid by bonds or 7.30 notes, the authority 
to issue general-currency notes must at once be extended to pay the 
same, and that authority must be extended still further to meet the 
appropriations already made by Congress and not yet paid, and also 
the further appropriations yet to be made. 

The appropriations already made by Congress and not drawn on 
August 1 amount to $164,687,389.93. | 

The estimates submitted by the various Departments of the addi- 
tional supplies required to make good deficiencies and to support the 
Government to January 1 next are as follows: 


For the War Department-.--...-- ------- be Ae ae pe $44,378, 590. 36 
For the civil list_...--.- Ce Cdn oe He ee oe See ee 386, 607.39 
ROT INGCOLIATIOOUS J o.0 i SOS ha ert ae Sana oe ae cee ee 102, 899. 38 

POUL Sen ks See te eke eae eae Teak Ti cee eer he ee ee 44, 863, 097.13 


So that the whole amount of supplies required to January 1 pre- 
sents a total of $209,550,487.06. | 

Congress must now determine the best mode of raising this sum. 

If the bonds or stock of the Government to any considerable extent 
could be sold, they would unquestionably offer the best mode of rais- 
ing the money. An examination of our funded-debt account will 
show that only a small portion ean be raised in this way. 

The whole amount of bonds and stock issued is as follows: 


8 per cent. stock and bonds-.---------- a ty Bee bee UE $41, 577, 250 
Oiper centocallcertificatessi Sse Te a. BE SORE Oe 32, 784, 400 
Els SS Ne aes Ae ses cate Et a Ui a tel a ia cea Se ee 74, 361, 650 


This statement, while in the large amount of call deposits it exhibits 
its confidence in the credit of the Government, yet in the small com- 
parative amount of bonds and stock it shows an indisposition to 
make investments in that form. We are, therefore, constrained to 
resort to Treasury notes as the only mode by which the requisite 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 61 


funds can be raised. This resource has its limits; but it is hoped 
that with a reasonable economy in making the appropriations the 
plans already set in operation will extend those limits so as to reach 
to the end of the war. 

The inherent objections which attend a Government currency are 
that it disturbs the standard of value afd enhances prices. The 
facility with which it is created is a constant temptation to excess; 
and the danger of this excess, together with the doubt of an ability 
to pay, are the chief causes which affect its credit as a currency. 

Thus far no want of confidence has been exhibited in our currency. 
It freely circulates everywhere, and the fact that the banking insti- 
tutions receive and pay out Treasury notes in their own business is 
the most certain indication that their credit is unimpaired. 

The other cause becomes active only when the total amount of cir- 
culation exceeds the usual business wants of the community. It 
operates without relation to the actual value of the circulation, so 
that even coin, if it could be kept in a country, would (if in excess) 
produce the same result. The effect is a necessary consequence of 
the relation between the whole circulating medium and the whole 
business and property of the community, and can only be modified 
by influences upon the cause. Every means, therefore, which will 
reduce the quantity of circulation becomes important, and should 
diligently be sought after. 

It was with this view that Congress adopted two measures of relief— 
one, by which any excess in the quantity of currency might at once 
be permanently withdrawn and funded in 8 per cent. bonds; the other, 
by which the same effect could be produced for a time, through inter- 
est-bearing notes and deposits on call. Both plans are working well. 
The deposits have in fact been a permanent loan at 6 per cent. The 
interest . notes, although current to a certain degree, are usually 
withdrawn from general circulation as soon as a sufficient amount of 
interest has accrued upon them to make them valuable as a temporary 
investment. It must be observed, however, that if this interest should 
remain in arrear for a long or indefinite time, these notes encounter 
a difficulty which seriously impairs their value, namely, that of an 
unproductive investment. Thus, being both unproductive and uncur- 
rent, they will not pass into general use unless the interest be paid 
annually. It will be seen that the issue of these notes already amounts 
to upward of $22,000,000. Much of it has doubtless been taken under 
the belief that the interest would be paid like other interest, and 
I have encouraged this belief by stating that I would recommend 
to Congress that the interest should be paid annually. I earnestly 
hope that Congress will approve this recommendation. The payment 
could be stamped annually on the note, without encumbering it with 
a coupon; and in this way it is believed the objects intended by the 
issue would be effected. 

I would also recommend that the notes be issued of a less denomi- 
nation than $100. The large amount of money in the hands of pri- 
vate capitalists is the fund which we must induce to be loaned for 
the uses of the Government. From the war tax returns and from 
estimates as to such States as have not yet made complete returns, 
this fund may be set down at $700,000,000, and one of the best means 
for procuring the use of part of it by the Government seems to be 
through these notes, which answer the double purpose of currency 
and investment. 

I have also to report that the acceptance of deposits on call at 6 
per cent. has operated well. It will be seen that nearly $30,000,000 


62 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have been deposited in this way; thus proving, at the same time, the 
confidence of the country in the Government and the advantages of 
the plan. 

It will also appear from the statements herewith that there have 
been issued about $846,000 of notes under $5. These notes are in 
great demand, and the issue of them may be extended to $10,000,000. 

The issue of the large amounts and various denominations of notes 
has confronted us with a difficulty which calls for the intervention of 
Congress. It requires the services of 129 clerks to perform the vari- 
ous duties involved in the issue of these notes. Of these about 72 
are employed in signing; and it will be readily seen that the chief 
security intended by the signing is thus reduced to but little practical 
value. It is difficult for any one to bear in mind the signatures of so 
many different writers; but when to this is added the changes required 
by sickness, absence, and resignations, it becomes impossible. 

These embarrassments have been increased by the efforts of our 
enemies to counterfeit the notes. Organized plans seem to be in oper- 
ation for introducing counterfeits among us by means of prisoners 
and traitors; and printed advertisements have been found, stating 
that the counterfeit notes, in any quantity, will be forwarded by mail 
from Chestnut street, in Philadelphia, to the order of any purchaser. 

Under these circumstances it will be necessary to change many of 
the plates and to make new issues. The change would be more com- 
plete by dispensing with the variety of signatures, which are attached 
to the other notes. Iam informed by the engravers that the. signa- 
tures of the register and treasurer might be engraved in fac simile 
and printed, and that by stamping an elaborate engraving in colors on 
the back of the note the security against counterfeits would be 
greater than it is at present. The expense of the issue would be 
diminished by dispensing with the numerous signing clerks, and its 
more prompt execution would be secured. In order to make this 
change the authority of Congress is necessary. The laws against 
counterfeiting, if not already sufficient, must be made to embrace these 
notes. In this connection, too, it is proper to bring to the notice of 
Congress that the penalties of the law, while they apply to any per- 
son found in possession of counterfeit blank notes, with intent to 
utter them, do not seem to embrace notes which are completely filled 
up and ready for circulation. 

The situation of the country made it advisable to remove the print- 
ing and engraving establishments from Richmond shortly after the 
last adjournment of Congress. The distance from the seat of govern- 
ment at which so delicate a business must: now be conducted involves 
the necessity of greater expense and of greater ability and higher 
character than those of ordinary clerks, in those who must superin- 
tend. J would, therefore, respectfully suggest that this Department 
be made a separate bureau, and that a chief clerk, with an appro- 
priate salary, be charged with the superintendence of its business at 
Columbia. | 

The war tax has been paid by the several States as follows: 


North Caroline 0-21 3) 5-2 see ee ke eee ye eee ae oe $1 400,000.00 
WARE coon ein nen ene ney ent ee ee ge en ah eT 2,125,000.00 
TOUS ANS oo ok eco at oe ae wee ena re near ae ree sie a ate Shs ee - 2,500,000.00 
pelthyamiee 2 fo. Se CE ee one 2s ee Br ie en 2,000,000.00 
(Georgians sol le Peulre SEE. Osh i SiR lk Seas eee ee Se eo ee 126.12 
Pipes aan gee ee see Senate a Se oe ee ee 225,374.11 
Mississippi -.------------- Sphinn deke as ee nee eee a 1,484,467.67 


LW aC N bs mA ean rye aay eee ec = ieee a A 10,168,967.90 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 63 


The State of Georgia has substantially paid in the balance due by 
her, and the State of South Carolina has paid the whole amount due 
by her into the Treasury, in the form of 6 per cent. call certificates. 
But as the final settlement has not yet taken place, the certificates 
have not as yet been delivered up and the account is not yet closed. 
The returns from the States of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, and Texas have not yet been rendered in complete. The 
two former States have, nevertheless, paid their taxes in advance. 

From the documents furnished it appears that the States of North 
Carolina and Alabama have overpaid their respective assessments, 
and I will ask leave to submit an estimate of the amounts to be 
refunded them as soon as the complete returns shall be received. 

The collection of the war tax has presented several difficulties, 
which it is proper that Congress should have in view whenever a 
further tax shall be levied. These difficulties are presented together 
in a report from the chief clerk of the War-Tax Office, a copy of which 
is herewith respectfully submitted. It is also proper to state that by 
a judgment of the district judge of South Carolina money invested in 
State bonds has been excepted from the wartax. Anappeal has been 
ordered from this judgment, but as no supreme court has yet been 
organized, the effect of the judgment will be to release from any 
future tax all moneys invested in this form in South Carolina, or in 
any other State wherein the district judge may hold the same opinion. 

Since the last meeting of Congress I have appointed three new 
' places of deposit for public moneys—one at Galveston, Tex., one at 
Knoxville, Tenn., and one at Augusta, Ga. 

The assistant treasurer at New Orleans has removed his office for 
the time to Jackson, Miss., and the depositary at Mobile has made a 
temporary removal to Montgomery, Ala. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WAR-TAX OFFICE, 
August 1, 1862. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury: 


SIR: Believing that the continuance of the war and the exigencies 
of the country arising therefrom will impose upon Congress the duty 
of providing for another war tax, I feel it my duty to present for 
your consideration some of the views I entertain, which result from 
my observation of the operations of the act of 19th of August, 1861, 
and to suggest certain amendments which I think should be adopted 
in the construction of any statute that Congress may enact on this 
subject. j | 

It is not intended to dictate to you what you should recommend 
Congress to do in the premises, but merely to lay my suggestions 
before you, so that, if you perceive any merit in them, you may adopt 
such as are approved, and present them at the proper time for the 
consideration and action of Congress. 

The returns, so far as received from four States, exhibit an ine- 
quality in the valuation of certain species of property, which is unjust 
in its effects upon a large portion of tax-payers, and which, in any 
future legislation, I think, should not exist. For instance, in the 


64 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


State of Virginia the average value of slaves, according to the war- 
tax assessments, is $350.64, while the average in some counties goes 
up to $400, and in others falls below $300. The citizens of the latter 
counties contribute to the general fund for war purposes one-fourth 
less than those of the former. Such inequality is unjust and bears 
heavily on that class of citizens who are most willing to bear the 
burden of taxation, and who consequently place upon their property 
a liberal valuation. Besides, it is calculated to produce murmurings 
and discontent among the people. 

In view of these facts it seems to me that a uniform rule of valua- 
tion for slave property in each State should be incorporated in any 
future tax law that may be passed, so that those slaves of like age and 
sex should have a uniform valuation fixed by the act itself throughout 
the whole State. 

It would be difficult to adjust any uniform seale of classification for 
real estate, which is affected by so many contingencies and incidents 
arising from position with reference to marts of trade and commerce, 
navigable waters, railroads, &c., but with slaves it is different. Those 
of like age and sex usually maintain the same price within the limits 
of the same State. In connection with this subject I beg leave to 
make a quotation from the report of Joseph D. Pope, esq., chief col- 
lector of war tax for the State of South Carolina. He says: 

Those persons appointed by the sub-collectors to make the assessment of the 
property in the State have, doubtless, endeavored to discharge the duties fairly 
and impartially, and in many instances have given great satisfaction, but in other 
instances the work has been imperfectly done. This results not so much from the 
fault of the assessors as from the difference of opinion that will exist as to the 
value of property by two persons in the same community. 

It is respectfully submitted that by putting a valuation upon slaves by law, 
according to a classification as hereinbefore referred to (that is, to fix a scale of 
value for all slaves in each State according to age, sex, and qualifications), the 
assessors may be dispensed with entirely and the expense of that part of the 
machinery saved. The sub-collector can make his appointments throughout the 
district and take the returns in the same manner as is now done by the State tax 
collectors, and he can fix the value of property quite as well as the assessor, 
and in lesstime. If a valuation be put upon slaves by law, the only class of prop- 
erty now taxed that would be likely to give rise to a difference of opinion is real 
estate, and the sub-collector’s general knowledge of all lands in his district, with 
the representations of the owner under oath, aided by the opinion of disinterested 
persons, would enable him to fix the value for taxable purposes without difficulty. 
The assessors arrive at their conclusions in the same way in taking the present 


returns. Large towns and cities may be made an exception, and for them an 
assessor or assessors may be appointed if necessary. 


In addition to these views of Mr. Pope it may be further suggested 
that each county should constitute a tax district, except in the case 
of very large counties, which may be divided into two, and that large 
towns and cities may be managed in the same way. 

The sub-collectors’ compensation should be a certain per cent. on 
all sums under $10,000, say, and a diminished per cent. on all over 
that amount and under $20,000, and so on, regularly diminishing the 
per centum as the amount increases, so as to make it to his interest 
to collect the last cent due. It may be objected to the proposition to 
dispense with assessors that there would be no tribunal to determine 
appeals from assessments and applications for a reduction of double 
tax. This tribunal might be supplied by the appointment of a com- 
missioner for each district from one of the magistrates of the county, 
binding him by a suitable oath and giving him the usual fees for 
trying cases. The most serious evil of the present system of assess- 
ments is the diversity of opinion among so great a number, and the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 65 


consequent inequality of valuation of the same Species of property, 
and the inequality of taxation resulting therefrom. 

The present law requires each tax-payer to deliver a written list of 
his property. In lieu of this blank printed lists should be supplied 
to each tax-payer by the person receiving the return. 

For reasons heretofore expressed in a communication to you dated 
7th of April last I would further suggest that Congress be asked to 
authorize the appointment of a disbursing agent, to be attached to 
this office, whose duty it shall be, under the supervision of the Seere- 
tary, to examine all war-tax accounts and settle the same by his 
requisition on the Treasury, and to make monthly or quarterly state-_ 
ments, as may be deemed most proper, to the First Auditor, so that 
his monthly or quarterly transactions, as the case may be, may be 
presented in one large account, accompanied by the stated accounts 
settled by him as vouchers. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

T. ALLAN, 
Chief Clerk. of War Tax. 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
kichmond, Va., August 20, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: On March 28 last I received a letter from you inclosing the 
resolution of Congress inquiring into the loss of stores of various 
kinds in the recent reverses of our armies at Forts Henry and Don- 
elson, and Fishing Creek, Roanoke Island, and in the retreat from 
Columbus, New Madrid, Bowling Green, Nashville, and the line of 
the Potomac. 

In order to give some satisfactory report of the loss of ordnance and 
ordnance stores, letters were addressed to the following officers: Gen- 
erals Leonidas Polk, A. S. Johnston, and Benjamin Huger, Lieut. Col. 
Milton A. Haynes, Maj. W. R. Hunt, Capt. E. P. Alexander, and 
Lieutenants Wright and McClung. But few of these replied; and 
herewith I have the honor to inclose a report as full as the informa- 
tion which has reached this Bureau will afford. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


[Inclosure. ] 


Estimates of losses at Forts Henry and Donelson reported by Lneut. 
Col. Milton A. Haynes.* 


AT DONELSON. 


P pounder pins. (two ship carronades) _......-...-...0--......-.... 10 
(| Tee ORS CALA nage Sah Sh ln ces, AUN lia oh aS Sl ee A Bl gk SP 1 
cit ely taf a'4 TP ae al Oe Gas | CURR ap Neale ule! MRE UP Ane CARELESS Cs Canes 1 
Re tres HOME cer IS IPI G vic  dealed tty. d) 1 
meee rom nondescript guns’... tee wows pet) Gets Pointe: chs. Sn, 2 
Five light batteries (average over six ENE 0 ee OR Dn Oe = a ee 30 

Le UEL oS appeal ees dill le Se AA A Ok eae Ye Re 50 


*See also Haynes’ report of March 22, 1862, Series I, Vol. VI, p. 146, 
5 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


* 


66 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


AT FORT HENRY. 


32-pounder guns OL. ivieadic cm SEU Lees Se ere, ee 10 
104nch columbiad 2 oo a eS ee a co ws oe 1 
$2-pounder rifle gun-(burst in action) +.!0°.-2_.-22.----</2-----=- See 1 
Field pieces (two howitzers and one rifle 3-pounder) --._. ------------------- 6 

Total® #6 Jeou nn cheeks Bek eee Se bee Jeet es 18 


General Huger reports that the only information of the supplies at 
Roanoke Island on record inthe Department of Norfolk is contained 
in a report of Colonel Shaw, commanding, to Brigadier-General Wise, 
dated January 8, of which the following is a transcript: 


The defenses on Croatan Sound consist of four batteries, mounting in the 
aggregate thirty guns, all 32-pounders, as follows: 


At Weir’s Point, ten smooth-bore and two rifled guns_._.___.-..------------- 12 
At Pork Point, six smooth-bores and one rifled gun -__.__-_----------.------. i 
At Fort Blanchard, four smooth-bores-....--_---2-.- 22222 ee 4 
At Redstone. Point, seven smooth-bores : ...-..----.-2.--_ 22. 2e 7 
Not mounted, at Weir’s Point, two 32-pounders-------..--------------------- ey 
At Midgett’s Hommock, Roanoke Sound, two smooth-bore 32-pounders__:__-- 2 

Total cock de doe ke 6 ot ee ee 34 


Of light artillery there are three pieces—one 24-pounder howitzer, one 18-pounder 
Mexican, and one 6-pounder—all mounted on carriages with limbers, but no 
caissons. 


AMMUNITION ON HAND. 


Charges for. 32-pounder guns: - 2.0... 22.2042: 2 es ee a 387 
Roand shot... 2. vi 442 eee a ei he Se 1,300 
Rifle-shelle- 2. oe. i ee ee ges « See ee re 250 
Primers 222 ie. Piles he oo 2 A ee 300 
Fixed ammunition for 24-pounder howitzers _.. .-------------=------------ 83 
Box percussion-wafers-.--.--------------- a taunene dst honk ae 1 
Porphres 2.200 a eo ie ee be pa nee ae eee 150 
Powder (pounds) -24..022.0 22.52 bee see ee ie oo a er 250 
Standol sTape v2 oo) one Se ee oe oe ee tee i : 315 
Friction-primers.i.22 2 LU Si oe Seas oe Wee 8 fa hoe ae ae 2, 000 
Percussion-primers 2.4 22... scl esedet eet ee. ee ee oe 500 
SUk-Wads coo 6: ts ee eee 7 cee eee bie re oe 150 
SEOIDIOLS 62) on be cece oe eee eee ee ane Ja (itt bias op Eee So oa ee 2 rn 400 
Qarister (A powder): (2.2 Subs obe0 9 Soc oo. a ne ee eee 98 
Spherical case-shot -. --.--- ern Cee Rhea ro deeec te Mer ee IT Pe 38 
Slo w-matches.24. 5. G0. crt ee Pe eee ae oe. eh ctledd oot eset eee 10 


AMMUNITION FOR SMALL-ARMS. 


BRall-cartridges for percussion. ---- .- bs DuR Le ae wet eee oe 52, 159 
Balt-cartridges for percussion issued: 27 20222-2228 eee) ee 16,578 
iBall-cartridces for fint-lock 2 52h fehe eee ee ee 17,188 
Sheri Ne ee hak, ke ee ar eee Ve SL dy teat ee .-- 8,820 
dead x pounds) 2-2. 50.4 on eee ae eee ee ees eet oak 150 
PECCUSMON-CADS cao unin cok ole eee ee eee Cea eine tee er 55, 000 


All this ammunition not used in the engagement was destroyed or 
captured. General Huger also reports that in addition to the above, 
supplies, consisting of 1,500 pounds of cannon-powder and 300 32-shell 
and 32-pounder shot, were afterward procured by Major Williamson 
from Richmond and the navy-yard. 

Capt. E. P. Alexander reports that the only loss sustained in the 
retreat from Manassas was 1,500 rounds of artillery ammunition, and 
this was destroyed to lighten the loads. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 67 


BRITISH CONSULATE, 
Mobile, August 20, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: I had the pleasure to address you under date of 4th instant, as 
_ per copy inclosed, to which I have not been favored with any reply. 

Having in the meantime ascertained that British subjects having no 
domicile : are not liable to conscription, I respectfully ask of you to be 
so good as to prevent the further enrollment of Her Majesty’s subjects 
not liable to conscription in this State, as well as Florida, and that 
those already enrolled may be set at liberty. 

It seems very singular that the Confederate Government should have 
one law for the States of Alabama, Florida, and eens and another 
for South Carolina and Virginia. 

Her Majesty’s consuls at Charleston and Richmond inform me that 
no British subjects, as before mentioned, are allowed to be conscripted, 
and if so, are immediately discharged. 

Soliciting your early attention to my request, 

I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 
JAMES MAGEE, 
Acting Consul. 
[Inclosure. | ; 
BRITISH CONSULATE, 
: Mobile, August 4, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I take the liberty of asking of you if British subjects who never 
have taken any oath of allegiance to either the Federal or Confeder- 
ate Governments are liable to be forced into the Army under the con- 
seript law? 

Your early answer will oblige, sir, your most obedient servant, 

JAMES MAGEE, 
Acting Consul. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ) ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
a 0. 194. j Richmond, August 20, 1862. 
* * * * *k *s 
coed Citizens of Maryland will not hereafter be taken as substi- 
tutes. In recruiting for the Maryland Line in this city it will be under- 
stood that neither artillery or cavalry will be received. 
* * * * * * *% 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, August 22, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States: 


Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of August 
7, inclosing copy of Secretary of War’s letter of August 5. I will 
thank you to recur a moment to that letter till I can correct a portion 
of it. Feeling a deep interest and even anxiety in the speedy and 
faithful execution of the conscript law, I cannot allow myself to be 


- 


68 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


represented as opposed or even neutral toward it. Section 3, con- 
script act, reads: 
It shall be lawful for the President, with the consent of the Governor, to employ 


State officers, and on failure to obtain such consent shall employ Confederate 
officers, &c. 


Section 2, Regulations: 


Application will be made to the Governor to employ State officers. If not 
granted, an officer of the Army will be appointed. When State officers are em- 
ployed the regulations of States will be observed, &c. 


Now, this portion of the law has not been observed as far as this 
State is concerned. No application made; no assentasked. Ido not 
allude to it to complain, but to correct the statement made about my 
course. The Secretary of War says Major Mallett and Captain McRae 
were recommended by General Holmes and General Hill. These 
recommendations are entitled to all respect, but I do not understand 
how it meets the requirements of the law which first applies to the 
Governor for the aid of State officers. In the letter of the Secretary 
of War is this paragraph: 

Major Mallett on 11th of June reported that, in conformity with instructions, 
he had applied to Governor Clark for permission to use the State officers for 


making enrollments, and he subsequently reported that Governor Clark did not 
feel himself authorized to assign these officers to him. 


This paragraph misrepresents me and the facts. It surely was 
never contemplated that I was to assign the militia and militia officers 
to a Confederate major. But I had already in advance done what 
the law required. The adjutant-general had previously, by my orders, 
enrolled the militia, and I directed him to furnish the conscript officer 
(Major M.) with a list of all the names between eighteen and thirty- 
five, and furthermore furnished Major Mallett with the inclosed order 
to the colonels of militia to assemble their regiments at his call to 
receive the conscripts and correct and amend his list. But the major 
went further, and, without authority, ordered the colonels to enroll 
them and bring them to camp, which was done. He further required 
them to go back and hunt ur the missing and runaways. The colonels 
objected to further service without orders from. me. The colonels 
have executed the law as far as it has been executed without com- 
pensation or any credit, and the Governor and his militia officers are 
represented in the reports of Major Mallett as declining the service. 
It is true it has been done very imperfectly, but all that has been done 
has been done by State officers, and neither the conscript law nor any 
other law authorized me to assign these officers to him, and I was 
surprised that instead of acknowledging the very efficient assistance 
he had received from the State authorities he should have produced 
the impression that their assistance was declined. The Secretary’s 
letter further states that ‘‘Major Mallett and Captain McRae in rais- 
ing conscripts have been more successful than any other officers. 
They are sending 400 a day.” Without again saying how much of 
this success is due our State officers, I will state the facts as given me 
. ina report by Major Mallett on the 22d instant. 

The enrolled lists of conscripts taken by State officers present more 
than 20,000 names. Major Mallett reports to me on the 22d instant: 


Qonsernpte sent from-Camp Dolmesiw) 220 {setae eee it een e ees ee 3, 050 
@ouscripts now, in, amp Holmes 9... ¥en nee ee ene a See Se oe ae 70 
Conscripis sent rom Camp Hills. 2 Oe ee aeons ee ee 854 
Gonscripts DOW WO amp TUL oe SEA eee een See eed» oe 1,092 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 69 


And coming in very slowly, so the prospect of 400 per day has 
vanished. The Secretary of War could not have been satisfied if he 
made a more thorough examination of my statements. However, 
General Martin has now a supervisory care of it, and I feel satisfied 
that he will attend to it. I felt it my duty to call attention to it in 
the first instance, and the reply misrepresented me, which renders 
this necessary, and I ask it may be laid before the Department for 
that purpose. I do not complain of the mode the Secretary has 
selected to carry out the law; trust it may prove the best, but the 
reading of the law had produced a different impression on my mind 
of the way it was to be executed, and I held myself ready to assist in 
that or any other mode. 
Jam, most respectfully, yours, 
HENRY T. CLARK. 


{Inclosure. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, ) EXECUTIVE DEPT., NORTH CAROLINA, 
ADJT. GENERAL’S OFFICE (MILITIA), 
No. 5. Raleigh, June 11, 1862. 
Commanding officers of militia will call out their respective regi- 
ments for the purpose of the enrollment of conscripts at such times 
as Maj. Peter Mallett, assistant adjutant-general, Provisional Army, 
C. §., for the State of North Carolina, may appoint. 
By order of Governor Clark: 
JOHN C. WINDER, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 61. Richmond, August 28, 1862. 

I. Hereafter all orders from this office published in the Richmond 
Enquirer will be considered by the Army as official. 

II. In connection with paragraph IV of General Orders, No. 32, from 
this office, ambulances and wagons for the transportation of regi- 
mental hospital supplies are reserved for the special use of the hos- 
pitaldepartment. While the ambulances, wagons, teams, drivers, &c., 
will be borne on the returns of the quartermasters, they will be under 
the exclusive control of the medical officers, and will not be interfered 
with by any officer, except in permanent encampments, when by diree- 
tion of the general commanding the wagons may, if necessary, be 
temporarily used for local purposes. | 

III. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 53, current series, is so 
modified as to read as follows: 

All seizures and impressments of any description of property what- 
ever belonging to the States of the Confederacy are hereby prohibited, 
and officers of the C. 8. Army are enjoined to abstain carefully from 
such seizures and impressments; and in case they are made by mistake, 
such officers are ordered to make prompt restitution. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[| AuGusT 23, 1862.—For Price to Randolph, in relation to the organ- 
ization of troops in Missouri, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 823.] . 


70 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


No. 62. Richmond, August 26, 1862. 


I. Major-General Huger, having been appointed inspector of ord- 
nance and artillery for the C. 8. Army, is authorized to inspect and 
examine into all the establishments of the Ordnance Department, — 
and the works of all contractors for this department, including all 
foundries and mines of iron, lead, copper, and niter working under 
permanent contract, and the condition and armament of all forts and 
batteries, and to give such orders and instructions as will tend to 
increase their efficiency. All commanding officers and others in 
charge of such works are required to give him all facilities and assist- 
ance in their power in the performance of his duties. Such orders and 
instructions as he may consider necessary, and as do not conflict with 
the orders of this Department, will be considered the orders of the 
War Department, and wiil be transmitted at once through the office of 
the Chief of Ordnance. Reports of inspections will be remitted to the 
War Department through the same.channels. The rules and mode 
of inspection will be, in other respects, in conformity with section II 
of the Regulations of the Ordnance Department, approved February 
1, 1862. All officers of the Quartermaster’s Department are required 
to furnish transportation to himself and his aides and assistants on 
his order. Where there are no lines of transportation he will procure 
it, and keep an account of the actual expenses, which account will be 
paid by the Quartermaster’s Department on his certificate and order. * 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, August 26, 1862. 
JAMES MAGEE, 
British Consul, Mobile, Ala.: 


I have telegraphed to Maj. W. G. Swanson as follows: 


Instruct your enrolling officers, and especially those at Mobile, not to enroll 
foreigners unless they are permanent residents of the Confederate States; and 
that the oath of the party supported by the oath of one credible witness is deemed 
by the Department sufficient proof in such cases. 


G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


MONTGOMERY, August 28, 1862. 
Maj. Gen. WILLIAM KERR, 
Comdg. Third Division, Alabama Militia, Greensborough : 


Major-General Price, in order to insure success in the offensive 
operations he is about assuming, has found it necessary to withdraw 
all of the Confederate troops employed to garrison the different posts 
in his command, leaving that duty to be performed by the militia of 
the States, respectively, within whose limits the posts are established. 
Among others, he has taken the regiment stationed at Gainesville, 
which has been guarding the public workshops and stores at that 
point, and has called upon Alabama for a sufficient military force to 
take its place and discharge this important duty. 


* For paragraph II of this order see Series II, Vol. IV, p. 864. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. VA! 


In view of the exigency of the case, the regiment referred to being 
already withdrawn, the Governor has determined to raise from your 
division 500 troops to serve for thirty days, at the expiration of which 
they will be relieved by a force of 600 raised from other divisions. 
The Governor is aware that your command is greatly reduced from 
the very liberal contribution of volunteers to the Confederate service, 
and that it has already contributed more perhaps than any other sec- 
tion of the State in furnishing State troops to the defense of Mobile. 
Movements are, however, about being made which will require a much 
larger force of State troops, and your division will be exempted from 
any future call, except under the most pressing emergencies, until all 
the other divisions have been called out. Dispatch also is necessary, 
and from its local position it is presumed that the necessary force can 
be raised from your division for the term of thirty days much sooner 
than from any other division for a longer term. 

Under these circumstances, therefore, the Governor orders that you 
will raise from your command with the utmost dispatch, by draft or 
otherwise, as you may deem proper, 500 troops, to proceed to Gaines- 
ville, reporting on arrival to the Confederate officer in command at 
that post, by whom they will be mustered into the Confederate serv- 
ice for a term not exceeding thirty days. Each man will furnish his 
own clothing and blankets for the term of service, and a serviceable 
gun, if possible, as well as such other equipments as may be needed, 
with cooked rations sufficient to last from the rendezvous to Gaines- 
ville and one day over. Transportation on railroads and steam-boats, 
if on the direct route, will be furnished. 

In raising this force the commanding general has authority, either 
by himself or by delegating it to his officers, to make details from 
regiments, battalions, companies, or parts of companies, or by draft- 
ing the quota required from all or any part of his command, regu- 
lating the exercise of this authority by a just and sound discretion 
with reference to the general or partial security of the country, and 
such other considerations as may be deemed proper in military aspect. 
As the principal object in calling upon your division is to secure at 
the earliest possible moment the presence of the required force at 
Gainesville, the Governor hopes that the utmost dispatch will be 
urged by you upon your officers in raising the force called for. 

Respectfully, &c., 
GEORGE GOLDTHWAITE. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, August 28, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: In a former communication I called your attention to the great 
number of partisan-ranger companies getting up in every section of 
our State, their inefficiency unless well officered, and the impossibility 
of getting proper officers now; the ruinous expense of mounted com- 
panies; but now, particularly, the great detriment it was working to 
the conscript law. You replied that I had overestimated the number 
of these companies, and sent me from your office a list of the battal- 
ions and companies that had been authorized. That list shows that 
you are not properly informed of the extent of this business, for it 
does not contain one-third of the companies that are advertised to be 


12 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


raised by authority of the Secretary of War, General Holmes, Gen- 
eral Hill, and General E. K. Smith, and the authority of these names 
is respected by the enrolling officers to the great detriment of. the 
conscript act, and that you underestimate it. Many of these com- 
panies are unequipped, unarmed, and have only a paper organization 
to keep them from an enrollment of conscripts; and I greatly regret 
that it cannot be made manifest to you what little service they are and 
what a great and serious damage they are doing to the conscript act, 
and through it to the whole country. They ought not to have been 
taken from the conscripts, and I trust for the sake of the country it is 
not too late to disband them and return them to the conscripts. If 
that cannot be done it would be of some service to the country and 
Save a deal of expense if they were dismounted. I understand it is 
proposed to correct the evil by organizing these independent com- 
panies into regiments. That is directly at variance with the policy of 
the conscript law, and I may say of the country, to increase the num- 
ber of skeleton regiments instead of filling up those already organized 
and well officered. The most inexperienced and indifferently quali- 
fied officers are now most likely to be chosen, and it will greatly 
increase the number of the officers, and army machinery more expen- 
sive and less effective. 

Another object I had in this matter was to ascertain from you what 
companies were properly raised, that I might have a guide for the pay- 
ment of bounty which I am authorized to pay to all legally raised com- 
panies; and to perform that duty I must know who really have the 
proper authority. I question very much whether the act authorizing 
you to accept partisan rangers can be construed to authorize the Con- 
federate authorities to raise and organize additional regiments of 
infantry and cavalry, as has been done in the case of Love, Palmer, 
Wheeler, and Ferebee, and others. I understand they are called par- 
tisan rangers, but they are in every particular newly organized regi- 
ments of cavalry, and Colonel Love of infantry, and I invite your con- 
sideration to the fact of its interference with State authorities as well 
as the policy of the conscript law, and when you set aside your Con- 
federate acts the States will certainly follow so bad an example. All 
of these companies are made of the best material in the State, but 
they are unavailable and worthless for want of officers. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
HENRY T. CLARK. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 30, 1862. 
Hons. GEORGE B. HODGE and W. B. MACHEN, 
Members of Congress from Kentucky: 

GENTLEMEN: In response to several inquiries made by you in a 
note addressed to me yesterday I have the honor to reply. You 
asked, first, ‘whether under existing laws the President has power to 
suspend the enactment of Congress in regard to the conscription in 
Kentucky, and receive volunteers from that State who have or may 
organize themselves into companies, battalions, and regiments, elect- 
ing their own officers.” My reply is that I do not think the President 
has such power, and this reply embraces a response to your second 
question also. In answer to your third question, ‘‘ whether additional 
legislation is desirable on the part of Congress to invest the Presi- 
dent with such power,” I reply that in my opinion it is desirable. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 3 


Your fourth interrogation reads, ‘‘ whether it will be in accordance 
with your views that upon obtaining possession of the State a military 
commission shall be appointed with authority to assess damages 
accrued to the loyal citizens of the Southern Confederacy and levy a 
tax to be summarily collected upon the supporters of the Federal 
Government for their reimbursement.” So soon as we obtain posses- 
sion of the State of Kentucky the provisional government of the State 
will assume its functions, and no power will remain in Congress to 
adopt special legislation in regard to citizens of Kentucky; and if the 
persons named are alien enemies they are included in -measures 
already adopted. They are subject also to such laws for the punish- 
ment of crime as may be enacted by the provisional government. I 
shall be happy to confer with you on any measures tending to relieve 

or benefit the people of Kentucky. 
Very truly and respectfully, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[AUGUST 30, 1862.—For proclamation by the Governor of Virginia, 
calling for a State force of 10,000 men, to be employed chiefly in the 
defense of Western Virginia, &c., see Series I, Vol. XII, Part III, 
p. 947. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, EXECUTIVE DEPT., 
fichmond, September 2, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I am directed by the President to forward to you for attention 
and the proper action the subjoined copies of resolutions of the House 
of Representatives of the 1st instant: 


Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to this House at as 
early a day as convenient whether the work is being prosecuted by the Govern- 
ment, or in any other way, on the railroad for connecting the Richmond and Dan- 
ville and the North Carolina railroads, for which $1,000,000 was appropriated by 
act approved February 10, 1862; and what has been accomplished, if anything, to 
the completion of the same. 

Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to communicate to the 
House of Representatives whether it be true that Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman, 
‘ the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi District, has caused all cotton 
in said district to be seized; and if so, the object for which said seizure was made. 
Also whether said commanding general refused to have substitutes received as 
soldiers in the Army of the Confederate States; also whether the said command- 
ing general has placed said military district under martial law; also whether said 
commanding general has caused to be organized into new companies and regi- 
ments the conscripts of said military district and appointed officers to command 
the same; and if said acts, or any of them, have been done by said commanding 
general, that the President be requested to communicate to this House the author- 
ity or instructions under which said commanding general has taken this action. 


Your obedient servant, 
BURTON N. HARRISON, 
Private Secretary. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
fichmond, Va., September 3, 1862. 


GOVERNOR AND EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF SOUTH CAROLINA: 


GENTLEMEN: I have received from the Adjutant-General a commu- 
nication addressed to him by Lieut. Col. J. 8. Preston, the officer 


14 - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


charged with the execution of the law for the enrollment of conscripts 
in the State of South Carolina. From this communication and its 
inclosures I learn with profound regret that it is your purpose to pro- 
mulgate an order ‘‘countervailing” that which Lieutenant-Colonel 
Preston has been instructed to issue, and thus to obstruct the due 
execution of the conscript law. The issue thus presented to the Con- 
federate Government is one which I am unable to avoid without vio- 
lation of official duty. It is of the gravest character, and I am 
unwilling to accept it without an appeal to your well-known and fully 
recognized patriotism and devotion to the common cause. I must 
confess that among the trials and difficulties of the pending contest 
for our liberties and independence none was less apprehended by me 
than that which would arise from the contemplated action of the exee- 
utive authority of South Carolina. The grounds of your action are 
not disclosed otherwise than it may be possible to gather them from 
the papers inclosed by Lieutenant-Colonel Preston. From these it 
appears that on the 19th of August it was by you ‘‘resolved that Col. 
J. 5. Preston be informed that the Governor and Council do insist 
upon the exemption granted by the State authorities of all persons 
claimed to be liable to Confederate conscription,” and that by letter 
of the same date, addressed to the same officer, you informed him, 
after setting forth his order calling certain conscripts into camp, 
‘‘that public policy requires that a countervailing order should issue 
from the State authority upon the appearance of such a one as you 
propose, and the duty the Governor and the Council owe to the sov- 
ereign power of the State will render it imperative upon them to 
do it.” 

If Ido not misapprehend the meaning of these passages, the right is 
here broadly asserted that the State of South Carolina may at her 
pleasure relieve a portion of her citizens from obedience to laws of 
the Confederate Congress, admitted to be ‘‘constitutional laws” by 
your permitting them to be executed on another portion of the 
people. The right thus asserted is, to my mind, so devoid of founda- 
tion that I hesitate in attributing to you the intention of maintaining 
it, and still entertain the hope that I may have misapprehended your 
meaning. It is so very clear that the agreement of the States, as con- 
tained in the Constitution, to delegate to Congress the power to 
declare war and raise armies would be utterly defeated by the exer- 
cise of a power on the part of the States to exempt at their pleasure 
any or all of the citizens from service in the armies of the Confeder- 
acy, that I am at a loss how to illustrate so plain a proposition. If a 
State may free her citizens at her own discretion from the burden of 
military duty, she may do the same in regard to the burden of taxation, 
or any other lawful duty, payment, or service. In other words, the 
assertion of such a right on the part of the State is tantamount to a 
denial of the right of the Confederate Government to enforce the 
exercise of the delegated power, and would render a confederacy an 
impracticable form of government. But if it be granted even that I 
am wrong in these opinions, it seems to me that the proposed action 
of your honorable body would still be without just ground. The con- 
script law acts upon individuals in the different States. If any citi- 
zen of the State of South Carolina entitled to exemption from its 
operation is wrongfully subjected to its action by the Confederate 
officers, his remedy is open to him. It is plain and easy. Let him 
apply to the judges.of the land for relief from the action of the Con- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 75 


federate officer, and if the State law be indeed valid and operative in 
his favor he will be released. 

It seems to me that the interference of the State Executive coun- 
termanding or ‘‘ countervailing” the action of the Confederate Exec- 
utive is the most exceptionable of all possible means of redress for 
the oppression of the citizen. Most assuredly it has never seemed to 
me that in any conceivable case it could be my duty to ‘‘countervail” 
or countermand the order of the Governor of a State in its action on 
individuals. The Confederate courts, as well as those of the State, 
possess ample powers for the redress of grievances, whether inflicted 
by legislation or executive usurpation, and the direct conflict of execu- 
tive authorities presents a condition of affairs so grave and is sug- 
gestive of consequences so disastrous that I am sure you cannot 
contemplate them without deep-seated alarm. Ona memorable occa- 
sion in the history of South Carolina the State authority nullified an 
act of Congress because of unconstitutionality, but on no occasion 
did any portion of her citizens ever maintain the right of that State 
to modify an order of the General Government. It does not appear 
either from the resolution of your honorable body or from the letter 
of the chief of the military department that any other action is con- 
templated at present than a published order which will deter the citi- 
zens from obeying the Confederate laws and render those under them 
liable to punishment if it should happen that your opinion of their 
rights to exemption should be held erroneous by the courts. Without 
adverting to the deplorable effect upon public opinion that must nec- 
essarily result from the publication of orders exhibiting a direct con- 
flict between the Confederate and State Executives, may I not appeal 
to your candor for the admission that the rights of the State will be 
equally vindicated and those of the conscript be secured with less 
hazard to himself by an appeal to any competent judge for relief from 
the order of the Confederate officer? Will not the writ of habeas cor- 
pus be amply effective to relieve him from personal constraint by the 
officers of the Government, if that constraint be unlawful? And ifso, 
am I not justified in the conviction that you will upon further con- 
sideration be satisfied that no public duty imposes on you the neces- 
sity of intervening at this crisis of our fortunes in a mode which must 
greatly embarrass the conduct of the war? Pardon me for one more 
suggestion. Iam informed that the exemptions claimed as valid were 
ordained by your convention solely with reference to your State mili- 
tia; that the ordinance was passed before the passage of the conscript 
law, and without any reference to that law, and that by its terms 
it has no relation to the armies of the Confederacy. Ihave no copy 
of the ordinance and am not aware of its terms, but if my information 
is correct it seems to furnish an additional and persuasive reason 
which may lead you to the conclusion that, in view of the early meet- 
ing of your convention, you may well forbear the action indicated in 
your letter, and which, in my judgment, is greatly to be deprecated. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[SEPTEMBER 3, 1862.—For Lee to Randolph, informing him of the 
many conscripts obtainable in the counties of Virginia recently 
vacated by the enemy, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XIX, Part I, p. 589. | 


{oie CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 63. Richmond, September 4, 1862. 


All general staff officers who hold appointments as such in the C. 5. 
Army, and who have received, or may hereafter receive, appointments 
of higher grade in the line of the Provisional Army of the Confederate 
States, will immediately signify to this office their preference for one 
or other of these appointments, as both cannot be held by the same 
officer. 

By order : 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[SEPTEMBER 5, 1862.—For General Bragg’s orders in relation to the 
enforcement of the conscription law in Tennessee, see Series I, Vol. 
Av Part It, p. 797. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 6, 1562. 


JAMES D. ARMSTRONG, Esq., 
Senate of Virgina: 

Str: I have submitted your letter of the 1st instant to the President, 
and am instructed to say that he will be happy to accede to the wish 
of the General Assembly to transfer the State forces, under General 
Floyd, to the service of the Confederate States, so far as he can do so 
with a due regard to law. 

The conscript act prevents the formation of new corps from persons 
liable to military service, and the act authorizing the reception of 
troops in the service of any State applied only to regiments existing 
at the time of its passage. Under another act, however, the forces 
may be received as regiments and afterward organized into a brigade. 
The act of the General Assembly authorizing the formation of the 
forces, requiring the exclusion of persons liable to conscription, it 
is presumed that no such persons have been intentionally received. 

The staff of the regiments should conform to that of the Provisional 
Army, and will be recommissioned. 

A brigade will be organized and a brigadier appointed, whose com- 
mission will date from his appointment. 

The companies should have a minimum number of sixty-four pri- 
vates, exclusive of persons liable to conscription, if any such persons 
should be found in them. 

This fact will be ascertained in mustering the troops into the Con- 
federate service, and any person who has misrepresented his age and 
enlisted in violation of both the State and Confederate laws will be 
enrolled as a conscript. 

The arms and accouterments will be taken at a valuation made by 
State and Confederate officers. 

The term of enlistment will continue as provided by the act of 
Assembly. 

Very respectfully, &c., 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. de 


OFFICE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE, 
Richmond, September 8, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President, &e.: 


Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith a resolution which 
passed the Senate this day. 
JAMES H. NASH, 
Secretary. 
[Inclosure. ] 


Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to the Senate, if not 
incompatible with the public interest, the number of troops each State has fur- 
nished to the Confederate Army since the commencement of the war. 


OFFICE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE, 
Richmond, September 8, 1862. 


I hereby certify that the above resolution passed the Senate this day. 
JAMES H. NASH, 


Secretary. 
[Indorsement. ] 


Sopy for Secretary of War. 
J2'D: 


ee er 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
fichmond, September 8, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, ; 
President Confederate States of America: 


SiR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of 
the Senate requesting you to inform them by what authority persons 
enrolled for military service under the conscript act are assembled 
and detained in camps of instruction before being ordered into actual 
service. 

It was supposed to be the intention of Congress to authorize what 
was indispensable to the efficient execution of the law. Conscripts 
could not be taken individually from their homes to the Army, 
and hence places of rendezvous were necessary. Those at the ren- 
dezvous could be well employed while waiting the arrival of their 
comrades in receiving military instruction, and thus the places of 
rendezvous became camps of instruction, and drill-masters, being 
authorized by law, were duly appointed. 

It was not supposed that Congress wished untaught men to be sent 
to the Army if opportunity were allowed to instruct them. The assem- 
bling of the conscripts rendered them liable to contract the contagious 
diseases, such as measles and mumps, usually known as camp dis- 
eases, and every consideration of policy and humanity forbade their 
being sent to the Army until sufficiently restored to endure the expo- 
sure and hardships of camp life. It was therefore considered neces- 
Sary to organize hospitals at the camps. 

Conscripts drilled and seasoned add immediately to the strength of 
the Army, while raw men [without] knowledge, unused to exposure or 
hardship and subject to disease, consume the subsistence of an army, 
crowd its hospitals, burden its transportation, and constitute an ele- 
ment of weakness. 

The advantages of preparation are so obvious that the Department 
considered camps of instruction a necessary part of our military sys- 
tem, and inasmuch as Congress had not only recognized them by 


78 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


express enactment, but provided drill-masters for them, no doubt 
could be entertained of the authority to establish such camps. 

The call for men, however, has been so importunate that the camps 
of instruction have been little more than points of rendezvous, and 
the unprepared condition of the conscripts has been felt as an evil 
and made the subject of complaint from the Army. 

It was never contemplated that conscripts should be detained a day 
after they were fit for the field, but it was hoped that they might be 
left a few weeks for preparation. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 64. i Richmond, September 8, 1862. 

I. Conscripts in the employment of the Government who leave 
their employment without authority will be arrested as deserters on 
the order of the officer under whom they are employed. Conscripts 
working for contractors will, under like cireumstances, be arrested 
as deserters by the enrolling officer of the district on complaint and 
proof by the contractor. 

II. The reception of substitutes under eighteen years of age is 
hereby prohibited. The reception of substitutes into partisan corps 
is prohibited, as is also the reception of substitutes into any company 
not fully organized and received by the Department. A substitute 
becoming liable to conscription renders his principal also liable, unless 
exempt on other grounds. 

Ill. Commissaries of subsistence in the field and at depots will 
transfer all the hides of slaughtered beeves to officers of the Quar- 
termaster’s Department, who will receive them and preserve the same 
to be tanned. 

IV. Commanders of army corps, regiments, and battalions will 
make to this office monthly returns of their respective commands on. 
the forms furnished and according to the directions expressed on 
them. Officers in charge of camps of instruction will make to this 
office on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month returns of the state 
of the recruiting service, showing the number of conscripts enrolled 
in camp at the date of last report, the number enrolled and accepted 
during the period for which report is made, the number sent forward 
to reziments, and the total remaining in camp.* 

* 6 * * 6 * 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[SEPTEMBER 8, 1862.—For Lee to Davis, stating that ‘‘ The present 
position of affairs, in my opinion, places it in the power of the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States to propose with propriety to that of 
the United States the recognition of our independence,” &c., see 
Series I, Vol. XIX, Part IJ, p. 600. | 


*For paragraph V of this order see Series II, Vol. IV, p. 872. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 79 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SURG. GEN.’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., September 8, 1862. 
Surgeon PRIOLEAU, 
Savannah: 


Sir: I have to inform you that you are authorized to make arrange- 
ments as complete as possible to effectually carry out the plan ren- 
dered necessary to be inaugurated by the Medical Department of 
collecting and preparing for use the medicinal herbs, roots, and barks 
so abundant in the southern latitudes of the Confederacy, and your 
attention is called to the propriety of at once making some simple 
cathartic pills, diarrhea medicine, and other mixtures for the ordi- 
nary diseasesincamp. Doctor Park is anemployed agent and now in 
Savannah engaged in the work of gathering such herbs, &c¢., as are 
referred to above. You will please report to this Bureau as you pro- 
gress in this important work. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Ss. P. MOORE, 
' Surgeon-General OC. S. Army. 


—EEEE 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 65. Richmond, September 9, 1862. 

_ I. Each cadet in the C. 8S. service will forthwith report to the 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va., the State in which 
he was born, the county and State whence appointed, and whether 
the appointment was ‘‘at large,” or from a ‘‘ Congressional district,” 
his age at the date of his appointment in the Confederate service, 
and whether he was appointed to West Point, together with the date 
of such appointment and the date of his leaving. 

II. Promotions of company officers as such in the foveal Army 
take place in the respective companies in which the officers are serv- 
ing, and not through the line of the regiment or battalion—that is, on 
the vacancy of the captain the first Heutenant of the company will 
succeed, and the second lieutenant of the same company will be 
entitled to succeed to the vacancy created by the promotion of the 
first lieutenant. 

III. Paroled or exchanged prisoners, sick or wounded, in hospitals, 
who have not been furnished with descriptive lists will be mustered 
for payment upon the hospital rolls by surgeons in charge, upon their 
affidavit that they have not received pay for the period for which 
they claim it to be due and are not indebted to the Confederate Gov- 
ernment beyond the amount which may be stated. 

IV. All officers of the Subsistence Department will return to the 
‘commissary from whom they draw subsistence all barrels and sacks. 
If they fail to return them they will be charged 75 cents for each bar- 
rel and $1.25 for each sack 

V. The medical officers detailed by virtue of paragraph I, General 
Orders, No, 58, current series, to examine conscripts at camps of 
instruction, will forward every week, through the commanding offi- 
cers, to the Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, the names in 
full of the conscripts received who are not equal to all military duty, 
but may be valuable in the hospital, quartermaster’s, or other staff 
department, in order that they may be detailed for those branches of 
the service. The previous occupation of the conscript will be 


80 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


reported, with a recommendation for any special duty for which he 
may appear suited. 
By order: 
8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


UONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
House OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
September 10, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 

sir: I have the honor of apprising you that the House of Repre- 
sentatives this morning adopted a resolution, of which the annexed 
is a copy: 

Resolved, That the President be requested to inform the House, if not incom- 
patible with the public interests, the number and kind of arms and equipments 
issued to troops in the field and not issued; the number and kind of arms manu- 
factured per month in the Confederate States, with the average cost of such 
manufactured arms. ; 

* * * x * * cy 
R. E. DIXON, 
Clerk House of Representatiwes. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, September 10, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of the 
Senate, adopted on the 8th instant, requesting you to communicate 
to the Senate, if not incompatible with the public safety, the number 
of troops each State has furnished to the Confederate Army. 

I respectfully submit that the information cannot be furnished 
without disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of sub- 
ordinate position whose secrecy cannot be relied on. I beg leave to 
remind you of a report made in response to a similar one from the 
Federal Congress, communicated to them in. secret session, and now 
a part of our archives. While I have no reason to doubt the fidelity 
of any of the officers of the Senate or of the War Department, yet it 
may be well apprehended that some of them arc not discreet enough 
to be trusted with information which cannot be divulged with a due 
regard for the public safety. | 

With every possible desire to communicate the fullest information 
to Congress in reference to the strength, condition, and operations of — 
the Army, I feel it my duty in the present instance to suspend action 
on the resolution of the Senate until their wishes are known and your 
instructions are received. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, . 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, VA., September 11, 1862. 
The SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


The circumstances necessarily surrounding an army operating in 
presence of an enemy render it inexpedient—next to impossible—to 
assemble frequent courts-martial, and to detail for them the best 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 81 


officers of the Army. The ordinary attendant of the circumstances 
referred to is frequent offenses against military discipline and tres- 
pass upon the property of individuals inhabiting the country. 

To correct these evils it is believed to be desirable that Congress 
should give authority to institute a commission to attend each army 
in the field, to be composed of men whose character and knowledge 
of the modes of administering justice would give the best assurance 
for the punishment of crime, the protection of private rights, and the 
security of the citizens of the country occupied by the enemy. Could 
courts-martial be assembled as frequently as occasion required, their 
functions under existing laws being limited to the consideration of 
offenses defined by the Rules and Articles of War, it will be per- 
ceived that a great variety of outrages against private rights might 
be committed of which a court-martial could not directly take cogni- 
zance. Under ordinary circumstances offenders in such cases would 
be turned over to the civil courts for trial. In a foreign country, or 
where the courts cannot hold their sessions, this is impossible, and in 
the case of a marching army would, for obvious reasons, be ineffect- 
ual. The witnesses whose testimony is indispensable to conviction 
would generally follow the march of the army and be out of the reach 
- of the courts. 

The powers delegated by the Constitution ‘‘ to make rules for the 
government and regulation of the land and naval forces,” and ‘‘ to 
ordain and establish from time to time inferior courts,”? would seem 
ample to justify such legislation as is herein recommended, especially 
as the necessity for the ordinary forms of indictment and trial ‘‘for 
capital and otherwise infamous crimes” is expressly dispensable with 
by the Constitution ‘‘in cases arising in the land or naval forces or 
in the militia when in actual service in time of war.” 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Raleigh, N. C., September 11, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR Sik: I respectfully request that you will not hereafter confer 
authority on persons to enlist soldiers within the limits of this State 
unless the applicant be indorsed by this department. Allow me, like- 
wise, to express the hope that it will not be deemed by you incompat- 
ible with the interests of the service to revoke such authority hereto- 
fore granted to others than citizens of North Carolina. Permit me to 
inquire whether late enlistments of citizens of this State residing 
beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, made under the authority of Gen- 
eral E. Kirby Smith, were authorized by you. If.authorized by you I 
request that such authority may be rescinded; if not, that you will 
cause such enlistments to be discontinued. I make the above requests 
for the following reasons: Much confusion has been produced; many 
soldiers have been enlisted into the service of the Confederacy from this 
State without the State getting credit for the same as part of her 
quota of troops; the operation of the act of Congress known as the 
conscript act is much hindered, and it is rendered difficult, if not 
impossible, for the State to fill up its thinned regiments already in 
service. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
ZEBULON B. VANCE. 
6 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


82 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
Resolution in relation to the free navigation of the Mississippi Rwer. 


Resolved, That the President be and is hereby respectfully requested 
to direct such of our military commanders as may at the time be in 
command of the respective columns of our forces, as soon as they 
approach or enter the territory of the United States bordering upon 
the Mississippi River or the tr ibutaries thereof, to publish proclama- 
tions assuring the people of those States, as well as all others 
interested, of “the free navigation of the Mississippi River, according 
to the provisions of an act of the Provisional Congress entitled “AN 
act to declare and establish the free navigation of the Mississippi 
River,” approved February 25, 1861; and that said commanders cause 
to be published copies of said act with such proclamations. 

Approved September 12, 1862. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, September 12, 1862. 


The SENATE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


Under the first clause of the sixth article of the Constitution, I 
entertain doubt whether it is intended that the officers either of the 
Regular or Provisional Army or of the Navy, appointed during the 
existence of the Provisional Government and confirmed by the Con- 
gress, require to be renominated and confirmed by the Senate, and I 
respectfully request your advice on this point. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, September 12, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 
Sir: Pursuant to resolution of the House of Representatives, I have 
the honor to report the following as a list of partisan rangers that 
have been reported at this office to date: 


Number 

How organized. From what State. By whom commanded. ge 

‘ panies 

on file. 
BISt Wet ON bic cup ss% Sane. tetas ances Alabama ...-.......-- Col. J. T. Morgan 2csceeeeee 9 
ZAR JOE tee ee secre cabek sacral Mapes UO asa aw Sratars aeiatc ale Major Hundley... 2.s¢ceeeen 4 
PO altanon: bore snc te. . he dee GO ciate sk howe = Maj. C. T. Goode. Jes aneeeee 4 
POC PabbaliOn sos~ + os=.s cewsleaitacicns' tse 3 = CO atde ice ciwbes on.s Maj. Mi. Millen 222eseeeeee 2 
BGP Papen lion J... ih wale eee wei ome oe AOC asree ewe raee Lieutenant-Colonel Griffin. . 8 
TORE atl aHonn.d- paw ck Pa acs Mote. cea ples ay OG ty a arias poems Lieutenant-Colonel Nix..--.].........- 
Pate ROSIN OD Giz penne en mip = a2 ae mse So eee DO sinitiee a eins emcee Col. S. J. Smith <2) aaa 12 
BA Pe VOS IMO brie sash s ve naavsutewalcenes O's 25. 55 obec. 6 5 Col. A. A. Hunt 22. opeeeeeee 1 
PobheBattalion =. .osces sess cesta lncis South Carolina ....... Lieutenant-Colonel Aiken.. 7 
DUE aU OALIO oe. wen cswala ae etc alan Ss Louisiana......-...... reper Wing- 8 

eld. 

HStH Reg IMeN bc -0csscwc vegscnie sean wa North Carolina ....... Col. J. B. Palmer 22.2ssee eee 7 
DOGDY RGTHNONt, 19 a osd ae ss ab brete motels afe eines AGT cere geaeinaaet Colonel Ferebee...........-. 1 
2d Re GiMen GE. sae. a aeideie tote cere are Virginia <sarecemee es Colonel Imboden ........-.. 1 
PALE DAtLALION kas cesar oa Ae secre cs fe |amene dO fa vescesetee sens Maj. John Scott............. 3 
PAUME ID SULALION Js. 0h- ctaece th mae cai Sasa oats dO%easts.ateas ae Major Edmundson.......... 5 


In addition to the foregoing, the following companies have forwarded 
rolls to this office: 

Alabama.—Capt. B. J. West’s company, Capt. A. W. De Bardele- 
ben’s company, Capt. T. H. Lewis’ company. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 83 


Florida.—Capt. John Westcott’s company, Capt. J. Q. Stewart’s 
company, Capt. W. J. Robinson’s company, Capt. 8. W. Mays’ com- 
pany, Capt. P. B. Bird’s company. 

North Carolina.—Capt. T. W. Harris’ company, Capt. D. 8. Davis’ 
company, Capt. F. G. Pitt’s company, Capt. A. McIntire’s company, 
Capt. A. B. Cox’s company, Capt. J. B. McClenahan’s company, Capt. 
J. T. Mitchell’s company, Capt. J. L. Lawrence’s company. 

Mississippi.—Capt. G. E. Tola’s company, Capt. J. M. Poitevent’s 
company. 

Lowisiana.—Capt. W. B. Denson’s company. 

Virginia.—Capt. L. R. Smoot’s company. 

South Carolina.—Capt. J. H. Brooks’ company, Capt. M. J. Kirk’s 
company. 


Georgia.—Capt. E. C. Anderson’s company, Capt. W. L. Marler’s 
company. 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, &¢., 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 66. Richmond, September 12, 1862. 


J. Agreeably to paragraph I, General Orders, No. 56, current series, 
declaring that ‘‘military commanders have no authority to suspend 
the writ of habeas corpus,” all proclamations of martial law by gen- 
eral officers and others, assuming a power vested only in the Presi- 
dent, are hereby annulled. 

II. Conseripts employed at the Government workshops of the Ord- 
nance Department will not be interfered with by enrolling or other 
officers. All proceedings in reference to them will be made through 
the commanding officer of the ordnance establishments. 

Iil. All conscripts or detailed or hired workmen engaged in such 
establishments will be provided with passes, signed by the officer 
immediately in charge and countersigned by Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of 
Ordnance. i 

IV. The superintendent of the Niter and Mining Bureau, or such 
officers as he may designate, are authorized and required to impress 
for the Government any mineral mines or niter caves or deposits 
required for the wants of the service, in all cases where such mines, 
caves, or deposits are suffered to remain unworked, or which may be 
imperfectly worked by the owner or lessor. Compensation for ore, 
earth, buildings, timber, and all materials necessary for such work 
thus taken and used may be settled by private agreement or by arbi- 
tration, under the direction of the Niter and Mining Bureau. 

V. Enrolling and recruiting officers, in the discharge of their duties 
under the conscript or other acts, are enjoined not to remove or inter- 
fere with workmen or employés at the niter, lead, or copper works, or 
mines worked by Government officers, or by contractors for the Ord- 
nance Department, without first apprising and obtaining the consent 
of the superintendent or officer in charge, who will be held strictly 
responsible for any abuse or evasion of the law. 

VI. Through an error in the printed text of the Army Regula- 
tions of the Confederate States, quartermasters have allowed to 
servants issues of fuel and straw, &c. All officers of the Quarter- 
master’s Department will hereafter take notice that such allowances 


84 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


are illegal and will not be admitted in accounts passing through the 
Quartermaster-General’s Office. 
By order: . 
5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, _ 
No. 67. j Richmond, September 13, 1862. 


I. Different constructions having been placed on paragraph III, 
General Orders, No. 65, current series, it is hereby declared that it 
only applies to paroled or exchanged prisoners who are sick and 
wounded in hospitals, and who have not been furnished with deserip- 
tive lists. 

II. The Surgeon-General, the Quartermaster-General, the Commis- 
sary-General, and the Chief of Ordnance will cause an immediate 
and thorough inspection to be made in all the branches of their sev- 
eral departments, and will report to the Adjutant and Inspector 
General the number of able-bodied men of conscript age now in 
department employ whose places can be filled by conscripts accepted 
for such duty under the requirements of paragraph III, General 
Orders, No. 58, current series. 

Ill. Surgeons in charge of hospitals, assistant quartermasters, 
assistant commissaries, and ordnance officers having in their employ 
able-bodied men of conscript age, whose places can be filled by con- 
scripts enrolled under paragraph III, General Orders, No. 58, current 
series, will report the facts to the nearest enrolling officer, who will 
cause an exchange to be made, and will order the soldiers thus relieved 
from department employ to duty with their commands. 

IV. Hereafter no new details which will separate able-bodied men 
from their regiments will be made for duty in the Hospital, Quarter- 
master’s, Commissary, or Ordnance Departments. 

By order: 3 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, September 16, 1862. 
JAMES MAGEE, 
British Consul, Mobile, Ala.: 

Sir: In reply to your letter of the 20th ultimo, I have the honor to 
say that foreigners are not subject to conscription unless permanent 
residents of the Confederate States, and are invariably discharged 
when improperly enrolled. 

The necessary instructions on this point have been given to the 
enrolling officers, but mistakes will sometimes be made, and the 
Department has never yet failed to discharge a foreigner where 
the consul, after examination, reported that he was not domiciled in 
the Confederate States. 

I inclose a copy of a telegram sent to you on this subject.* 

Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, . 
Secretary of War. 


*See August 26, p. 70. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 85 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 68. Richmond, September 17, 1862. 


I. A board of officers will convene in this city to examine applicants 
* for appointments as artillery officers for ordnance duty. The Board 
will consist of Col: T. 8. Rhett, Provisional Artillery, on ordnance 
duty; Maj. 8. Stansbury, Provisional Artillery, on ordnance duty; 
Capt. Benjamin Sloan; Supt. W. Le Roy Brown. Captain Sloan will 
record the proceedings of the Board. The senior officer present will 
act as president, and will cause due notice to be given of the days and 
place of meeting of the Board, which will sit from time to time as can- 
didates may apply for examination. The requisites to pass the exam- 
ination will be: 

First. An ordinary English education. 

Second. A knowledge of arithmetic, including fractions. 

Third. A knowledge of the Field Manual prepared under the direc- 
tion of the Ordnance Bureau. 

Fourth. The Board will also examine the credentials of the appli- 
cants and take into consideration prior services tending to qualify 
them as artillery officers. 

Fifth. The Board must satisfy themselves of the moral character of 
the candidates, and especially of their habitual sobriety, and they will 
pass no one physically unfit for the duties of an ordnance officer in 
the field. | 

After such examination as the Board thinks necessary the candi- 
dates will be arranged according to a roll of merit based upon exam- 
ination and testimonials recommending them to such grade as they 
deem them qualified for, not above the grade of captain, the promo- 
tion to higher grade being dependent on vacancies in the field or at 
arsenals. 7 

Il. Paragraph III, General Orders, No. 65, current series, modified 
by paragraph I, General Orders, No. 67, is extended to embrace all 
soldiers sick in hospitals or on furlough. 

Ill. All enrolling officers are hereby expressly prohibited from 
enrolling as conscripts foreigners not domiciled in the Confederate 
States. By domicile is meant permanent residence. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[SEPTEMBER 18, 1862.—For Randolph to Mitchell, in relation to 
the receipt and disposition of arms, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XIII, p. 881. ] 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., September 18, [1862]. 
Hon. WELDON N. EDWARDS, 
Ridgeway, N. C.: 

DEAR SiR: I hear that an application has been made to you by sev- 
eral delegates to call the convention together again for the purpose of 
rectifying some omissions in the constitution. I havenot investigated 
the subject sufficiently to judge of its necessity upon that ground, but 
I beg leave to join in the eall for other reasons. Extortion and 
speculation have attained such proportions that I find on investiga- 
tion it will be impossible to clothe or shoe our troops this winter 
without incurring a most enormous outlay and submitting to most 


86 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


outrageous prices. The cotton and woolen factories have advanced 
their prices to an unheard-of extent, and refuse to make eontracts 
which would prevent them from raising next week if they saw proper. 
The price of common shirting, for example, is 50 cents per yard. It 
requires 1,000,000 yards to furnish each soldier two shirts and two 
pairs drawers, which is the winter allowance. This you will see 
amounts to $500,000 simply for underclothing. When you take in the 
shoes and clothing (coats and pants), which have advanced in the 
same ratio, the sum will be almost incredible. By calculations sub- 
mitted to me by intelligent gentlemen it appears that 25 cents per 
yard for cotton cloth will actually pay the mill owners near 300 per 
cent. 

The ery of distress comes up from the poor wives and children of 
our soldiers, also, from all parts of the State. If those prices bear so 
hard upon the Government, what will become of them when in addi- 
tion we consider the enormous rates at which provisions are selling ? 
It is a subject that distresses me beyond measure, the moreso as I feel 
powerless to remedy any of the evils. The Legislature, if convened, 
would be cramped and hampered by the forces of the constitution. 
The convention alone can properly take the matter in hand, and save 
our country and army from suffering and ruin, if, indeed, anything 
can rescue them from the ungodly and inhuman spirit of avarice 
which is rampant in the land. 

In view of these and many other suggestions which I cannot elabo- 
rate in a brief letter, but which have no doubt been apparent to you 
for months past, I feel it my duty to urge it upon you to assemble 
that body together as soon as possible, to adopt such remedies as it 
may think best for the disorders of our country. Its business might 
be easily gotten through with before the Legislature assembles, so that 
there would be no conflict between the two bodies. 

Earnestly hoping, sir, that you may concur with me in the propriety 
of this order, as I know you do in the desire to relieve, if possible, the 
burdens of our people, 

I remain, with sentiments of sincere regard, your obedient servant, 


Z. B. VANCE. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 69. Richmond, September 19, 1862. 


I. The adjutants of the regiments throughout the Army will inquire 
into and report all cases of slaves serving with their respective regi- 
ments without written authority from their masters. The names of 
such slaves and their masters will be forwarded to the office of the 
Adjutant and Inspector General, to be published in the newspapers. 

II. The prohibition of the exportation from Virginia of wheat, flour, 
bacon, and corn does not extend to seed wheat. Therefore in all cases 
where the commanding general ofthe department through which it is 
desired to export wheat shall be satisfied that it is intended for seed 
and not for consumption, he shall permit it to pass. 

* * * * * * * 


IV. Paragraph V, General Orders, No. 41, current series,* is hereby 

revoked. : 

By order: 
S. COOPER, 

Adjutant and Inspector Genera. 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 1189. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 87 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., September 19, 1862. 


Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 
11th instant, inclosing copy of a letter from Maj. W. T. Walthall 
advising your Department that actual or threatened resistance to the 
execution of the conscript act in Randolph County had been reported 
to him, and requesting my opinion as to the best mode of avoiding 
bloodshed in the execution of the law, with the offer that in case the 
State authorities could accomplish this object better than the Confed- 
erate officers your Department would furnish any force that might be 
required to act as a posse under the State officers. I would beg” leave 
to call your attention to the fact that the enrollment of persons sub- 
ject to conscription has not been committed (so far as Alabama is 
concerned) to State officers, but that this duty from the commence- 
ment has been discharged and directed solely by Confederate officers, 
and under these circumstances I question the policy of calling in 
State officers at this time merely for the purpose of enforcing it; the 
more especially as neither the Executive of this State nor any of that 
class of officers are invested with the power of enforcing other than 
its own laws. Entertaining, however, the firmest conviction as to the 
policy and necessity of a prompt, rigid, and equal execution of the 
act in every part of the State, Iam of opinion that in case there is 
reasonable grounds to believe the statements reported to Major Wal- 
thall are true, a cavalry force should at once be ordered out sufficient 
to put down resistance and arrest the ringleaders. This I have but 
little doubt could be effected without bloodshed, but the law should 
be enforced at every hazard. I shall feel it my duty to exert every 
moral influence to sustain it; will issue my proclamation and send a 
special aide-de-camp with the force that may be sent in order to incul- 
cate submission and obedience, and if possible to prevent the shed- 
ding of blood; but at the same time I deem it important that those 
who think they can oppose effectual resistance to the law should 
understand clearly and distinctly that it will be enforced. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


38 RUE DE LUXEMBOURG, PARIS, September 19, 1862. 
. Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Confederate States of America: 


srr: Mr. A. T. D. Gifford and myself, having been intrusted by 
the Ordnance, Quartermaster’s, and Surgeon-General’s Departments, 
respectively, with orders to a large amount to be purchased in Europe 
and shipped to the Confederate ptatosn I beg leave to lay before you 
the following statement: 

These orders were handed to us in the months of October and 
November, 1861. Immediately on receipt of the two last Mr. Gifford 
sailed from Savannah in the steamer Bermuda, which, successfully 
eluding the blockading squadron, arrived on the 26th of November at 
Havana, and thence directly to London. I left Richmond, Va., on 
the 9th of November for Charleston, hoping to find a steamer for 
Europe, and after several days’ delay proceeded to Savannah. At 


88 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


this last place, however, the Fingal had just forced the blockade with 
a valuable cargo, and the enemy had redoubled their squadron. I 
then determined to go to New Orleans, when, after a delay of six weeks 
and many disappointments, I took the steamer Calhoun and reached 
Havana safely, and from thence to Southampton, which last I reached 
on the 15th of February of the present year. Here I was met with 
the intelligence that my friend and associate, Mr. Gifford, had sailed 
from London on the 24th of December in a steamer fitted out with a 
valuable cargo for the Confederate States. She was owned by the 
great house of William 8. Lindsay & Co., London, into whose hands 
Mr. Gifford had placed the orders. I at once communicated with 
them, and was informed that Mr. Gifford had left Mr. Stringer, the 
active member of the firm, as his representative, which was entirely 
agreeable to me. Lindsay & Co. were then in expectation of hearing 
of the arrival-of Mr. Gifford and his cargo, and indeed had begun to 
expect his return to England. They assured me that as soon as either 
of these occurred the whole of the orders would be at once executed, 
but they and the other parties interested preferred first to be sure of 
the success of the shipment they had made. This seemed reasonable, 
and I awaited with them in anxious suspense until the month of 
April, when the conclusion was irresistible that the steamer and all 
on board was lost. They then deelined to fit out or participate in 
another shipment. I, however, succeeded in making a contract with 
Emile Gautherin, esq., a gentleman and merchant here of high stand- 
ing and credit, as was represented to me on all sides, for the prompt 
execution of the order bearing date November 3, 1861, and signed by 
Colonel Gorgas, chief of the Ordnance Bureau. This contract entered 
into by Mr. Gautherin was made in due legal form, and about a fort- 
night thereafter Mr. G. represented to me that the cargo was bought, — 
the steamer procured, and in a few days she would be ready to sail. — 
It was my purpose to have gone in her, and Mr. Slidell, who had been 
cognizant of the contract, was formally notified by Mr. Gautherin to 
make ready his dispatches. Week after week passed away, and vari- 
ous pretexts were given for the delay of the shipment, and finally I 
begun to suspect that there was an intention on the part of Mr. 
Gautherin and his associates to abandon the enterprise. They still, 
however, continued to give me the assurance that the steamer would 
be soon dispatched. 

On the Ist of September only was I enabled to force from him the 
fact that they had determined not to conform to their binding con- 
tract, although they had held the order for more than four months, 
thus cutting me off from negotiations with other parties for its fulfill- | 
ment. Thus I was baffled a second time, without fault of mine, in» 
fulfilling the orders intrusted to me. It is, however, possible that I 
may yet effect something, in which case I shall rely upon the equity 
of the Department to accept the shipments and not hold me to the 
limitation of time stipulated in the orders. I have deemed it due 
alike to the Department and myself to make this statement of facts, 
and would ask leave to accompany it with some views which I think 
will commend themselves to your judgment. 

The great difficulty in negotiating orders of this nature is and has 
been that the risk is all thrown upon the shipper, and that the rate 
of insurance to cover this risk has been and will continue to be, so 
long as the Southern ports are blockaded, and so long as England 
tamely submits to the outrages committed upon her commerce and 
flag in and near her ports of Bermuda and Nassau by the U. S. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 89 


Squadron, too enormous successfully to invite capitalists to enter into 
any such enterprises, even at the most liberally stipulated prices. 
Indeed, they do not hesitate to avow that they prefer to take the 
chances of running in and, from the necessities of the country, com- 
manding far more exorbitant prices. To avoid, therefore, this ruin- 
ous and at best not very reliable system, I think I can show you how 
it may be replaced by a much more advantageous, creditable, and 
reliable one. Let the Government place its bonds or other securities 
in Franee and England as collateral security for the advances upon 
authorized purchases, or whatever it may require from abroad. Upon 
this basis a substantial and available credit could be established, pur- 
chases could be made at the regular market valuations, and the con- 
sideration for these advances would not exceed 8 per cent. per annum. 
~ When such purchases are made the shipments could be effected at 
the current freights. In addition there would only be the usual policy 
of insurance and against capture. This last is high now, and may 
continue so until the obstacles are removed to which I have referred. 
If the Government prefers to insure against the risk, especially cap- 
ture by the enemy, it can afford to pay even the present enormous 
rates and still save from 75 to 200 or 300 per cent. The late favorable 
change in our national fortunes will have the inevitable effect of 
reducing these rates. But suppose the Government chooses to become 
its own insurer? In this case it will be placed upon an equality with 
other nations, paying only the prime costs for its purchases, with the 
addition of 8 per cent. per annum for its advances, and if reasonably 
successful in the shipments would save millions. 

Now, with respect to the feasibility of making such arrangements 
for the credit or advances to the Confederate Government, I assure 
you the arrangement could be effected immediately with most respon- 
sible bankers here and in England. Indeed, it has been seriously 
proposed by bankers here that they should become bankers of the 
Confederate States, disbursing all sums needed by them for purchases, 
&c., and from time to time to fulfill their orders for the interest of 8 
per cent. in account current, the interest to run from date of disburse- 
ment and payable semi-annually, the Confederate Government placing 
their own bonds or such other valuable securities as a guarantee for 
the final payment of the advances thus made. If more convenient, a 
few bonds covering the amount required would be accepted upon the 
condition of converting the same for smaller ones at the option of the 
party when circumstances allow it. Another advantage incident upon 
such an arrangement would be that the bonds of the Government thus 
placed in France or England would be in the nature of a financial 
recognition, and prepare the way for all future transactions of the 
Confederate States abroad. In the course of my efforts to have my 
contracts executed I have been brought into communication with 
many of the most responsible and intelligent business men here, and 
I respectfully submit the convictions that have been produced upon 
my own mind to you, and through you to the Government for consid- 
eration. Should these views be entertained favorably, I would gladly 
undertake the purchases upon this basis, in conjunction with Mr. 
Pecquet, of New Orleans, who.has been living in Paris for some years, 
and whose acquaintance and connection, as well as intelligent busi- 
ness qualities, would greatly facilitate such a project. The commis- 
sion allowed to us could be fixed by the Government. 

I am, with high respect and warm personal esteem, your friend and 
obedient servant, 

BEVERLY TUCKER. 


90 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, NAVY DEPT., 
ftaichmond, September 20, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Your last letter to me upon the subject of detailing men from 
the Army for the naval service, upon my application, was as follows: 

The evil of granting details from the Army has become so serious, and the 
complaints of the generals so great about this evil, that it is deemed inexpedient. 
to grant any more for the present. It is from these considerations alone, and 
not from the least shadow of personal or official discourtesy, that your recent 


applications for details from the Army to the naval service have been held in 
abeyance. 


Concurring with you fully, I have not since asked for the detail of 
men, but have in a few instances informed you of special cases and 
left the matter to your judgment. From our conversation on yester- 
day, I feel at liberty to renew applications for details of workmen and 
for discharges of seamen, to be shipped in the naval service, and 
therefore request that General Finegan, of Florida, may be directed 
to release a few men, to be shipped in the Navy by Lieut. Commander 
Catesby Ap R. Jones, in command of the steamer Chattahoochee, 
who is endeavoring to ship a crew. One of the Florida regiments, in 
service at Mobile, has many seamen who are anxious to enlist in the 
naval service. I request that the commanding general at Mobile may 
be also instructed to discharge such seamen wanted for the naval 
service there by Admiral Buchanan as may be willing to ship in the 
Navy, and that General Beauregard may be directed to extend the 
same aid to Capt. D. N. Ingraham, at Charleston. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
Ss. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy. 


[SEPTEMBER 20, 1862.—For Letcher to Virginia House of Delegates, 
giving information in regard to the execution of the act authorizing 
the raising of a force of 10,000 men for the defense of the Common- 
wealth, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 620.] 


AN ACT to provide for the further issue of Treasury notes. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury be and he is hereby authorized, from 
time to time, to issue, in addition to the bonds, certificates of stock, 
and Treasury notes already authorized by law, such additional amount 
of the same as may be required to pay the appropriations made by 
Congress, at its last and present sessions, to be issued under the same 
forms, conditions, and restrictions as are or may be provided by the 
first section of the act entitled ‘‘ An act to provide further means for 
the support of the Government,” approved April eighteenth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two; the bonds and certificates of stock to be issued 
in preference in all cases where they can be used; and where they 
cannot, the deficiency to be supplied by Treasury notes. 

SEC. 2. That the authority given to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
in the second section of an act entitled ‘“‘ An act to provide further 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 91 


means for the support of Government,” approved April eighteenth, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to issue in exchange for Treasury 
notes, bonds or certificates to be reconvertible in the same, at the 
pleasure of the holder, shall be extended from fifty millions to one 
hundred millions of dollars; but the said authority shall be exercised 
under all the conditions and limitations prescribed in the said act. 

Src. 3. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to pay annually 
the interest accruing, on the first of January, on all interest-bearing 
Treasury notes, and to make all proper regulations in relation to such 
payment: Provided, That until six months after a treaty of peace, such 
payment shall be made in Treasury notes not bearing interest. 

Src. 4. The issue of Treasury notes under the denomination of five 

dollars is authorized to be extended to ten millions of dollars. 

Approved September 23, 1862. 


AN ACT to provide for the payment of certain claims against the Confederate 
States in the State of Missouri. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
all officers and soldiers belonging to the Confederate States serv- 
ice who were enrolled into said service under the command of Maj. 
Gen. Sterling Price, in the State of Missouri, shall be allowed by the 
quartermasters of the respective corps in the Confederate Army 
to which such officers and soldiers may belong, compensation accord- 
ing to the laws of the Confederate States for that period of their serv- 
ice between the time of such troops having been actually enrolled in 
the Confederate service and the time of their regular acceptance by 
_ the proper authorities as Confederate troops. 

Src. 2. All officers and soldiers of the Missouri State Guard, called 
into the service of the Confederate States by the order of any com- 
manding officer of the Confederate Army, and rendering service to 
the Confederate States under any agreement made between the authori- 
ties of the State of Missouri and those of the Confederate States, 
shall receive the same pay for the time during which such officers and 
soldiers may have been in such service as they would have been 
entitled to receive if belonging to the Confederate Army: Provided, 
however, That all staff officers belonging to said Missouri State Guard 
shall only receive for their services the same compensation with staff 
officers discharging like duties in the Confederate Army. 

Sec. 3. Before any officer or soldier shall be entitled to receive pay 
under the provisions of the two preceding sections, he shall present to 
the officer to whom he may apply for payment a certificate signed by 
the commandant of the division, brigade, regiment or battalion to 
which he may have belonged at the time of the rendition of service, 
which certificate shall state the precise period during which such 
officer or soldier was in actual service, as contemplated in the first and 
second sections of this act: And provided, further, That the said 
officer or soldier shall file with the disbursing officer with whom his 
application for payment may be made his affidavit that the period 
stated in said certificate is the true and correct time of his actual 
service as aforesaid, and that he is not indebted to the Confederate 
States on any account whatever; and thereupon it shall be the duty 
of any officer charged with the payment of troops to pay such claim. 

Approved September 23, 1862. 


og CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 70. fiichmond, September 23, 1862. 


I. Non-commissioned officers and privates receiving an honorable 
discharge shall be entitled to transportation home on the certificate 
of the commandant. of their company; or in case they cannot com- 
-Iunicate with him, on their own affidavits that they went from their 
homes to the place of enlistment for the purpose of enlistment. 

II. Applications for leaves of absence, furloughs, discharges, and 
transfers from persons in and about Richmond, who from sickness or 
other cause cannot communicate with their immediate commanding 
officers, will be made tu Maj. Gen G. W. Smith, and will not be con- 
sidered by the Department except on an appeal from his decision. 
He will prescribe the mode of examination in cases of alleged physical 
disability, and will submit to the Department applications for trans- 
fers to and from troops not under his command. 

II. Commanding officers are directed and will be required to exam- 
ine promptly the returns of their commissaries, whether the issues. 
were made by direction of their predecessors in command or under 
their own direction. 

IV. Applicants for the rank of captain of artillery in the Ordnance 
Department, in addition to the subjects mentioned in paragraph I, 
General Orders, No. 68, current series, will be examined upon the ele- 
ments of algebra, plane trigonometry, mechanics, and chemistry as 
applicable to projectiles and ordnance. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF FLORIDA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, September 283, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States : 


Sir: Your esteemed favor of the instant was received by due 
course of mail, and it afforded me much pleasure to know that you 
appreciated the efforts which I have made to sustain your administra- 
tion of the Government in the maintenance of the war and its general 
policy. You are apprised that in Florida a very large minority were 
opposed to secession, and in many parts of the State combinations 
existed to adhere to and maintain the United States Government, and 
even now in some portions of the State there are men who would 
eagerly seize any opportunity that promised success to the United 
States. The success of our arms has reduced very considerably the 
large number of Unionists. Frankness, nevertheless, requires me to 
say that in some instances the enforcement of the conscript act has 
had a most unhappy effect, and chiefly because of the order which 
requires invalids to be brought to the camp of instruction for exami- 
nation. Those capable of rendering military service had generally 
been brought into service. I have no idea there will be 300 able- 
bodied men obtained by the act. The great majority now in camps 
are invalids; never will be able to render efficient service upon the 
field, in hospitals, or in any of the departments of the Government, 
and at home would be of some service in taking care of and comfort- 
ing women and children. The camp of instruction has more the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 93 


appearance of a camp provided for those afflicted with lameness and 
diseases than a military camp, and I would most respectfully suggest 
that those in it physically able should be permitted forthwith to 
volunteer and aid in completing the incomplete organizations now 
here in Confederate service, and those who are not able to perform 
military service should be discharged and provided with the means of 
returning home. 

I am much pleased with General Finegan. He is industrious and 
energetic, and superior in those respects to his predecessors, and we 
co-operate most agreeably; and although we occasionally differ in 
opinion, yet not unpleasantly. He has recommended that the ten 
companies of cavalry should be organized in a regiment and asked 
the privilege of raising more cavalry. I do not believe a regiment 
should be organized; that as independent companies they will be 
much more efficient, because, scattered as they are from one extreme 
of the department to the other, the captains of companies, feeling 
their exclusive responsibility, will be more vigilant and energetic, 
and when two or three companies shall be required to act together 
the senior captain could command. It has been seldom that any two 
companies have been associated upon duty; but, as eight of the com- 
panies have been in service a considerable time, and many of them 
reorganized under the conscript act, if made to compose a regiment 
they should be allowed to elect their field officers. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


P. S8.—Within the last four hours enrolling officers have reported 
to me that a greater number of men, able to perform military service, 
have evaded them than the number of men capable of being useful 
which they have enrolled, and that, moreover, those men cannot be 
brought into camps without force, which they will resist. Under 
existing circumstances a resort to force may lead to most injurious 
consequences. Ido not hesitate tosay that if permitted to come in 
as volunteers, within thirty days after authorized to receive them as 
volunteers, those who have assumed a hostile attitude will volunteer 
and make reliable soldiers and promptly move wherever ordered. 
In Washington County forty men have been enrolled, and I am 
informed only three can be brought into camp. ‘Two weeks ago 
they were informed they would be received as volunteers, and twenty 
of them marched fifty miles and volunteered, and the rest were pre- 
paring to come when it was ascertained that the offer to receive them 
was the result of a telegraphic mistake, and the twenty escaped to their 
comrades. In connection with this subject your attention is respect- 
fully invited to the within copy of a letter from me to our Senators 
and Representatives. 

Joy 


[Inclosure. ] 


STATE OF FLORIDA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, September 11, 1862. 
HONORABLE SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF 
FLORIDA, RICHMOND, VA.: 
GENTLEMEN: I have read the report of August 12, made by the 
Secretary of War to His Excellency Jefferson Davis, President of the 
Confederate States. You will excuse me, when you reflect upon the 


94 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


relative position of Florida to other States and our extended sea- 
coast, for inviting your attention to facts relative to that portion of 
his report in which he recommends that millers, tanners, and salt- 
makers should be included in the exemption act. It would be a wise 
exemption if confined to such as should be authorized by State 
authority, and that authority should be prudently, impartially, and 
wisely exercised; otherwise privileges may and will be abused to the 
detriment of the public service. Since the enactment of the econ- 
script act many able-bodied men from adjacent States and this State 
have repaired to the coast of Florida, under the pretense of making 
salt, and to be secure in their labor some have been treacherous 
enough to hold intercourse with the enemy; others have been lazy 
loungers, more anxious to avoid military service than to make salt. 

There are honorable exceptions, patriotic men, who have labored 
in good faith to make salt, and perhaps regret the necessity of having 
to charge their fellow-citizens $10 per bushel or 20 cents per pound 
for it. As it respects tanners being exempt, I know at least one tan- 
nery to which a shoe factory is attached, of which, according to infor- 
mation that I have received, and which I believe to be true, the pro- 
prietors have purchased raw hides, and employed shoemakers and 
other laborers at prices which prevailed previously to the war, when 
they sold the same kind of coarse shoes for $1.25 per pair, which they 
now sell [at] $5 and $6, and would gladly sell at $10. If millers, tan- 
ners, and salt makers shall be exempted from military service, it 
should be upon the condition that grain, cloth, leather, shoes, and 
salt manufactured by them should be sold at reasonable prices; maxi- 
mum rates should be established, otherwise many anxious to avoid 
military service will not only be authorized to do so, but to make and 
dispose of the prime necessities of life at exorbitant prices to less for- 
tunate fellow-citizens, to the wives and children of those fighting for 
their rights, and to the widows and orphans of soldiers who should be 
respected and protected, not only from the abuses of the enemy, but 
from extortions of heartless villains who would barter the liberties of 
the country for a ‘‘mess of pottage.” 

I know three men who resided in the same neighborhood. Two of 
them were among the first to volunteer; one of the two was killed in 
battle; the other wounded and his health became so much impaired 
that he was honorably discharged. Thethird manrefused to volunteer; 
remained at home an advocate and braggart of States’ rights and lib- 
erty. When the conscript act passed there was no clause in it exempt- 
ing wounded soldiers who were disabled in battle and had been dis- 
charged as inefficient for military service. Such soldiers should have 
been exempted—at all events, should have been saved the painful 
necessity of being forced as conscripts into camps of instruction to be 
there again discharged. The wounded soldier, not yet able to perform 
the duties, but anxious to render service to the country and avoid the 
reproach to which conscripts by the thoughtless are subjected, hired 
a substitute to go into the ranks. The braggart, healthy, able-bodied, 
and wealthy, and in times past known as a rampant secessionist, has 
neither volunteered nor sent a substitute, but has hitherto avoided the 
enrolling officer by resorting to the coast under the pretense of making 
salt. Shall the skulking coward be favored by a legal exemption; 
while wounded and discharged soldiers shall be forced as conscripts 
into camps of instruction ? 

Since I have commenced to write I have been informed of ten able- 
bodied men associated under the pretense of making salt, who for the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 95 


last six weeks have been upon our coast without having made a bushel 
of salt, dodging from place to place to avoid being made conscripts, 
and say that they would rather die than to be diso graced by being 
made eonscripts, and doubtless would as willingly be ‘hung as traitors 
as die in battle vindicating the rights of freemen. No man should be 
exempt from military service for his private benefit, and foreigners 
residing and doing business within the Confederate States should not 
be exempt in this war, as they are preying upon the necessities of the 
people and making gain thereby. Instead of a conscript act, or an 
act drafting men, the law should require all men capable of bearing 
arms to maintain the Government of the Confederate States pending 
the war with the United States, and the brave men of the South will 
soon conquer the enemy and command the high consideration of for- 
eign nations, and thus secure, bysuitable treaties regulating commerce, 
what shall be necessary to our enjoyments. 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., September 24, 1862. 


Medical directors and purveyors are herein required to cause to be 
made, by competent medical officers, an immediate and thorough 
examination of all nur ses, ward- masters, cooks, clerks, and employés 
serving in their respective districts and depots, and will forward to 
this office without delay a report specifying the name, rank, regiment, 
company, and occupation of such able-bodied men of the above whose 
places can be filled by conscripts incapacitated for active military serv- 
ice, but accepted for other duty, under requirements of paragraph ITI, 
General Orders, No. 58, current series, from Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office. 

S. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon-General C. S. Army. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 224. Ese Berge 25, 1862 
* * * * 


II. Lieut. Col. J. F. Gilmer, of the Rema ages C. S. eed is 
assigned to the charge of the Engineer Bureau. 
* * * : * * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
| JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CoNFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 26, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a copy of a resolution of the Senate 
of the 16th instant and to say that 2,718 conscripts are reported as 


96 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


enrolled and brought into service in the State of Georgia, but that 
the number of enrolling officers engaged in collecting the conscripts, 
and their cost to the Government, has not been reported. 

It is proper to add that the Department, not being satisfied with the 
manner in which the duty of enrolling and collecting conscripts in - 
Georgia has been conducted, has superseded Maj. John Dunwody, and 
assigned Lieut. Col. John B. Weems to the command of the conscript 
camp in that State. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure. ] 


Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to inform the Senate what 
has been the whole number of troops in the State of Georgia enrolled and brought 
into service by conscription; what has been the number of officers and men 
engaged in collecting said conscripts, and what has been their cost to the Govern- 
ment. If an answer cannot now be given with correctness and certainty an 
answer approximately requested. 

OFFICE SECRETARY OF SENATE, 
Richmond, September 16, 1862. 


I hereby certify that the above resolution was adopted by the Senate 
to-day. : 
JAS. H. NASH, 
Secretary. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 26, 1862. 
Col. A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General : 


COLONEL: Governor Letcher informs me that there are a number 
of shoemakers in the penitentiary of Virginia who will be set at work 
for the Army if the Confederate Government will furnish the leather. 
Have you more leather than is necessary to employ your own work- 

‘men? If so, report the fact to me and I will make arrangements 
with the Governor to secure the services of the penitentiary. He 
requested me to communicate with him to-day. You will oblige me, 
therefore, by a speedy report. It has been suggested to me that san- 
dals, or shoes like moccasins, might be made of rawhide in sufficient 
numbers to supply the temporary and immediate wants of the Army. 
If this is practicable the penitentiary hands might be profitably 
employed in the manufacture of such shoes. I must request that you 
will inquire into and report upon this matter without delay. 

Dispatches from General Lee inform us that the army is in great 
want of shoes and clothing, and that its efficiency is impaired by its 
destitution in these particulars. I wish every possible exertion made 
to procure and forward supplies of clothing and shoes, especially of 
the latter article, and that everything else shall be for the present 
subordinate to this object. 

| Your obedient servant, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 

Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 71. Richmond, September 26, 1862. 
I. All persons who have made application for appointments in the 
Ordnance Corps since the meeting of the present Congress will present 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 97 


themselves for examination by the board of officers convened by 
General Orders, No. 68, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, as 
soon as practicable. 

II. Adjourned meetings of the Board will hereafter be held conven- 
_ient to the headquarters of the armies in the field for the examina- 
tion of officers who are acting but have not been commissioned. 

III. Those who pass the examination at the present session of the 
Board will be arranged for appointment as captains, first and second- 
lieutenants, according to merit, and the appointments will be made 
from the head of the list. 

IV. All officers on duty in the Ordnance Corps will hereafter be 
examined before promotion. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, September 26, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida, Tallahassee, Fla.: 


Sir: I have received your letter of the 16th instant, and have the 
honor to say in reply that the conscript act requires all persons lable 
to military duty to be enrolled, but before enrollment permits them 
to volunteer in companies which were in service on the 16th of April 
last, and the Department is not authorized to make any other disposi- 
tion of them. General Orders, No. 58, has been modified by omitting 
the third paragraph, and only persons capable of bearing arms are 
now required to be enrolled. 

Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


_ CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 29, 1862. 
Hon. Ep. SPARROW, 
Charman Military Committee, C. S. Senate: 


Sir: I inclose a copy of a letter received from General Lee, and beg 
leave to call your attention to the necessity of providing some remedy 
for the evil of which he speaks.* It is to be feared that the regi- 
mental and company officers elected on the reorganization of the 
twelve-months’ regiments are generally inferior to their predecessors, 
and that the efficiency of the Army will be seriously impaired unless 
means are provided for summarily replacing worthless officers by 
better men. This may be done by traveling commissions, empowered 
to try officers summarily, and by conferring on the President the 
power of appointment, where neither promotion by seniority nor elec- 
tion will furnish competent officers. It is useless to increase the Army 
unless it can be properly officered. Numbers are only a source of 
weakness in a badly-organized, ill-disciplined army, and it is impos- 
sible to discipline an army without efficient regimental and company 


* Not found as inclosure, but see Lee to Randolph, Series I, Vol. XIX, Part II, 
p. 632. | 
7 R R—SERIES IV, VOL IL 


98 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. — 


officers. We cannot hope to rival the enemy in numbers, and unless 
we can surpass him in organization and discipline the odds against us 
will be fearfully great. The vast amount of stragglers which now 
paralyze our Army and defeat all attempts to re-enforce it is mainly 
due to the inefficiency of the regimental and company officers. Unless 
we apply a speedy remedy great disasters to our arms may be expected, 
and therefore, at the risk of being deemed importunate, I must 
earnestly beg that the bills establishing commissions to try officers 
and conferring the power of appointment on the President in neces- 
sary cases may be passed through Congress if possible. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
-, GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 72. Richmond, September 29, 1862. 


I. The President having approved an act of Congress requiring the 
Secretary of War ‘‘to transfer any private or non-commissioned offi- 
cer who may be in a regiment from a State of this Confederacy other 
than his own to a regiment from his own State, whenever such pri- 
vate or non-commissioned officer may apply for such transfer, and 
whenever such transfer can be made without injury to the public 
service, and that the Secretary of War shall make regulations to 
facilitate such transfer, provided that this act shall not apply to any 
person who has enlisted as a substitute,” it is ordered that all such 
applications for transfers as are contemplated by the foregoing act 
shall be addressed to the general commanding the army in which the 
applicant is serving, and shall be granted by him, without reference 
to the War Department, whether the transfer is within his own mili- 
tary department or not, provided the written consent of the com- 
mandant of the company to which the transfer is sought to be made 
shall first be given, and the transfer can be made without injury to the 
public service. In all cases in which the commanding general shall 
think proper to refuse such application he shall indorse the reasons 
for such refusal and forward the application to the Department. 

II. Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 31, current series; paragraph 
IX, General Orders, No. 38, current series, and clause 3, paragraph I, 
General Orders, No. 58, current series, are hereby revoked. 

III. The ration issued to hospitals will not hereafter be subject to 
the reduction authorized April 28, 1862, but will remain as prescribed 
by paragraph 1107, General Regulations. 

IV. For the prompt relief of the sick and wounded of posts and 
general hospitals, not including those in the city of Richmond, it is 
ordered: ae 

1. That the commandant of the post shall cause to be established a 
board, to consist of two or more medical officers at each post or gen- 
eral hospital, for the examination of all soldiers who may be consid- 
ered fit subjects for furlough or discharge. 

2. That in the absence of any regularly appointed officer the senior. 
surgeon of the post or general hospital will act as commandant of the 
post. 

3. That a certificate of disability, with a recommendation for fur- - 
lough, signed in due form by the examining board and approved by 
the senior surgeon of the post, shall entitle the soldier to a furlough, 
to be granted by the commandant of the post. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 99 


4. That a certificate of disability, with a reeommendation for dis- 
charge, signed in due form by the Examining Board and approved 
by the senior surgeon of the post, shall, if the soldier is declared to be 
unfit for service in the field, or in any department of the Government, 
entitle him to his discharge, which will be signed by the commandant 
of the post; and in all cases where the descriptive list and final papers 
cannot be obtained the patient will be mustered for payment upon 
hospital rolls by the surgeon in charge, or his affidavit that he has_ 
not received pay for the period for which he claims it to be due, and 
that he is not indebted to the Confederate States Government beyond 
the amount stated by him. 

V. In all eases of application for furlough or discharge under the 
foregoing paragraph the applicant will be required to explain satis- 
factorily his absence from the regiment, battalion, or squadron to 
which he belongs. 

VI. Due notice of all furloughs and discharges granted under this 
order will be forwarded through department commanders to the Adju- 
tant and Inspector General. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CHATTANOOGA, TENN., September 29, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 
Any relaxation in enforcing conscript law in Tennessee will be 
unpolitic. No new companies should be received until old regiments 


are filled. 
ISHAM G. HARRIS. 


RICHMOND, VA., September 30, 1562. 
Governor I. G. HARRIS, 
Chattanooga, Tenn.: 
I coneur with you as to the paramount importance of filling up the 
old regiments. Cannot you give General Whitthorne 2,000 recruits 
and dispatch him to Virginia? The gallant Tennesseeans here are 


greatly reduced in numbers. 
| JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


PARIS, September 30, 1862. 
Hon. J. P. BENJAMIN, 
Department of State, Richmond, | 
Confederate States of America: 

Str: In my dispatch, No. 1, dated July 30, at Vichy, and trans- 
mitted through Mr. Walker Fearn, I had the honor of submitting to 
the Department a hurried sketch of the position and prospects of our 
affairs abroad. Imperfect as it was, the rapid tide of events at home 
‘and abroad have since drifted us so far away from those landmarks 
that I deem it unnecessary to recapitulate, and now propose to exhibit 
the actual position in which we find ourselves to-day on the stage of 
European politics. It is also my duty to submit to the consideration 
of the proper departments several proposals of a public character 


100 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. ~ 


which have been made to me, as confidential agent, by responsible 
parties here, and which may possibly seem worthy of the serious con- 
sideration of our Government. And firstly, as regards our present 
prospects of formal recognition. When my last dispatch was written 
there was good reason to believe that France, or its ruler, had not yet 
positively decided upon the line of conduct to be pursued, and the 
temptation to act independently of England was very great, from 
motives both of policy and pride. While England promptly and 
positively refused recognition in response to Mr. Mason’s formal 
demand, the simultaneous movement of Mr. Slidell here did not meet 
with a similar reception from the French Government, and officially 
the same suspension of judgment has been kept up to this day. No 
formal announcement of the refusal of France to recognize the Con- 
federate States has ever appeared in the official or semi-official jour- 
nals here, which contrasts strongly with the action of England, nor 
(as far as my information goes) has any such formal answer been 
given to Mr. Slidell. The tide which was setting in so strongly 
toward our recognition when my last communication was made was 
turned by the frantic folly of Garibaldi in Italy, which created a 
Serious crisis in Europe and rendered it evident that France could 
not and would not act alone on the American question while so grave 
a complication continued. That complication is far from having 
ceased with the capture of Garibaldi, sustained, as he is, in his 
prison by the active sympathy of England and of the revolutionary 
party in France. On the contrary, it daily becomes more grave, and 
has forced out an unwilling utterance from the Emperor himself on 
the Italian question, in the publication of his instructions to his min- 
ister of state, and the subsequent correspondence resulting therefrom 
in May and June last. Inclosed I send you that correspondence as 
published in The Moniteur.* Opposed, therefore, as he is, to the 
policy of Victor Emmanuel, sustained by England and the Liberal 
party on the Continent, as well as to the policy of the Parti Piete, who 
clamor for the restitution of the whole patrimony of St. Peter to the 
hands of the Pope, and to the Red Republicans, who raise the ery of 
‘‘Rome or death,” the role of the Emperor is most delicate and diffi- 
cult at this moment. 

It was a knowledge of these facts, and the assurance of those very 
near him at Vichy that his mind was entirely preoccupied with the 
new and alarming question which had arisen, which induced me to 
withdraw from his secretary my proposal for an audience on the plea 
of sudden and pressing business at Paris. As such an interview 
would only have been a ceremonial one and without results, I deemed 
it best to keep that pleasure in reserve. That the Emperor himself 
is friendly to us and our cause there can be no doubt. That he 
regrets having been overpersuaded by the Russell-Palmerston Cabinet 
into recognition of the Yankee blockade when it was only a paper 
one is equally certain, for he says so himself, and he has recently 
declared in private conversations with members of the British Parlia- 
ment that England has kept and continues to keep him back from a 
_ formal recognition of the Confederate States. His Cabinet concur 
with him in opinion, but differ as to joint or separate action. Mr. 
Thouvenel rigidly adheres to the English alliance and is less friendly 
than Messrs. Morny and Persigny, who carry the large majority of the 
Cabinet with them. 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 101 


Finding that nothing could be effected for the moment in the field 
of diplomacy, and that the Emperor was most cautious in moving with 
public opinion, instead of striding in advance of it, as is generally 
supposed, I left Vichy and immediately turned my attention to the 
manufacture and improvement of that article through the agency of 
the press, still a great power in France. Very erroneous ideas pre- 
vail as to the actual restrictions on the liberty of speech and writing 
here. With the exception of criticising the royal person or reviving 
dynastic differences, great license of political discussion and of crit- 
icising the imperial policy is accorded to the French press, and the 
polémiques of the different journals are most eagerly and widely 
read in the cafés and restaurants, where much of Parisian life is 
passed. I found both our friends and foes in the French press 
lamentably ignorant and terribly prejudiced as to the real merits of 
the question and as to the actual condition of the two parties to the 
struggle. To my surprise, the slavery question, which has been 
dropped in England, was made the great bugbear in France, and those 
who professed to be our advocates were pleading pitifully an exten- 
uation of our sins in this respect and shuddering at the epithet 
esclavagiste, with which the paid partisans of the North are pelting 
them. Strange as it may seem, there is really more feeling for the 
black on this side of the channel than on the other, as the sentimental 
side of the French character has been enlisted in the supposed suffer- 
ings of this race. The North, from the commencement of the struggle, 
has spent money very freely in the manufacture of foreign opinion, 
especially in Paris and Brussels, where very high sums have been 
paid, and to counteract these influences I have been compelled to use 
extraordinary exertions aud extraordinary means, which I am happy 
to say have wrought very great results in the past two months, as the 
changed tone of the French press on both sides abundantly testifies. 
Without descending too much into particulars, it is only necessary to 
say that the Southern cause is now ardently and efficiently supported 
by all the semi-official journals in Paris and the provinces, a large 
network covering France by some of the clerical journals before hos- 
tile to us, by the organs of the manufacturers and industrial classes at 
Lyons, Bordeaux, Havre, Rouen, &¢., and at the same time the fire 
of opposition has slackened, and from an offensive they have been 
driven into a defensive attitude. 

To correct the numerous misrepresentations current abroad, and 
especially to throw light on the actual position vis a vis to our slave 
population, early in August I published a French brochure ‘‘ La vérité 
sur des Etats Confédéres” under my own name (copy of which is sent 
you), and that has served as abrief for our friends who have made 
liberal use of the facts and statements it contains. The portrait of 
President Davis, which was prepared expressly for this publication, 
has also greatly contributed to give it wide circulation, and his coun- 
tenance has been a good letter of recommendation for our cause with 
those who care nothing for its principles. You will observe that the 
ground is boldly taken in that publication that the South is able to 
vindicate her own independence without foreign assistance, and is 
rapidly doing so; that her resources are ample for her needs; that she 
has nothing to apologize for in her ‘‘ peculiar institution,” but has 
ever been the best friend of the black race; that the question of slav- 
ery really is not at the bottom of this quarrel, and that the negroes 
at the South sympathize with their Southern friends and hate and 
distrust the Yankees, as they have good right to do. These, to them, 


102 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


novel ideas have been taken up and re-echoed by the French press in | 
every variety of shape and language, and have put the question in- 
an entirely new aspect. It has been necessary to employ a corps of | 
writers to keep the subject before the public, as amateurs cannot be 
relied upon for other than occasional labors, and I have secured some 
very efficient ones. The South owes much to the writers who have 
labored so diligently on the French and English press since the com- 
mencement of the struggle without reward, or even recognition of 
their services. Several of these I have found still pursuing their 
thankless task under great disadvantages, and I think it due to them 
that their names should be given to the Department. They have 
borne the heat and burden of the day, and fitting acknowledgment 
of their labors should be made when their work is done and the 
battle won. In this connection I would particularize Peequet de 
Bellet and Edward Gaulhaec, of New Orleans, and Charles Girard, 
formerly secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and in London, 
George McHenry, formerly of Philadelphia, whose contributions to 
the London journals have been of immense value to the cause, and 
the more so from the fact of his coming from a Northern city. Of 
Mr. Hotze’s untiring industry and energy I have spoken in my former 
dispatch. . 

By a perusal of the files of English papers sent you you will see 
why my labors have been confined to France. The real merits of the 
question and the relative position of the belligerents are as well 
understood at London as at Richmond, and there is no point on which 
we can give them any information, except the few matters of detail 
touched on in my letter to the English press, copy of which has 
already been forwarded. ‘The Times, the Post, the Herald, organs 
of the two great political parties and of the public at large, have dedi- 
eated much of their space and many of their leaders to an exposure 
of the false pretenses and fabulous narratives of ‘‘strategic move- 
ments” backward, claimed as victories, until the very name of Yankee 
stinks in the nostrils of the English people. By request of Mr. 
Thackeray I have prepared a narrative of our own personal experi- 
ences in breaking the blockade, which has afforded an opportunity 
for a political disquisition on the position of the Yankee marine 
toward the British. This will appear in the October number of the 
Cornhill Magazine. A sketch, partly biographical and partly polit- 
ical, giving some incidents of the life and career of President Davis, 
appeared in the September number of the Blackwood’s Magazine. 
All these publications tend to concentrate public attention on the 
men of our revolution. 

The recent exploits of Stonewall Jackson and General Lee have 
made their names historic here and given additional luster to our 
military renown. With the tide of public opinion running so strong 
in England that even Lord Shaftesbury and Exeter Hall now aban- 
don their Yankee sympathies as untrue, even to their avowed Aboli- 
tion proclivities; with but two presses in London in favor of the 
Yankees, viz, the News and Daily Star, both uninfiuential papers; 
with the strong pressure put upon them by the Emperor, it may be 
asked why the British Cabinet delay recognition? As far as we can 
judge they act from mixed motives. They believe that recognition 
of the South would lead to war with the North, and consider the Yan- 
kee marine a standing menace to their commerce, which would afford 
rich spoils to those enemies of the human race. Moreover, the cotton 
famine, strange as it may seem, pays the manufacturers handsomely, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 103 


as recent statistics prove, the glut of the manufactured article and 
consequent depreciation of price having alone been prevented by our 
civil war and the stoppage of supply. Henee the ardor of Mr. Bright 
and the Manchester men in the cause of non-intervention in our 
quarrel. Add to this the enormous cost of a war with an adversary 
so utterly reckless, desperate, and unscrupulous as the North now is, 
and the ‘‘masterly inactivity” of England (as plagiarizing from Mr. 
Calhoun they now term their policy) can be easily understood, if it 
cannot be justified by the principles of the law of nations and the 
impulses of humanity. 

Europe professes to be sickened by the sight of useless slaughter 
across the Atlantic, but upraises no voice and lifts no finger to arrest 
it. Our sole reliance must be upon God and ourselves; and happy 
am I to know that such, too, has become the rooted sentiment of 
our people, upon whose heroic efforts and sufferings all Europe now 
looks with wondering admiration. I believe our recognition to de- 
pend more on the events now transpiring in Maryland than on any 
other earthly cause. As upon this side we can only hope to reap 
the fruits which the sweat and blood of our brave brethren have been 
poured out to produce for the weary months which have passed since 
the tide of Yankee success has ebbed away from Southern soil, it may 
be necessary to add that the recognition talked of by the British 
and French Governments, and which our continued success will has- 
ten, does not formally involve mediation or intervention, but is sup- 
posed to lead to both, since the North has always announced her 
intention to regard it as a casus belli. The other European powers 
seem determined to await the action of those already named, but are 
generally sympathetic with us, with the exception of Germany, which 
is stupidly and obstinately hostile, and which has actually furnished 
food for powder in pretended emigrants via Hamburg. The same 
game has been played to some extent in Ireland also, but thus far to 
no very great extent. Spain is friendly to us; so is Austria; Italy 
too busy with her own affairs to take much heed of other quarrels, 
but Garibaldi has thrown the little weight his tragical folly has left 
him into the Yankee scale in a correspondence with the Yankee con- 
sul at Vienna. The general commentary upon this demonstration 
has been pithily summed up by an English writer, who says, ‘‘It is a 
pity that a great patriot should also be a great fool, combining the 
heart of a lion and the head of an ass.” 

Of the feeling or policy of Russia we know nothing, but its 
affinities are supposed to be Northern, that the maritime supremacy 
of England and France may have a rival and probable ally of 
Russia hereafter. There are, however, two disturbing causes to the 
long patience of France—one is the breach daily widening between 
the Continental policy of England and her own, especially in Italy; 
the other is the pressure put upon the Government by the industrial 
class, whose sufferings have been and continue to be great; and the 
French ouvriers will not suffer like dumb cattle, as their British 
brethren seem disposed to do. From the consuls-general of several 
of the departments have been sent up to the Government, and pub- 
lished in the journals, petitions to the Emperor for relief, blended 
with complaints that the cause should be permitted to continue, and 
warning the Government against the possible consequences of an 
increase of these evils and that suffering. At Rouen, Lyons, and in 
the north. generally both public and private charity on the largest 
scale have been ineffectually resorted to to relieve the distress, and 


104 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


immense public ateliers have been established to keep the workmen 
tranquil. With every day the evil rises, like the steady swell of 
the tide, and gives greater inquietude to the Government. As a 
specimen of the tone and temper of the departments you will find 
inclosed (marked A*) the proceedings of the Council of the Rhone, 
one of the largest and most important. In 1860 and 1861 the quan- 
tity of cotton consumed in France amounted to -about 123,725,000 
kilograms. From the 1st of January to the 1st of July of the present 
year it has reached only 11,952,000 kilograms; that is, 17 per cent. 
only of the previous quantity. Thus in this immense industry and 
its tributary branches we will have a reduction in the enormous 
proportion of 83 per cent. From the most reliable sources I gather 
the fact that there are from 130,000 to 150,000 workmen directly 
employed in making cotton thread and other fabrics, and of persons 
indirectly connected with the same industry about 1,350,000, making 
an aggregate of 1,500,000 souls dependent entirely upon the cotton 
supply. The consequences of this mass of destitution thrown upon 
the community, and the paralysis of other branches of industry 
arising from the war and the shutting up of our markets to it, is 
needless to dwell upon. Hence the pressure upon the French Gov- 
ernment is very severe; nor will the state of finances permit so long 
sustained a pressure as England is able safely to endure. 

The grain crops and the vines in France, which failed last year in 
an average crop, have gone much beyond the average this year, and 
consequently the large supply of Northern grain which found its 
market here last year, via England, at high rates, will not be needed 
this year. Although this diminishes the pressure on the finances of 
France, it diminishes in a still greater degree the available resources 
of the Northern States of America, whose market here will be cur- 
tailed by it. It is supposed that the Emperor, in view of the eventu- 
alities pointed out, has sent to Mexico a force more than adequate 
to settle that question, as upward of 40,000 men independent of the 
naval force have been dispatched, the chief command having been 
given to General Forey, who enjoys the full confidence of the Emperor. 
The intrigues of Corwin and the Washington Government in Mexico 
are well known and properly appreciated here, my first act on landing - 
at Southampton on the 29th of June last being the transmission of a 
dispatch by telegraph to Mr. Eustis here detailing them, as gathered 
by me at Havana. That telegram has never reached Mr. Eustis to 
this day, and had greater credence, from being private. Itevidently . 
reached the hands for which it was intended and produced its effect. 
If, therefore, the entente cordiale should be broken, or the crisis 
become too severe in the manufacturing districts, the Emperor has 
prepared for the active interposition which alone would be effectual. 

Atthe risk of becoming prolix I have endeavored to give you an accu- 
rate idea of the real attitude of Europe toward us, as far as we know 
the purposes and plans of itsrulers. I may add that the very serious 
differences between the King of Prussia and his Parliament do not 
tend to reassure us as to the continued tranquillity of Europe, which 
seems now in a condition very similar to that which preceded the — 
convulsions of 1848. 

In my previous dispatch I alluded to propositions made by leading 
bankers here in relation to a loan based on cotton, on the sale of cot- 
ton here. One of these (marked B*) is herewith inclosed. It is made 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 105 


by a near relative of Mr. Fould, and if you think it desirable to enter 
into any arrangements and will give me your specific instructions the 
matter can be easily arranged. The establishment of credit here 
would save the Government from great embarrassment and the enor- 
mous loss on exchange which it now suffers, as well as relieve the 
agents abroad from the difficulties of which they complain. I have 
been requested by Messrs C. Girard & Co., who are making Le Mat’s 
revolvers for the Government under contracts with the Navy and 
Army Departments with Colonel Le Mat, a partner in the factory, to 
forward their correspondence with the agents of those departments 
in Europe, and to request that effectual steps may be taken to fulfill 
the Government obligations in that respect. They complain of the 
loss of both time and money in consequence of the failure of Captain - 
Huse to co-operate with them or carry out his instructions in spirit as 
well as in letter. I submit this matter without any expression of 
opinion to the proper departments, with a repetition of my suggestion 
that additional agents supplied with funds should be sent abroad for 
the purchase of arms, medicines, and other necessaries. I am happy 
to add that private enterprise is essaying new modes of supplying 
our wants in the way of new and swift steamers to run the blockade, 
hitherto too much of a monopoly in particular hands. A regard for 
private interests prevents my being more specific on this point; but 
this new enterprise is sure to be of great benefit to us, and should 
secure Government support if such be demanded. By another oppor- 
tunity I may refer more particularly to this point. The proposals for 
ships come from the greatest shipbuilders in France, who have the 
patent for the ‘‘ Frégates blindées.” I send them to the Navy Depart- 
ment and invoke the attention of the President and yourself to them. 
With reference to my own personal labors, I have only to say that I 
am making the best possible use of the resources available, but could 
greatly and advantageously extend the field of operations were those 
resources increased. If the struggle be protracted beyond the ter- 
mination of this year I shall need fresh supplies. 
Very respectfully, ; 
EDWIN DE LEON. 


The publication of your letter to Mr. Baylor, with appropriate com- 
ments relative to the stoppage of the cotton supply, has been attended 
to and has produced a strong impression here. Allow me to call your 
attention to the necessity of organizing a corps of messengers, coming 
and going at least once a month to and from the Confederate States. 
We have received no dispatches from you for months past. Private 
hands are not to be relied upon. I send this by a special messenger 
employed by myself. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 73. Richmond, October 1, 1862. 
* * * * 


* * * 


II. Generals commanding will authorize their medical purveyors to 
impress all medical supplies held by speculators, paying them the cost 
price for the articles. The generals will give the purveyors the nec- 
essary aid to carry this order into effect. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


106 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 1, 1862. 
Maj. CALEB HUSE, 
C. S. Agent, London, England: 


SiR: You are respectfully informed that the Department has made 
a contract with Messrs. Chamberlain & Co. to furnish supplies for the 
Quartermaster’s, Ordnance, and Medical Bureaus. The prices are to 
be fixed by reference to the invoices, which are to be verified by you 
on actual inspection of the articles made in person or by your agents. 
The invoices must be indorsed by you, stating that the prices are the 
usual wholesale prices of the articles in the chief marts, and that the 
articles themselves are merchantable. This latter provision is not 
intended as an assumption of. the risk of damage, the contractors 
being bound to deliver them in a Confederate port in good order. 

Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 74. Richmond, October 2, 1862. 


I. The execution of the act approved April 16, 1862, commonly 
ealled the Conscription Act, and of all the amendments thereto, is 
suspended, bv direction of the President, in the States of Kentucky 
and Missouri. Troops from those States will, until further orders, be 
‘ received into the Confederate service under the acts passed by the 
Confederate Congress prior to the passage of the act above referred 
to, the execution of which is hereby suspended. 

II. The attention of officers and all others concerned is called to the 
fact that General Orders, No. 72, published incorrectly in the Richmond 
Enquirer of September 30, and the Richmond Whig of October 1 and 
2, was published correctly on the 1st instant and thereafter in the 
Enquirer, and on the 3d instant and thereafter in the Whig. 

III. All furloughed, sick, and wounded soldiers will have transpor- 
tation furnished them to their homes and back where their furloughs 
are of sufficient length to warrant it. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


————__ 


RICHMOND, October 2, 1862. 
His Excellency Governor SHORTER, 
Montgomery, Ala.: 


Major Gaines telegraphs that many parties have withdrawn their 
negroes from the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad and refuse to 
return them, that every effort to hire has proved unsuccessful, and 
that the work will be retarded for months, when with an efficient force 
it could be finished by the Ist of November. 

This work is of great importance and I must beg that you will use 
your influence with the planters to procure labor. Delay may bring 
disaster to themselves. Can you not appeal to them by proclamation ? 

G. W. RANDOLPH, - 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. — 107 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
October 2, 1862. 


GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF DELEGATES: 


I herewith transmit a communication from the adjutant-general 
on a subject of interest and importance, and commend it to your 
consideration and such action as you may deem advisable. I again 
respectfully renew the recommendation contained in my message at 
the opening of this session, in regard to officers of the militia who 
are disloyal or refuse to obey the orders of the Executive. In that 
portion of Western and Northwestern Virginia which has been over- 
run by the public enemy we have very few militia officers whe can be 
relied upon to execute the orders of the Executive. Under existing 
laws we have no means of reaching such officers, except through the 
agency of courts-martial, and these cannot be held in that section of 
the State. itis of the first importance, therefore, that some legisla- 
tion shall be had upon this subject before your adjournment. 

Respectfully, : 
JOHN LETCHER. 


[Inclosure.] °* 


ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
September 30, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN LETCHER, 
Governor of Virginia: 

SIR: Permit me to suggest for your consideration the expediency 
under existing circumstances of extending the provisions of the act 
of March 7, 1862, in regard to the second-class militia over the whole 
State, and a thorough organization of that class for home service dur- 
ing the continuance of the war; also a re-examination of all men who 
were exempted by the local boards. In many cases physical disability 
(which then existed) exists no longer, yet many able-bodied men 
Shelter themselves under the exemption. In addition, to constitute a 
board consisting of three justices for each regiment with authority to 
assess and cause the militia fines to be promptly collected, suspend- 
ing for a time the sections of the 31st chapter of the Code of 1860, 
relating to regimental and battalion courts of inquiry, which are now 
practically inoperative. | 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. H. RICHARDSON, 
Adjutant-General. 


RICHMOND, VA., October 8, 1862. 
The SENATE: 

I herewith transmit for your information a communication from 
the Secretary of War in response to your resolution of the 26th ultimo, 
in reference to ‘‘the construction of a certain line of railroad in the 
States of Louisiana and Texas.” 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
[Inclosure. ] 
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 

Richmond, Va., October 2, 1862. 
His Excellency the PRESIDENT: 

Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the following 
resolution adopted by the Senate on the 26th ultimo: 


Resolved, That the President be requested to inform the Senate whether the 
appropriation made by the act entitled ‘“‘An act to aid in the construction of a 


108 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


certain line of railroad in the States of Louisiana and Texas,” approved 19th 
April, 1862, has been in whole or in part used for the purpose contemplated by 
the act, or if any contract or engagement has been made by him in relation to the 
said appropriation or any part of it. 


An agent was appointed under the act to ascertain and report upon 
the best mode of carrying it into effect. He reported that in conse- 
quence of the fall of New Orleans he thought it impracticable to con- 
struct the road, and nothing further was done. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 3, 1862. 


Hon. W. P. CHILTON, 
Chairman, &ce:: 


Sir: I have the honor to submit to you and to the committee of 
which you are chairman my views in regard to the transportation of 
troops, military stores, &c., over the various railroads in the Con- 
federacy. I am opposed to taking military possession of the roads 
and submit the following reasons therefor: Should the Government 
do this I feel assured that the officers and employés of said roads 
would promptly resign rather than be subject to the orders of officers 
of the Army of every grade, wholly ignorant of railroads and their 
management. This would throw into confusion our means of com- 
munication throughout the Confederacy. Greater expense would be 
incurred in operating the roads, the new officers being ignorant of 
the most economical and available sources of labor and supplies of 
material. The work done would also be done in a manner less secure 
and durable than when under the supervision of those permanently 
connected with the road. There would be great difficulty in keeping 
the accounts for private freight and passengers distinct from that of 
the Government, for citizens as well as troops must be transported and 
supplied, the Government meanwhile coming under heavy pecuniary 
responsibilities to the stockholders, whose trustee it has assumed to 
become. Should a period of great emergency arise, confusion, delay, 
and irreparable disaster might be produced by the change from experi- 
enced to new operators on the many roads. 

As to the best mode of securing the rapid and safe transportation 
of troops and military supplies of all kinds, the following suggestions 
are made: The appointment of an able, methodical, and energetic 
person as chief of transportation, to have entire control over and. 
power to regulate all matters pertaining to transportation, to make all 
necessary rules and regulations, and after conference or correspond- 
ence with the several railroad presidents and superintendents, to 
bring into harmonious action the different roads in the Confederacy; 
all officers of the Army, of whatever grade, to be ordered not to inter- 
fere with the management of roads or running of trains, and to be 
governed by the rules and.regulations of the chief of transportation 
as agreed upon with the railroad companies; all complaints against 
railroads to be made to and settled by him under the direction of the 
Quartermaster-General; when cars are taken beyond the roads to 
which they belong the Government officers should see that they are 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 109 


not used for store-houses; that the roads using them be charged for 
their use, and that they are promptly returned, for from these causes 
arise three-fourths of the difficulties in transportation. It is also 
suggested that the right of seizing for the use of the Government cer- 
tain articles of absolute necessity, such as cloth, leather, &c., be 
granted when parties holding the articles will not sell them to the 
Government, or ask extortionate prices, the impressment to be made 
in conformity with the act of Congress on the subject. It does not 
occur to me that any further legislation is required to promote the 
efficiency of the Quartermaster’s Department. Existing laws and 
orders are amply sufficient if officers do their duty. The prospect of 
clothing the Army from the resources of the Confederacy is very good. 
Wool is coming in in abundance from Texas to be manufactured into 
cloth in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, &¢. The pro- 
priety of allowing leather and wool and manufactured clothing suit- 
able for the Army to be brought into the Confederacy free of duty is 
_ respectfully submitted. Any questions the committee may desire to 
have answered the undersigned begs it will present. 
Very respectfully, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 4, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


SiR: I deem it my duty to call your attention before the adjourn- 
ment of Congress to the want of power in the Executive to make 
appointments when neither election nor promotion secures competent 
officers to fill vacancies, and to consolidate companies and regiments 
reduced by casualties of service below the numbers necessary for 
efficiency. The absence of this power is a defect in the organization 
of our service so great that it must ultimately cause disaster if not 
ruin. 

The present condition of the Army of Northern Virginia impera- 
tively requires its exercise, and the experience of the commanding 
general of that army has been unable to devise any expedient by 
which he may avoid the alternative of violating law or of exposing 
his army to ruin. 

The senior general of our armies, whose opinion is entitled to great 
respect from his familiar acquaintance with the military organizations 
of this continent during the last forty-five years, fully concurs with 
the Department as to the indispensable necessity of the proposed 
power. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[OCTOBER 5, 1862.—For Milton to Randolph, in regard to the 
enforcement of the conscript act in Florida, &e., see Series I, Vol. 
LIII, p. 258. ] 


110 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 234. Richmond, October 7, 1862. 
* * * * 


* * * 


XXII. After date no application will be received for examination 
by the board of officers appointed under General Orders, No. 68, cur- 
rent series, for appointment of officers for artillery to be assigned to 
ordnance duty, except from officers and privates now in service, or 
from officers and privates now out of service by reason of wounds 
received in battle. 

* * * * * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: | 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, October 8, 1862. 


The SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFED- 
ERATE STATES OF AMERICA: 


The near approach of the day fixed for your adjournment induces 
me to renew certain recommendations made at the commencement of 
the session, and for which legislation has not yet provided. ‘The sub- 
ject of the efficiency of the Army is one of paramount importance, 
and the letter of the Secretary of War herewith submitted has been 
elicited by correspondence with the generals of our armies in the 
field, whose practical experience of the evils resulting from the 
defects in our present system entitles their opinion to great weight.* 

An army without discipline and instruction cannot be relied on for 
purposes of defense, still less for operations in an enemy’s country. 
It is in vain to add men and munitions, unless we can at the same 
time give to the aggregated mass the character and capacity of 
soldiers. The discipline and instruction required for its efficiency 
cannot be imparted without competent officers. No power now exists 
by law for securing such officers to fill vacancies when elections and 
promotions fail to accomplish the object. 

Extreme cases ought not to furnish a rule, yet some provision 
should be made to meet evils, even exceptional, in a matter so vitally 
affecting the safety of our troops. Tender consideration for worth- 
less and incompetent officers is but another name for cruelty toward 
the brave men who fall sacrifices to these defects of their leaders. 
It is not difficult to devise a proper mode of obviating this evil. The 
law authorizes the refusal to promote officers who are found incom- 
petent to fill vacancies, and the promotion of their juniors in their 
stead; but instances occur in which no officer remaining in a regi- 
ment is fit to be promoted to the grade of colonel, and no officer 
remaining in a company is competent to command it as captain. 
Legislation providing for the selection in such cases of competent 
officers from other regiments of the same State affords a ready rem- 
edy for this evil, as well as for the case when officers elected are 
found unfit for the positions to which they may be chosen. This 
selection can be made in such manner as may seem to Congress most 
advisable; but this or some other remedy is indispensable for filling 
numerous vacancies now existing. 


* See October 4, p. 109. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 111 


While this deficiency of competent officers exists in some cases, 
there is a large excess in others. Numerous regiments and compa- 
nies have been so reduced. by the casualties of war, by sickness, and 
other causes as to be comparatively useless under the present organ- 
ization. There are companies in the Army in which the number of 
officers exceeds that of privates present for duty, and regiments in 
which the number of such privates does not exceed that which is 
required for a single effective company. The cost of supporting the 
Army, already a very heavy burden on the resources of the country, 
is thus increased to an extravagant extent. But this is of secondary 
importance compared with the inefficiency which results from this 
condition of things. Some legislation which shall provide for the 
consolidation of companies and regiments when thus reduced in num- 
bers, and where conscripts cannot be obtained from a State in suffi- 
cient numbers for filling the ranks, is of pressing necessity, and a 
deep sense of duty impels me to repeat that no consideration for the 
officers who may be unfortunately deprived of commands ought or 
can safely be permitted to obstruct this salutary reform. 

It may be proper to remark that the necessity for this consolida- 
tion and the consequent discharging of tried and meritorious officers 
will obviously be increased by all legislative action permitting new 
- organizations to be formed of men who, by the provisions of the con- 
script law, were directed to be incorporated into existing companies 
and regiments. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


AN ACT to encourage the manufacture of clothing and shoes for the Army. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the President is hereby authorized to import, duty free, cards or card 
cloth, or any machinery or materials necessary for increasing the man- 
ufacture of clothing for the Army, or any articles necessary for sup- 
plying the deficiency of clothing or shoes, or materials for shoes, for 
the Army. 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That any machinery, or parts of 
machinery or materials imported as aforesaid, may be worked on Gov- 
ernment account, or leased or sold, at the discretion of the President. 

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That the President may extend the 
_ privileges of this act to companies or individuals, subject to such 
regulations as he may prescribe. 

SEC. 4. That the clothing required to be furnished to the troops of 
the Provisional Army under any existing law may be of such kind, as 
to color and quality, as it may be practicable to obtain, any law to the 
contrary notwithstanding. ; 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


_—_ 


AN ACT to refund to the State of Louisiana the excess of the war tax overpaid 
by her. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the sum of seventy thousand dollars be and the same is hereby appro- 
priated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
to be paid to the State of Louisiana, the same being the estimated 
excess of the war tax overpaid by her; the said payment to be made 


» 


112 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to the Governor of the State of Louisiana or his authorized agent, sub-. 
ject to a final adjustment whenever the assessments and returns of 
the war tax for said State shall be completed. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


AN ACT to repay to the State of North Carolina the excess over her quota paid 
by her into the Treasury of the Confederate States on account of the war tax. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the sum of one hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and seventy- 
four dollars and sixty-nine cents be paid to the State of North Caro- 
lina, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
the same being the excess over her quota paid by her into the Treas- 
ury of the Confederate States on account of the war tax. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


———— 


AN ACT making appropriations for the executive, legislative, and judicial 
expenses of the Government for the month of December, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the folowing sums be and the same are hereby appropriated for the 
objects hereafter expressed for the year ending the thirty-first of 
December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two: 

* * * * * * * 


For the pay of officers and privates of the Army, volunteers and 
militia, and for quartermaster’s supplies of all kinds, transportation, 
and other necessary expenses, fifteen million six hundred and thirty- 
eight thousand and forty-nine dollars. 

For support of prisoners of war and for rent of necessary guard- 
houses, &c., two hundred thousand dollars. 

For bounty, fifty dollars to each non-commissioned officer, musician, 
and private in the service for three years, three million dolars. 

For purchase of subsistence stores and commissary property, 
twenty-two million five hundred and ninety-eight thousand forty-one 
dollars and thirty-six cents. 

For the ordnance service in all its branches, two million two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

For the engineer service, two hundred thousand dollars. 

For medical and hospital supplies, four hundred thousand dollars. 

For pay of nurses, cooks other than enlisted men or volunteers, 
forty-eight thousand dollars. 

For services of physicians to be employed in conjunction with the 
medical staff of the Army, thirty thousand dollars. 

For the establishment and support of military hospitals, fifty-nine 
thousand five hundred dollars. 

* * * * * * * 


For ordnance service in all its branches, including the purchase of 
ordnance and ordnance stores imported, four million dollars. 
*k * * * * * * 


To supply the deficiencies in the engineer appropriations for engi- 
neering purposes, eight hundred thousand dollars. 

To pay claims upon the Confederate Government for vessels seized 
by the naval and military authorities for the use of the Government, 
ten thousand two hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 113 


For the purchase of flour for the Confederate States Army, six mil- 
lion eight hundred and twenty-three thousand eight hundred dollars. 
The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, from any mon- 
eys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to take up and redeem 
such Treasury notes as may from time to time be called in for the 
purpose of being canceled, and in place of such Treasury notes so can- 
celed other Treasury notes to the same amount may be issued. 
Approved October 9, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 9, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


SIR: I find it impossible, in the limited time before the adjourn- 
ment of Congress, to make the inquiries necessary to enable me to 
recommend suitable persons to fill the offices created during the pres- 
ent session of Congress. Army corps must be organized before lieu- 
tenant-generals and members of the courts of commission can be 
appointed. 

Officers of ordnance cannot be selected without an examination of 
the applicants, nor officers of the Signal Corps without careful inquiry. 

A vacancy in the office of Assistant Secretary of War occurred on 
the Ist instant, and owing to the press of ,business I have found it 
impossible to select a person qualified to fill the office. 

Many vacancies have no doubt occurred in the Army which are not 
yet reported. As no power exists to make appointments or to fill 
vacancies in the recess for offices created or vacancies occurring dur- 
ing the session of Congress, I recommend that application be made to 
Congress for the passage of an act authorizing such appointments. 

In reference to vacancies, it might be limited to those occurring 
within fifteen days of the adjournment. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., October 9, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR SIR: His Excellency Governor Vance has frequent applica- 
tions from citizens residing in counties of this State within the lines 
of the enemy asking permission to raise companies of partisan rangers 
for local defense. The conscript law cannot be executed in those 
localities, and His Excellency thinks that the public service will be 
promoted by granting such applications, and he therefore respectfully 
suggests that you will commission such persons as he may recommend 
for that service. 

Yours, very respectfully, 
DAVID A. BARNES, 
Aide to the Governor. 
8 R R—SERIES IV, VOL IL 


» 


114 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, October 10, 1862. 


The SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE 
STATES OF AMERICA: 


The importance, it might properly be said necessity, of a measure 
which has heretofore been recommended induces me at this time to 
renew the request for your attention to the want of some provision 
by which brigadier and major generals may be appointed when, by 
the casualties of service, commanders of brigades and divisions have 
become temporarily disabled. 

Under the law as it now stands if a brigadier be wounded the 
command of the brigade devolves upon the senior colonel, who may 
or may not be competent for such command, but whose presence is 
required with his regiment, and most of all under the circumstances 
usually existing where casualties like that referred to occur. 

To illustrate this necessity I will cite an instance of an army corps 
from which seven brigadiers are now absent, six of whom have been 
recently wounded. There is an obvious objection to multiplying the 
number of general officers, but it. may be readily removed by provid- 
ing for the subsequent reduction whenever there are supernumeraries 
present for duty; and I would suggest that the determination as to 
who should be discharged might be made to depend upon the inquiry 
and report of an army board, to be organized according to established 
law and usage. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


——<$<$<—$<—$—$_ 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., October 10, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, | 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR Str: Allow me to call your attention to the subject of dis- 
posing of conscripts in this State. When I entered upon the duties 
of my office I found the thing at quite a low ebb, few ever coming 
into camp, and Major Mallett found the greatest difficulty in hunting 
them up. I immediately took the matter into my own hands, issued 
a proclamation and orders to my militia officers, and procured Gen- 
eral Martin to issue an order promising them all that they might 
choose their regiments if not already filled. The good effect of this 
was instantly manifest, the number coming in was trebled, and a 
cheerful spirit of alacrity prevailed everywhere. I mentioned the 
matter to the President in your presence and understood it to be 
approved by both; and yet on my return home I find Major Mallett 
has received orders to send all the conscripts to certain brigades with- 
out regard to their wishes or to the promises made them by a Confed- 
erate general. This has produced the greatest dissatisfaction, and 
rightly, too. What the particular exigencies of the service are I do 
not know. They must be great indeed to justify bad faith toward the 
soldiers on the part of the Government. If such is to be the policy, 
as I do not wish to become a party to such transactions, I shall coun- 
termand the orders issued to my militia officers and turn the whole 
over again to Major Mallett and leave him to hunt up the conscripts 
as best he can. Allow me to say generally that I think the Depart- 
ment commits a serious error in declining to receive the advice of 
anybody save the general in command of the department. With the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 115 


management of the Army proper I shall, of course, offer no advice, 
not pretending to be a military man; but in regard to such political 
movements as secure most effectually the support of the people in the 
execution of the conscript law, I do claim that I ought to be heard. 
In this respect I might safely assert of myself that which after all 
amounts to not much, that I know more than all the West Pointers 
in the service. And yet, so far as I am aware, no one suggestion of 
mine or recommendation has received the approval of the Depart- 
ment. So beit. Though the responsibility rests not with me, yet, as 
land my State are to suffer any evil consequences that may follow, I 
feel it my duty to write you fully and frankly in regard to all matters 
affecting North Carolina. ; 

I am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Z. B. VANCE. 


SAN ACT supplemental to an act entitled ‘‘ An act to authorize the Secretary of 
the Treasury to pay district collectors in certain cases,” approved April 11th, 
1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized to pay 
the sum of four hundred dollars to the several district collectors of 
the war tax, authorized by the act entitled ‘‘ An act to authorize the 
issue of Treasury notes and to provide a war tax for their redemp- 
tion,” approved August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, 
in those States which have assumed the payment of said tax: Pro- 
vided, The Secretary of the Treasury shall be satisfied that all the 
duties which fairly devolved on said collectors by the law under 
which they were appointed have been faithfully performed by them: 
And provided further, That if said collectors have received compen- 
sation under the act to which this is supplemental, the sum so 
received shall be deducted from the amount specified in this act. 

SEC. 2. The chief collectors shall receive a proportional amount of 
the salary fixed by law, for each quarter in which they shall be 
actually and in good faith engaged in the discharge of the duties of 
their office. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Rachmond, October 11, 1862. 
Brig. Gen. J. G.. MARTIN, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

Sir: In reply to your letter of the 5th instant* you are respectfully 
informed that it was deemed necessary, in order to insure uniformity 
in the execution of the law for the enrollment of conscripts, that it 
should be conducted under the control of the Department, and it was 
so ordered on the 28th of April last in General Orders, No. 30. Expe- 
rience has confirmed the view then taken, and it has been found that 
to place the enrollment of conscripts under the control of the general 
commanding a department subjects it to change with every change of 
the department commander. General Lee’s orders were not intended 
to conflict with the policy and express orders of the Department, but 


*See Series I, Vol. XVIII, p. 752. 


116 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


merely to secure the valuable aid of the adjutant-general of the State 
in carrying that policy into effect. The only objection to the order 
you propose is that it conflicts with the conscript act in restricting 
the maximum of infantry companies to a smaller number than is 
allowed by that act. The right to volunteer before enrollment 
is reserved by law, and the order to Major Mallett only applies to 
enrolled men. Orders have been given for the immediate filling up 
of the Virginia and North Carolina regiments at Richmond, because 
the enemy are preparing to attack the city with a heavy force. 
Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, October 11, 1562. 
General BEAUREGARD, 
Charleston, S. C.: 


Take possession of the coin of the Bank of Louisiana in the hands 
of W. H. Young, president of the Bank of Columbus, Ga., and place 
it in the hands of John Boston, the depositary of the Government at 
Savannah. 

A written order will be sent immediately, but don’t wait for it. 

G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 11, 1862. 
General R. E. LEE, 
Commanding, &c.: 

GENERAL: In reply to your letter of the 29th*ultimo I have the 
honor to say that the Executive has no power to make Confederate 
money a legal tender between individuals. Government supplies 
may be impressed and paid for in Treasury notes, and if individuals 
within the theater of your operations discredit the Government money 
they may be considered as hostile to the Confederacy, and may be 
arrested and removed from the vicinity of the army. 

Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CHARLESTON, S. C., October 12, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, . 
Secretary of War: 
Order relative to Bank of Louisiana funds will be obeyed. Would 
it not be more prudent to send them to Augusta, Ga.? 
G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
General, Commanding. 


[Indorsement. | 


SECRETARY OF THE ‘TREASURY: 


See General Beauregard’s suggestion. What do you think of it? 
| We 


* Series I, Vol. XIX, Part II, p. 635. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 117 


OCTOBER 13, 1862. 


The HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF 
AMERICA: 


I regret to find myself compelled to return, without my signature, 
an act which originated in your body entitled ‘‘ An act to reorganize 
and promote the efficiency of the Medical Department of the Provis- 
ional Army.” I entirely concur in the desire to accomplish the 
objects contemplated in the act, and have delayed its return in the 
hape that some additional legislation might obviate the difficulties 
that would embarrass the operation of the act in its present form. 

The act seems to be based on the assumption that there exists a 
_**Medical Department of the Provisional Army,” and this fact is not 
only set forth in the title, but some of the provisions are so worded as 
to be inoperative by reason of this assumption. Thus the first section 
provides ‘‘that the rank, pay, and allowances of a brigadier-general 
in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States be, and the same 
are hereby, conferred on the Surgeon-General of the same.” There 
exists no such officer as the Surgeon-General of the Provisional Army. 
The plain intent, therefore, of Congress to confer the rank-of briga- 
dier-general in the Provisional Army on the Surgeon-General of the 
permanent Army would be defeated unless the language of this sec- 
tion be changed. 

According to the provisions of the law as it now stands there is a 
Medical Department organized for the permanent Army under the act 
of the 26th of February, 1861, entitled ‘‘ An act for the establishment 
and organization of a general staff for the Army of the Confederate 
States of America,” the chief of which is styled the Surgeon-General. 
The only legislation providing for medical officers for provisional 
troops is the ninth section of the act of 6th of March, 1861, which 
enacts that when volunteers or militia are called into the service of the 
Confederate States in such numbers that the ‘officers of the Medical 
Department, which may be authorized by law for the regular service, 
are not sufficient for * * * furnishing them with the requisite 
medical attendance, it shall be lawful for the President to appoint, 
with the advice and consent of the Congress, as many additional offi- 
cers of the said Department as the service may require, not exceed- 
ing * * * one surgeon and one assistant surgeon for each regiment, 
* * * to continue in service only so long as their services may be 
required in connection with the militia or volunteers.” 

There is an act of 14th of August, 1861, on the same subject, but it 
confines the appointments authorized by it to such surgeons and 
assistant surgeons as may be necessary for the various hospitals. 

The third and fourth sections of the act now returned to you per- 
mit and require: the assignment of a number of surgeons and. assist- 
ant surgeons to military departments, to divisions, to brigades, and 
to infantry and cavalry regiments largely in excess of the number 
allowed by the law just quoted, but no authority is given for the 
appointment of the increased number of medical officers, and it would 
be impracticable to execute the law unless by adopting the inadmis- 
sible construction that an authority to assign officers to duty implies 
an authority to appoint new officers. Such a construction would be 
the less justifiable in the present instance, because in the second sec- 
tion, in which new officers are authorized, the language of the act 
directs appointments to be made, but in the third and fourth sections 
the language is changed and assignments only are permitted. 


» 


118 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


There is another omission in the act which may give rise to preten- 
sions prejudicial to the service. In declaring the rank to which the 
several medical officers shall be entitled in the Provisional Army, 
including those of brigadier-general, colonels, and lieutenant-colonels, 
no express exclusion is made of their right to command troops, as has 
wisely been done in the regular or permanent Army. ‘The officers of 
the medical corps have long evinced the desire to have some right of 
command of troops in certain contingencies, and this command ought 
either to be expressly forbidden or the cases in which it may be exer- 
cised ought to be distinctly defined. 

The chief objection to the bill, however, remains to be stated. The 
fifth section is designed to effect a most humane and desirable object, 
but its provisions are inadequate to the end proposed. The purpose 
of Congress is evidently to provide some additional means for the 
eare of the sick and wounded of armies in the field. At present 
after each battle the wounded are necessarily left in such temporary 
quarters as can be procured in the vicinity, but on the movement of 
the army most of the medical officers attached to it are compelled to 
follow, and the wounded are thus left with medical aid and attend- 
ance entirely insufficient for their relief. ; 

The fifth section of the act provides for an infirmary corps of fifty 
men for each brigade, officered with one first and one second lieu- 
tenant, two sergeants, and two corporals, but no provision whatever is 
made for any additional medical officers, nor does the act provide for 
any control by medical officers over these infirmary corps, nor assign 
to these corps any fixed duties. Unless some provision be made on 
these points the present deficiency of surgical aid will continue to 
exist, and the infirmary corps will necessarily follow the army to 
which they are attached when it moves after a battle, or, if left 
behind, will be subject to the orders only of their own offieers, who 
are not medical men—or conflicts will arise between these officers and 
the medical officers. 

Entertaining the conviction, therefore, that this act in its present 
form, while entailing heavy expense, will fail in the beneficial effects 
contemplated by Congress, I deem it my duty to return it, without my 
approval, but with the hope that some additional legislation may be 
devised to accomplish the purpose contemplated by its passage. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


AN ACT to extend the term of office of certain war-tax collectors. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
in those States wherein the chief collectors of the war tax have not 
been able to complete the duties of their office within the year for 
which they were appointed, the Secretary of the Treasury shall be 
authorized to extend the term of their offices, respectively, for such 
additional period as may be required to complete the said duties, and 
pay them for such additional term a proportional rate of the annual 
salary fixed by law. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


AN ACT to punish and repress the importation, by our enemies, of notes purport- 
ing to be notes of the Treasury of the Confederate States. 


Whereas, manifestly with the knowledge and connivance of the 
Federal Government, and for the purpose of destroying the credit and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 119 


circulation of the Treasury notes of this Government, immense 
amounts of spurious or counterfeit notes, purporting to be such 
Treasury notes, have been fabricated and advertised for sale in the 
enemy’s country, and have been brought into these States and put in 
circulation by persons in the service of the enemy: 

The Congress of the Confederate States [of America] do enact, [That] 
every person in the service of, or adhering to, the enemy, who shall 
pass or offer to pass any such spurious or counterfeit note or notes, 
as aforesaid, or shall sell or attempt to sell the same, or shall bring 
any such note or notes into the Confederate States, or shall have any 
such note or notes in his possession, with intent to pass or sell the 
same, shall, if captured, be put to death by hanging; and every com- 
missioned officer of the enemy who shall permit any offense men- 
tioned in this section to be committed by any person under his 
authority, shall be put to death by hanging. Every person charged 
with an offense punishable under this act shall be tried by a military 
court in such manner and under such regulations as the President 
Shall prescribe; and, after conviction, the President may commute 
the punishment to imprisonment in such manner, and for such time, 
as he may deem proper, and may pardon the offender on such condi- 
tions as he may deem proper, ‘or unconditionally. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


AN ACT making appropriations for the support of the Government for the 
month of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and for certain deficien- 
cies and other purposes therein mentioned. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
there be appropriated and paid out of any money in the Treasury not 
otherwise appropriated, the following sums of money and for the fol- 
lowing purposes, viz: 

Hor expenses of the month of January, eighteen hundred and siaty- 
three, in the War Department.—For compensation of the Secretary 
of War, Assistant Secretary of War, chief of bureau, clerks, messen- 
gers, ete., twelve thousand dollars. 

For incidental and contingent expenses, seven thousand dollars. 

Ordnance Bureau.—For ordnance service in all its branches, two 
million five hundred thousand dollars. : 

For the engineer service, five hundred thousand dollars. 

For the purchase of iron and advances on contracts for same, five 
hundred thousand dollars. 

For the purchase and manufacture of niter, two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. 

Quartermaster’s Department.—For the pay of the Army, eighteen 
i six hundred and sixty thousand one hundred and eighty-nine 

ollars. ; 

For the transportation of troops and their baggage, of quartermas- 
ter’s stores, subsistence, ordnance and ordnance stores from place of 
purchase to troops in the field, the purchase of horses, mules, wagons 
and harness, the purchase of lumber, nails, iron and steel, for erecting 
store-houses, quarters for troops and other repairs, hire of teamsters, 
laborers, etc., seven million four hundred and sixty-four thousand and 
' Seventy-five dollars. 

_ For pay for horses of non-commissioned officers and privates killed 
in battle, under act number forty-eight, section seven, and for which 
provision is to be made, twenty-five thousand dollars. 


» 


120 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


For pay for property pressed into service of the Confederate States 
under appraisement, said property having been either lost or applied 
to the public service, thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. 

For the subsistence of prisoners of war, under act number one hun- 
dred and eighty-one, section first, and the hire of the necessary pris- 
ons, guard-houses, ete., for the safe-keeping of the same, or so much 
thereof as may be necessary, two hundred thousand dollars. 

For the bounty of fifty dollars to each non-commissioned officer, 
musician and private now in service for three years or for the war, to 
be paid at the expiration of the first year’s service, on the basis that 
sixty thousand will have to be paid, three million dollars. 

For the pay of officers on duty in the offices of the Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Department, the Quartermaster General’s, Med- 
ical, Engineer, Ordnance and Subsistence Departments, sixty-four 
thousand six hundred and seventy dollars. 

Medical Department.—For pay of private phyisicans employed by 
contract, from the first to the thirty-first of January, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-three, thirty thousand dollars. 

For pay of nurses and cooks, not enlisted or volunteer, from the 
first to the thirty-first of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 
forty-eight thousand dollars. re 

For pay of hospital stewards, from the first to the thirty-first Janu- 
ary, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, twelve thousand dollars. 

For pay of hospital laundresses, from the first to the thirty-first 
January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, ten thousand dollars. 

For medical and hospital supplies of the Army, from the first to the 
thirty-first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, four hundred 
thousand dollars. 

For the establishment and support of military hospitals, from the 
first to the thirty-first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 
thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. 

* * * *k * * * 

For deficiencies in the Quartermaster’s Department for nine months 
to January first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, thirty-nine million 
dollars. 

For foreign intercourse, 7. €., salaries of commissioners and secre- 
taries for three months from January first, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-three, twelve thousand dollars. 

For medical and hospital supplies, to supply deficit in appropriation 
for the period extending from April first to December first, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two, one million five hundred thousand dollars. 

For pay of private physicians employed in conjunction with the 
medical staff of the Army, to supply deficit in the appropriation for 
the period extending from April first to December first, eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-two, fifty thousand dollars. 

To pay interest on five hundred thousand dollars borrowed by Gen- 
eral Hindman from Branch Bank of Tennessee on the twenty-eighth 
May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and returned July seventeenth, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-two, four thousand one hundred and nine 
dollars. 

* ok * * * * * 

Commissary Generals Department.—For the purchase of subsist- 
ence for the Army for the month of January, eighteen hundred and . 
Sixty-three, six million five hundred and seventy-one thousand six 
hundred and seventy-two dollars and ninety-one cents. 

* * * * *k * * 


Approved October 13, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ‘baw 


AN ACT authorizing the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
during the present invasion of the Confederate States, the President 
shall have power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
in any city, town, or military district, whenever in his judgment the 
public safety may require it; but such suspension shall apply only to 
arrests made by the authorities of the Confederate Government, or 
for offenses against the same. 

SEC. 2. The President shall cause proper officers to investigate 
the cases of all persons so arrested, in order that they may be dis- 
charged, if improperly detained, unless they can be speedily tried in 
due course of law. 

SEC. 3. This act shall continue in force for thirty days after the 
next meeting of Congress, and no longer. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
Richmond, October 14, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have received the telegram sent by General Beauregard to 
you. linfer that General B. thinks that because the order has been 
given to transfer the money to John Boston, depositary at Savannah, 
that it is intended to remove the same to Savannah. * Mr. Boston has 
been ordered to appoint W. H. Young, president of the Bank of 
Columbus, his agent to receive the same from the military authori- 
ties, and to hold it on deposit at Columbus. As Mr. Young is now.in 
actual possession of the coin, the transfer will be merely formal, so 
as to divest the title of the Bank of Louisiana. If, however, it is the 
opinion of yourself or General Beauregard that the coin is not safe at 
Colun bus or that it had better be removed to Augusta, please let me 
know and I will give directions accordingly. General B.’s telegram 
is herewith returned.* 

With much respect, 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


RICHMOND, October 14, 1862. 
General BEAUREGARD, : 


Charleston, S. C.: 


President Young has been appointed a depositary by Mr. Boston. 
You may therefore leave the money in Young’s hands upon his con- 
_Senting to receipt for it as the depositary of the Treasury Depart- 
ment. 

G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


SS 


CHARLESTON, S. C., October 14, 1862. 
General 8. CooPER, 


Assistant Adjutant-General, &c., Richmond, Va.: 


President Young refused to give up the coin; forcible possession 
taken; guard placed over it. Where shall it be sent? Enemy appears 


*See Beauregard to Randolph, October 12, p. 116. 


122 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to be preparing for a movement near Port Royal Ferry. My forces 
there are very weak. Could they not be increased from sources 
beyond my reach? 

G. T. BEAUREGARD. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 240. Richmond, October 14, 1862. 
* * * *% * * * 


XXXIII. Generals commanding military districts in the Trans- 
Mississippi Department will afford all reasonable facilities for the 
introduction and transportation of niter and lead from Mexico, or 
through the Gulf ports. Upon requisition from officers of the Niter 
and Mining Bureau they are authorized and required to cause their 
several quartermasters to provide transportation for munitions so 
imported when in so doing the movement of troops and the trans- 
portation of their necessary supplies is not interfered with. 

* * * >} * * * 

XXXVI. General G. T. Beauregard will detail an officer to seize the 
$9 .539,798.79 in coin, the property of the Bank of Louisiana now 
deposited at Columbus, Ga., in the hands of W. H. Young, president 
of the Bank of Columbus, for safe-keeping, and deliver the same to 
John Boston, depositary of the Government at Savannah, Ga., or to 
any agent whom he may appoint to receive it. 

* * * * * * BS 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, October 15, 1862. 
Col. A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster-General, Richmond: 

Str: The Secretary of War directs that you select some suitable 
officer of your department in this city to receive the sums paid in by 
members of the Dunkard Society to secure exemption from military 
service. This officer will perform this duty until further orders. 
This order will include also the members of the societies of Friends, 
Mennonites, and Nazarenes. 

Very respectfully, &e., 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


—_——_——. 


RicHMonpD, October 15, 1862. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Charleston, S. C.: 

The Secretary of the Treasury desires to have the coin turned over 
to T. S. Metcalf, the Government depositary at Augusta. You will 
dispose of it accordingly. 

G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 123 


CoLuMBUus, GA., October 16, 1862. 


Mr. W. H. YOUNG, 
President of Bank of Columbus, Ga.: 


In accordance with an order from General Beauregard I beg leave 
to make this my formal and official demand upon you to deliver 
to me certain kegs and boxes of coin removed from the city of New 
Orleans and now in your custody in the vault of the Bank of Colum- 
bus. In ease of your refusal to comply with this demand I shall feel 
it my duty to take forcible military possession of said coin to comply 
on my part with the aforesaid order from General Beauregard. 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
A. G. RICE, 
Arde-de- Camp. 


COLUMBUS, GA., October 16, 1562. 


Received from W. H. Young, president of the Bank of Columbus, 
57 kegs, said to contain $2,323,798.79 in gold coin, and 201 boxes and 
3 kegs, said to contain $216,000 in silver coin. W. H. Young, as presi- 
dent and individually, disclaims all knowledge of the contents of said 
kegs and boxes, which were originally received from R. M. Davis, 
president of the Bank of Louisiana, and deposited in the vault of the 
Bank of Columbus, Ga. 

A. G. RICE, 
Aide-de-Camp. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 16, 1862. 
His Excellency Governor LETCHER, 
Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I have received from the adjutant-general of Virginia a copy of 
an order to the superintendent of the Military Institute at Lexington 
directing him ‘‘not to surrender any cadet who may be claimed as a 
conscript by the Confederate authority until the constitutionality of 
the act of Congress called the conscription law shall have been tested, 
the legislative will of the State ascertained, or until further orders.” 

Presuming that you desire to avoid collisions between the authorities 
of the State and of the Confederacy, and that you will aid me in adjust- 
ing the difference without a resort to force, I propose that a case shall 
be immediately made for the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State, in 
which the constitutionality of the conscript act can be tested. This 
may be done by the enrollment of a cadet and an application fora writ 

of habeas corpus on the part of the superintendent of the institute. 

If you will direct him to pursue this course I will order the necessary 
enrollment to be made at such time and place as you may designate, 
and I will also give orders that pending the trial under the writ the 
cadet may be allowed to remain at the institute, subject to the order 
of the War Department. 

As my only wish is to obtain a speedy decision of a question threat- 
ening us with so much peril, I desire to avoid all controversy about 
forms of proceeding, and will acquiesce in any arrangement by which 
the constitutionality of the act can be tested. ; 


124 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In the absence of a Supreme Court of the Confederate States I am 
happy at having it in my power to submit the question to a tribunal 
so pure and so intelligent as the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[OcTOBER 16, 1862. —For Lee to Randolph, in relation to Confeder- 
ate money, see Series I, Vol. XIX, Part I], p. 668. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, DEPT. OF JUSTICE, 
Richmond, Va., October 17, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
ms Secretary of War: 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter of 
Lewis Cruger, comptroller, &c., addressed to you on the 14th instant, 
propounding certain questions hereinafter more specifically noticed. 
You ask my opinion on the questions thus presented. How far Goy- 
ernment is bound to indemnify individuals, its inhabitants, for dam- 
ages sustained during war has been a mooted question for centuries. 
Of course each government must decide this question for itself, and 
be guided in the decision by its own fundamental law or constitution. 
When a government has a written constitution prescribing its duties 
and powers, these duties and powers must be examined in ascertain- 
ing whether the damages sustained in war create such an obligation 
as is within the power of the legislative department to provide for. 
The Constitution of the Confederate States divides the powers and 
duties of the Confederate Government into three separate and distinet 
departments, the legislative, judicial, and executive. The powers of 
the legislative department are specially defined, and its duties, though 
not specifically defined, are, nevertheless, clearly made known. Con- 
gress, the organ of the legislative department, has not only no power 
to bestow gratuities or gifts, but is by the first clause of eighth section, 
first article, of the Constitution prohibited from granting bounties. 
The Government of the Confederate States has vested in it the power 
to declare and carry on war and to conclude peace. ‘The States com- 
posing the Confederacy have no war-making powers, and are expressly 
forbidden to keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, and to 
engage in war unless actually invaded or in such imminent danger as 
will not admit of delay. By virtue of this exclusive right to make | 
war and raise and support armies for the defense of States and people, 
the Confederate Government has the right to seize private property 
for the public use. This right is recognized distinctly in the sixteenth 
clause, ninth section, article first, of the Constitution. This right 
of taking private property for the public use is coupled with the duty 
of providing just compensation for the property so seized. The power 
to take cannot be constitutionally exercised without the performance 
of the duty to provide the pay. This has been repeatedly decided by 
the highest judicial authority. There are other damages sustained in 
war besides those arising from taking private property for public use, 
which would create an obligation no just State having the ability and 
the power by its constitution to pay could resist. Vattel, on page 402, 
says ‘‘damages sustained in war are divided into two kinds—those 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 125 


done by the state itself and those done by the enemy.” ‘Those done 
by the state are subdivided into two kinds: those done deliberately, 
by way of precaution, for the public safety, and those caused by 
inevitable necessity. Of the first kind caused by the state itself 
Vattel gives as examples: 

When a field, a house, or a garden belonging to a private person is taken for 
the purpose of erecting on the spot a tower, rampart, or any other piece of fortifi- 
cation, or when his standing corn or his store-houses are destroyed to prevent their 
being of use to the enemy, all such damages are to be made good to the individual, 
who should bear only his quota of the loss. 

Damages caused by inevitable necessity, such as the destruction caused by the 
artillery in retaking a town from the enemy, are accidents, misfortunes, which 
_ chance deals out to the proprietors on whom they may happen to fall. The 
sovereign, indeed, ought to show an equitable regard for the sufferers, if the 
situation of his affairs will admit of it. No action lies against the state for mis- 
fortunes of this nature for losses which she has occasioned, not willfully, but 
through mere accident in the exercise of her rights. 

Damages caused by the enemy to individuals are mere accidents of war, and 
have not generally been considered as creating any just charge against the state. 
(Vattel, 402.) 


Butsunder our Government Congress must determine what damages 
shall be paid for and make appropriations for the indemnity. No 
other department of the Government has the constitutional right to 
determine the question. In the absence of a law the Executive 
Department, where the public necessity was so imperative as to admit 
of no delay, has frequently exercised the power to appropriate pri- 
vate property for the public use. The impending necessity which 
occasioned the act may be said to furnish the justification. (See 
Harmon vs. Mitchell, 13 How., 115.) In all such cases the legislative 
department would provide the just compensation for the property so 
seized. The facts presented by the letter referred to me, and on which 
my opinion is asked, show that vessels belonging to private indi- 
viduals, citizens of the State of Virginia, ‘‘ were seized as a military 
necessity, by order of the commanding general (Joseph E. Johnston), 
and sunk in the Pamunkey River to impede the advance of enemy’s 
gun-boats.” The public necessity certainly justified General Johnston 
in this use of private property, and I have no doubt that just com- 
pensation should be made to the owners of the vessels so destroyed. 
But under our Constitution ‘‘no money shall be drawn from the 
Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.” The 
law-making power of the Government must therefore act before any 
money can constitutionally get out of the Treasury. Congress is the 
law-making power of the Government. Congress can appropriate no 
money from the Treasury except by a vote of two-thirds of both 
Houses, taken by yeas and nays, unless it be asked and estimated for 
by some one of the heads of the Departments and submitted by the 
President, save in two cases expressly named in the Constitution. 
~The Constitution requires that all bills appropriating money shall 
specify in Federal currency the exact amount of each appropriation 
_and the purposes for which it is made. Unless, therefore, an appro- 
priation has been made by Congress for the payment of the damages 
to the owners of the vessels thus seized and appropriated to the pub- 
lie use no payment can legally be made to them. I have examined 
the appropriation act of the last session of Congress, and I can find 
none out of which these claims can be legally paid. 

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

pee VW AL LS, 
Attorney-General. 


126 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 76. Richmond, October 17, 1862. 


Maj. A. H. Cole, quartermaster, is announced as inspector-general 
of field transportation for the C. S. Army, headquarters Richmond, 
Va. All officers of the Quartermaster’s Department will report to 
him without further orders the number of wagons, horses, mules, 
sets of harness, and their condition. 

The chief quartermasters of the armies in the field will see that 
this order is observed by all officers of. the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment within the limits of their respective commands. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


JACKSON, October 17, 1862. 
(Received 18th. ) 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: : 

The importance of salt to be exchanged for cotton is regarded here 
as a necessity. Many have no bacon and no salt; are living on vege- 
tables and bread without salt. I hope you will not order it stopped 
until you have all the facts. Will write you to-morrow at length. 

J. J. PETTUS. 


[First indorsement. ] 


Secretary of War for notice and remarks. 
nllisern OF 


[Second indorsement. ] 


OCTOBER 19, 1862. 


Respectfully returned to the President. 

Orders have been given to prevent cotton from being sent to any 
port in possession of the enemy. The penalties of the two acts of 
Congress of May 21, 1861, and April 19, 1862, are very heavy, and the 
acts are a very clear expression of the legislative will. 

G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[OCTOBER 17, 1862.—For Jones to Randolph, recommending the 
temporary suspension of the execution of the conscript act in East 
Tennessee, &c., see Series I, Vol. XVI, Part II, p. 953. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, DEPT. OF JUSTICE, 
Richmond, October 18, 1862: 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: In reply to your request to give you my opinion how far the 
exemption act of last session of Congress is retrospective, I submit 
for your consideration the following: 

In ascertaining the correct construction of the last exemption law 
it may be profitable, if not necessary, to glance at all the legislation 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. L24 


of Congress on the subject of conscription. The exemption acts of 
the last and preceding sessions of Congress must to some extent be 
regarded as parts of the conscription acts of those sessions. Each 
conscription act refers to exemptions, either then or to be provided 
for. The first conscription law authorized the President to call out 
and place in the military service of the Confederate States all white 
men who were residents of the Confederate States, between the ages 
of eighteen and thirty-five at the time the call was made, not legally 
exempt from military service. All of the prescribed age who were then 
in the service, and who had enlisted for:a period of less than three 
years, were by this act retained in the service for three years from their 
enlistment, unless the war should be sooner terminated. The act 
did not operate on those who had enlisted for three years or the war, 
except that the eleventh section gave the privilege of electing officers 
to certain battalions, squadrons, and regiments. The first exemption 
act in most of its provisions operated only on those persons not then 
in the military service of the Confederate States or those liable to 
be called into the service. The conscription act of the last session 
of Congress authorizes the President to call out and place in the 
_ mnilitary service of the Confederate States all white men, residents of 
the Confederate States, between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five 
years at the time the call or calls may be made, who are not at such 
time or times legally exempted from military service, &c. The 
exemption act of the last session of Congress repeals by express terms 
the first, and was evidently intended as a substitute for it. How far 
it was intended to act retrospectively must be ascertained from its 
provisions interpreted by the rules given for the construction of stat- 
utes. No statute is presumed to be retrospective. Except as to reme- 
dial statutes, the presumption is always against a retrospective 
operation. It has been repeatedly adjudicated that a retrospective 
operation will not be given to a statute unless the intention that it 
Shall so operate clearly appears. In ascertaining the true intention 
of the statute we are to look at and compare all parts of it; some- 
times at other statutes to be taken in part materia with it; the good 
proposed to be effected, the evil proposed to be remedied, the language 
used, and the context. j 

It may well be that some parts of a statute are intended to be retro- 
spective and others prospective, or intended to operate in presenti. 
This exemption act in most of its provisions is expressly restricted to 
the time of its enactment. I have carefully examined and analyzed 
each provision exempting classes of persons, and I am satisfied that 
there is but one provision which can be rationally considered as retro- 
Spective to any extent. It is by no means certain that even this can 
be so considered. I allude to that provision which undertakes to 
“secure the proper police of the country” by relieving the agents, 
owners, or overseers of plantations from service. It seems to me, 
however, that an evil which existed under the first exemption act was 
to some extent intended to be provided for by this part of the last 
law. In giving proper effect to this exemption act it must not be 
overlooked that the first as well as the last exemption act relieves 
from ‘‘military service in the Army of the Confederate States.” Those 
persons between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years who have 
only been called out and not mustered into the service are entitled 
to the benefits of the last exemption law. To exempt means to free 
from an anticipated burden or duty to which others may be subject. 
To discharge means to release from a present burden or duty. The 


128 CORRESPONDETCE, ETC. 


spirit of the law, if not the letter, might authorize a discharge of 
persons in actual service in order ‘‘to secure the proper police of the 
country.” Whilst the language of the present exemption law in all 
the provisions, except the one before noticed, confines it to the time of 
its enactment in ascertaining the persons to be exempted, it must not 
be overlooked that the conscription act of the last session of Congress 
subjects only those to military service who are between the ages of 
thirty-five and forty-five at the time the call is made, and who are at 
such time not legally exempt. 

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. H. WATTS, 
Attorney-General. 


——_—__—__ 


CANTON, GA., October 18, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


DEAR SiR: The act of Congress passed at its late session extending 
the conscription act, unlike its predecessor of which it is amendatory, 
gives you power in certain contingencies, of the happening of which 
you must be the judge, to suspend its operation and accept troops 
from the States under any of the former acts upon that subject. By 
former acts you were authorized to accept troops from the States 
organized into companies, battalions, and regiments. The conscrip- 
tion act of 16th of April last repealed these acts, but the late act 
revives them when you suspend it. For the reasons then given I 
entered my protest against the first conscription act on account of its 
unconstitutionality and refused to permit the enrollment of any State 
officer, civil or military, who was necessary to the integrity of the 
State government. But on account of the emergencies of the country 
growing out of the neglect of the Confederate authorities to call upon 
the State for a sufficient amount of additional force to supply the places 
of the twelve-months’ troops, and on account of the repeal of the 
former laws upon that subject, having for the time placed it out of 
your power to accept troops organized by the States in the constitu- 
tional mode, I interposed no active resistance to the enrollment of 
persons in this State between eighteen and thirty-five who were not 
officers necessary to the maintenance of the government of the State. 
The first conscription act took from the State only part of her military 
force. She retained her officers and all her militia between thirty- 
five and forty-five. Her military organization was neither disbanded 
nor destroyed. She had permitted a heavy draft to be made upon it, 
without constitutional authority, rather than her fidelity to our cause 
should be questioned or the enemy should gain any advantage grow- 
ing out of what her authorities might consider unwise councils. But 
she still retained an organization subject to the command of her con- 
stituted authorities, which she could use for the protection of her 
public property, the execution of her laws, the repulsion of invasion, — 
or the suppression of servile insurrection which our insidious foe now 
proclaims to the world that it is his intention to incite, which if done 
may result in an indiscriminate massacre of helpless women and 
children. 

At this critical period in our public affairs, when it is absolutely 
necessary that each State keep an organization for home protection, 
Congress with your sanction has extended the conscription act to 
embrace all between thirty-five and forty-five subject to military duty, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 129 


giving you the power to suspend the act as above stated. If you 
refuse to exercise this power and are permitted to take all between 
thirty-five and forty-five as conscripts, you disband and destroy all 
military organization in this State and leave her people utterly power- 
less to protect their own families even against their own slaves. Not 
only so, but you deny to those between thirty-five and forty-five a 
privilege of electing the officers to command them, to which, under 
the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws of this State, they 
are clearly entitled, which has been allowed to other troops from the 
State, and was to a limited extent allowed even to those between 
eighteen and thirty-five under the act of April 16, as that act did allow 
them thirty days within which to volunteer under such officers as they 
might select, who chanced at the time to have commissions from the 
War Department to raise regiments. If. you deny this rightful priv- 
ilege to those between thirty-five and forty-five and refuse to accept 
them as volunteers with officers selected by them in accordance with 
the laws of their State and attempt to compel them to enter the serv- 
ice as conscripts, my opinion is your orders will only be obeyed by 
many of them when backed by an armed force which they have no 
power to resist. The last act, if I construe it correctly, does not give 
those between thirty-five and forty-five the privilege under any cir- 
cumstances of volunteering and forming themselves into regimental 
organizations, but compels them to enter the present organizations as 
privates under officers heretofore selected by others, until all the 
present organizations are filled to their maximum number. This 
injustice can only be avoided by the exercise of the power given you 
to suspend the act and call upon the States for organized companies, 
battalions, and regiments. 

I think the history of the past justifies me in saying that the public 
interest cannot suffer by the adoption of this course. When you 
made a requisition upon me in the early part of February last for 
twelve regiments I had them all, with a large additional number in 
the field, subject to your command and ready for service in about one 
month. It has now been over six months since the passage of the 
first conscription act and your officers during that time have not 
probably enrolled and carried into service from this State conscripts 
exceeding one-fourth of the number furnished by me as volunteers in 
one month; while the expense of getting the conscripts into service 
has probably been four times as much as it cost to get four times the 
number of volunteers into the field. In consideration of these facts 
I trust you will not hesitate to exercise the power given you by the 
. act of Congress and make an early requisition (which I earnestly 
invite) upon the Executive of this State for her just quota of the addi- 
tional number of troops necessary to be called out to meet the hosts 
of the invader, the troops to be organized into companies, battalions, 
and regiments in accordance with the laws of this State. The prompt 
and patriotic response made by the people of Georgia to every call for 
volunteers justifies the reasonable expectation that I shall be able to 
fill your requisition. in a short time after it is made, and authorizes 
me in advance to pledge prompt compliance. This can be done, too, 
when left to the State authorities, in such a way as not to disband 
nor destroy her military organization at home, which must be kept in 
_ existence to be used in case of servile insurrection or other pressing 
necessity. If you should object to other new organizations on the 
ground that they are not efficient, I beg to invite your attention to the 


9 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


130 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


conduct of the newly organized regiments of Georgians, and indeed of 
troops from all the States upon the plains of Manassas, in the battles 
before Richmond, upon James Island near Charleston, at Shiloh, at 
Richmond, Ky., and upon every battle-field whenever and wherever 
they have met the invading forces. If it is said that some of 
our old regiments are almost decimated, not having more than 
enough men ina regiment to form a single company; that it is too 
expensive to keep these small bands in the field as regiments, and that 
justice to the officers requires that they be filled up by conscripts, I 
reply that injustice should never be done to the troops for the pur- 
pose of saving a few dollars of expense, and that justice to the men 
now called into the field as imperatively requires that they shall have 
the privilege allowed to other troops to exercise the constitutional 
right of entering the service under officers selected and appointed as 
directed by the laws of their own State as it does that officers in sery- 
ice shall not be deprived of their commands when their regiments are 
worn out or destroyed. Our officers have usually exposed themselves 
in the van of the fight and shared the fate of their men; hence but 
few of the original experienced officers who went to the field with our 
old regiments, which have won so bright a name in history, now sur- 
vive, but their places have been filled by others appainted in most 
cases by the President. They have, therefore, no just cause to 
claim that the right of election, which belongs to every Georgian, shall 
be denied to all who are hereafter to enter the service for the purpose 
of sustaining them in the offices which they now fill. If it becomes 
necessary to disband any regiment on account of its small numbers 
let every officer and private be left perfectly free to unite with such 
new volunteer association as he thinks proper, and in the organiza- 
tion and selection of officers it is but reasonable to suppose that mod- 
est merit and experience will not be overlooked. 

The late act of Congress if executed in this State not only does gross 
injustice to a large class of her citizens, utterly destroys all State 
military organizations, and encroaches upon the reserved rights of the 
State, but strikes down her sovereignty at a single blow and tears from 
her the right arm of strength by which she alone can maintain her 
existence and protect those most dear to her and most dependent upon 
her. The representatives of the people will meet in General Assem- 
bly on the 6th day of next month, and I feel that I should be recreant 
to the high trust imposed in me were I to permit the virtual destruc- 
tion of the government of the State before they shall have had time to 
convene, deliberate, and act. Referring, in connection with the con- 
siderations above mentioned, to our former correspondence for the rea- 
sons which satisfy my mind beyond doubt of the unconstitutionality 
of the conscription acts, and to the fact that a judge in this State of 
great ability, in a case regularly brought before him in his judicial 
capacity, has pronounced the law unconstitutional, and to the further 
fact that Congress has lately passed an additional act authorizing you 
to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, doubtless with 
a view of denying to the judiciary in this very case the exercise of its 
constitutional functions for the protection of personal liberty, I can no 
longer avoid the responsibility of discharging a duty which I owe’to 
the people of this State by informing you that I cannot permit the 
enrollment of conscripts under the late act of Congress entitled ‘‘An 
act to amend the act further to provide for the common defense” until ” 
the General Assembly of this State shall have convened and taken 
action in its premises. The plea of necessity set up for conscription 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 131 


last spring, when I withheld active resistance to a very heavy draft 
upon the military organization of the State under the first conscrip- 
tion act, cannot be pleaded after the brilliant successes of our gallant 
armies during the summer and fall campaign, which have been 
achieved by troops who entered the service not as conscpts but as 
volunteers. 

If more troops are needed to meet coming emergencies, call upon 
the State and you shall have them as volunteers much more rapidly 
than your enrolling officer can drag conscripts like slaves in chains 
to camps of instruction. And who that is not blinded by prejudice 
or ambition can doubt that they will be much more effective as volun- 
teers than as conscripts? The volunteer enters the service of his own 
free will; he regards the war as much his own as the Government’s 
war, and is ready, if need be, to offer his life a willing sacrifice upon 
his country’s altar; hence it is that our volunteer armies have been 
invincible when contending against vastly superior numbers with 
every advantage which the best equipments and supplies can afford. 
Not so with the conscript. He may be as ready as any citizen of the 
State to volunteer if permitted to enjoy the constitutional rights which 
have been allowed to others in the choice of his officers and associates, 
but if these are denied him and he is seized like a serf and hurried 
into an association repulsive to his feelings and placed under officers 
in whom he has no confidence, he then feels that this is the Govern- 
ment’s war, not his; that he is the mere instrument of arbitrary power, 
and that he is no longer laboring to establish constitutional liberty, 
but to build up a military despotism for its ultimate but certain over- 
throw. Georgians will never refuse to volunteer as long as there is 
an enemy upon our soil and a call for their services; but if I mistake 
nos the signs of the times they will require the Government to respect 
their plain constitutional rights. Surely no just reason exists why 
you should refuse to accept volunteers when tendered, and insist on 
replenishing your armies by conscription and coercion of free men. 
The question, then, is not whether you shall have Georgia’s quota of 
troops, for they are freely offered—tendered in advance—but it is 
whether you shall accept them when tendered as volunteers, organ- 
ized as the Constitution and laws direct, or shall, when the decision 
is left with you, insist on rejecting volunteers and dragging the free 
citizens of this State into your armies as conscripts. _ 

No act of the Government of the United States prior to the seces- 
sion of Georgia struck a blow at constitutional liberty so fell as has 
been stricken by the conscription acts. The people of this State had 
ample cause, however, to justify their separation from the old Gov- 
ernment. ‘They acted coolly and deliberately in view of all the respon- 
sibilities, and they stand ready to-day to sustain their action at all 
hazards and to resist submission to the Lincoln Government and the 
reconstruction of the old Union to the expenditure of their last dollar 
and the sacrifice of their last life. Having entered into the revolu- 
tion free men, they intend to emerge from itfree men. And if I mis- 
take not the character of the sons, judged by the action of their 
fathers against Federal encroachments under Jackson, Troup, and 
Gilmer, respectively, as executive officers, they will refuse to yield 
their sovereignty to usurpation and will require the Government, 
which is the common agent of all the States, to move within the sphere 
assigned it by the Constitution. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
| JOSEPH E. BROWN, 


132 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES DEPOSITORY, 
Augusta, Ga., October 18, 1862. 


Received of Col. A. G. Rice, for account of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, 201 boxes and 60 kegs, said to contain $2,539,798.79. 
THOS. S. METCALF, 
Confederate States Depositary. 


ee 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 20, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


Str: I have examined the census returns of 1850 for the purpose of 
ascertaining the limit to which it is desirable to extend the age of con- 
scription, and beg leave to submit the following statement deduced 
from those returns: 

I find that the white population of the Confederate States in 1850, 
excluding Kentucky and Missouri, amounted to 4,341,948. Adding a 
third for the estimated increase since 1850, we have the present white 
population at 5,789,197. 

Parts of Virginia and Tennessee being in the possession ef the 
enemy, we may estimate the available white population at 5,000,000, 
and the male population at 2,500,000. 

The conscript age, from eighteen to thirty-five, embraces 28.74 per 
cent. of the whole, and gives 718,500 subject to conscription under 
existing laws. 

An extension of the age to forty embraces 5.8 per cent. more, and 
gives an addition of 145,000, and a further extension to forty-five adds 
4.06 per cent., or 101,500. : 

The first extension, together with the present conscription, will give 
863,500 subject to military service, and estimating the exempts at 
three-sevenths, we shall have a force in the field of 493,500, or, in round 
numbers, half a million of men. 

It is questionable whether a larger number can be fed, clothed, and 
armed, and I fear that a greater addition to the Army than that pro- 
posed would rather impair than increase its efficiency. 

Numbers are only one element of strength. We shall gain more 
after reaching a certain point by proper attention to subsistence and 
equipments than by mere addition to the numerical strength of our 
forces. 

Five hundred thousand men will be 5 per cent. of our entire popu- 
lation, black and white. This is a larger proportion than Kuropean 
powers place in the field, and quite as large a number as a prudent. 
regard to our resources will at present justify. 

I therefore recommend that the conscript age be not extended at 
this time beyond forty years. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[Indorsement. ] 


OCTOBER 20, 1862. 


The present call will be limited to men under forty years old. __ 
JEFFERSON DAVIS, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 133 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 20, 1862. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury: 
Str: I have received your letter of the 16th instant inquiring as to 
an officer by whom bonds may be sent to Europe. In reply I have 
the honor to say that the Department knows of no opportunity of 
sending bonds abroad. Major Ferguson was detailed for the purpose 
of carrying out funds to purchase winter clothing for the Army, and 
he left here under the impression that the bonds he took with him 
were for this purpose. If not so applied, the arrangement of the 
Department for securing a supply of winter clothing will be defeated, 
and it is now too late to make any other arrangements in time to meet 
the wants of our soldiers. I must therefore most earnestly request 
that the bonds earried out by Major Ferguson be applied to the pur- 
pose indicated. Had the Department been informed at the time that 
Major Ferguson was taking out the bonds for other purposes, some 
other arrangement would have been attempted. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
, Secretary of War. 


7 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 245. Richmond, October 20, 1862. 
* * * * * * * 


XXIX. Officers commanding camps of instruction under the con- 
seription acts will cause the enrollment of conscripts to be extended 
to all men not subject to exemption who are between eighteen and 
forty years of age. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CHAMBER, 
Columbia, S. C., October 20, 1862. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Commanding Department of Georgia, &e.: 

Str: I have the honor to inclose (by order of the Governor and 
Council) an ordinance to provide for the removal of negroes, &c., and 
report of Special Committee No. 2, adopted by the convention of 
South Carolina. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
B. F. ARTHUR, 
Clerk of the Convention. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


AN ORDINANCE to provide for the removal of negroes and other property from 
portions of the State which may be invaded by the enemy. 


We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assem- 
bled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained: 
SECTION 1. That for the purpose of more fully accomplishing the 
objects of this ordinance, there shall be elected by this convention a 


134 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


commission of three citizens for each of the districts of Horry, George- 
town, Charleston, Colleton, and Beaufort; and the citizens constituting 
such commission shall be fully authorized to exercise the powers 
hereinafter provided for the said commission. 

SEC. 2. That whenever there shall be reason to believe that any por- 
tion of the State not now in the actual possession of the enemy may 
come into his possession, or the commanding general of the Confeder- 
ate forces shall notify any one of the said commissions that a removal 
of the slaves within the district of said commission, or any portion 
thereof, is necessary for the successful proSecution of his military 
duties, or it shall appear to the said commission that such removal is ~ 
otherwise required by the public interest, it shall be the duty of the 
commission for the district in which portion of the State it may be to 
notify all persons therein residing and owning negroes, or having 
them in charge, forthwith to remove and take with them, beyond a 
line to be designated by the commissioners, such negroes and such 
other property to them belonging or in their charge as it may be 
practicable to carry with them. And for such removal the said com- 
mission shall give such aid as may be necessary and it ean command. 
And if any person or persons residing in such portions of the State 
and there owning or having negroes in charge shall, after having 
received from the said commission the notice before mentioned, refuse 
or neglect to remove and take with them such negroes, it shall then 
be the duty of the said. commission to compel the removal of such 
negroes. And the said commission shall, in all cases where it may be 
necessary, apply to the commanding officer of the military forces in 
the district for such aid as may be requisite for the removal of any 
negroes and conducting them to a place of safety. 

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the said commission, in all cases of 
removal of negroes under this ordinance, to cause to be carried and 
removed with such negroes, if practicable, so much of the provisions 
which belong to the owner or owners or persons having charge of 
such negroes as will be necessary for their support; or to sell the same 
and apply the proceeds to the support of such negroes. 

SEC. 4. In all cases where the owner or owners or persons having 
charge of negroes to be removed under this ordinance shall have pre- 
pared or provided a place or places to which such negroes can be 
carried, it shall be the duty of the said commission to give to the 
owner or owners or persons having charge of such negroes such aid 
for their removal as may be necessary and the commission can com- 
mand. And if the owner or owners or persons having charge of 
negroes to be removed under this ordinance shall not have prepared 
or provided any place or places to which such negroes can be carried, 
it shall then be the duty of the said commission to cause such negroes, 
with the provisions for their support, to be removed and earried to 
such place or places as the said commission shall or may procure with 
the consent of the owner or owners of such place or places and upon 
such terms as may be agreed upon for the use and occupation of such 
place or places. And upon the removal of the negroes and provisions, 
if any, to such place or places they shall be no longer under the 
charge of the said commission, but shall be restored to the control of 
the owner or owners or persons entitled to the charge of them. 

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the said commission without delay to 
procure and provide places to which negroes may be carried under 
this ordinance. And to such of these places as may be considered 
best: for that purpose it shall be the duty also of the said commission 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 135 


to cause to be carried, and there safely kept, such supplies of pro- 
visions as the said commission may and is hereby authorized to pur- 
chase. And such supplies of provisions at such places shall be 
considered public granaries, to be used under the authority of the 
said commission for the support of negroes removed under this ordi- 
nance and whose owner or owners or persons in charge of them are 
unable otherwise to provide for their support. 

Sec. 6. Whenever the owner or owners or persons in charge of 
negroes removed under this ordinance shall be unable to employ them 
at the place or places to which they have been removed, it shall be the 
duty of the said commission to confer with the executive authority of 
_this State as to the employment which can be given to such negroes 
on the public works, or in the public service of the State, or in any 
other manner by which the expense of their removal or support can 
be saved. And in all such cases the owner or owners or persons in 
charge of such negroes, if practicable, shall be consulted as to the 
employment of such negroes, and all such regulations shall be made 
for their safety and protection as such owner or owners or persons in 
charge of such negroes shall reasonably suggest. 

Sec. 7. The said commission shall maintain frequent communica- 
tions with the commanding general of the Confederate forces within 
this State, that it may be constantly informed of the necessity which 
may from time to time exist or arise for its exercise of the powers 
herein given and its discharge of the duties hereby imposed. 

SEC. 8. The said commission shall keep a record of all its proceed- 
ings under this ordinance and report the same to the General Assembly 
of this State at its next annual meeting, unless previous to that time 
this convention shall be again assembled, and if so, such report shall 
then be made to this convention. 

SEC. 9. When any sum of money shall be expended by or under the 
authority of the commissions herein provided for, in the removal or 
support of the slaves, or in the removal of the produce or other prop- 
erty of any person, there shall be a specific lien upon the said slaves 
of such person for the repayment of the said sum of money after the 
termination of the existing war; which lien may be summarily enforced 
by seizure and sale. 

SEC. 10. The said commissions are hereby authorized to draw upon 
the treasury of the State for the sums of money which may be neces- 
sary to enable them to execute the provisions of this ordinance, and 
that the Legislature be directed to provide ways and means to reim- 
burse the treasury. 

SEC. 11. That in the event of any vacancy in said commission the 
commission shall have power to fill such vacancy. 

SEC. 12. That all corporations and owners of ferries whose means 
and facilities of transportation may be used in carrying out the pur- 
poses of this ordinance shall not be allowed to charge more than half 
the present rates. 
pee at Columbia the 2d day of January, in the year of our Lord 

D. KF. JAMISON, 
President of the Convention. 
B. KF, ARTHUR, 
Clerk of the Convention. 

Resolved, That any person or persons willing immediately. or in 

anticipation of the order of the commission to remove the negroes and 


136 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


necessary provisions for their support, under the terms of an ordinance 
entitled ‘‘An ordinance to provide for the removal of negroes and 
other property from portions of the State that may be invaded by the 
enemy,” be, and the same are hereby, entitled to receive all such aid 
on application to the commission as is prescribed by said ordinance 
to be afforded to those who remove on notice; and the commission is 
hereby directed to afford the said aid so far as the same may be expe- 
dient or practicable; and further, that all means of transportation 
shall be afforded by corporations and private ferries under the terms 
of said ordinance. 
[B.. F.. ARTHURS 
Clerk of Convention. 
[Inclosure No. 2.] 


In convention of the people of the State of South Carolina, in secret 
SeSS10N. 


The special committee No. 2, charged with considering and 
reporting upon the proper action of the State in case at any time 
further valuable portions of our territory should be pronounced 
untenable by the military authorities, respectfully report that they 
immediately on their appointment proceeded to consider the grave 
matter committed to their charge, and after several consultations 
concluded to hold their report until the convention should act on the 
reports of special committees Nos. 1 and 5. This committee unani- 
mously concur in the general line of policy indicated in the ordinance 
reported by special committee No. 1 and adopted by the convention, 
and ask leave to report resolutions to extend the provisions of the 
original ordinance to white inhabitants of Charleston ineapable of 
conducting their own removal, and to modify its provisions in refer- 
ence to the removal of negroes from that city. In regard to the city 
of Charleston, your committee cannot believe that it will ever be pro- 
nounced untenable by the military authorities until the trial of 
strength and endurance has been tested to the uttermost. They 
recommend that it should be expressed as the sense of the people of 
South Carolina, assembled in convention, that Charleston should be 
defended at any cost of life or property, and that in their deliberate 
judgment they would prefer a repulse of the enemy with the entire 
city in ruins to an evacuation or surrender on any terms whatever. 
The committee oppose altogether the idea of abandonment until both 
the defending army and the city are so far destroyed that no provis- 
ion need be made for further action. If, however, the city should be 
abandoned to the enemy, contrary to the expressed wish of the people 
of the State, your committee cannot bring themselves to recommend, 
as has been suggested by some, that the city should be destroyed by 
the hands of her own citizens, irrespective of the command of the 
military authorities. The committee have deliberated with painful 
anxiety upon this matter, but while they highly approve a defense 
like that of Saragossa, they cannot perceive in the circumstances of 
Charleston enough to recommend to her citizens the example of Mos- 
cow. ‘The committee think the injury which might be inflicted in this 
way on the enemy quite too inconsiderable to warrant a proceeding 
So very much more disastrous to ourselves. Indeed, the committee 
are inclined to believe that the destruction of the city is precisely~ 
that which the enemy desire and design. The committee believe that 
an indiscriminate burning of the city could not be effected without 
destroying the lives of a very large portion of the non-combatant 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 13% 


inhabitants, whose removal could not be accomplished. Let the 
responsibility of so terrible a calamity rest upon the enemy. The 
committee accordingly recommend that the convention should express 
its disapproval of the suggestion of a voluntary burning of the city 
by the citizens. To the military authorities they have nothing to 
suggest on this point. 

The committee recommend the adoption of the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That the provisions of the ‘‘ ordinance to provide for the 
removal of negroes and other property from portions of the State 
which may be invaded by the enemy” be extended to the removal of 
those persons in the city of Charleston who, by reason of age, sex, or 
infirmity, are incapable of taking part in its defense, if such removal 
becomes necessary in the judgment of the commission herein pro- 
vided for. | . 

Resolved, That a commission of five citizens of Charleston be cho- 
sen by the convention, whose duty it shall be to execute within the 
city of Charleston the provisions of the ordinance aforesaid and of 
this resolution. 

Resolved, That in case any expense is incurred by the commis- 
-sioners in the removal of white persons, such persons shall be lable 
to repay such expense to the commissioners, which repayment may be 
enforced by action of debt in any court of common law. 

Resolved (1), That the injunction of secrecy be removed from the 
report of resolutions of special committee No. 2, adopted by the con- 
vention in so far as to permit the communication of a certified copy 
of the said report and resolutions to each of the commissioners for 
Charleston, with leave to make known so much of the same as may 
be necessary to the several parties interested therein, and to the 
commanding general of the Confederate forces in this State and the 
Confederate officer commanding at Charleston; and that the presi- 
dent be instructed to notify the commissioners of their election. 

Resolved (2), That the commissioners for Charleston be each fur- 
nished with a copy of the ‘‘ordinance to provide for the removal of 
negroes and other property from portions of the State which may be 
invaded by the enemy,” with the same right to communicate the 
same as by a previous resolution of this convention is given to the 
commissioners for the districts of Georgetown, Horry, Charleston, 
Colleton, and Beaufort. 

Commissioners elected for Charleston: C. M. Furman, Charles Ker- 
rison, R. N. Gourdin, G. A. Trenholm, W. D. Porter. 

Resolved, That the injunction of secrecy be removed in relation to 
the ordinance providing for the removal of slaves, and the resolution 
passed amendatory thereof, in so far as to permit the communication 
of a certified copy of the ordinance to each of the commissioners, 
with leave to make known so much of the ordinance as may be neces- 
sary to the several parties interested therein, and to the command- 
ing generals of the Confederate forces in this State. That the presi- 
dent be instructed to notify the commissioners of their election. 


SAVANNAH, GA., October 21, 1862. 
Hon. W. PORCHER MILES, 
Member of Congress, Richmond, Va.: 
Why should not Governors of Southern States offer to meet those 
of Northwest States at Memphis under flag of truce to decide on 


138 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


treaty of peace to be submitted to both Governments? Has any- 
thing been done for Soulé? Offer Mitchel position on my staff if he 


can get a commission. 
G. T. BEAUREGARD. 


(A copy of the first part of the message sent to Governors Brown, 
Milton, and Pickens. ) 


KNOXVILLE, TENN., October 21, 1862. 


President DAVIS, 
Richmond: 


My Dear Sir: General Jones, to accomplish that which we sought 
to preclude and prevent by an act of Congress, now favors a suspen- 
sion of conscription in East Tennessee. You will remember that when 
I conferred with you in reference to the matter of fixing a time—a day 
certain—after which if regiments or battalions were organized they 
should not be received, that the 1st of October was determined upon 
to prevent the hurried and hasty organizations which would be formed 
in the time intervening between the introduction of the bill in the 
Senate and its approval by you. Now, it so happens that regiments 
have been organized, as I knew they would be, and General Jones, 
though informed by me of the passage of the act and its precise terms 
(for a copy of it was immediately published in the Knoxville Register), 
advised those who have participated in forming these regiments and 
companies that he will, by the ruse of suspending the conscription for 
a few days, have them received into the service. This would be a 
manifest and palpable evasion of the law as it occurs to me, and 
should by no means be tolerated. It certainly would defeat the very 
purpose for which the law was enacted. I presume General Jones 
will not say to you that it is impracticable to execute the law in East 
Tennessee, as he has said to me that he can execute it. The tories 
all through the country have it that the law will not be enforced, and 
if pending the enrollment now in progress its operation be for a day 
even suspended, it will embolden them to such a degree that I shall 
not be surprised if they hereafter resist outright. You are of course 
advised that General Bragg’s entire command is now entering Kast — 
Tennessee. It will be an easy and proper disposition of the men who 
have volunteered, and whom General Jones would now have you 
receive as new regiments, to place them at once in the old Tennessee 
regiments in General Bragg’s army. I know very well that these 
suggestions are not such as present popular clamor in East Ten- 
nessee would have me to urge upon your consideration, but prompted 
by a sense of duty to the country I am constrained to urge you to the 
course I advise. 

Very truly, yours, 
WM. G. SWAN. 


GENERAL Eaten ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 77. Richmond, October 22, 1862. 
I. All cases of applications for transfer from the Army to the Navy 
must be forwarded through superior officers, who will certify whether 
the party whose transfer is sought is or is not a seafaring person. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 139 


II. The proposal of the Southern Express Company to carry funds 
for the Government having been accepted, all officers are hereby for- 
bidden sending persons for funds in cases where the express company 
can be used. 

III. Officers who have been charged with the disbursement of 
bounty funds will immediately render their accounts to the Quarter- 
master-General; otherwise they will be reported for dismissal, as 
required by law. ; 

IV. Lieut. Col. George Deas, assistant adjutant-general, C. 8S. Army, 
is assigned to duty in the War Department as Acting Assistant Sec- 
retary of War, and will be obeyed and respected accordingly. 

V. Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 57, current series, is modified 
so as to read as follows: 

Hereafter all soldiers under eighteen and over forty years of age 
will be discharged at the expiration of the terms for which they have 
engaged to serve. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


ae 


ENGINEER BUREAU, 
Richmond, Va., October 22, 1862. 
Capt. L. P. GRANT, 

Corps of Engineers, Provisional Army, C. S., Atlanta, Ga.: 

CAPTAIN: Herewith I inclose a copy of an act to enable the Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States to provide the means of military trans- 
portation by the construction of a railroad between Blue Mountain, in 
the State of Alabama, and Rome, in the State of Georgia.* 

By the terms of this act the President is empowered to enter into 
contracts for a speedy completion of the proposed link of railroad 
*‘with the several railroad companies whose charters extend over said 
line.” 

To accomplish the object contemplated the sum of $1,122,480.92 in 
the bonds of the Confederate States has been appropriated by the 
Congress, and it is proposed by the War Department to make a loan 
of this amount to a railroad company on such terms as will insure a 
prompt execution of the work and the repayment to the Government 
of the money advanced. 

The duty of making such contract is assigned to you, subject to the 
approval of the Secretary of War, and in the following conditions, to 
wit: 

First. That the loan made by the Government to the contracting 
railroad company shall be in bonds of the Confederate States of 
America, bearing 8 per centum interest per annum. 

Second. That a mortgage be given to the Government on the pro- 
posed link of railroad and its appurtenances for the payment of the 
money loaned, with interest at 8 per centum per annum. 

Third. The company to complete the link of railroad in six to ten 
months from date of contract, and in case of failure the Secretary of 
War to have the power to foreclose the mortgage and order the sale 
of the road to other parties. 

Fourth. The War Department reserving to the Government the 
preference in all transportation over the road during the existing war. 


* See October 2, 1862, p. 200. 


140 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Fifth. That the amount loaned be refunded in installments of from 
$50,000 to $100,000 per annum, beginning at the end of twelve months 
after the day named in the contract for the completion of the road. 

Sixth. The right be reserved to the Government of having the work 
on the road inspected from time to time to determine its character, 
progress, &c. 

Seventh. That the Confederate bonds, constituting the loan to the 
company, be furnished in proportion to the progress of the work— 
that is, the War Department must have satisfactory evidence through 
the inspecting engineer of proper arrangements for a vigorous prose- 
cution of the construction before advancing any portion of the loan, 
and like evidence before making subsequent advances. 

Kighth. The bonds to bear interest from the date of delivery to the 
company, and the interest (to be paid to the Government on the 
amounts loaned) to commence at the same dates. 

Ninth. The contract to be signed in quadruplicate, one copy for 
the company, one for the inspecting engineer, one for the files of the 
War Department, and one for the auditing officer of the Confederate 
Treasury. 

Tenth. The Government not to be bound by the contract until 
approved by the Secretary of War, to be so stated in the contract. 

You are authorized to employ on reasonable terms a lawyer to aid 
you in drawing up the contract when the terms have been agreed 
upon between the company and yourself. As there will probably be - 
competition among the several railroad companies for the contract 
proposed, you will consider well the ability of the respective competi- 
tors to comply with the obligations they propose to ineur. You will 
not be limited to the most favorable terms offered unless the party or 
parties have undoubted ability to execute the work in the time 
named. 

Make, however, the best terms you can, subject to the above con- 
siderations as regards time of construction and payment of install- 
ments. 

You will please to enter at once upon the duty assigned you, and 
keep this: office informed of your proceedings and your address. 


Very respectfully, yours, 
J. F. GILMER, 
Colonel and Chief of Engineer Bureau. 


GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


Approved. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 23, 1862. 


Hon. B. H. HILL, 
CLS. Senate, La Grange, Ga.: 


DEAR SiR: Your letter of October 12 has been received, and I have 
to thank you for the candor and promptness with which you have 
advised me of the condition of public affairs in Georgia and Eastern 
Tennessee. The state of affairs in East Tennessee presents a very 
difficult question, and one which can be decided only by the consid- 
eration of many points. With every disposition to conciliate the 
people of that region, still the pressure upon us by the enemy is such 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 141 


as compels us to call into the field all who are able to serve there. 
To exempt the unwilling would be to offer a premium to disaffection. 
To allow those who are unreliable in their loyalty to continue in sep- 
arate organizations would prove a perilous experiment. Dangerous 
schemers might obtain important posts, and the least hazard incurred 
might be the propagation and perpetuation of a spirit discontented 
and unfriendly to the Confederacy. The distribution of this cla&s 
of men among regiments of loyal and tried veterans would neutralize 
their evil influence, and in time, perhaps, effect a change in them. 
On the whole, though not free from objection, this seems the most 
feasible plan for efficiently organizing in East Tennessee. Already 
some recruits have been received, who are much needed to fill up the 
thinned ranks of the gallant Turney’s brigade in Virginia. I am 
gratified at the report you give of the favorable tone of public opinion 
in Georgia relative to the conscription act. Nothing could be more 
unfortunate, not only for the success of the cause in which we are 
engaged, but also for the future reputation of the great State of 
Georgia, than any conflict between the authorities of that State and 
the Confederate Government on this question. Having full confi- 
dence on the constitutionality of the law, I rely on the decision of the 
Supreme court of Georgia to remove the difficulties that at present 
embarrass the action of the State authorities. The recommendations 
which you make have been referred to the Secretary of War, and 
will receive from him the respectful consideration due to the indorse- 
ment they receive. 

With much personal regard for yourself, as well as high consider- 
ation for your public character, 

I am, very truly and respectfully, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


P. 5.—Some regiments (said to be five) which have been organized 
in East Tennessee before the 1st of October will be received. 


HUNTSVILLE, ALA., October 24, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, | 


Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


My Dear Sir: There is great need of prompt action on the part of 
the Government to correct the evil influences of the Yankee reign 
and of abuses of power of our own agents in North Alabama. The 
disloyal stand in open defiance of constitutional authority, and of the 
few who are brave and patriotic enough to denounce them, and a 
large portion of those who are true to the Confederate Government 
are restrained by fear of the return of the Yankees and menaces of 
greater outrages than they have yet suffered from free expression of 
their sentiments and from any organization for their future defense. 
There is a very general feeling among such that the Confederate 
Government is too weak to protect them or to punish treason or to 
enforce its laws. Men are here who during the stay of the enemy 
sold them cotton and bought it for them, acted as their agents, as 
Spies, informers, and depositaries, openly declaiming: for the Union 
and even signing calls for Union meetings, and who are now trading 
with them at Nashville, passing uninterruptedly between that place 
and this city. No enrolling agent under the conscript act has been 


142 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in this section of Alabama, although quite two months has elapsed 
since the enemy left it, and those who ought to be in the Army or to 
go into it are resorting to every expedient for escaping conscription. 
-Some half dozen are ensconced in the Niter Bureau office established 
here. Others are engaging in manufactories or trades or mining, and 
others are getting certificates of chronic disorders that their neighbors 
never suspected them of. 

The reported retreat of Bragg and the disastrous defeat of Van 
Dorn have caused general dismay, and many are preparing to 
abandon their homes and to seek security in the mountains of Middle 
Alabama so soon. as the army of Buell reaches the southern boundary 
of Kentucky. This city is the place where the Union feeling most 
prevailed and where it now most exists. It has given tone to the 
political sentiment of North Alabama. If examples could be made of 
the leading traitors here, orif they could be restrained from commerce 
with the enemy, it would have a most salutary effect. I assure you that 
there are men here holding office under the Confederate Government, 
receivers under the registration act, who have been guilty of disloyal 
acts. I would suggest that an enrolling officer be appointed immedi- 
ately. Capt. L. H. Scruggs, Company I, Fourth Alabama, now 
major or lieutenant-colonel by promotion, is now here on erutches, 
having been severely wounded at Sharpsburg, and begs authority to 
enroll men to recruit his regiment. He cannot return to his regi- 
ment for several weeks and will gladly employ his time in trying to 
fill up that gallant regiment, which is now reduced to only 200 men. 
I trust that a telegram will be sent him to enroll recruits or to accept 
them as volunteers. In the adjoining county of Jackson, Samuel D. 
J. Moore would be an excellent enrolling officer. In this county 
Edward C. Betts would serve efficiently. If Moore were appointed 
for the counties of Jackson, Madison, Limestone, Lauderdale, Frank- 
lin, Lawrence, and Morgan, with authority to employ deputies in 
each, he would do the duties, I think, faithfully and efficiently. He 
is a graduate of West Point Military Academy and a respectable 
lawyer. If a camp of instruction were established here and he 
appointed to command it, a very wholesome influence would be 
exerted. This is as central and as accessible a point for the counties 
of all North Alabama and Middle Tennessee as any other. ‘There 
is needing here something to assure the people of the existence of our 
Government, and of its power to protect or to punish. 

Our Treasury notes are frequently returned, and are exchanged at 
a discount of 50 per cent. for Alabama or Tennessee bank notes. It 
is currently reported that Mrs. Judge Lane will return to this place 
or to North Alabama in a few weeks. This should not be permitted; 
or, if she come, she should be removed beyond our lines as soon as 
possible. She is as disloyal as her husband (now in Washington City), 
and much more dangerous. Any communication to Samuel D. J. 
Moore or to Capt. L. H. Seruggs or to Edward C. Betts addressed to 
me by mail or telegraph will receive my prompt attention. 

If the cartel you showed me, providing for the release of political 
prisoners and respect of non-combatants and private property, was 
signed by Stanton please let me know it. I have troubled you with 
this communication as an imperative duty, and hope it will receive 
your prompt attention. 

; I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. C. CLAY, JR, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 143 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, NAVY DEPARTMENT, 
Rachmond, October 25, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: A commission has been organized by this Department to 
examine the coal and ore deposits in several of the counties of Vir- 
ginia with a view to the fabrication of heavy ordnance, and I desire 
to obtain from you such an order as will enable it to obtain labor 
from the military forces stationed at or near the places of its investi- 
gations. Negro labor, I am assured, cannot be obtained. This, of 
course, will be preferred if it can be had. I will be very glad to 
have such aid as you can afford. The commission is composed of 
Commander Pinkney, Maj. Mitchel Tate, and Mr. O. G. Heinrich, 
geologist. 

Very respectfully, your ovedient servant, 
S. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy. 


| Indorsement. ] 


RICHMOND, October 25, 1862. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy: 


Prepare circular to officers in Confederate service in command of 
- troops and posts, requesting them to furnish such labor as the com- 
mission may require, when it can be done without injury to the pub- 
lic service. 

aie eee 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., October 25, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: The frequent inquiries at this department as to the enrollment 
of commissioned officers of the State militia and the representations 
of want of uniformity of practice on the part of the enrolling officers 
induce me to request that you will favor me with a copy of the instruc- 
tions given to enrolling officers upon this subject, and also an intima- 
tion of your proposed action under the late exemption act with refer- 
ence to militia officers. I have given a ready and earnest support to 
the provisions of the act, and am not inclined to make captious objec- 
tions to its exercise, but I desire uniformity in administration that the 
law may operate equally and alike upon all, and that I may be able 
to give certain and intelligible answers to the numerous inquiries 
addressed me upon the subject. Nor am I inelined to screen militia 
officers from service, especially that now their commands are so lim- 
ited in consequence of the enrollment of the greater portion of the 
militia in the Confederate service, and I only desire that the rule for 
Alabama shall be identical with that for her sister States. I am 
induced to make this request because I find it impossible to under- 
stand the varied practice of the enrolling officers, having now before 
me a letter from a major-general of one division, who informs me that 
in one of his regiments these officers are enrolled and not in the others. 
In some regiments the commission exempts, regardless of date of com- 
mission or time of election. In some evidence of date of election is 


144 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


allowed to supply evidence of rank attained previous to the passage 
of the act; in others the date is held conclusive. Heretofore in this 
State the commission has been but little regarded by officers, the elec- 
tion conferring the authority and the commission being but the evi- 
dence; hence commiss:ons bore only the date of issuance without any 
reference to the date of the election, all questions of rank being easily — 
settled by reference to the records of the Adjutant-General’s Office. 
Some fixed and definite rule, too, should be adopted in reference to 
officers newly elected to fill vacancies in the militia. If the old 
officers are exempted, reason would dictate that the efficiency of the 
militia would be as much impaired by the enrollment of one class of 
officers asthe other. I would thank you for the information requested 
at as early a day as the duties of your office will permit. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


RoME, GA., October 25, 1862. 
Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President, &c.: ” 

HONORED SiR: Inclosed I send you a copy of the resolutions of our 
Board of Directors touching the appropriation made by Congress for 
the completion of our road. We are anxious to avail ourselves of - 
the means offered, and therefore write you to obtain that information 
which I trust will remove from my mind the serious difficulties which 
now appear to me so formidable. If the completion of the road from 
Rome to Blue Mountain be a military necessity, then its speedy com- 
pletion is of paramount importance. Time is really the essence of 
the matter, and doubtless you agree with us that if we cannot fore- 
see any reasonable prospect of procuring the iron rails it will be 
useless for us to employ the Government means in finishing the grad- 
ing, superstruction, &ce. Youare aware of the many obstacles which 
may render our efforts fruitless in obtaining iron rails, spikes, chairs, 
&c., by the usual modes of purchase, and unless that authority which 
has declared the road to be a military necessity also declares that iron 
shall be furnished I know not how to proceed. Our earnest desire 
is to build our portion of this road at once, viz, from Rome to the 
State line of Alabama, which is about 22 miles. We feel confident 
we can have it ready for the iron in ninety days from the time the 
work is commenced, as all the heavy grading and principal bridging 
is finished. Our company has already expended upon the road about 
$85,000; of that amount we now owe between $30,000 and $35,000 on 
contracts and loans. After paying the latter we will freely merge the 
work already done into the mortgage deed and thereby enhance the 
Government security at least $50,000. At present prices of material 
and labor this additional security would amount to a much larger 
sum, and we can assure you that the means used so far have been 
judiciously expended. Will you, sir, please advise us at once and say 
whether you can give us the requisite aid for procuring iron, &¢., by 
impressment or otherwise, and also communicate any other informa- 
tion your superior judgment may deem of advantage. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
ALFRED SHORTER, 
President Georgia and Alabama Railroad. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 145 


[First indorsement.] 


Secretary of War for reply. 
J.D. 


[Second indorsement. ] 
NOVEMBER 6, 1862. 
Engineer Bureau for reply. — 
Inform them that the road is considered highly important, and that 
the Government will exert its utmost powers in procuring iron. 
Ga Wie: 


[Third indorsement. ] 


DECEMBER 2, 1862. 


Respectfully returned to the files of the Honorable Secretary of 
War, an answer having been sent to Mr. Shorter and a copy of the 
letter, with its inclosure, forwarded to Capt. L. P. Grant, engineer in 
charge of the Rome and Blue Mountain Railroad. 

A. L. RIVES,: 
Maor and Assistant to Chief Engineer. 


[Inclosure. ] 


RomE, October 20, 1862. 
RESOLUTIONS. 


Whereas, it is highly important that the projected railroad between 
Rome, in Georgia, and Blue Mountain, in Alabama, should be speed- 
ily built, it is therefore 

Resolved, That we avail ourselves at once of the proffered loan by 
the Congress of the Confederate States, and to this end we hereby 
accept the provisions of the act entitled ‘‘An act to enable the Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States to provide for the means of military 
transportation by constructing a railroad between Blue Mountain, in 
the State of Alabama, and Rome, in the State of Georgia,” approved 
October [2], 1862. And we do authorize and empower the president 
of this company, by himself, his agent, or attorney, to execute and 
deliver to the President of the Confederate States the mortgage 
security required by said act. | 

And whereas, this company has already expended of their own means 
upon said road, in bridging, masonry, and grading, the sum of $———_, 
and to that extent increasing the corpus of the property to be mort- 
gaged, our president is instructed to have such saving clause embodied 
in said mortgage as will limit the lien and liability to the road and its. 
equipments and the public property of the company. The individual 
property of the stockholders should not be liable for the redemption 
of said mortgage, but the president of this company is hereby author- 
ized to tender to the President of the Confederate States a bond, 
with the most ample personal security, for the faithful application of 
the money and the diligent prosecution of the work. 

Resolved further, That in consideration of the high price of mate- 
rials and the embarrassment thrown around the procurement of iron 
rails by the pressure of Government contracts upon manufacturers, 
we do earnestly request the President of the Confederate States to 
appoint a military director over said line of railroad with proper 
power and discretion to impress iron and materials, provided they can 
be obtained in no other way, or in case the owners of such iron 
demand most unreasonable and exorbitant rates. 


10 R, R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


146 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I certify the above and foregoing is a true copy from the record of 
minutes of the Board of Directors of the Georgia and Alabama Rail- 
road Company. 

CHAS. H. SMITH, 
Secretary pro tem. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, October 25, 1862. 
His Excellency President DAVIs: 

My D&AR Sir: When in Richmond I had the honor to call your 
attention, in the presence of Mr. Randolph, to the subject of allowing 
the conscripts the privilege of selecting the regiments to which they 
should go. I understood you and the Secretary both to assent to it 
willingly. A few days after my return home, therefore, I was much sur- 
prised and grieved to find an order coming from the Secretary to Major 
Mallett to disregard an order to this effect from Brigadier-General 
Martin and to place all of them in certain brigades under General 
French. I immediately addressed a letter to Mr. Randolph protesting 
against it and giving my reasons for so doing.* To this letter, after 
the lapse of two weeks, I have received no reply. 

Last week about 100 men were brought into camp from one county | 
alone, from a region somewhat lukewarm, who had been got to come 
cheerfully under the solemn promises made them by my enrolling 
officer that they should be allowed to join any regiment they desired, 
according to the published orders. Under the circumstances General 
Martin said they might yet have their choice, started them accord- 
ingly, and wrote to General French, begging his consent to the 
arrangement. He refused, of course, and according to a note received 
from him the men were stopped at Petersburg and ‘‘ distributed 
equally” to certain regiments, as quartermaster’s stores or any other 
chattel property, alleging that by not coming in sooner they had for- 
feited all claims to consideration. 

Of the shortsightedness and inhumanity of this harsh course toward 
our people I shall offer no comment. In bringing the facts to your 
attention I wish not only to ask that a more liberal policy be adopted, 
but to make it the occasion of informing you also of a few things 
of a political nature which you ought to know. 

The people of this State have ever been eminently conservative and 
jealous of their political rights. The transition from their former 
opinions, anterior to our troubles, to a state of revolution and war 
was a very sudden and extraordinary one. Prior to Lincoln’s procla- 
mation the election for delegates to our proposed convention exhibited 
a popular majority of upward of 30,000 against secession for existing 
causes. The late elections, after sixteen months of war and member- 
ship with the Confederacy, show conclusively that the original advo- 
cates of secession no longer hold the ear of our people. Without the 
warm and ardent support of the old Union men North Carolina could 
not so promptly and generously have been brought to the support of 
the seceding States, and without that same influence constantly and 
unremittingly given the present status could not be maintained 
forty-eight hours. These are facts. I allude to them not to remind 
you of any heretofore political differences (which I earnestly hope are 
buried in the graves of our gallant countrymen), but simply to give 
you information. 


* See October 10, p. 114. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 147 


The corollary to be deduced is briefly this: That the opinions and 
advice of the old Union leaders must be heeded with regard to the 
government of affairs in North Carolina or the worst consequences 
may ensue. Iam candid with you for the cause’s sake. I believe, 
sir, most sincerely that the conscript law could not have been exe- 
cuted by a man of different antecedents without outbreaks among our 
people; and now, with all the popularity with which I came into office, 
it will be exceedingly difficult for me to execute it under your recent 
call with all the assistance you can afford me. If, on the contrary, 
West Point generals, who know much less of human nature than I do 
of military science, are to ride roughshod over the people, drag them — 
from their homes, and assign them, or rather consign them, to strange 
regiments and strange commanders, without regard to their wishes 
or feelings, I shall be compelled to decline undertaking a task which 
must certainly fail. 

These conscripts are entitled to consideration. They comprise a 
number of best men in their communities, whom indispensable busi- 
ness, large and helpless families, property, and distress in a thousand 
Shapes have combined to keep them at home until the last. moment, 
In spite of all the softening I could give to the law, and all the appeals 
that could be made to their patriotism, much discontent has grown up, 
and now the waters of insubordination begin to surge more angrily 
than ever as the extended law goes into effect. Many openly declare 
they want not another conscript to leave the State until provision is 
made for her own defense; others say it will not leave labor sufficient 
to support the women and children, and therefore it must not be exe- 
cuted. Thousands are flying from our eastern counties, with their 
Slaves, to the center and west to devour the very short crops and 
increase the prospect of starvation. Governor Letcher is threatening 
to deprive the State of a contract we have for procuring salt in Vir- - 
ginia, and when the enemy seizes Wilmington (which he no doubt will 
do when the pestilence abates) we shall have no assurance of obtain- . 
ing it from any other source; hence I am importuned by many to 
defend our own coast myself. You see the difficulties which beset me. 
But through them all I have endeavored and shall endeavor to hold 
my course straightforward for the common good. It is disheartening, 
however, to find that I am thwarted in so small a matter as this, which 
is yet a great one to the conscript. | 

I have thus spoken candidly and explicitly. I beg you will not in 
any manner misinterpret me or fail to appreciate my motives. I 
trust that whether on the field or in the council I have established my 
claims to respect and confidence. I can do much toward increasing 
our armies if properly aided by the War Department. When the 
sowing of the wheat crop is completed, 15,000 or 20,000 men can be 
got out in a short time, especially if an assurance can be given that 
an adequate proportion will be sent to the defense of our own coast 
and suffering people. I should also be pleased to know what our 
sister States are doing in Support of the conscript law, as a very 
general impression prevails that this State is doing vastly more than 
its share. A sense of justice and fair treatment will do more than all 
besides in bringing our entire able-bodied population into the field. 

Earnestly trusting that my representations of things in North 
Carolina may enable you to do that which is for the best, and will 
most advance the great cause for which the Nation is suffering and 
bleeding, 

IT remain, with highest respect, your obedient servant, 
, Z. B. VANCE. 


148 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[First indorsement.] 


Answer as per draft and refer to Secretary of War for attention.* 
a ped bP 


[Second indorsement. | 


Please to return to President’s office. 
WM. M. BROWNE, 
Colonel and Aide-de-Camp. 


[Third indorsement.] 
NOVEMBER 7, 1862. 

Respectfully returned to the President. 

General Orders, No. 30, the first order issued to carry the conscript 
law into effect, expressly provided that the wishes of the conscripts 
should be consulted as far as practicable in assigning them to compa- 
nies. In a recent order, which will soon be published, this has been 
continued. The letter of Governor Vance was not answered because 
it imputed “‘bad faith” to the President and Secretary of War and 
could not be answered without risking a breach between the Governor 
and the Department, which would be detrimental to the public service. 

G. W. RANDOLPH, | 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, VA., October 25, 1862. 
Governor I. G. HARRIS, 
Knoxville, Tenn.: 


I have not suspended the enrollment. The War Department has 
only agreed to receive five regiments raised before October 1, under 
authority of a special law. Confer with the military authorities and 
give us recruits for the old regiments as far as practicable. I have 
already required in these matters that the case should be referred to 
you. You have my confidence; I want your assistance. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


es 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., October 27, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: On the receipt of your dispatch advising the withdrawal of 
labor from the railroad in West Alabama,t I dispatched one of my 
aides, ex-Governor A. B. Moore, to examine into the matter. Inclosed 
I hand you copy of a letter this day received from him, by which 
you will be pleased to learn that the difficulties in the way have been 
overcome, and that the work is rapidly progressing to a completion. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 
[Inclosure. ] 
MARION, October 24, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN G. SHORTER: 

DEAR SIR: I am just through with my railroad mission. Before 
taking any action on the matter I went to Demopolis to see the super- 
intendent or chief engineer of the road. Colonel Tate was absent, but 


*See Davis to Vance, November 1, p. 154. | See October 2, p. 106, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 149 


Colonel Pritchard, the chief engineer, was at Demopolis. I stated 
my business and told him I had been directed by you to aid him in 
getting as many hands as were needed for the speedy completion of 
the work. I was gratified to learn that a number of the planters had 
returned their hands, and that he had procured other hands to sup- 
ply the places of those who did not return. There are hands enough 
on the road to finish the grading and lay down the iron as fast as the 
bridges and trestlework can be completed, so that I was relieved from 
the necessity and trouble of raising hands. The president and engi- 
neer insisted that I should go with them along the road, see the con- 
tractors, and show the importance of a speedy completion of their 
contracts. This I did, and induced one of the bridge builders to 
increase the number of workmen. He has the largest bridge to erect. 
It will be at least four or five weeks before the road will be completed. 
The trip along the road was very rough, and [I had to take it on horse- 
back nearly to Meridian. Iwill be in Montgomery next week. I am 
delayed here to have the cotton I loaned to the Government weighed, 
sampled, and delivered. 
With great respect, yours, &e., 
A. B. MOORE. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 78. Richmond, October 28, 1862. 


I. Commandants of posts, when consulted by officers of the tele- 
graph companies as to the propriety of sending a message, will advise 
against it— 

1. When it relates to the movements of troops. 

2. When it relates to the position of particular corps. 

3. When it gives information from which the movements and 
strength of the armies of the Confederate States, or any portion of 
them, can be inferred. 

* * * * * * * 


Ili. General hospitals are under the authority of the local com- 
manding officers, but their general management and the medieal offi- 
cers thereof should be left to the control of the senior surgeon and 
medical director, to be interfered with by the commanding officer only 
in special cases, which will be referred to the commander of the 
department. 

IV. Inasmuch as the regulations concerning the issue of commis- 
Sary stores have been violated by issuing the same to civilians, here- 
after all issues of subsistence not warranted by the regulations are 
positively prohibited. 

By order: 

; S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


BROOK HAVEN, October 29, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH: 


i am making every effort to get conscripts and forwarding them 
without delay. I am annoyed very much by partisan rangers. They 
are doing little or no service, and complained of by the whole com- 
munity as wellasthearmy. They are made up almost entirely of con- 
scripts, who, if taken from them, could be placed in the Army, where 


150 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


their services would be invaluable. I desire to execute General 
Orders, No. 53, to the letter; but when I eall upon commanders of 
those corps they say they have authority to keep all who joined pre- 
vious to the 3lst of July. If that is the case I get no conscripts 
from them, as they say they all joined prior to that time. Their join- 
ing those corps at any time I consider a violation of the law, and to 
let them remain in those corps a violation of General Orders, No. 53. 
I desire, if not in direct violation of your opinion of said order, that 
you give me a positive order to take conscripts from all partisan ran- 
gers that have joined prior to 31st of July, except those companies 
designated at the request of Governor Pettus, and please word the 
order to that effect. 
M. R. CLARK, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 80. Richmond, October 30, 1862. 


I. Upon the death of a commissioned officer in the service of the 
Confederate States his immediate commanding officer will forthwith 
make out a certificate of the fact, stating his rank and the command 
to which he belonged; when, where, and from what cause he died, 
and, if possible, when and by whom last paid. 

Upon the death of a non-commissioned officer or private in said 
service the officer commanding his company at the time of his death 
will, in like manner, forthwith make out a descriptive list, in which 
he will set forth when, where, and by whom he was enlisted; when, 
where, and from what cause he died; when and by whom he was last 
paid; whether there is any bounty or commutation for clothing due 
him, and whether there are any stoppages against him, for what cause 
and of what amount. 

These certificates and descriptive lists will be transmitted directly 
to the Second Auditor of the Treasury of the Confederate States. 

II. Surgeons and assistant surgeons in charge of military hospitals, 
or of sick and wounded officers and soldiers in private hospitals and 
houses, upon the death of either an officer or a soldier, will forthwith 
make out and forward directly to the Second Auditor of the Treasury 
of the Confederate States a certificate stating, in the case of a com- 
missioned officer, his rank and the command to which he belonged; 
in the case of non-commissioned officers and privates, the company 
and regiment to which they belonged, and in all cases when, where, 
and from what cause they died. Should the deceased leave any 
effects or money, a statement setting forth a list of the effects, the © 
amount of the money, and in whose hands the same will remain until 
legally called for will accompany said certificate. 

Ill. Lieut. Col. W. Le Roy Brown, on ordnance duty, is hereby, 
detailed to supervise the examination of candidates in the Army for 
appointments as artillery officers for ordnance duty, as authorized by 
act of Congress approved 16th of September, 1862. 

He will, in succession, proceed to the several headquarters of the 
armies under such special instructions as may be given him hereafter; 
and the general commanding will, on his application, associate with 
him any two artillery officers he may select, performing ordnance 
duties, who, together with himself, will constitute an examining board. 

Due notice will be given through the Richmond Enquirer of the 
time at which examinations will be held. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 151 


Applications for permission to be examined will be addressed to the 
general commanding each army, and will be filed with his chief of 
ordnance, to be laid before the board of examiners. 

IV. Ordnance officers serving on the staff of commanding generals 
will not enter into contracts for nor purchase ordnance supplies 
except in case of necessity, on the authority of the general, which 
must be attached to the contract or account for purchase. The 
exigency requiring the purchase or contract will also be stated. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
| Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
. Richmond, October 30, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Oonfederate States of America: 


Str: I have the honor to inclose a letter* from the Commissary- 
General and a letter* to him from J. Fowlkes with his indorsement, 
expressing the opinion that the Army cannot be subsisted without 
permitting trade to some extent with Confederate ports in the 
possession of the enemy. 

The alternative is thus presented of violating our established 
policy of withholding cotton from the enemy or of risking the starva- 
tion of our armies. Regarding the former as the less evil, I. advise 
that the Commissary-General be authorized to contract for bacon and 
salt, and the Quartermaster-General for blankets and shoes, payable 
in cotton, and that the general commanding on the-Mississippi be 
instructed to permit the cotton delivered under these contracts to 
pass our lines. 

The amount of purchases should be limited to what is absolutely 
necessary to feed the Army and supply it with blankets and shoes. 

I have examined the statutes prohibiting trade with Confederate 
ports in the possession of the enemy and I am of opinion that they do 
not apply to the Government, nor do I know of any principle of 
public law which prohibits a government from trading with the 
citizens or subjects of a hostile power. I think it will be found that 
in European wars dealings between the government of one nation and 
the subjects of another engaged in mutual hostilities are of ordinary 
occurrence, and that the prohibition of trade between such powers is 
confined to the dealings of private individuals. 

I am fully aware that in permitting the enemy to obtain a partial 
supply of cotton we are conceding an advantage to him and licensing 
an objectionable trade, and nothing less than the danger of sacrificing 
our armies would induce me to acquiesce in such a departure from 
our established policy. But the Commissary-General, whose duty it 
is to study the question of subsistence and to inform himself of the 
sources of supply, and who has had the benefit of eighteen months’ 
experience, having recorded his opinion that the Army cannot be 
subsisted under the present arrangements, I must decline the respon- 
sibility of overruling him and entering upon an experiment which 
may result in ruin. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


* Not found. | 


152 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[OCTOBER 30 to NOVEMBER 5, 1862.—For correspondence between 
Davis, Pickens, Randolph, and Chesnut, in relation to the acceptance 
of certain South Carolina State troops, see Series I, Vol / LEE fag 
262-265. ] 


HDQRS. DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA, 
Charleston, S. C., October 30, 1862. 
General BEAUREGARD: 


Sir: In pursuance of Special Orders, No. 194, headquarters Depart- 
ment of South Carolina and Georgia, under date Charleston, October 
16, 1862, I proceeded to Columbus, Ga., on the night of the 16th 
instant, with a view to the discharge of the duties therein devolved. 
Having performed the duties therein assigned I have the honor to 
submit the following report: 

After a formal and official demand upon the president of [the Bank 
of] Columbus for the surrender of the coin of the Bank of Louisiana, 
he declined upon the ground that it was a personal trust and that he 
had no right to yield it. This left me no alternative, and I at once 
took possession of the bank, placing my guard at each entrance. 
After consultation with his friends the president of the Bank of 
Columbus consented to surrender the coin without compelling me to 
use military force. I then made a requisition for transportation and 
brought it under guard to Augusta, Ga., turned it over to T. 8. Met- 
calf, Government depositary at Augusta, took his receipt in duplicate, 
and repaired to these headquarters. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

A. G. RICH, 
Aide-de- Camp. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Alexandria, La., October $1, 1862. 
President DAVIS: 

SiR: The State of Louisiana has had in operation for two years a 
military academy, the prescribed ages of admission for cadets being 
fifteen to twenty-one years. Large and costly buildings have been 
erected and magnificent salaries are given to the professors, the 
superintendent receiving a.salary larger than that of the same officer 
at West Point. Of the cadets now on the rolls only three are over 
eighteen—Charles F. Buck, L. G. Fernandez, and P. Carmouche. All | 
the older cadets left at the commencement of the war and are in the 
Confederate Army. The Governor now requests that you will exempt 
these three cadets from conscription. The supervisors of the acad- 
emy have requested the Governor, who is ex officio their president, to 
ask of you the exemption of all cadets from conscription, as well those 
who may hereafter enter as those now matriculated. The Governor 
directs me to say that he does not make that request because it would 
afford unpatriotic and unchivalric youths a shield from the rendition 
of their services, now so much needed by their country. The spirit 
displayed by the whole body of cadets is admirable, and it is proper 
to remark the three cadets whose exemption is asked are poor boys 
whose education is provided by the State and who are dependent 
entirely on this opportunity for completing it. The reason, however, 
for asking their exemption is that they are officers in the corps, nec- 
essary for its effective organization. The Governor has charged me 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 153 


to say further that he wishes you to consider the request of the super- 
visors for the exemption of all cadets as formerly laid before you, but 
without his recommendation. This letter would be signed by His 
Excellency as usual but for his absence with General Taylor on an 
exploration of the river-bank for sites for fortifications. News of a 
disaster below reached us last night. The Federals landed near Don- 
aldsonville 2,500 strong, and attacked our forces, consisting of Kight- 
eenth, Twenty-fourth (both together numbering 600), and Thirty- 
third, and defeated us. The fight occurred near Napoleon, and the 
last-named regiment ran incontinently. General Mouton has with- 
drawn to Brashear. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, | 
TH. C. MANNING, 
Airde-de-Camp. 
[First indorsement. ] 
To Secretary of War. 
J hls 
[Second indorsement. ] 


To ADJUTANT-GENERAL:. 


Exempt the three cadets specially recommended by the Governor, 
but not future cadets. That would only tempt the timid as to an 
asylum. 

J. A. §., 
Secretary. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 81. Richmond, November 1, 1862. 

I. 'The payment of commissioned officers by any other quartermas- 
ter than the quartermaster of the command to which they belong is 
hereby prohibited, unless they exhibit to the quartermaster to whom 
application for payment is made orders from their commanding offi- 
cers, or from the Department, showing them to be absent on detached 
duty, or leaves of absence from the commanding general under whom 
they are serving. 

II. The following will be the organization of a company of light 
artillery, according to the number of guns composing the battery, viz: 

Fora battery of six guns: One captain, 2 first lieutenants, 2 second 
lieutenants, 1 sergeant-major or first sergeant, 1 quartermaster-ser- 
geant, 6 sergeants, 12 corporals, 2 buglers or trumpeters, 1 guidon, 2 
artificers, 64 to 125 privates. 

For a battery of four guns: One captain, 1 first lieutenant, 2 sec- 
ond lieutenants, 1 sergeant-major or first sergeant, 1 quartermaster- 
Sergeant, 4 sergeants, 8 corporals, 2 buglers, 1 guidon, 2 artificers, 64 
to 125 privates. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., November 1, 1862. 
His Excellency President Davis: 
DEAR SiR: Inclosed you will please find copies of two letters, one 
from Stanly to me and my reply. I send them both because I think 


154 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


you sheuld be aware of what is doing on our coast, and also because 

I did not know but that Stanly’s proposition might foreshadow some- 

thing of importance to our cause. * 
Very respectfully, 

Z. B. VANCE. 


RICHMOND, VA., November 1, 1862. 


His Excellency Governor VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 


DEAR Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge yours of the 25th 
ultimo, and regret the disappointment to which some of the recruits 
of North Carolina have been subjected. I concur with you as to the 
policy of allowing the conscripts, as far as the state of service will 
permit, to select the companies and regiments in which they are to 
serve. The rights secured by law to the volunteer to select his own 
company was lost, it is true, by enrollment; but the policy was so 
obvious of associating men together who would best harmonize with 
each other that it was my purpose to continue the privilege beyond 
the limit fixed by the law. The danger to the coast of North Carolina 
and our inability to draw troops from the Army of Northern Virginia 
rendered it proper that the greatest exertion should be immediately 
made to fill up the regiments in General French’s command; but this 
did not interfere with allowing the conscripts to select among those 
regiments the one to which they would be assigned, so long as vacan- 
cies existed in the companies chosen, and that I expected would have 
been done. I will send your letter to the War Department, with a 
copy of this reply to you, and hope for the future there will be no 
ground for dissatisfaction, and that, as far as feasible, the disappoint- 
ments to which you refer may be corrected by transfer. I feel grate- 
ful to you for the cordial manner in which you have sustained every 
proposition connected with the public defense, and trust that there 
will always be such co-intelligence and accordance as will enable us 
to co-operate for the public good. The conscript act has not been 
popular anywhere out of the Army. There, as you are aware, it 
served to check the discontent which resulted from retaining the 
twelve-months’ men beyond their term of original engagement, and 
was fairly regarded as a measure equitably to distribute the burden 
of public. defense, but the State authorities have nowhere offered any 
opposition to its execution, or withheld their aid, except in the State 
of Georgia, and, so far as the cadets of the military institute are con- 
cerned, in the State of Virginia. Ishall endeavor by judicial decision 
to settle the questions raising in those two States, and in the mean- 
time have been cheered by the evidence of a popular sentiment which 
supports any.measure necessary to protect our country and secure 
our political independence. Like yourself, I have hoped that the 
party distinctions which existed at a former time would be buried in 
the graves of the gallant men who have fallen in the defense of their 
birthright, and that we should all, as a band of brothers, strike for 
the inheritance our fathers left us. 

With sincere regard, I am, yours, respectfully and truly, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


* For inclosures, Stanly to Vance, October 21, 1862, and Vance to Stanly, Octo- 
ber 29, 1862, see Stanly to Stanton, November 20, 1862, Series III, Vol. II, p. 845. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 155 


Hpars. CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Columbia, S. C., November 1, 1862. 


General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 


- GENERAL: In pursuance of paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 64, 
I have the honor to report: 


1. No conscripts have been moved since last report. 


2. Number in camp at last report____.__....___- REBEL aE We OOo yey het SM 54 
3s. Number reported for duty since last report.......-..---.----.-..---- ERY 2 58 

IO reefs. a OE SAYIN ACC ss Me ay 112 
IAT OO bee oe ke ets Le i ae oe 44 
5. Number deserted ---- -- eee ee ee ee eee Se ee oe eee 8 
mI TIEd UO UULyY S25... ve es. ol oe Ler 5 
enemrrt raion tit) feo. 4) UL ice oo) Di eue dics ce cucel 55 

I i Eos so iw pom mine oe wisn he 112 
S. Deserters from the Army reported for duty ___.___-._....___.--2--.-. 2-2 .- 2 


I also have the honor further to report that in obedience to an order 
by telegraph from the Secretary of War I adopt as instruction the 
inclosed letter from the Secretary to Col. James Chesnut. By invi- 
tation of the Governor and Council I attended a consultation on the 
topics therein embraced. From information derived in that consul- 
tation and from other sources, and from my own observation, I con- 
clude that if the four regiments therein named were accepted, and the 
conscription confined to the rest of the State, I could bring into the 
field within thirty days over 3,000 men; but that if these regiments 
are not accepted the entire force under the present order of conscrip- 
tion will not exceed 1,000. The extension of the order to the age of 
forty-five would bring, perhaps, 2,000. A large number of the persons 
under forty and forty-five now in these regiments as volunteers will 
be exempted under the act of Congress. Exemptions will be claimed 
under conscription which will be waived under volunteering. These 
four regiments, as they are, will bring 3,000 men into the field. 
Abstract those under forty and you will reduce them, perhaps, 500. 
Of these 500 a third or more will, perhaps, be entitled to exemption. 
I am proceeding with preparations to facilitate the enrollment by 
obtaining the rolls of the State and extracting the names between 
thirty-five and forty and forty and forty-five. On the 5th day of this 
month I will send the enrolling officers to their posts and hope to have 
every man in camp in twenty days, or on the ist day of December at 
farthest. Having but a single company of sixty men at this post to 
do the entire guard duty over large Government stores, the prison, 
and the conscripts in camp, I shall be compelled to call on the general 
commanding for frequent aid in arresting the conscripts in the remote 
mountainous and the swamp regions of the State. All who are now 
remaining of the late enrollment are either in the gorges of the moun- 
tains or the impenetrable swamps of the lower country. I have the 
honor to inclose copies of my correspondence with the State authori- 
ties on a demand for assistance in the enrollment and arrests. It is 
proper to state that the authorities most earnestly and promptly 
tender all reasonable-aid in the prosecution of the enrollment. While 
they yield their organizations from the impracticability of acceding to 
the propositions of the Secretary, they at oncé and to the full extent 


156 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of their power tender me every aid in carrying out the orders of the 
Department. 
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
JNO. 8. PRESTON, 
Lieut. Col. and Assistant Adjutant-General, Commanding. 


{Inclosure No. 1.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
~ Richmond, Va., October 25, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES CHESNUT, 


Chief of Military, South Carolina: | 
Str: I have the honor to inform you that in conformity with the 
proposition submitted by Colonel Elford, the Confederate Govern- 
ment will accept and retain for local defense the four regiments of 
State troops commanded by Colonels Cash, Elford, Witherspoon, and 
Ryan with their officers, and will suffer them to be filled to their 
maximum with men over forty years of age. The men from thirty- 
five to forty years of age will be withdrawn from those regiments and, 
together with the conscripts in the seven remaining regiments of 
State troops, will be placed in the South Carolina regiments which 
were in service on the 16th of April last. The seven regiments will 
be disbanded. 
Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


{Inclosure No. 2.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Columbia, S. C., October 27, 1862. 


His Excellency Governor PICKENS and 
THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF SOUTH CAROLINA: 

I have the honor to inform you that I have received orders from the 
Secretary of War to enroll all men between the ages of eighteen and 
forty years, under the act of Congress approved the day of Octo- 
ber, 1862. To facilitate this enrollment I respectfully ask that an 
order be issued by authority of the State requiring all militia officers to 
make returns to the enrolling officers of the names of all persons liable 
to conscription under the act cited, and also requiring the militia offi- 
cers to arrest and deliver to the enrolling officers persons so returned 
who refuse or delay to report to the enrolling officers. I would 
further respectfully ask that the sheriffs of the State be required to 
give all aid in effecting the enrollment and delivering the conscripts 
to the enrolling officers. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOHN S. PRESTON, 
Lieut. Col. and Assistant Adjutant-General, Commanding. 


{[Inclosure No. 3.] 


EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CHAMBER, 
4 Columbia, October 31, 1862. 
Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, 
Commanding Post: 

Str: I have the honor to inform you that upon your application to 
the Governor and Council, they have*instructed the adjutant-general 
to issue an order requiring militia officers to make returns for enroll- 
ment of all persons in their respective beats subject to Confederate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 157 


conscription. Orders to the sheriffs to aid in arresting defaulters, 
&c., have already been issued, and no further order to them is deemed 
necessary. } 3 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
B. F. ARTHUR, 
Secretary Hxecutwe Council. 


Return of the state of the recruiting service. 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Near Richmond, November 1, 1862. 


Conscripts on hand at date of last report (October 20) __...._...____-_--____- 40 
Conscripts received since date of last report _..............2. 222-222 eee. 76 
116 
Conscripts assigned since last report... ....2....0-.2 252-422-022 eel 11 
iemeetinie detailed since last report.._......-.....----..--...---.------- 2 
Conscripts discharged by order Secretary of War__.....-.__.._._-___. Peeps 
eerie aureny with leave. Ss fe ee. 16 
omeetinia aisent without leave... Jos. ok eek eck betel ll 7 
Dunkards discharged by paying $500 to Confederate States__.__._______- 8 
Dunkards furloughed until second Monday in December _-_________. _-_- 26 
Bemeoriie Pormished substituves.........-.-...-.-...------------------- 1 Ks 
rer Ge eer wen eee a oe ck Se yeeou due ee 44 


CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Dublin Depot, November 1, 1862. 


Conscripts on hand at date of last report (October 1) __._.._-..-_-___.____.- 31 
Conscripts received since date of last report...-.....--_-_-_-__---222- 2 Leek. 76 
} 107 
Conscripts assigned since date of last report _........-...-----------___- 24 
Conscripts detailed since date of last report._.....-..-..----...---___--. 4 
Conscripts discharged since date of last report.........._.______-______- 57 
Conscripts furloughed since date of last report_..._.....--_-___..__- A MW AS 
Conscripts deserted since date of last report _......... ..-._...-___-_.-- 4 
— 94 
es sty iag pa A geo RR a ill Ata nt aaa 13 
RECAPITULATION. 
NOVEMBER 1, 1862. 
Conscripts remaining in camp of instruction at Richmond _________________- 44 
Conscripts remaining in camp of instruction at Dublin Depot._..__.....__-- 13 
RESIS Pe a og eg ed Sop nen em CO 57 


Respectfully submitted. 
J. C. SHIELDS, 
_ Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. 
General S. CooPEr, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SUBSISTENCE DEPT., 
fichmond, November 3, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 
Sir: In addition to the letters and telegrams already shown you in 
regard to the difficulty of transportation, particularly from Gordons- 
ville to Richmond, I beg leave to inclose now a telegram from H. B. 


158 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Hoomes, commissary agent, and also a letter from Mr. John S. Bar- 
bour, president Orange and Alexandria Railroad, to Major Ruffin, 
for your consideration and action.* I feel it my duty to state in this 
connection that, notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts, wheat 
enough is not being received to furnish flour for General Lee’s army 
alone. Jam informed by reliable authority that in ordinary years, 
with an average crop of wheat, up to this time there would be received 
in Richmond 800,000 to 1,000,000 bushels of wheat, whereas, notwith- 
standing the high price that it commands, and notwithstanding the 
aid which has been extended to the farmers by commissary agents 
throughout the country, there has not been received more than 
250,000 to 300,000 bushels. This proves that there is a great scarcity 
of wheat. This year’s crop, it is believed, thoroughout the State is 
not more than one-fourth an average one, and a considerable portion 
of the State we cannot draw from at all. Unless, therefore, some- 
thing is done to afford transportation for all the wheat that can be 
procured, I do not see anything but failure and ruin to our Army. 
As much grain as is needed cannot be procured, it is feared, even if 
this transportation is afforded, and without that transportation is 
obtained in some way we must break down. I feel it my duty to 
urge this matter upon your attention. It cannot be considered too 
deeply, nor the remedy applied with too much promptness. The 
chances of procuring sufficient supplies are becoming every hour 
more and more doubtful, and the area of country drawn from smaller 
and smaller. Iam powerless to remedy the evil, and can only lay 
before you the state of the case for your action. A sufficiency of 
bags is as great a necessity to secure a supply of flour as anything 
else. During the last summer the cotton mills throughout the coun- 
try were written to with a view to secure an ample supply of bags, 
but this Bureau was requested not to purchase bags by Major Fergu- 
son, of the Quartermaster’s. Department, who was engaged in the 
north and would procure them, it was said, for both the Commissary 
and Quartermaster’s Bureaus. To avoid competition between two 
Government agents this was acquiesced in. Upon application now it 
seems that not one-tenth of the requisite quantity of bags can be 
obtained. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General C. S. Army. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SUBSISTENCE DEPT., 
} Richmond, November 3, 1862. 
Col. L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence: 


Sir: In response to your inquiry as to prospect of subsistence in 
meat of our armies for the next sixty days, I reply that General Lee’s 
army is drawing very closely on the supplies of fresh beef, and at 
their present rate of consumption I do not think that there will be 
more than enough to last them until the lst of January. The very 
severe drought of the past summer and early fall leaves the cattle so 
thin that the same number of bullocks does not goas far as it did last 
fall, and the scarcity of supply is drawing much younger beasts to 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ; 159 


market than came last year. The drain of Virginia has been less 
complete than it would have been but for the fact that supplies of 
cattle are being obtained from the Northern Neck and from the oppo- 
site shore, then being driven in to escape appropriation by the enemy. 
But this number is small. The forces south of Richmond to Mobile 
have been supplied from the low counties of North Carolina and 
Georgia and Florida. Efforts are now being made to draw all the 
supplies from North Carolina in anticipation of its occupation by the 
enemy, but transportation cannot be had. The business of selling 
and transmitting supplies of the character alluded to, especially 
through new channels, is new to the people, and they are not expected 
in any case to furnish a large proportion. Of the supplies of stock 
in Georgia and Florida I cannot speak accurately, having been taken 
sick about the time operations were inaugurated, and having had no 
time since to ascertain what has been done or can be done. But the 
country through which the cattle must be driven is not a good one to 
subsist them in in the winter, and the whole line is subject to be broken 
by the enemy at any point, and cannot be relied on as a source of supply. 
If cattle can be crossed over the Mississippi from Texas and Louisiana, 
as they have been heretofore, large numbers of them, it is thought, can 
be wintered in the corn and pea fields of Northern Mississippi; but 
the high price of corn evidences a scarcity that will forbid their being 
driven very far, if it is desired to consume them, and they will not in 
any event be relied on for the consumption of any part of the army 
in Virginia. 

Whether there will be adequate supplies for the Army of North- 
western Virginia depends very much on the size of that army. The 
fear of invasion and the waste of the army, never to be sufficiently 
blamed, have driven out many stock from that section, as is evidenced 
by the fact that I have seen some cattle from there in this market 
from eighteen months to two years old, a thing never heard of before. 
Agents are busily at work draining the southwest, but, as I have just 
learned (since I began to write this letter), General Echols has fallen 
back to Dublin, and I presume he will appropriate a considerable part 
of the scant supply of beef destined for General Lee. Maj. J. F. Cum- 
mings is operating with numerous agents in Tennessee, and thinks if 
he can be supplied with money promptly he can obtain six months’ 
supply there of beef, pork, and bacon. Whether he means for the 
whole Army or for those under General Bragg’s command does not 
appear, and as he is too much engaged to make a detailed report, I 
cannot expect to hear for some time. But I presume he means only 
for that army. But in any event, judging by the past and present 
experience of the Treasury Department, he will be partially balked 
by a failure to obtain money promptly, even if we can hold that 
country long enough to withdraw all its supplies. As to hogs, all are 
being bought there that can be bought, but the number it is thought 
will be less than was obtained last year, and there is not an absolute 
certainty that enough salt can be had to pack all that ean be obtained. 
If it can, the experience of last year warns us that it is unfit for pack- 
ing to the best advantage, much loss having resulted from using it in 
Its raw state then, and it is in no better condition now. The pork in 
private hands will not be saved, either, as well or as abundantly, both 
from the bad quality of the salt and from its great scarcity. If to 
this estimate of short supply be added the waste committed by the 
soldiers, and permitted in some corps and perpetrated in others by 
the generals in command, I think it would be imprudent to estimate 


160 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


full supplies to January, and a fatal error to rely on full supplie 
after that time in any quarter. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
FRANK G. RUFFIN, 
Major and Commissary of Subsistence. 


— 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 82. Richmond, November 3, 1862. 


I. The following acts of Congress and regulations are published for 
the information of all concerned :* : 


(No. 17.) 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to provide further for the public defense,” approved 
April 16, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be and he is hereby authorized to call out and place in the military service of the 
Confederate States for three years, unless the war should have been sooner ended, 
all white men, who are residents of the Confederate States, between the ages of 
thirty-five and forty-five years, at the time the call or calls may be made, and who 
are not, at such time or times, legally exempted from military service, or such 
part thereof as, in his judgment, may be necessary to the public defense, such 
call or calls to be made under the provisions and according to the terms of the act 
to which this is an amendment; and such authority shall exist in the President 
during the present war, as to all persons who now are or may hereafter become 
eighteen years of age; and, when once enrolled, all persons between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five shall serve their full time: Provided, That if the President, 
in calling out troops into the service of the Confederate States, shall first call for 
only a part of the persons between the ages hereinbefore stated, he shall call for 
those between the ages of thirty-five and any other age less than forty-five: 
Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be understood as repealing or 
modifying any part of the act to which this is amendatory, except as herein 
expressly stated: And provided further, That those called out under this act, and 
the act to which this is an amendment, shall be first and immediately ordered to 
fill to their maximum number the companies, battalions, squadrons and regiments 
from the respective States at the time the act to further provide for the public 
defense, approved sixteenth April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 
was passed, and the surplus, if any, shall be assigned to organizations formed 
from each State since the passage of that act, or placed in new organizations to 
be officered by the State having such residue, according to the laws thereof, or 
disposed of as now provided by law: Provided, That the President is authorized 
to suspend the execution of this act, or the act to which this is an amendment, in 
any locality where he may find it impracticable to execute the same, and that in 
such locality, and during said suspension, the President is authorized to receive 
troops iato the Confederate service, under any of the acts passed by the Confed- 
erate Congress prior to the passage of the act to provide further for the public 
defense, approved sixteenth April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. 

Approved September 27, 1862. 


(No. 53.) 


AN ACT to exempt certain persons from military duty, and to repeal an act entitled “An act 
to exempt certain persons from enrollment for service in the Army of the Confederate States,” 
approved 21st April, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons who 
shall be held unfit for military service in the field, by reason of bodily or mental 
incapacity or imbecility, under rules to be prescribed by the Secretary of War; the 
Vice President of the Confederate States; the officers, judicial and executive, of 


*For the first act embodied in this order (but here omitted), see ‘‘An act to 
further provide for the public defense,” approved April 16, 1862, published in Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 30, Adjutant-General’s Office, Vol. I, this series, p. 1095. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 161 


the Confederate and State governments, including postmasters appointed 
by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and such clerks in their offices 
as are allowed by the Postmaster-General, and now employed, and excluding all 
other postmasters, their assistants and clerks; and except such State officers as 
the several States may have declared, or may hereafter declare by law to be liable 
to militia duty; the members of both Houses of the Congress of the Confederate 
States, and of the Legislatures of the several States, and their respective officers; 
all clerks now in the offices of the Confederate and State governments authorized 
by law receiving salaries or fees; all volunteer troops, heretofore raised by any 
State since the passage of the act entitled “An act further to provide for the 
public defense,” approved April the sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, 
while such troops shall be in active service under State authority: Provided, That 
this exemption shall not apply to any person who was liable to be called into serv- 
ice by virtue of said act of April the sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two; 
all pilots and persons engaged in the merchant marine service ; the president, 
superintendents, conductors, treasurer, chief clerk, engineers, managers, station 
agents, section masters, two expert track hands to each section of eight miles, 
and mechanics in the active service and employment of railroad companies, not 
toembrace laborers, porters, and messengers ; the president, general superintendent 
and operators of telegraph companies, the local superintendent and operators of 
said companies, not to exceed four in number at any locality, but that of the seat 
of Government of the Confederate States ; the president, superintendents, cap- 
tains, engineers, chief clerk and mechanics in the active service and employment 
of all companies engaged in river and canal navigation, and all captains of boats 
and engineers therein employed; one editor of each newspaper now being pub- 
lished, and such employés as the editor or proprietor may certify, upon oath, to 
be indispensable for conducting the publication ; the Public Printer, and those 
employed to perform the public printing for the Confederate and State govern- 
ments ; every minister of religion authorized to preach according to the rules of 
his sect and in the regular discharge of ministerial duties, and all persons who 
have been and ndw are members of the society of Friends and the association of 
Dunkards, Nazarenes, and Mennonites, in regular membership in their respective 
denominations: Provided, Members of the society of Friends, Nazarenes, Men- 
nonites, and Dunkards shall furnish substitutes or pay a tax of five hundred 
dollars each into the public Treasury; all physicians who now are, and for the last 
five years have been, in the actual practice of their profession; all shoemakers, 
tanners, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, millers and their engineers, millwrights, 
skilled and actually employed at their regular vocation in the said trades, habit- 
ually engaged in working for the public, and whilst so actually employed: Provided, 
Said persons shall make oath in writing that they are so skilled and actually 
employed at the time at their regular vocation in one of the above trades, which 
affidavit shall only be prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated: Provided, 
further, That the exemptions herein granted to persons by reason of their peculiar 
mechanical or other occupation or employment, not connected with the public 
service, shall be subject to the condition that the products of the labor of such 
exempts, or of the companies and establishments with which they are connected, 
shall be sold and disposed of by the proprietors at prices not exceeding seventy- 
five per centum upon the cost of production, or within a maximum to be fixed by 
the Secretary of War, under such regulations as he may prescribe: And it is 
further provided, That if the proprietors of any such manufacturing establish- 
ments shall be shown, upon evidence, to be submitted to, and judged of, by the 
Secretary of War, to have violated, or in any manner evaded the true intent and 
spirit of the foregoing proviso, the exemptions therein granted shall no longer be 
extended to them, their superintendents or operatives in said establishments, but 
they and each and every of them shall be forthwith enrolled under the pro- 
visions of this act, and ordered into the Confederate Army, and shall in no event, 
be again exempted therefrom by reason of said manufacturing establishments or 


and superintendents and managers of wool-carding machines ,whomay beexempted 
by the Secretary of War: Provided, The profits of such establishments shall 
not exceed seventy-five per centum upon the cost of production, to be determined 
upon oath of the parties, subject to the same penalties for violation of the pro- 
visions herein contained as are hereinbefore provided in case of other manufactur- 
ing and mechanical employments; all presidents and teachers of colleges, acade- 


11 R R—SERIES LYa0VOL ‘II 


162 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


mies, schools and theological seminaries, who have been regularly engaged as such 
for two years previous to the passage of this act; all artisans, mechanics, and 
employés in the establishments of the Government for the manufacture of arms, 
ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of war, saddles, harness and army 
supplies, who may be certified by the officer in charge thereof, as necessary for such 
establishments; also, all artisans, mechanics, and employés in the establishments 
of such persons as are or may be engaged under contracts with the Government in 
furnishing arms, ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of war: Pro- 
vided, That the chief of the Ordnance Bureau, or some ordnance officer authorized 
by him for the purpose, shall approve of the number of the operatives required 
in such establishments; all persons employed in the manufacture of arms or ord- 
nance of any kind by the several States, or by contractors to furnish the same to 
the several State governments, whom the Governor or secretary of state thereof 
may certify to be necessary to the same ; all persons engaged in the construction 
of ships, gun-boats, engines, sails, or other articles necessary to the public defense, 
under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy; all superintendents, managers, 
mechanics and miners employed in the production and manufacture of salt to 
the extent of twenty bushels per day, and of lead and iron, and all persons 
engaged in burning coke for smelting and manufacture of iron, regular miners 
in coal mines, and all colliers engaged in making charcoal for making pig and 
bar iron, not to embrace laborers, messengers, wagoners, and servants, unless 
employed at works conducted under the authority and by the officers or agents 
of a State, or in works employed in the production of iron for the Confederate 
States; one male citizen for every five hundred head of cattle, for every two 
hundred and fifty head of horses or mules, and one shepherd for every five’ 
hundred head of sheep, of such persons as are engaged exclusively in raising 
stock: Provided, That there is no white male adult not liable to do military duty 
engaged with such person in raising said stock ; to secure the proper police of the 
country, one person, either as agent, owner or overseer on each plantation on 
which one white person is required to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any 
State, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to do military service, 
and in States having no such law, one person as agent, owner or overseer, on each 
plantation of twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not 
liable to military service: And furthermore, For additional police for every | 
twenty negroes on two or more plantations, within five miles of each other, and 
each having less than twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult 
not liable to military duty, one person, being the oldest of the owners or overseers 
on such plantations ; and such other persons as the President shall be satisfied, 
on account of justice, equity or necessity, ought to be exempted, are hereby 
exempted from military service in the armies of the Confederate States; and 
also a regiment raised under and by authority of the State of Texas, for frontier 
defense, now in the service of said State, while in such service: Provided, fur- 
ther, That the exemptions herein above enumerated and granted hereby shall 
only continue whilst the persons exempted are actually engaged in their respect- 
ive pursuits or occupations. : ; 

Src. 2. Be it further enacted, That the act entitled ‘“‘ An act to exempt certain 
persons from enrollment for service in the armies of the Confederate States,” 
aPPEO ES the twenty-first of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, is hereby 
repealed. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


(No. 42.) | 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to further provide for the public defense,”’ approved 16th 
April, 1862, and the act to amend the same, approved September 27th, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons 
subject to enrollment for military service may be enrolled under instructions 
from the War Department, and reported by the enrolling officer wherever found, 
whether within the State or county of their residence or not; and when so 
enrolled shall be subject to the provisions of law as fully as if enrolled within the 
county and State of which they may be residents: Provided, That this act shall 
not extend to any member of a military organization under any State law while 
he remains in actual service within the limits of his State: And provided, further, 
That the President is authorized to suspend the execution of this act as regards 
the residents of any locality where he may find it impracticable to execute the act 
entitled ‘An act to further provide for thé public defense,” approved April six- 
teenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the act to amend the last-mentioned 
act, approved September twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 163 


(No. 49.) 
AN-ACT to establish places of rendezvous for the examination of enrolled men. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there shall be 
established in each county, parish or district, and in any city in a county, par- 
ish or district in the several States, a place of rendezvous for the persons in said 
county, district, parish or city, enrolled for military duty in the field, who shall 
be there examined by one or more surgeons, to be employed by the Government, 
to be assigned to that duty by the President on a day of which ten days’ notice 
shall be given by said surgeon, and from day to day next, thereafter, until all who 
shall be in attendance for the purpose of examination shall have been examined ; 
and the decision of said surgeons, under regulations to be established by the Sec- 
retary of War, as to the physical and mental capacity of any such person for mili- 
tary duty in the field, shall be final; and those only thus ascertained to be fit for 
military duty in the field shall be required to assemble at camps of instruction. 

Sec. 2. There shall be assigned to each Congressional district in the several 
States, three surgeons, who shall constitute a board of examination in such dis- 
trict for the purpose specified in the foregoing section, any one or more of whom 
may act at any place of rendezvous in said district. 

SEc. 8. When it shall appear to any surgeon attending such place of rendezvous 
by the certificate of a respectable physician resident in that county, district, par- 
ish, or city in a county, parish or district, that any enrolled person therein is 
unable to attend on account of sickness, it shall be the duty of said surgeon to file 
such certificate with the commandant of the nearest camp of instruction; and if 
the person named therein, shall not within a reasonable time report himself for 
examination at said camp of instruction, or his continued disability certified by 
the certificate of a respectable physician of his county, city, district or parish, he 
shall be held liable as absent without leave of his commanding officer. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


II. Commandants of conscripts and camps of instruction. 

1. An officer styled the commandant of conscripts will be appointed 
for each State, who will be charged with the supervision of the enroll- 
ment and disposition of conscripts. He will establish one or more 
camps, in which conscripts will be assembled and instructed, and may 
recommend for appointment a surgeon, a quartermaster, a commis- 
Sary, and a requisite number of drill-masters for each camp. If more 
than one camp be established, he may also recommend a commandant 
for each camp not under his own immediate command. 

2. A hospital will be established, and huts for winter quarters con- 
structed at each camp; and all conscripts assembled at the camps will 
be promptly vaccinated, if it has not already been done. 

3. The commandant of conscripts will require from each camp a 
report on the first Monday in every month, showing the expenses of 
the preceding month, the number of conscripts in the camp, the 
number received and sent away during the preceding month, the regi- 
ments, battalions, or companies to which they were sent, the number 
transferred to the Navy, the number of sick, the nature of their dis- 
eases, and the number of deaths. He will make a consolidated 
monthly report to the Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army. 

4. The commandants of conscripts east of the Mississippi River will 
receive orders only from the War Department, and will not be inter- 
fered with by generals commanding departments or armies in the 
field. West of the Mississippi they will report to and receive instrue- 
tions from the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi Depart- 
ment, who will require them to conform as nearly as possible to this 
order and to the regulations prescribed for commandants east of the 
Mississippi. He will make a consolidated monthly report to the 
Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army. 

5. The commandants of all regiments, battalions, squadrons, or 
unattached companies which were in service on the 16th of April, 1862, 


164 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


desiring to receive conscripts may transmit, through the Adjutant and 
Inspector General of the Army, statements of the strength of their 
commands to the commandant of conscripts in their respective States, 

who, unless othewise ordered, will, as far as practicable, distribute the 
conscripts of the State among its regiments, battalions, and compa- 
nies thereof, in proportion to their respective deficiencies. He will con- 
sult the wishes of the conscripts in assigning them to companies or 
regiments so far as may be consistent with their proper distribution, 

and will not separate men from the same county, district, or parish 
if it can be avoided. The same rule will be observed by the com- 
mandants of corps in assigning conscripts to companies. 

6. Conscripts for cavalry will only be taken from those who furnish 
their own horses. No conscripts can be assigned to companies mus- 
tered into service since the 16th of April, 1862. 

7. The commandants of conscripts are specially enjoined to pay 
unceasing attention to the health, comfort, and instruction of the con- 
seripts under their command, and to bear in mind that the efficiency 
of the Army and the safety of the country depend in a great measure 
upon their faithful discharge of these duties. 

III. Enrollment of conscripts. 

All white male residents of the Confederate States between the ages 
of eighteen and forty, not exempted by act of Congress or not already 
in the service, will be enrolled. Persons lable to enrollment may be 
enrolled wherever they may be found, as provided by the act No. 42, 
herewith published. 

IV. Undomiciled foreigners. 

1. Foreigners not domiciled in the Confederate States are not liable 
toenrollment. Domicile in the Confederate States consists in residence 
with intention permanently to remain in those States and to abandon 
domicile elsewhere. Long residence, of itself, does not constitute 
domicile. A person may acquire domicile in less than one year, and he 
may not acquire it in twenty years’ residence. If there be a determi- 
nation to return to the native country and to retain the domicile 
there, no length of residence can confer domicile. The principal evi- 
dences of intention to remain are the declarations of the party, the 
exercise of rights of citizenship, marriage, and the acquisition of real 
estate; but the intention may be gathered from other facts. 

2. The enrollment will be made by the enrolling officers of the State, 
if the Governor thereof will permit them to act under the orders of 
the commandant of conscripts; an application will be made by the 
said commandants for such permission. If it be declined, the com- — 
mandant will report the fact to the Adjutant and Inspector General 
and ask for the employment of Confederate officers for the purpose 
of making enrollments. If the Governor consent, but the enrolling 
officers of the State be found unable or unwilling to discharge their 
duty efficiently, the like application will be made to the Adjutant and 
Inspector General; and in such event a commissioned officer for each 
Congressional district and a non-commissioned officer or private for 
each county, city, town, district, or parish will be assigned to such 
duty. In making such assignment officers and men disabled by 
wounds from active duty in the field and acquainted in the locali- 
ties in which they are required to serve will, as far as practicable, 
be selected. The commissioned officer in each district will superin- 
tend the enrollments and collection of conscripts therein. Non-com- 
missioned officers and privates while so employed will be allowed 
pay as extra-duty men. The enrolling officers of the States, if em- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 165 


ployed, will be paid the compensation allowed by the State laws for 
similar services. The commanding generals of armies in the field 
will order such commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, and 
privates as they think qualified to be enrolling officers or drill officers, 
and who are unfit for active service in the field, to report to the com- 
mandant of conscripts in their respective States, who will order such 
of them to duty as may be required, and report the remainder by let- 
ter to the commanding general as not needed for such service. 

3. Enrollments for particular regiments, Squadrons, battalions, and 
companies in service on the 16th of April, 1862, may be made by offi- 
cers detailed for the purpose by the commanding general of a depart- 
ment or an army in the field; but such officers must report to the com- 
mandant of conscripts in their respective States, receive instructions 
from him, and assemble their conscripts at such point as he may desig- 
nate. Conscripts enrolled without reporting to such commandant 
_ will be deemed to be enrolled for general Service, and shall at any 
time be transferred on their own application, or on the application of 
commandants of corps needing conscripts, to such Corps. 

V. Exemptions. 

The exemption act will be construed prospectively, and does not 
authorize the discharge of any one enrolled or in service prior to the 
11th day of October, 1862. 

VI. Bodily and mental infirmities. 

1. Question of bodily and mental incapacity will be decided by sur- 
geons employed for the purpose, by virtue of the act of Congress 
approved on the 11th of October, 1862. Three surgeons of each Con- 
gressional district will be recommended by the commandants of con- 
scripts to the Adjutant and Inspector General for employment under 
the foregoing act, and the said commandants will establish in each 
county, city, parish, or district a place of rendezvous for the exam- 
ination of conscripts enrolled therein. 

2. The three surgeons employed in each Congressional district will 
constitute a board of examination for the district, and one or more of 
them may act at any place of rendezvous therein. They shall fix days 
for the examination of conscripts in each county, city, parish, or dis- 
trict, and give at least ten days’ notice thereof by publication in one 
or more newspapers circulating in the Congressional district and by 
notice posted at the principal places of public resort. 

3. The enrolling officer for the county, city, parish, or district shall 
attend at such examinations, and enroll and send to the camp of 
instruction such persons as are examined and found by the surgeon 
to be incapable of bearing arms; the standard of bodily capacity 
shall be that established by General Orders, No. 58, modified by the 
omission of the third paragraph, which authorized the enrollment of 
persons not equal to all military duty. No person will be enrolled as 
a conscript who is not capable of bearing arms. 

4. Persons deemed incapable of bearing arms shall be reported by 
the examining surgeon to the Board of Examination, who shall deter- 
mine the questions of exemption and grant certificates thereof. The 
certificates shall specify whether the incapacity is temporary or per- 
manent; and if permanent the party shall be exempt from future 
examination, unless specially ordered by the Board. So soon as the 
examining board shall be organized in any Congressional district and 
shall enter upon the discharge of their duties, no other mode of exam- 
ination for persons in that district will be pursued, and the decision 
of the Examining Board will be deemed final. 


166 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


5. The fact that a person has been discharged from service for 
physical disability or other cause does not of itself exempt from 
enrollment as a conscript. — 

6. If any enrolled person is unable to attend at the rendezvous on 
account of sickness he will send to the examining surgeon a certifi- 
cate specifying the cause of absence and its probable duration from 
some respectable physician resident in the county, city, parish, or 
district in which the rendezvous is situated. The examining surgeon 
shall send the certificate to the commandant of the nearest camp of 
instruction, and if the person mentioned therein shall not report him- 
self for examination at the said camp within a reasonable period, or 
send to the commandant of the camp a renewal of the certificate show- 
ing his continued disability, he shall be deemed absent without leave. 

7. A compensation of $4 per diem while actually employed will be 
allowed to each of the examining surgeons, and will be paid on their 
certified account by the quartermaster of the nearest camp of 
instruction. 3 

VII. Friends, Dunkards, Nazarenes, and Mennonites. 

All persons of the above denominations in regular membership 
therein on the 11th day of October, 1862, shall be exempt from enroll- 
ment on furnishing a substitute, or on presenting to the enrolling offi- 
cer a receipt from a bonded quartermaster for the tax of $500 imposed 
by act of Congress and an affidavit by the bishop, presiding elder, or 
other officer whose duty it is to preserve the records of membership 
in the denomination to which the party belongs, setting forth dis- 
tinctly the fact that the party on the 11th day of October, 1862, was 
in regular membership with such denomination. The affidavit must 
be taken and certified by a justice of the peace or other officer 
appointed by the law of his State to administer oaths, and his 
authority to administer oaths must be certified by the clerk of a 
court of record under the seal of the court. All assistant quarter- 
masters to whom the said tax is tendered will receive and receipt for 
it, and pay the same into the Treasury of the Confederate States 
without unreasonable delay. The enrolling officer will receive the 
receipt and forward it to the commandant of conscripts, by whom it 
will be forwarded to the Quartermaster-General, who will charge the 
assistant quartermaster with the amount received by him. 

VIII. Provision against extortion. 

1. When application for exemption is made by any shoemaker, 
tanner, blacksmith, wagon-maker, miller, mill engineer, or millwright 
not in the employment of any company or establishment, but work- 
ing for himself, the party seeking exemption shall state in writing 
under oath that he is skilled and actually employed in his said trade; 
that he is habitually engaged in working for the public; that the 
products of his labor, while exempt from military service, shall not 
be sold, exchanged, or bartered for a price exceeding the cost of pro- 
duction and 75 per cent. profit thereon, and that he will not by any 
arrangement, shift, or contrivance evade the law or receive a greater 
price or reward than it allows. | , 

2. Where application is made to exempt superintendents and 
operatives in wool and cotton factories and paper mills, and super- 
intendents and managers of wool-carding machines, shoemakers, 
tanners, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, millers, mill engineers, or mill- 
wrights not working for themselves, but in the employment of some 
company or establishment, the president or some director, if the 
company be incorporative; if not, the proprietor of the business, or 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 167 


if there be a firm, some partner therein, shall make oath in writing 
that the said superintendents, operatives, managers, or mechanics, 
as the case may be, are.skilled and actually employed in their said 


-yoeations; that they are habitually working for the public; that they 


are absolutely necessary for the successful prosecution of the busi- 
ness of the concern; that the products thereof shall not be sold or 
exchanged or bartered during the said exemption for a price exceeding 
the cost of production and 75 per cent. profit thereon; that no shift, 
contrivance, or arrangement shall be made to evade the law or to 
secure a larger return or profit than it allows, and that exemption is 
not sought for a larger number of persons than is absolutely neces- 
sary for the successful prosecution of the business of the concern. 

3. The foregoing affidavits shall be made before some justice of the 
peace or other person authorized by law to administer oaths; and if 
such justice or other person be not personally known to the enrolling 
officer to be what he purports to be, his official character and his 
right to administer oaths must be certified by the clerk of some court 
of record, under the seal of hiscourt. The affidavits shall be returned 
to the commandant of conscripts, and exemptions shall be granted by 
the enrolling officer. If, however; he suspect false swearing or mistake, ° 
he shall refuse the exemption and refer the case, after first enrolling 
the names of the parties in question, to the commandant of conscripts, 
who shall dispose of it. If at any time the enrolling officer have cause 
to suspect false swearing or mistake in the foregoing affidavits, he 
shall report the fact to the commandant of conscripts, and if the 
said commandant be satisfied after due investigation that a larger 
number of persons is designedly employed than is necessary, or that 
a larger profit than the law allows is received, either directly or indi- 
rectly, he shall order the enrollment of the parties exempted upon the 
said affidavits. 

TX. Details. é 

Citizen employés and mechanics who are employed in establishments 
of the Government or by contractors with the Government in the man- 
ufacture of arms, ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of 
war, saddles, harness, and army supplies will be enrolled and returned 
to their work, provided the chief of the Ordnance Bureau, or some 
ordnance officer authorized by him for the purpose, shall certify that 
the number of operatives required by the officer in charge of such 
establishment or by such contractor for Government work is reason- 
able and not excessive. Such certificate will be presented to the 
enrolling officer, who will thereupon make the detail of the men speci- 
fied for a period not exceeding sixty days and return the certificate to 
the commandant of conscripts. At the expiration of such detail the 
officer in charge of the Government shop or the contractor in whose 
employment said conscripts are shall cause said certificates to be 
renewed or return the conscripts to the nearest camp of instruction. 
If the certificate be not renewed or the conscripts be not returned, no 
other detail shall be granted to such establishment or contractor. In 
all cases of details for contractors the party requesting the detail 
shall make affidavit that the persons so detailed will not be employed 
oa any other than Government work, which affidavit shall be returned 
to the commandant of conscripts; and if it be found that at any time 
such detailed conscripts are employed by said contractors upon work 
for private individuals, the detail shall be canceled by the comman- 
dant of conscripts. 

Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 50, current series, is hereby 
revoked. : 


168 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


X. To whom applications for exemption must be addressed. 

Applications for exemption must in all cases be made to the enroll- 
ing officer, from whose decision an appeal may be taken to the com- 
mandant of conscripts. The Department will not consider the 
application until it has been referred by the latter officer. 

XI. Substitutes. 7 

1. When a person claims exemption on the ground that he has put 
a substitute in service, he must exhibit to the enrolling officer a dis- 
charge from some company, signed by the commanding officer of the 
regiment or command to which the said company belongs, or then 
belonged (see General Orders, No. 26), or an exemption signed by the 
commandant of conscripts; and if the said discharge or exemption 


do not show that it was granted in consideration of a substitute 


having been furnished, such fact must be certified in writing by the 
commanding officer of the regiment or command to which the com- 
pany belongs or by the commandant of conscripts, as the case may be. 
But in all cases arising within thirty days from the date of this order 
the enrolling officer may grant the exemption upon satisfactory proof 
that the party furnished a substitute who was actually received into 
the service of the Confederate States for three years or the war, and 
the substitute is not liable to military service. Such exemption may 
at any time be canceled if fraud or mistake is discovered. 

2. Paragraph IJ, General Orders, No. 29, current series, is hereby 
revoked. No person under eighteen years of age or not domiciled in 
the Confederate States, or not of good moral character, or who is 
liable under the existing order to enrollment as a conscript shall be 
received as a substitute. And in all cases in which a substitute 
becomes subject to military service the exemption of the principal, by 
reason of the substitution, shall expire. Any person subject to enroll- 
ment who desires to furnish a substitute may, at any time before 
enrollment or before he is assigned to a company and sent from the 
camp of instruction, present a substitute at such camp; and if the 
substitute be capable of bearing arms and be of good moral character 
and not within the prohibited classes he shall be received, and the 
principal shall be exempt from military service. 

XII. Volunteering. 

All persons liable to conscription may before enrollment volunteer 
in companies in service on the 16th of April, 1862, but after enroll- 
ment they cannot volunteer, nor can they at any time volunteer in 
companies received into service since the 16th of April, 1862. 

XIII. Miscellaneous. 


1. Allimpressments of men by regimental, battalion, or company 


commanders, under any pretense whatever, are prohibited, it being 


the design of the Department to supply the Army exclusively through . 


the officers appointed by this act. 

2. All the laws and regulations applicable to deserters shall be 
applied to such conscripts as fail to repair to the place of rendez- 
vous for enrollment, or who shall desert after enrollment. 

3. All the agencies employed for the apprehension and confinement 
of deserters, and their transportation to the commands of their respect- 
ive commanders, shall be applicable to persons able to duty as con- 
scripts who shall fail to repair to the place of rendezvous after the 
publication of the call. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 169 


JACKSON, November 3, 1862. 
Lieut. Gen. J. C. PEMBERTON, 
Headquarters, Jackson, Miss.: 


Str: I have learned to my utter surprise that the cargoes of the 
schooners Marquez and Confidence have been released by other than 
military authority and sold by the owner, who has received his money. 
I also learn that parties claiming to be Government officers have 
granted written permits and made agreements with parties to trade 
between our lines and New Orleans, and some of the vessels lately 
seized have been acting under that authority. Without assuming to 
judge whether or not these clearly unlawful acts were justified by the 
exigencies of the case, it is quite clear that parties have assumed 
powers and authority which should only have been exercised by the 
commanding general, and I find this to be the cause of great com- 
plaint among our best citizens. In order to ascertain the legal status 
of these seizures I have consulted Hon. W. P. Harris and Col. D. C. 
Glenn, distinguished lawyers and prominent citizens of Mississippi. 
They are clear on all these points, viz: All vessels trading under 
enemy’s license or bringing cargoes from ports of enemy are liable to 
capture generally, even after they enter our ports; the goods and ves- 
sels liable to condemnation as prize of war; neutrals not exempt if 
concerned in bringing cargoes from enemy’s ports. Confederate ves- 
sels owned by citizens are liable to capture. The fact that they came 
from enemy’s port with goods sufficient to justify. ‘ 

I leave for Camp Moore this morning, and leave this for your con- 
sideration until a further investigation will enable me to make an 
official report. It dces seem to me that to more effectually correct 
and develop the knowledge of many irregularities in this department 
you will have to reorganize with officers of your own selection. 

Very respectfully, 
EF... HATCH. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ap Richmond, November 5, 1862. 
Col. L. B. NORTHROP, 3 
Commuissary-General: 
SiR: In reply to letter of 3d instant, you are respectfully informed 
that the Department is now engaged in selecting a superintendent of 
railroad transportation to whose supervision questions of the kind 
presented by you will be committed. 
Your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
| Secretary of War. 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Decatur, Ga., November 6, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a communiéa- 
tion received from the adjutant and inspector general of .this State, 
and also a copy of my reply to the same. Having seen the order of 
General Cooper, as published in the papers of Richmond and generally 


170 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


copied by the papers in this State, I issued orders to the enrolling 
officers of the several Congressional districts on the 5th instant (the 
day on which I received your communication from Colonel Wayne) to 
commence the enrollment of persons subject to conseription between 
the ages of eighteen and forty years. This order was immediately 
countermanded upon the receipt of the communication from Colonel 
Wayne and before any enrollments had taken place in pursuance of 
it. Your telegram in reference to foreigners has just been received 
and directions not to enroll them until further orders have been sent 
‘to my assistants. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JNO. B. WEEMS, 
Tieutenant-Oolonel, Commanding. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


STATE OF GEORGIA, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Milledgeville, November 1, 1862. 


Lieut. Col. JoHn B. WEEms, Provisional Army, : 
Enrolling Officer for Georgia, Atlanta: 

COLONEL: I am instructed by the Governor to inquire if you have 
received orders from the War Department at Richmond to conseript 
men in this State between the ages of thirty-five and forty. Having 
seen in the papers that such orders had been issued by the Secretary 
of War, the Governor addressed a letter to the President on the sub- 
ject, but receiving no reply from him he directs me to obtain the 
desired information from you, and at the same time to notify you that 
if such orders have been received by you he cannot permit them to be 
executed in the State until the meeting of the Legislature on the 6th 
instant, when the matter will be submitted to that body for its action. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Decatur, Ga., November 6, 1862. 
HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of Georgia, Milledgeville : 


Sir: I received by last night’s mail your communication under date 
of the 1st instant, informing me that you had been instructed by Goy- 
ernor Brown to inquire of me if I had received orders from the Depart- 
ment of War at Richmond to conscript men in this State between the 
ages of thirty-five and forty, and also to notify me that if such orders — 
had been issued he would not permit them to be executed in this State 
until the meeting of the Legislature on the 6th instant. In reply I 
have only to say that Governor Brown having made application to 
His Excellency President Davis for the desired information and (as 
you state) failed to receive any reply, I most respectfully decline an 
answer to his inquiries. 

Very respectfully, your obedient. servant, 
JNO. B. WEEMS, 
Lieutenant- Colonel, Commanding. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 171 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, — 
Near Richmond, November 6, 1862. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General: 


GENERAL: Accompanying my report, herewith inclosed, I have the 
honor to submit the following statement: The report only gives the 
operations of this and the camp of instruction at Dublin Depot. The 
counties of the Valley have been nearly drained of conscripts by 
officers sent for the purpose by Major-General Jackson, and the men 
never accounted for to me, with the exception of those reported by 
Col. M. G. Harman, Fifty-second Virginia Regiment, enrolling officer 
at Staunton. The same is the case with all the counties within the 
influence of Major-General Loring’s command. Undoubtedly a very 
large number of conscripts have been collected and sent tothe armies 
of the Valley and Southwestern Virginia who do not appear upon my 
report, which is chiefly confined to the eastern portion of the State. 
The discrepancy between the ‘‘total number enrolled as liable to 
duty” and the total number actually received into the camps of 
instruction is due to the fact that a great many of the men fail to 
report at the time and place appointed, and others desert en route. 
The enrolling officers, as a general thing not being provided with 
competent guards, have not the means of preventing this, but many 
of these men subsequently join volunteer companies already in the 
Service, and should be properly accounted for to me by the officers 
receiving them. The number of desertions from this camp have been 
about 140 up to this time; four-fifths of these have been substitutes 
deserting within twenty-four hours of their being received as such. I 
have endeavored in every way to protect the Government in this 
tIatter of substitutes, even to retaining the money until they are 
assigned, but with no success. Either some example should be made 
of them or the principal be in some manner held responsible. I 
should be pleased to receive any suggestions or instructions concern- 
ing this subject from the Department. A majority of the enrolling 
officers have failed or not deemed it necessary to report to me the 
number of deserters, stragglers, &c., arrested by them and returned 
to their respective regiments. I am confident the number so arrested 
is very large, nearly equaling the conscripts, from the verbal state- 
ments of these officers, and it should be credited to the recruiting 
conscript service. I shall instruct the officers hereafter to make 
their reports embrace this class as well as the conscripts. At the 
beginning of the conscript service I was mainly dependent upon the 
State officers for purposes of enrollment, but subsequently received 
the services of many regular C. S. officers. Nine out of ten State 
officers and a large number of C. 8S. officers proving inefficient, have 
been from time to time relieved. Now that the act has been extended 
to embrace all persons between eighteen and forty, I respectfully 
request that I may be permitted to select from the regular service 
such officers as I know will render efficient service in enrolling and 
reporting the conscripts promptly into camp. In this connection I 
have already brought to your attention the names of Major Cabell, 
Captain McPhail, and one or two others. I propose to assign a supe- 
rior officer to each Congressional district, who will have entire 
charge of the business in his district, receiving the reports of sub- 
ordinate officers in the different counties, and forwarding the con- 
Scripts as enrolled to the nearest camp of-instruction. He will also 


172 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have control of the expenditures of the subordinate officers, and thus 
effect a great saving to the public Treasury, as he will be required to 
certify to the justness of all accounts before they are submitted to this 
office. I hope it will be the pleasure of the Department to accept my 
suggestion in this matter, as it is my earnest desire to see the act 
carried out in the most expeditious and effective manner, and at the 
same time with the very smallest cost to the Government. 
Iam, general, very respectfully, 
J. C. SHIELDS, 
Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. 


[Inelosure. ] 


Report of progress made in the execution of the conseript law in 
Virginia from September 1 to November 1, 1862: | 


Summary of returns of enrolling officers. — 


Whole number of conscripts enrolled.._2_. 2f2_.. 2 5-_ 22. ie 4, 459 
Whole number of conscripts exempt, discharged, and detailed _-_-._...._--- 2,183 
Total. enrolled as liable to duty.-.. 2. 222.0). 22-2 ee - 2a 2,276 


Summary of number of conscripts reported at camps of instruction. 


Whole number of conscripts received for duty at camp of instruction at 


Richmond - os. 2.245650. Bebe Sa a ee 765 
Whole number of conscripts discharged by surgeon at camp of instruction 
at Richmond ooo Po ae ees ete ee 
1,151 
Whole number of conscripts received at camp of instruction at Dublin 
DepOt een ee es ee ee ae oe oe ere 162 
Totalireported.) Agisecies _ eee ies Yt teh Lice hua eo 1,313 


Respectfully submitted. 
J. C. SHIELDS, 
Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


COLLECTOR’S OFFICE, DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI, 
Tangipahoa, November 7, 1862. 
Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, 
Headquarters, Jackson, Miss.: 


Sir: I have just learned from Capt. J. G. Bushwood that you have 
ordered the release of the schooner Osceola, seized by him as an officer 
of the Treasury Department for violation of the law prohibiting inter- 
course with the enemy. In this case I have instructed Captain Bush- 
wood to conform to your order, but I have respectfully to submit that 
if such seizure was legal (and of which there can be no doubt), that 
if military exigencies require the release (and of which exigency it is 
not my province in the slightest degree to question), that such requi- 
sition for release should be made upon this office, and I cannot doubt 
would have been so made if you had been informed of such seizure. 
For your information and consideration in future cases I inclose here- 
with a list of vessels seized by authority and now in custody of this 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 173 


department. The knowledge of the release of the Osceola has already 
brought two applications for the release of vessels occupying similar 
status, which I consider I have no power to release until authorized 
to do so by the Honorable the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom I 
have submitted this matter for his instructions by telegraph this day. 

With your knowledge of the law it is hardly necessary to observe 
that even if trading with the enemy in extraordinary cases is assumed 
by the military authority, the revenue laws are subjected alone to 
the authority of Congress, and I am sure you will agree with me in 
adding that entire harmony and co-operation between the War and 
Treasury Departments, so essential to the public service and inter- 
ests, is most likely to be secured by a frank understanding of their 
respective rights and obligations. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
F. H. HATCH, 
Collector. 


. {Inclosure.] 
List of vessels seized and under custody at this date. 


PONCHATOULA, November 5, 1862. 
F. Marquez, jr., Confidence, Descada, Livingston with cargo, 
Fruitier with cargo, Victoria with cargo, Arundel with cargo, Ann 
McGinn with cargo, General Worth, Sarah Jane, Henry McGinn, Fon- 
tainebleau, Shepherdess, Barbe Silvery, Eclair, Osceola, Bone, Emma 
Emilia, Johnson, Georgia, Victory, Carolina, Eclard, Mabel, Jenny 
Swaine, Locust Tree, barge Georgia, Ark, Blum, Joinville—seized for 
coming from the enemy with enemy’s papers. 
The first two were released by Lieutenant-Colonel Broadwell, the 
second by order of General Ruggles. I have ordered the release of 
the Georgia on the deposit of her value, $2,000. 
F. H. HATCH, 
Collector. 


RICHMOND, November 7, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, | 
Secretary of War: 

Str: The commercial firm of Charles A. Barriere & Brother, of New 
Orleans, composed of Charles A. Barriere, a resident of Paris, France, 
and Frangois G. Barriere, a resident of New Orleans, both French 
citizens, proposes to furnish to the Confederate Government 100,000 
sacks of salt, to be delivered, say, 10,000 sacks at Ponchatoula landing, 
20,000 sacks at Natchez landing, and 70,000 sacks at Vicksburg land- 
ing, or all at the latter place. The salt to be furnished at cost and 
expenses incurred in transportation and delivery and difference of 
exchange. The proper vouchers of cost and expenses will be fur- 
nished to the agent of the Government who is to receive and pay for 
the salt as delivered. ‘ 

The Confederate Government will grant permission to Charles A. 
Barriere & Brother to purchase for each 10,000 sacks of salt delivered 
1,000 bales of cotton from planters or other persons having the same 
for sale, which cotton is to be shipped on board European vessels in 
the Mississippi River within the Confederate lines, say not below 
Donaldsonville, the vessel’s cargo not to be overhauled or touch at — 


174 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. | 


New Orleans or any other port in possession of the enemy, but to pro- 
ceed direct to a French port. 

The Confederate Government obligates itself to cause the steam- 
boats, vessels, and cargoes of salt and cotton to be protected within 
its lines and not to be unnecessarily detained. 

The commerciat firm of Charles A. Barriere & Brother will furnish 
the certificates of the French consul of the clearances of the vessels 
to a French port and give guarantee of the faithful execution of this 
proposition. 

Respectfully, 
C. A. BARRIERE & BROTHER, 
Per CHARLES JONES, Agent. 


RicHMoND, November 7, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: The commercial firm of Charles A. Barriere & Brother, of New 
Orleans, composed of Charles A. Barriere, a resident of Paris, France, 
and Francois G. Barriere, a resident of New Orleans, both being 
French citizens, proposes to furnish the Confederate Government with 
the following list of articles, to wit: One million pounds, more or less, 
of bacon or pork; 100,000 pairs of blankets; 100,000 pairs of shoes and 
boots; 100,000 yards of flannel. The above list will be furnished at 
cost and actual expenses of transportation and delivery, adding the 
difference in exchange. An invoice of the articles and vouchers of 
cost will be furnished. The articles to be delivered either at Poncha- 
toula landing or Port Hudson landing, or at the Vicksburg landing, 
and are to be immediately received by a Government agent at the 
landing, and paid for. 

In consideration of receiving the articles at cost and charges, the 
Confederate Government allows Charles A. Barriere & Brother the 
privilege of purchasing, with the proceeds of the sale to them (the 
Government), cotton from any planter or person having the same for 
sale. 

The Confederate Government obligates itself to protect the boats 
and vessels transporting the articles within its lines; the cotton to be 
shipped on board European vessels, at any point between Donaldson- 
ville and Vicksburg, or may be transported by steam-boats to the 
vessels; the vessels will be allowed to be towed by steam-boats up and 
down the river, and when the cargo is on board the vessels will not be 
allowed to touch at New Orleans or any port in the possession of the 
enemy, nor will the cargo be overhauled, but to proceed directly to a 
French port. 

Charles A. Barriere & Brother will furnish the certificate of the 
French consul as to the clearance of the vessels, as well as procure 
his guarantee of protection, and that they go to a French port. We 
-will further contract to furnish 50,000 barrels of flour and 10,000 sacks 
of coffee, to be delivered at the above designated points. If desir- 
able by the Government, we will extend the contract of the above 
deliveries so as to meet its wants to a much greater degree. 

Respectfully, ae 
Cc. A: BARRIERE & BROTHER, 
Per CHARLES JONES, Agent. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 175 


[First indorsement. ] 
NOVEMBER 13, 1862. 


’ Respectfully submitted to the President for his consideration. The 

parties are not known to the Secretary. 
| G. W. RANDOLPH, 

Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


NOVEMBER 14, 1862. 


The objection to this is the proposed shipment to a port in the 
possession of thé enemy. If the supplies can be obtained free from 
this objection it should be done. The letter of the Governor of 
Mississippi, referred some days since, would indicate that supplies 
might be obtained through a channel not subject to the above objec- 
tion. Asa last resort, we might be justified in departing from the 
declared policy in regard to exports, but the necessity should be 
absolute. 

M rca 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, November 8, 1862. 
His Exeellency J. G. SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala.: 


Str: I have received your letter of the 31st ultimo* and have the 
honor to say in reply that the eight car-loads of salt per day trans- 
ported for Stuart, Buchanan & Co., of Saltville, are under their con- 
tract for the supply of the Army. The Confederate Government has 
never attempted to exercise any control over the railroads of the 
country further than to claim a preference in the transportation of 
munitions and supplies for the Army. Conscious, however, that the 
Government transportation interferes with the commerce of the 
country, and desirous of avoiding such interference, the Depart- 
ment is now engaged in selecting a superintendent of railroad trans- 
portation, who will be charged with the duty of regulating it so far 
as the power of the Government extends. The Department will most 
cheerfully do what it can to facilitate the transportation of salt for 
the Southern States, and will be especially happy to aid Your Excel- 
lency in supplying the people of your patriotic State. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Rachmond, Va., November 10, 1862. 
His Excellency Governor Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

SiR: In consequence of threatened attacks on our railroad connec- 
tions in the eastern portions of North Carolina and Virginia, and 
our inability at present to withdraw from the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia re-enforcements sufficiently large to secure those connections, it 
1s considered very important to complete the Danville and Greensbor- 
ough connection as speedily as possible. The Piedmont Railroad Com- 
pany 1s now working 800 hands on the road and proposes to hire about 
ener rth Oe eS 


* See Series I, Vol. LII, Part II, p. 384. 


176 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


400 more. This isallthat can probably be obtained by the company, but 
is not more than half the number that can be worked to advantage. I 
shall give the company every assistance in my power by supplying at 
cost rations, tools, horses, carts, &c., and under an act of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Virginia I can draft hands for the portion of the 
road in the State. If Your Excellency can supply hands for the 
North Carolina part of the road I must ask you to do so, and to 
inform me when and where they can be delivered to the company. 
Upon conference with the engineer of the company it has been deter- 
mined to add 1,900 hands to the force now employed, and to appor- 
tion them as follows: Virginia, 650 laborers and 100 mules, and North 
Carolina, 1,250 laborers and 500 mules. I aminformed that the plant- 
ers of the Roanoke have hands, carts, and mules. If you can prevail 
upon them to hire them to the company it will enable us to complete 
the work by March 1. The owners of the hands drafted under the 
Virginia act receive $16 per month, and are taken under the ordinary 
responsibilities of hirers, except that they are to be paid for if they 
escape to the enemy. The distance of the road from the scene of 
operations and the presence of a mounted patrol, which I shall organ- 
ize to operate along the line, will render the latter risk very small. 
Can you recommend a suitable person to raise the mounted company 
for local service as guards and patrols? He should be somewhat 
acquainted with cavalry service. The company will be composed of 
non-conscripts and be mustered into the service for six months. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, ~ 
Columbia, S. C., November 11, 1862. . 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 
GENERAL: In pursuance of General pesca No. 64, paragraph IV, 
I have the honor to report: 


1: Conseripts in‘camp at last report 2.2.92. SA ee 55 
2. Reported for duty since last report. <.-._....-._..<___.1. 22 ee .- “4d 

Total... =... -. 2 2- ds. 9S ess ee aie. Se 96 
3. Diseharged (rejected, by surgeon)’. --.......-.-.--...-.-.+- 3a "i 
4: Deserters < 22:02. So Fk Re a a. . 3 
5. Assigned to duty “..-.2.20222 7.4 o- 2220 sot 8.2. 23 
6: Now. In camp -...-2.-22- hoe Pome deg sricl ben cee dee eee rr 57 

Total. 2 cg Op oe yh re eee Wee oe eo = em = oe 96 


The acceptance by the President of eight regiments recently organ- 
ized in this State will for the present lighten the duties of this office 
and render unnecessary the appointment of more than five additional 
enrolling officers for the entire State. If officers of the line or staff are 
not detailed for this service, and appointments of citizens are to be 
made, I trust the Department will confide those appointments to the 
commandant of the camp of instruction. I venture the suggestion, 
because I hear of recommendations of most unworthy persons being 
sent to the Secretary of War. I know every man in the State who is 
fitted for the duties, and can select the best. The drill-masters now 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. slg 


attached to the camp, the enrolling officers suggested by the Secretary 
and five others will be amply sufficient for the duty. I would venture 
most respectfully to suggest that there are many officers of the line 
who are in feeble health, but competent to enrolling service, who 
might be detached and thus save the necessity of any appointments. 
One such the Secretary recommended, and he is now engaged in that 
duty... 

: I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

_ JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Lieut. Col. and Assistant Adjutant-Géneral, Commanding. 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP RANDOLPH, 
Decatur, Ga., November 12, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Sir: I have the honor to report that the supreme court of this State 
has unanimously decided that the conscript act is clearly constitu- 
tional. The case was taken up by my order by Capt. Mark H. Bland- 
ford, of the Twelfth Georgia Regiment, temporarily assigned to duty 
at this camp. Iam also advised from reliable sources that a very 
insignificant minority of the General Assembly of the State approve 
of the late action of the Executive, and that a rigid enforcement of the 
law will meet with general favor. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. B. WEEMS, 
Lneutenant-Colonel, Commanding. 


NASSAU, NEW PROVIDENCE, November 12, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: My last communication was under date of the 13th ultimo in 
original per Leopard, and duplicate per Scotia, since which the Kate 
has arrived with dates to the 31st ultimo, but brought me no letters. 
The Kate is loaded and will sail early in the morning. Her cargo 
consists chiefly of blankets, flannels, &c., and as these are so greatly 
needed at home, I have refrained from pressing any Government 
freight, especially as there is but little left of the Melita’s cargo. I 
am informed that field artillery is not wanted at home, and hence 
shall retain the batteries ex Bahama, but intend having the harness 
removed and shipping it by the Herald or Leopard, both of which 
are expected within a few days. 

While on this subject I would solicit your attention to my letter of 
the 26th July last in reference to the battery shipped per Columbia, 
and the other one which is now in shore. You may remember that 
the evidence of ownership as disclosed was not quite conclusive to 
my mind, but if it be really Government property I presume you 
would like to have the harness taken off and shipped. I shall await 
your directions on this point. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER. 
12 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


178 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE. DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., November 18, 1862. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury : 


DEAR SIR: I applied two weeks ago for $250,000 in Confederate 
bonds to send abroad for the purchase of shoes, &e. I thought I 
could certainly get them, inasmuch as the Confederate Government 
owes this State nea $5,000,000 or $6,000,000. I have sent two special 
agents for them, but have been put off for the reason that the papers 
were not in form, &c. » As the vessel was about to sail in which my 
agent was going, [I] instructed my agent to ask for the bonds any- 
how, and to say that any papers would be signed afterward that 
might be required by the forms of the Department. This was refused 
also, and my agent has probably lost the vessel. I am compelled, 
sir, to complain of such treatment. It displays either an ineom- 
petency on the part of your subordinates or an unwillingness to 
accommodate me with the bonds, which I would not have and do not 
want after my agent has gone. I would feel obliged, sir, if you would 
investigate the matter and see if there is any reason for the failure 
to accommodate me. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[NOVEMBER 13, 1862.—For Lubbock to Davis, reporting over sixty 
regiments in the Confederate service from Texas and requesting a 
suspension of the conscript law in that State, see Series I, Vol. LII, 
p. 833. | 


RICHMOND, VA., November 15, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH: 


Str: I have this moment received yours of this date notifying 
me that you resign the office of Secretary of War and leave the Assist- 
ant Secretary in charge of the office. As you have thus without 
notice and in terms excluding inquiry retired from the post of a con- 
stitutional adviser of the Executive of the Confederacy, nothing 
remains but to give you this formal notice of the acceptance of your 
resignation. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., November 15, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH: 


SiR: Your proposition to the Governor of South Carolina would be 
acceptable to me if there were enough men in Mississippi liable to 
military duty to form the regiments. When the President made the 
last call on Mississippi for seven regiments for the war fifteen were 
furnished, including Colonel Starke’s cavalry and Colonel Withers’ 
regiment of artillery. This, with the continued recruiting for Missis- 
sippi regiments heretofore formed, has so drained the State of her 
male population that it will be impossible to raise four regiments 
after taking men between thirty-five and forty into Confederate sery- 
ice. I propose that three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, 


- CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 179 


composed of men now enrolled in the State service, be retained in 
their present status; that is, in the service as State troops, to be 
ordered (as I have heretofore done) to any point indicated by the gen- 
eral commanding this department. This will save the embarrassment 
and delay of disbanding the troops now in service, and will keep in 
the field many who are exempt under the recent act of Congress. 
Those not in State service could then be conscripted to fill up old 
regiments, but under the exemption law but few could then be found 
liable to the conscription. If the Government claims all in the State 
between thirty-five and forty years, in the ten mounted companies in 
the State service the result will be to break up these companies with-. 
out adding to the Confederate force, for the conscripts in them will claim 
and be entitled to exemption from service in the Confederate Army, 
while under State laws they are not exempt from State service. The 
same state of facts exists in regard to the infantry. 

In making these suggestions permit me to assure you that I have no 
other end in view but to get the largest number of armed men possi- 
ble in the field. We shall need them all, and all the President can 
send us, to keep this State from being overrun by.the enemy this win- 
ter. My wish is to strengthen and not to embarrass the Confederate 
Government, and the only reason why I do not accept your proposi- 
tion without making even a suggestion is, that I believe it will mate- 
rially lessen the force with which we are to meet the enemy in 
Mississippi, and for this reason I ask especially that the cavalry com- 
panies now in the State service be permitted to fight through this 
winter as now organized. For months past they have fought the 
enemy thirty miles beyond the Confederate lines and have given great 
protection to the citizens of the northwestern corner of the State. 
Some of them have killed, captured, and wounded more Yankees than 
the company numbers. Let me again state that we need all the men 
we can get, and if re-enforcements are not sent I believe the State 
will be overrun. 

. Very respectfully, ° 
JOHN J. PETTUS. 


| RICHMOND, VA., November 17, 1862. 
General JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States : 
sir: The Secretary of War having informed me that he had resigned 
his office and that the resignation had been accepted, it becomes proper 
for me to tender my resignation of the office of Assistant Secretary of 
War, to take effect when his successor shall be appointed. 
With much respect, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, November 17, 1862. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Charleston, S. C.: 


GENERAL: I have the honor this morning to acknowled ge the receipt 
of your note of the 15th instant, accompanied by a rescript of your 
communication to me under date of the 31st of October last, relative 
to a proposed conference -between the Governors of the Southern 


» 


180 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


States and those of the Northwestern States. As you desired, I have 
substituted and placed on file in this department your last in lieu of 
your first letter, and herewith return the latter to you. I have also 
received the letter of Maj. J. L. Locke, with your indorsement 
thereon, in reference to speculation in corn. As the General Assem- 
bly is now in session, I have that subject under consideration. I will 
submit the letter to a committee appointed on that question, but I 
fear that measures against speculation will not be adopted by the Leg- 
islature as stringent as I could wish. 
Very respectfully, &e., 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


—<_____. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
November 17, 1862. 
The Honorable GENERAL ASSEMBLY: 


Certainly a Legislature has never been convened in the State of 
North Carolina to protect greater interests or meet greater responsi- 
bilities. Eighteen months ago, when the State entered into the war 
which is now waging, all was life and buoyancy and excitement. The 
novelty of our undertaking and the enthusiasm of our people in sup- 
port of our cause not only rendered the course of the Legislature and 
the Executive easy, but actually preceded and marked it out. But 
the long continuance of the contest, the slaughter of our soldiers, the 
occupation of our territory by the enemy, the destruction of our 
homes, and the blockaded condition of our coasts have reduced us to 
straits and given rise to a class of evils in the presence of which 
ephemeral patriotism must perish and the tinsel enthusiasm of noy- 
elty give place to that stern and determined devotion to our cause 
which alone can sustain a revolution. It now becomes the duty of 
you, the General Assembly, to set an example to your constituents 
of firmness, prudence, determination, and energy; to correct the 
errors of the past; to provide for the exigencies of the future, and to 
use well and wisely the power vested in your body by the constitu- 
tion for the protection of our rights and liberties. The subject of 
first importance is the prosecution of the war and the means of defend- 
ing our State against the invasion of the enemy. The Legislature, by 
several acts in 1861, provided that in case the Confederate Govern- 
ment should fail or neglect to provide for North Carolina the Goy- 
ernor should be authorized to raise a certain number of troops and 
made appropriations of money for their support. Impressed with the 
defenseless condition of our eastern counties when I came into office, 
I had fully determined to avail myself of this authority, and would 
have proceeded at once to do so but for the intervention of insur- 
mountable difficulties. The principal of these was the conscript law 
passed by the Confederate Congress subsequent to the passage of the 
several acts referred to. By this law, as extended in its provisions’a 
short time before the adjournment of Congress, all able-bodied men 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years became liable to 
enrollment. as soldiers of the Confederate States. To raise an ade- 
quate force for State defense from our citizens beyond the age of 
forty-five and submit to this vast drain besides I thought entirely 
impracticable. I hoped, too, that by aiding and assisting in the exe- 
cution of the conscription law I would be effectually providing for 
State defense. This reasonable hope has, I regret to say, been dis- 
appointed; and although North Carolina has a greater extent of sea- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 181 


coast than any other State, she has had fewer troops given her for its 
defense. 

It is not necessary, gentlemen, that I should call your attention to 
the abounding wealth of this threatened section of our State—filled 
with everything necessary for the comfort of our Army and our 
people—or to the suffering and ruin of its loyal, patriotic inhabitants. 
You are sufficiently informed in regard thereto. It is for you, there- 
fore, to say whether you will suffer our defenses, as heretofore, to 
remain exclusively in the hands of the Confederate authorities, or 
take steps to carry out the will of the last Legislature and raise troops 
enough on State authority to strengthen the weak hand of the General 
Government on our coast. I unhesitatingly reeommend the raising 
of at least ten regiments of reserves, to be accepted for three or four 
months and dismissed intime to pitch their crops in the spring. This 
force, auxiliary to the Confederate troops, would probably be able to 
prevent an advance of the enemy into the interior, and while subsist- 
ing on the abundant supplies in our eastern counties would benefit 
the whole State by aiding in withdrawing vast quantities of provisions 
from exposed points. Inasmuch as it may become necessary for slave 
labor to be employed on State defenses, and my authority to force 
such labor may be questicned by some, I would respectfully recom- 
mend the propriety of the passing of an act whereby such authority 
may be vested in me in case such urgent necessity shall arise as will 
- justify it. 

Next to the defense of the State from the enemy in importance is 
the defense of our people against extortion and starvation. Notwith- 
standing the failure of the crop in the western part of the State, it is 
believed that there is within our borders an abundance of grain for 
the supply of our people and a surplus for the use of the Army. The 
lands heretofore devoted to cotton and tobacco have been planted in 
corn very generally, and the crop of this essential product is perhaps 
larger by many hundred thousand bushels than has ever been known. 
When this is considered, together with the immense crop of pease, 
potatoes, fruit, &c., there would seem to be little danger of any actual 
suffering among our people, nor would there be could it all be prop- 
erly distributed and at reasonable prices. But the demon of specu- 
lation and extortion seems to have seized upon nearly all sorts and 
conditions of men, and all the necessaries of life are fast getting 
beyond the reach of the poor. Flour, which if properly left to the 
laws of supply and demand could not have risen to more than double 
_peace rates, can now be used only by the rich. Everything has a 
tendency upward in the same proportion. Leather, woolen cloth, 
and cotton goods have been made the special means of extortion. As 
if we were not sufficiently afflicted with the base and avaricious in our 
own midst, speculators from distant States swarm in the land, offering 
fabulous prices for everything they can buy, and, in many instances, 
taking advantage of the patriotism of our people, they represent 
themselves as agents of the Government purchasing for the Army, 
thus obtaining what they could not otherwise do.* The supply of salt 
will, I hope, [hold out;] but this subject, too, needs legislative action. 
Dr. Worth, the salt commissioner appointed by the convention, has 
been industriously at work, but he has not produced a great quantity 
owing to the difficulties which he has mentioned in his reports. His 
first works, at Morehead City, were taken by the enemy before he had 
fairly gotten into operation. His next effort, at Wilmington, was suc- 
cessful in producing about 250 bushels per day for some time before 
they were interrupted by the yellow fever, which has caused their 


182. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


temporary suspension. As the pestilence has abated, they will, of 
course, be immediately again put into operation. The whole amount 
made there by the State and private individuals probably exceeds 
2,500 bushels per day. Nearly all of this made on private account 
is bought by citizens of other States and carried off for speculation 
at prices ranging from $12 to $20 per bushel. My predecessor, 
Governor Clark, has also entered into a contract, through N. W. 
Woodfin and George W. Mordecai, esqs., with Stuart, Buchanan & 
Co., of Saltville, Va., for the privilege of manufacturing 300,000 
bushels of salt, and Mr. Woodfin was made superintendent of the 
works. With commendable energy he has pushed forward his under- 
taking, and there are now, as reported to me by a special agent sent 
to visit the establishment, about 200 kettles in operation, making near 
1,200 bushels perday. Owing to his sickness, the superintendent has 
made no official report to me of his operations and expenditures. I 
recommend that your honorable body shall take immediate steps to 
prevent the exportation from the State of salt, leather, shoes, woolen 
goods, cotton cloth, yarn, pork and bacon, flour, and potatoes, except 
for the Army and by regular agents of the Government, and except 
when purchased by any county and corporate authorities of our sister 
States under such regulations as will amount to satisfactory proof 
that such articles are for private use or charitable distribution to the 
poor of such counties, towns, &¢., and not for speculation; not, how- 
ever, in violation of any existing contracts made by our citizens with 
citizens of other States. 

This is all the remedy I can suggest for the evils of extortion. His- 
tory and common sense have taught us the danger of trying to force 
trade which refuses to be governed by any but natural laws. All we 
can do is to aid these well-established laws as a skillful physician 
assists nature in the checking of disease. Violent and forcible measg- 
ures have long since been condemned by civilized statesmen, and could 
now only serve to dry up the sources of our industry and lessen the 
production of the country. The same remarks apply to seizures of 
private property for public use, which ought never to be resorted to 
except in extreme cases, and then only as a temporary expedient. To 
provide against the possible sufferings of the wives and children of 
our brave and self-denying soldiers, I also respectfully recommend 
the purchasing and storing at some safe point in the interior of at 
least 200,000 bushels of corn and 500,000 pounds of pork, to be sold to 
them at rates sufficient to cover the cost, transportation, &e. It can 
now be bought in the eastern counties at moderate prices, and is in 
danger of destruction by the enemy if not removed at an early day. 
Anticipating the necessity of this measure, and also thinking it proper 
in a military point of view to have some surplus on hand, I have 
already ordered the building of large cribs on the North Carolina | 
Railroad and made other preliminary arrangements for purchasing on 
a large scale. I deem this a matter of the very highest importance. 
- Nothing would so cheer and encourage our soldiers in the discharge 
of duty as to know that their State was providing for those at home, 
dearer to them than life; and nothing would so dispirit and demoral- 
ize them as to know that those dear ones were suffering. Indeed, the 
soldier shivering through the snows of the coming winter and offer- 
ing his blood day by day for our defense has a right to expect that 
his country will not permit his wife and little ones to ery in vain for 
bread, and while there is a morsel in the land it should be divided 
with them. I beg you therefore, gentlemen, to make such provisions 
as you may deem best in reference to the matter and at as early a day 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 183 


as possible, and let the gratifying assurance go forth to the camps of 
our armies that the wives and children of our soldiers shall not suffer 
so long as their State has money or food to give them. : 

I beg leave to call your attention to the great and almost insur- 
mountable difficulties encountered by the quartermaster’s department 
in providing clothing, shoes, and blankets for our troops. During 
the administration of my predecessor an arrangement was entered 
into (according to a resolution of the General Assembly) with the 
Quartermaster’s Department of the Confederate States by which 
North Carolina was to receive the commutation clothing money of 
the troops, and clothe and shoe them herself. And on our agreeing 
to sell the Confederate authorities all the surplus supplies that could 
be procured in the State they agreed to withdraw their agents from 
our markets and leave the State agents the whole field without com- 
petition. This would have enabled the State to clothe and shoe her 
troops comfortably, and could have furnished to the Confederate 
States all that was to be had anyhow at reasonable rates, but it was 
immediately violated. The country was soon, and is still, swarming 
with agents of the Confederate Government, stripping bare our 
markets and putting enormous prices upon our agents. This is espe- 
cially the case in regard to shoes and leather. The consequence has 
been our troops could get only half supplies from home, and nothing 
at all from the Confederate Government, because of our agreement 
to furnish them ourselves. When a large portion of our army this 
fall, by the accidents of battle and other causes, lost their baggage, 
it was found impossible at once to replace it. Sorely pressed as to 
the best course to be pursued, I published an appeal to our people in 
behalf of their brothers in the field, and employed the militia officers 
for the collection of articles donated or sold; and though the 
response has been at once gratifying and patriotic, yet it is necessarily 
slow and uncertain, and I regret to say that the heroes of Boons- 
borough, Sharpsburg; and other glorious fields have suffered, and are 
still suffering, greatly for the want of shoes and clothing. Every 
possible exertion has been made for their relief, but while the agents 
of the Confederacy are allowed to compete with ours, and speculators 
are allowed to carry our leather beyond our borders, it will be impos- 
sible to supply them. I earnestly recommend an embargo upon this 
article, as before mentioned. . 

I am gratified that I am able to state that the prospect of obtaining 
eotton cloths at reasonable rates is better than it has been.. The 
stockholders of the Rockfish Manufacturing Company, one of the 
largest and most enterprising in the State, have agreed to sell all 
their productions at 75 per cent. upon cost, the rate allowed by the 
exemption bill, which will reduce the price about one-half, and some 
seven or eight other contpanies have intimated an intention of follow- 
ing their praiseworthy example. Wemay reasonably hope that most 
of the other mills in the State can be induced to do likewise. The 
woolen factories seem more incorrigible. Some of them when asked 
to furnish their goods at 75 per cent. decline entirely, and others 
agree to do so by fixing enormous profits on the cost of the raw mate- 
rial and then adding the 75 per cent. on the finished article, making 
their profits even greater than before. It is greatly to be regretted 
that the most useful and to-be-cherished institutions should put 
themselves in a position which will cause them to be execrated by our 
people on the return of peace. But as the free-trade policy oppressed 
them in times of peace, so they seem to have no mercy upon us during 
the existence of the war. I recommend them to your tender mercies, 


184 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


gentlemen, and would respectfully suggest that you adopt such meas- 
ures aS may seem practicable for securing supplies to our own citizens 
first;- and to reduce, if possible, the price of cotton yarn, which is go 
essential in supplying the hand looms of our farmers’ wives. 

In relation to ordnance stores I will mention that nearly a year ago 
a contract was made by my predecessor, under an act of the Legisla- 
ture appropriating $10,000 for the purpose, with Messrs. Waterhouse 
& Bowes for the erection of powder mills. The money was expended, 
the mills erected, and soon afterward blown up and destroyed. 
Governor Clark agreed to furnish them the means to start again, and 
under a new contract they have erected other mills, and now are 
nearly ready to begin operations on a seale sufficient to make about 
4,000 pounds per week. This, however, involved an expenditure of 
money beyond that appropriated by the act referred to, $12,000 hay- 
ing been advanced the contractors by Governor Clark and $8,000 by 
myself. Of these sums the money advanced by Governor Clark is to 
be refunded in four equal annual installments, and that by me by 
reserving 10 per cent. of the payments (as they become due) on pow- 
der to be furnished the State. The Confederate States will furnish 
the mills with about 3,000 pounds of niter per week. The depart- 
ment has contracted with manufacturers in the State for about 300 
new rifles per month, and arrangements have been made whereby, 
after the 1st of January, about 300 old rifles and muskets out of 
repair will be rendered fit for service, and it is hoped the department 
will soon be able to keep on hand a supply for 5,000 men. A detailed 
report of the operations of the adjutant-general’s department is 
herewith appended.* The finances of the State will doubtless engage 
your anxious consideration. 

The Board of Claims, in pursuance of Ordinance No. 20, section 5, 
passed in December, 1861, have made a report. showing the debt of 
the State on the 30th of September, 1862, to be $20,983,361.01, subject 
to be diminished by the amount of the sinking. fund—at that time 
about $900,000; and the debt due to the State from the Confederate 
Government between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. Still the State debt 
is very heavy, and the interest, at least, ought to be punctually paid. 
There are three distinct modes of supplying the requisite sum—one 
by taxation; a second by an additional issue of Treasury notes, and a 
third by getting from the Confederate Government the sum due to 
the State. Indeed, this sum, when received, ought to’ be applied 
forthwith to the extinguishment of the debt of the State as far as it 
will go, for it constitutes a part of the capital of the State debt, and 
ought to be applied, when returned, toward the extinction of that 
amount of its capital. Upon correct principles, therefore, of finan- 
cial economy the debt ought not to be allowed to grow any larger if 
practicable to prevent it. And if the payment of the entire amount 
of interest cannot be provided for by taxation, as much, at least, as 
possible ought to be so raised. In regard to whe subject of taxation— 
interesting at all times, and rendered doubly so at this eventful 
crisis—I have but few remarks to make. There has been such a dis- 
turbance in the industrial pursuits of the country within a very 
recent period that it is difficult for one who may not at once have 
been present in all parts of the State to fully realize it. You bring 
with you this knowledge, and can better apply it from what you have 
seen than from what I can recommend: I shall therefore venture but 
one suggestion upon the subject because of what I have heard. 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 185 


By Ordinance No. 22, of June, 1861, which is now a part of the 
constitution of the State, it is provided that land and slaves shall be 
taxed according to their value, and the values of both taxed alike; 
and that the tax on slaves may be laid on their general average value 
in the State or on their value in classes in respect to age, sex, and 
other distinctive properties in the discretion of the General Assem- 
bly, and the value be assessed in such modes as may be prescribed 
by law. Now, while lands even of the same qualities, but situate in 
different places, from their local and immovable character are prop- 
erly assessed at different rates because of their relative proximity to 
markets, and for other substantial causes, and for such reasons the 
General Assembly itself can neither accurately value real estate nor 
can do so by any general State commissioners, yet some steps may be 
taken toward equalizing the tax on slaves, which under the present 
mode of assessments may be, and I understand is, various in many 
counties of the State, because of the different standard of valuation 
adopted by the owners and assessors. It is very desirable that the 
tax should be uniform, and I suggest as the most likely means to 
accomplish that object the propriety of classifying slaves by their 
ages, or by sex and age, and affixing [every] two years the taxable 
value of each class. In consequence of the movable quality of this 
species of property it is not subject to the irregularity of assessment 
which attends land. The value of slave property at one place in the 
State is for all practical purposes the same as in any other, and it is 
not difficult, therefore, to make the tax both equal and uniform by 
the classification of slaves in the manner already mentioned. 

*k * *f * * * * 


In order to meet the interest on the public debt and to make up 
the sum due from the counties where the tax cannot be collected on 
account of the presence of the enemy, I recommend an increase of at 
least 25 per cent. on the present amount of taxation. The great 
abundance of money and consequent high prices of property would, 
I think, enable the people to pay it cheerfully. I also recommend 
that a tax of 25 per cent. be laid upon the net profits of all persons 
who have during the present year speculated in the necessaries of 
life, such as corn, flour, bacon, pork, shoes, leather, cotton cloth and 
yarn, and woolen goods, and to be continued during the next year 
and longer if necessary; the proceeds to be applied to the support of 
the wives and children or widows of soldiers whose property as listed 
on the tax books shall fall below acertainsum. This law, if properly 
enforced and guarded against false swearing, would be made to answer 
a valuable purpose and would be eminently just in its effects. I am 
clearly of opinion that no more treasury notes should be issued 
if it be possible to avoid it, and think it would be better to pay 
interest on our bonds than to further swell the volume of paper in 
circulation. The following is a statement of the debt of the State 
on the 30th day of September, 1862: 


meee We 3 Ss boelda ee ads sone $14, 812, 005. 00 
EES CGE Pr Oe a ea 2, 550, 449. 00 
iperest, Unpaid on coupon bond debt --_....-..... ---.....-2------ 432, 005. 45 
Interest unpaid on temporary loans and bonds without coupons. - 52, 351. 06 
mmonnt, ireasury notes in circulation ......... 2.222222... 2.2. 3, 136, 550. 50 

EO eee Pes BIN or is 2 20, 983, 361.01 
Taxes received from permanent sources for 1861 _ _.__..____. __-- 734, 650. 10 


Taxes received from permanent sources for 1862 _..._._.__- cra 715, 768, 39 


186 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The falling off is attributable to those counties and parts of counties 
in the possession of the enemy. The deduction for the next year will 
be still greater, owing to his advance, the destruction of property, &e. 

The report of the Board of Claims on the subject of the finances is 
herewith transmitted.* In view of the very great labor now imposed 
upon the treasury department and the variety of duties it embraces, 
I recommend the creation of the office of auditor of public accounts, 
to continue so long as may be deemed necessary, whose duty it shall 
be to investigate and settle all claims against the State, &e. When 
the term of the present Board of Claims shall expire it will be neces- 
sary to have some such an office in existence during the continuance 
of the war, and perhaps for many yearsafter. Should-it not be deemed 
advisable to establish the office of auditor, then I recommend that the 
Board of Claims be continued and authorized to hold short sessions 
quarterly, and their pay be arranged in proportion to their labor. 

* * * * * 3 *k * 

I beg leave to make certain suggestions in regard to militia and to 
aiding the Confederate authorities in enforcing their efforts to main- 
tain the efficiency of our armies. The ordinary penalties preseribed 
by our militia laws for the punishment of offenses, and disobedience of 
orders are adapted to peace times and are found now entirely inade- 
quate. Wishing to spare our citizens the disagreeable spectacle of Con- 
federate soldiers traversing the country to gather up delinquent con- 
scripts, deserters, and absentees from the Army without leave, I decided 
to employ the militia for that purpose. In general it has answered 
admirably, most of the officers having displayed great zeal and effi- 
ciency in gathering up rapidly all persons subject to military duty 
without offending the sensibilities of our people. But in some in- 
stances deserters and other shirking characters have set the officers 
at defiance and are enabled to evade arrest by the assistance of others, 
who conceal them, feed them, and in some cases resist the officers in 
the discharge of their duty. As the crime of desertion, so far as I 
know, is not an offense against the common law, so the concealing, aid- 
ing, and assisting a deserter to avoid recapture is not punishable in 
our courts. ‘To aid the military authorities in arresting such persons 
I recommend that an act be passed for the punishment of any one who 
shall aid and assist them or in any manner prevent their recapture; and 
also to punish more severely the disobedience of laws by the militia. 
It also becomes my duty, gentlemen, to bring to your attention 
several serious matters connected with the administration of justice 
in the State. There is great danger of lawlessness overrunning the 
land, and in the abundance of military rulers and arbitrary authority 
people are beginning to forget that there is such a thing in existence 
as civil law, which is the master of us all. Though pre-eminently a 
conservative and law-abiding people, our society is already beginning 
to suffer serious detriment from the violent and law-defying tenden- 
cies of the times. Murder, arson, disregard of obligations, oppres- 
sion, and injustice are more common in some districts than they have 
been known. Not long since, as I am informed, a Confederate officer 
refused to permit the execution of a writ of habeas corpus within his 
camp, issued by competent authority, and drove the officer with 
denunciations and abuse from his presence. It should be our pride, 
as it is our duty and safety, to show our enemies abroad and our law- 
breakers at home that the same glorious old common law which our 
fathers honored and observed in the midst of suffering and calamity 


- *Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 187 


is still moving on with power and majesty, strengthening, protecting, 
and sustaining our people as it ever will strengthen and sustain those 
who respect it. 

The General Assembly at its last session, actuated, no doubt, by the 
most patriotic motives, passed an act suspending the regular sessions 
of the supreme and superior courts of law and equity. This act is con- 
sidered by many unconstitutional, and in my judgment, to say the 
least of it, is unwise in some of its provisions. That some remedy ought 
to have been provided protecting property generally from sacrifice, 
and particularly the property of our brave soldiers, who had left their 
homes and business for our defense (if indeed an enlightened and 
patriotic public opinion had not guaranteed that protection), no one 
will question, and to this extent meets my approval. But the courts 
themselves should be opened and the fountains of justice unsealed. 
The criminal law especially should be diligently administered, for it 
has been wisely said that ‘‘the commission of crime is prevented more 
by the certainty than the severity of its punishment.” Again, per- 
sons charged with crime and confined in prison, even if unlawfully 
convicted, cannot have their cases reviewed in a court of higher juris- 
diction for many months, thus violating that sacred provision in our 
Declaration of Rights, which says ‘‘that every free man restrained 
of his liberty is entitled to a remedy to inquire into the lawfulness 
thereof and to remove the same if unlawful, and that such remedy 
ought not to be denied or delayed.” I therefore recommend that the 
regular sessions of the supreme and superior courts be restored. I 
am also convinced that while the soldier in the field should have his 
property protected from seizure under execution, there exists no valid 
reason why in the great plenteousness of money and the high prices 
of property any man should desire to be excused from paying his 
debts. I think it probable that it might also exert a favorable influ- 
ence on prices if men were compelled to part with their surplus 
property to satisfy their creditors. In this connection permit me 
to respectfully recommend that our present circuits be rearranged, 
adding at least, one additional circuit and another judge thereof. 
The necessity for this change will be apparent from the following 
considerations: 

Some of the circuits embrace an extended area of territory, with a 
large amount of business. The seventh circuit comprises eighteen 
counties, others more than twelve, and to some two weeks are allotted. 
According to existing statutes the judges are allowed an annual salary 
of $1,950, with the proviso ‘‘that in all cases where a circuit of the 
superior courts shall exceed twelve weeks the judges holding the said 
courts of any regular term shall be entitled to a compensation of $90 
for the court of each county exceeding twelve held by them, to be 
paid by the public treasurer on the Ist days of January and July 
in addition to their salary aforesaid, and each week in which a 
court shall be held shall be considered a term.” Special terms of the 
superior courts are also held, and for this service a compensation of 
$90 given, to be paid by the county in which the court is held. Upon 
examination it will be found that the amounts thus paid for the addi- 
tional and extra courts exceed the salary of a single judge. The 
fourth section of the one hundred and second chapter of the revised 
code provides that ‘‘every judge shall produce a certificate of the 
clerk of each county of his having held the court of the county 
according to law; and for every such certificate omitted to be pro- 
duced there shall be a deduction from his salary of $100.” Portions 


188 ' CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of certain circuits are occupied by the enemy, and it is impossible for 

the judges to procure the required certificates. It may be necessary, 

therefore, to modify this provision to have effect only pending the war. 
* * * * * * * 


There are confined in Salisbury by the Confederate authorities a 
number of citizens of North Carolina arrested for alleged political 
offenses. How long they are to remain incarcerated no one can say 
but those who apprehended them. What their guilt really consists in 
I do not know, but this much it becomes both you and me to know in 
view of the oaths we take upon entering into office, that they were not 
arrested by lawful process. As citizens of North Carolina they are 
entitled under the constitution to a speedy trial by a jury of their 
peers and to be confronted with their accusers. I have laid their 
cases before His Excellency the President of the Confederate States, * 
and when his reply is received you will be informed thereof. Should 
there exist any grave State reasons why they are denied a trial it is 
due at least that we should be informed of them. I have not seen an 
official copy of the act, but learn from the newspapers that Congress 
has conferred upon the President the power to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus in all cases of arrests made by the Confederate author- 
ity. If this be once admitted no man is safe from the power of one 
individual. He could at pleasure seize any citizen of the State, with 
or without excuse, throw him into prison, and permit him to languish 
there without relief—a power that I am unwilling to see intrusted to 
any living man. To submit to its exercise would, in my opinion, be 
establishing a precedent dangerous and pernicious in the extreme. 
Among a people so united and faithful to their cause and ours, where 
disloyalty is the rare and solitary exception to the general rule, I can 
see but little good, but a vast tide of inflowing evil, from these inordi- 
nate stretches of military power which are fast disgracing us equally 
with our Northern enemies. A free republic that must needs cast off 
its freedom in every time of trouble will soon cast it off forever. 
Freedom cannot be embraced to-day and spurned to-morrow; a stead- 
fast and constant worship can alone secure her countless blessings. 
Her chosen instruments—the constitution and the laws—were made 
the sure covenant of her everlasting residence among us, our delight 
in time of peace and prosperity and our guide and shield in the day of . 
trouble and calamity. Now, if ever, is the time when we should 
abide strictly by their stern decrees and walk uprightly in the narrow 
path they have marked out for our footsteps. We should least of all 
forsake the helm and the compass when the vessel is driven by the 
tempest and clouds and darkness obscure the way. Deeply impressed 
as I have been with the importance of this subject, I have been anxious 
at the same time to avoid any unnecessary conflict with the Confed- 
erate authorities. I have, therefore, waited patiently for your assem- 
bling, confident that you would take proper steps to maintain the laws 
and preserve the rights of our people. 

It becomes my duty, also, to call your attention to the subject of 
officering our troops in the field, some conflict of opinion existing in 
regard thereto. The right of the State authorities to commission the 
officers of the regiments originally raised for the war is not doubted. 
It is conceded by the act of Congress of April 16, 1862, known as the 
conscript law. But the Confederate authorities claimed the right to 
commission the regiments of twelve-months’ men continued in service 


*See Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 644. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 189 


by this law, and also all regiments whatsoever raised since it went 
into operation. And in both cases they have claimed to commission 
and appoint all regimental staff officers, even when they conceded to 
the Executive of the State the appointment of the officers of the line. 
Again, while appointing and commissioning field officers the Secretary 
of War has declined to appoint the company officers. To remedy if 
possible this confusion and to avoid conflict I called in person to see 
the President, who promised to take the opinion of his Attorney- 
General on the subject at length. I have not yet had the pleasure of 
seeing that opinion, and now lay the matter before you and recom- 
mend you to take such steps as will preserve the rights and honor of 
the State. It may well be doubted if the officering of the whole of 
our troops does not belong exclusively to State authority, as by strict 
reference to the Constitution they may be found to be in point of law 
militia. It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North Carolina 
soldiers in the field commanded by strangers, and in many cases our 
own brave and war-worn colonels are made to give place to colonels 
from distant States, who are promoted to the command of North Caro- 
lina troops over their heads to vacant brigadierships. ‘Some of these 
promotions are charged to North Carolina, which enables the author- 
ities to say that we have had so many appointments, when in fact we 
have not, the appointees not being citizens of our State. This is fast 
breaking down the pride and patience of our officers, many of whom 
have reported to me their intention to resign, alleging that the road 
to honorable promotion is almost closed to our citizens. This is not 
right, and forms a just cause of complaint both in our Army and with 
our people at home. We are willing that our soldiers should follow 
any general capable of leading them, but we contend that as a mat- 
ter of sheer justice our soldiers are entitled to receive their fair pro- 
portion of the honors won by their gallantry and endurance. 

I would also recommend that the existing prohibition against the 
distillation of spirits from all kinds of grain be continued during the 
war. There is no grain to spare for such purposes, and all the medical 
needs of the country and Army can be abundantly supplied by the 
liquors made from the fruit crop. Should even the supply for the 
Army fail, it cannot be doubted that it is much better for the soldier 
to go without spirits than that his wife and child should go without 
bread. I also recommend that a law be passed providing for a rigid 
punishment of all persons who may be convicted of speculating in 
any of the necessaries of life under the false pretense of being Gov- 
ernment agents. 

In order to keep the highways of the country in better condition 
(they having since the commencement of the war been permitted to 
get in very bad repair) I recommend that the Revised Code be so 
amended that the age to be reached to entitle a man to exemption 
from working on the roads shall be fifty years, instead of forty-five, 
as now. 

* * * * il * * 


In conelusion, gentlemen, allow me to urge upon you the vital 
importance of bringing forth all the powers and resources of the State 
for the common defense of our country and our cause. The two great 
dangers we have to meet will be found connected with our currency 
and supplies for ourarmy. Men enough to protect us and drive back 
the invader we can always get, if we can properly clothe and feed 
them. Let us do this and preserve our paper from depreciation and 


190 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


all will be well. In our intercourse with the authorities of our young 
Confederacy, having demanded firmly the rights which are due our 
State, let us yield them no grudging support, but in all things per- 
taining to the general weal sustain and strengthen them with our 
whole hearts. And in all our official acts let us remember that it is 
the spirit of the people which tyrants cannot subdue. On this depends 
all. So long as they continue harmonious, willing, self-sacrificing 
the united armies of this continent may be hurled againt us in vain; 
' with such a country and such a people we might set them at defiance. 
Our heroic soldiers, shivering in their rags and splashing with their 
naked feet through the snows, have already, even through the chroni- 
cles of our foes, excited the wondering admiration of the world and 
the great generals and brave people beyond the distant waters of the 
sea stand aghast with astonishment at the feats of freemen struggling 
for their rights. Let us learn of them, and by zeal and discretion 
displayed for the general good show the world that we are worthy to 
preside over these gallant and patriotic men. 

Remember, lastly, that you are laboring for the very salvation of our 
people. The bitter cup that our captured cities and districts have 
had to drink shows us, alas too plainly, the mercy we are to expect if 
our Abolition foes should overcome us. In the bitterness of their 
baffled rage they have even shown a determination to re-enact the hor- 
rors of Saint Domingo, and to let loose the hellish passions of ‘servile 
insurrection to revel in the desolation of our homes. The people of 
the next generation will bless the memory. of those who, whether in 
the field or the council, helped to rescue their country from these hor- 
rors. Let us labor to deserve their praise, and may the blessing of 
God attend our soldiers and our statesmen, who are struggling to 
defend a noble people and a noble cause. 

Z. B. VANCE. 


[NOVEMBER 17, 1862.—For Smith to Cooper, in reference to the 
enforcement of the conscript act in East Tennessee, &c., see Series 
I, Vol. XX, Part II, p. 405. ] 


Nassau, NEW PROVIDENCE, November 17, 1862. 
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH, : 
Secretary War Department, Confederate States of America: 

DEAR Sir: My friends, Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., of London, 
instructed me to address you proposals to furnish clothing and equip- 
ments for 100,000 men, deliverable at Bermuda or Nassau, which have 
failed to reach you owing to the capture of the vessel by which they 
were forwarded. I now take the opportunity to repeat the proposals 
to the following effect: . 

Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. request me to state that there 
exists now greater facilities for procuring the materials required by - 
the Confederate Government than prevailed in the early part of the 
war, when they were scarce and difficult to procure. Under these 
circumstances they feel confident of their ability to give satisfaction 
to the Department in respect to the quality of the equipments and 

the dispatch with which they can be completed, which they would be 
_ able to accomplish in about three months from receipt of order. 

My friends have taken into consideration the difficulty experienced 
by the Confederate Government in placing funds in Europe in the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 191 


present state of affairs, and propose to execute the order on terms of 
payment which they judge will be acceptable to your Department 
and greatly facilitate your Government and promote its success in 
the struggle in which it is engaged. The order in question will occa- 
sion the outlay of a large amount of ready money, and Messrs. S. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. having up to this time advanced to the Government 
about £400,000 sterling, their active means are so far diminished as to 
require that some portion of the payment be made in cash or sterling 
bills of exchange. 

Following my instructions, I beg leave at the same time to bring 
to your attention the state of the account between Messrs. S. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. and the Government for equipments and other war 
material already furnished. They have been given to understand 
the Goverment has matured plans for the issue of certificates for cer- 
tain specified quantities of cotton, which are to be made applicable to 
the liquidation of debts contracted abroad for war material and for 
future purchases. The details of the measure are unknown to us, but 
we assume they are such as will be entirely acceptable, and accept 
them in advance of the information which you will greatly oblige by 
forwarding to me with your reply in duplicate by first steamer leaving 
for this port. 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
BENJ. W. HART. 


[First indorsement. ] 


To Quartermaster-General for consideration and report. 
; Deg thee oes 


Secretary. 
[Second indorsement. | 


QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
December 39, 1862. 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 

I have considered this communication, and submit that it contains 
nothing upon which to base a report. The proposal is to furnish 
clothing for 100,000 men, but no item of the cost of the clothing is pre- 
sented. Maj. J. B. Ferguson, of the Quartermaster’s Department, is 
now in Europe for the purpose of making purchases for the depart- 
ment. The parties can make their proposals directly to him, and he 
can best determine upon the expediency of accepting the proposition 
of these parties. 


Respectfully, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND, INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 89. Richmond, November 18, 1862. 


I. The following act of Congress is published for the information 
of all concerned, and will be observed by all enrolling officers: 


(No. 29.) 
AN ACT to permit enlistments in the Navy and Marine Corps. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and 
_after the passage of this act, any person subject to enrollment for military service 
under the acts of Congress providing for the public defense, shall be permitted to 
enlist in the Marine Corps at any time prior to being mustered into the Army of 


192 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Confederate States: Provided, That the number of men so enlisted does not 
increase the Marine Corps beyond the strength authorized by law. 

Sec. 2. That if any person who has been or is about to be enrolled for service in 
the Army shall, at any time before being assigned to any company, declare to the 
enrolling or commanding officer that he prefers being enrolled for service in the 
Navy or the Marine Corps, it shall be the duty of the said officer to enroll such 
person for the service which he may prefer, and to transmit to the Secretary of 
the Navy a list of the persons so enrolled. 

Src. 8. That from and after the passage of this act, the pay of sailors and 
marines shall be increased four dollars per month. 

Approved October 2, 1862. 


IJ. Transfers from the military to the naval service will be effected 
in the presence of an enrolling officer or an officer of the Navy, in 
order that when the soldier is in due form discharged from the Army 
he shall be at once enro'led and received into the Navy. 

III. The following form may be used in all cases of discharge, to 
be signed as required by the eleventh Article of War. Orders for 
discharge emanating from this office will be considered simply the 
authority thereon to grant the discharge and not the discharge itself: 


SOLDIER’S DISCHARGE. 


To all whom it may concern: 


Know ye, that , a —— of Captain company, Regi- 
ment of , who was enlisted the day of , one thousand 
eight hundred and , to serve , is hereby honorably discharged from 


the Army of the Confederate States. 


Said was born in ,in the State of ls years of age, 
—— feet —— inches high, complexion, eyes, hair, and by: 
occupation, when enlisted, a ; 

Given at this —— day o , 186—. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 


Adjutant and Inspector General. 


A comparative view of commissary supplies and resources presents 
this state of things: 


Pounds. 

Bacon.on. hand. October, 1861 .. /.. 2-2. .2--. ce cee ee ee ee eee 3, 031, 960 

October, 1862 {28 sae se ode 5, 154, 366 

Surplus. 203s -cal; Bed ue aes oe seen eee ete eee 2, 123, 406 
Calculation of bacon from last fall’s purchase, being product of 249,000 
hogs, at 180 pounds per hog, and 53 per cent. thereof in bacon, being 
purchases made in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Caro- 

dina fic eet oR RO ee 28, 754, 600 
Same, this fall, being product of 150,000 hogs purchased in Tennessee, 

at 150 pounds per hog, and 53 per cent. thereof in bacon. .-.-..-.--- 11, 925, 000 

Deficit: 228 oor ia) Je eee A ee ee 11, 829, 600 
From this deficit must be deducted the hogs to be killed in North Caro- 
lina and in Virginia. From all sources in both States the amount 
cannot exceed 20,000 hogs; but at the same rates as the last stated 

items it. willamount, to; 0c) Ose ree Glee Oe eee ee 1,590, 000 
Add excess of bacon on hand October, 1862, above that on hand in 

October, 1861, amounting, as stated above, to.--...--------.-------- 2, 128, 406 

Making the total deduction’. oti ae eee eee ee 3, 718, 406 


This last amount taken from the deficit before stated leaves a clear 
COHGIT Of OR Saw ccd ae oe heen oes es 8, 116, 194 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 193 

But these estimates do not show accurately the amount on hand at 
this present time, because consumption has been going on since the 
1st of October, now six weeks, on a large scale. The supplies for cur- 
rent consumption have been largely aided by purchases of bacon in 
private hands, and those supplies are now exhausted. The deficiency 
of Government purchases of bacon represents a still greater deficiency 
in private stocks, as the general insecurity of all the hog region has 
made parties anxious to sell, and the greater scarcity of salt makes it 
impossible for many parties to cure their hogs even if it were deemed 
safe to do so. 

There is no hope of getting hogs from Kentucky, as parties there 
feel themselves deserted by the Government, and refuse to sell except 
for Virginia money, which even at a premium of 25 per cent. cannot 
be had to one-twentieth part the amount needed. So much for hogs. 


Comparative estimate of beeves packed last winter and to be packed this winter, 


So oe nee eee 40, 000 
le RSET 7 SSRN I 4,000 
Menthe ee ee oes... nee eee Mile aS ES AS ahi a a 36, 000 


This amount includes all the beeves packed at Alexandria, where 
none, of course, will be packed this year. 

Fresh meat.—The number of beeves from all sources now available 
for General Lee’s army, which now consumes 1,000 head per week, does 
not this day exceed, so far as this Bureau knows, 8,500 head; and 
over 4,000 of them are about 250 miles removed from him at this time, 
and winter is at hand. 

The future of beef supply for the Army is so nearly exhausted that 
this Bureau does not know whence more is to be obtained. For the 
armies of the West it may or may not be had from Texas, according 
to the success in crossing cattle over the Mississippi, and the practica- 
bility of wintering them when crossed. For the other armies a supply 
depends on the security of the sea-coasts of Florida and Georgia, and 
those delivered at Savannah and Charleston are represented to be in 
a Starving and useless condition. 

This Bureau has made every effort it could to accumulate supplies 
from Tennessee of bacon, hogs, and beeves; but already General Breck- 
inridge has made requisition on Major Cummings, this Bureau’s prin- 
cipal agent, for 600,000 rations, and Capt. Parker Campbell wishes to 
draw upon our reserves at Atlanta for 500,000 rations, so the Army of 
the West must be nearly as badly off for provisions as any other we 
have in the field. 

November 18, furthermore, by telegraph from Major Cummings, 
who is collecting supplies as above stated, I am informed that he has 
received an order to turn over all the supplies he has collected. This 
I have forbidden. The fact is of pregnant significancy. 

L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


es 


_ [NovEmBER 18, 1862.—For Pemberton to Harris, in relation to rais- 
ing new regiments within the enemy’s lines in Tennessee, see Series I, 
Vol. LIT, Part II, p. 391.] 


13 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


194 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 90. ( Richmond, November 19, 1862. 


I. Before going into action the chief of artillery of each army will 
make such disposition of the teams attached to the battery wagons 
and traveling forges as will render them most available for the pur- 
pose of securing artillery captured on the battle-field. 

II. Medical directors and inspectors will forward to the office of the 
Surgeon-General copies of all circulars, and of all printed orders or 
instructions, and of all written orders of importance issued by them. 

III. Details from corps in the field will only be granted for Govern- 
ment work, and in cases of urgent necessity for work under contract. 
In the case of details for contract work the consent of the men must 
be obtained, and the order detailing them will direct that their pay 
and allowances shall cease during the detail, and that in lieu thereof 
the contractors shall pay them full wages. 

* * : * * * * 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


—_—_— 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
[ November 19, 1862. ] 


At the opening of the second winter of the war between the Confed- 
erate States and the United States of America the State of North 
Carolina is under the necessity of applying in foreign markets for 
material with which to equip its citizens in the Army, especially for 
shoes and blankets. In common with other Southern States, North 
Carolina previously to this war relied for supplies of manufactured 
articles in a great measure upon the States with which it is now at 
war. Besides this, the necessity the State is in of throwing more than 
one-half of its men into the Army has compelled it to reduce within 
the narrowest limits its laborers in the various branches of peaceful 
industry. Under other circumstances North Carolina would have no 
difficulty in supplying all of its wants from its own resources; but 
now, in addition to what is said above, the very great naval superi- 
ority of the public enemy deprives its citizens of the usual resort of 
communities pressed by war, inasmuch as foreign merchants are 
debarred from that access to our markets which is usual, which at the 
present time would be so abundant a source of accommodating and 
profitable trade. The authorities of North Carolina therefore recur 
to the extraordinary course of sending commissioners abroad in order 
to purchase the articles which are needed. Being unable to procure 
exchange in quantities sufficient for their purpose, and the transmis- 
sion of gold or cotton involving a double risk, they have decided to 
offer a pledge of the faith and credit of the State upon a léan of 
money to be obtained in Europe for the purpose above indicated. It 
is presumed that the general character of North Carolina for solvency 
and honor has been repeatedly canvassed and is now well established 
in the money markets of England, where the State has repeatedly 
heretofore negotiated its bonds with success. During all the period 
of its connection with the United States North Carolina was prompt 
in discharging every pecuniary liability. Although the present war 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 195 


has of necessity prevented the State from remitting with regularity 
the interest accruing upon its public debt, its respect for those obli- 
gations and determination to keep its faith untouched remains the 
same. The value of the property belonging to its citizens and within 
its borders is recorded as more than $500,000,000 in value, of which the 
value of its slave property is about $200,000,000. The public debt is 
not quite $21,000,000. The debt of North Carolina is upon a footing 
very different from that of the Confederate States, and its payment is 
_by no means dependent upon the successful issue of the present war. 
The returns of the census of 1860, which are yet unpublished, exhibit 
a marked increase in the growth of cotton in North Carolina, and itis 
probable that there are now within its limits belonging to its citizens 
300,000 bales awaiting the reopening of commerce; besides it may 
reasonably be anticipated that the development of its mines of coal 
and iron which have recently been opened, and the products of which 
are just finding their way to market, will prove in future a very con- 
siderable item of wealth. The State of North Carolina proposes to 
repay any money which it may borrow under the commission herewith 
sent with interest at — per cent., payable semi-annually by remit- 
tances of cotton at market rates, to be effected at the earliest moment 
possible either during the war or after the return of peace, or the 
creditor may have an option of funding his debt in bonds of the State 
with interest as above, such bonds to be issued upon the return of 
peace and the option to be declared at the time of lending the money. 
The commission is intrusted to Messrs. John White and T. M. Crossan, 
and, in the absence of either, of necessity to the other. 
Z. B. VANCE. 


| NOVEMBER 19, 1862.—For Floyd to Randolph, proposing reforms in 
the methods of enforcing the conscript law, see Series I, Vol. X XI, 
p. 1022. | : 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 91. Richmond, November 20, 1862. 


The officers of the Quartermaster’s Department charged with paying 
the troops are hereby prohibited from making payment to any general 
staff officer of the Provisional Army who does not exhibit the evidence 
of assignment to the appropriate command under which he claims pay- 
ment, agreeably to paragraph I of General Orders, No. 48, current 
series. 

A departure from this order will render the paying officer liable to 
stoppage to the amount of such payment, should it be found in the 
settlement of his account at the Treasury that he has disregarded 
this regulation. The large number of general staff officers of the 
Provisional Army who are withont assignment to appropriate com- 
tMands, including those of the Adjutant and Inspector General’s 
Department, Quartermaster’s Department, Commissary Department, 
and other departments of the general staff, renders it necessary to 
publish this order and to append to it the subjoined paragraph of 
General Orders, No. 48, above referred to, to wit: 

The appointments of general officers and officers of the general staff in the 


Provisional Army being made under special authority, and for specific objects, 


oofeape with their commands, except in cases of assignment to other appropriate 


196 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


This order is not designed to affect those general staff officers who 
are temporarily absent on leave, or sick, while under proper assign- 
ment to their appropriate commands. | 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., November 20, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Str: I have the honor to communicate to you an act of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Alabama to aid the Confederate Government in 
providing shoes for the Alabama soldiers in the Confederate Army, 
&e., and respectfully request that you will inform me at an early day 
what extent of provision has been made by the Confederate Govern- 
ment for that purpose, and to what extent the aid of Alabama will be 
desirable or acceptable. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 


Governor of Alabama. 
[Inclosure.] 


AN ACT to aid the Confederate Government in providing shoes for the Alabama 
soldiers in the Confederate Army and to impress the materials suitable for such 
shoes. 


SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, That in 
view of the magnitude of the present war, and under the apprehen- 
sion that the Confederate Government without the aid of this State 
cannot supply the troops from this State in the Confederate Army 
with shoes in due time, the sum of $250,000 be, and the same is 
hereby, appropriated to enable the Governor to have 50,000 pairs of 
shoes manufactured or purchased, or such portion thereof as he may 
ascertain the wants of the soldiers from Alabama require. 

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That to facilitate the accomplishment 
of the object of this act the Governor shall communicate with the 
Confederate Government and inform the proper authority thereof of 
the motives which prompt the legislative provision for the partial 
supply of shoes for soldiers from Alabama, it being intended only as 
aid to the Confederate Government. To that end the Governor is 
hereby authorized to contract with the Confederate Government to 
accept all the shoes which he may furnish at such price as may be 
agreed on by him and the Confederate Government. 

Src. 3. Be it further enacted, That in order that the Governor may 
obtain the quantity of shoes mentioned in the first section of this act 
without being subjected to delay or extortion, he is hereby authorized 
and empowered to take and impress for the public use, in such 
manner as he shall think proper, any shoes suitable for soldiers and 
any leather and any other materials suitable for making such shoes, 
in the possession of any person in this State, making just compensa- 
tion therefor out of the money in the first section of this act appro- 
priated. | 

Sec. 4. Be wt further enacted, That in all impressments under the 
provisions of this act due regard shall be had to the wants and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 197 


necessities of the locality in which any such impressment is made 
and the extent to and the price at which the party impressed has 
contributed to supply these wants and relieve these necessities, as 
well as to the amount of shoes and leather furnished the State or 
Confederate Government, and the prices at which the same has been 
furnished. 

Approved November 19, 1862. 


STATE OF ALABAMA, OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE, 
November 19, 1862. 


I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the 
original act now on file in my office. ° 
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the 
great seal of the State at Montgomery this 19th day of November, 
A. D. 1862. 
[SEAL. | P. H. BRITTAN, 
Secretary of State. 


AN ACT to authorize the enrollment of the Creoles of Mobile. 


SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, That certain 
persons of mixed blood, residing in the city and county of Mobile, 
commonly known as Creoles, be, and the same are hereby, authorized 
to be enrolled as militia for the defense of the city and county of 
Mobile, if in the opinion of the mayor of the city it is expedient. 

SEC. 2. Be wt further enacted, That the enrollment authorized by 
the first section of this act shall be made as follows, to wit: The 
mayor shall enroll such male Creoles between the ages of eighteen 
years and fifty years who wish to be enrolled. He shall then divide 
them into suitable companies, and appoint some discreet white man 
as commissioned officer to command said companies. Said compa- 
nies shall be confined exclusively to the defense of the city ana county 
of Mobile, and shall be under the command of the military author- 
ities in the city of Mobile. 

Approved November 20, 1862. 


GENERAL eet ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 92. Richmond, November 21, 1862. 

‘The second clause of paragraph I, General Orders, No. 29, current 
Series, is hereby amended to read as follows: 

2. If the substitute be of good moral character, not within the pro- 
hibited classes, and, on examination by a surgeon or assistant surgeon 
of the Army, be pronounced capable of bearing arms, he may, upon 
the written consent of the company and regimental or battalion com- 
tmander, provided the substitution can be effected without manifest 
injury to the public service, be enrolled and mustered into the com- 
pany for three years, unless the war sooner terminates, and the non- 
commissioned officer or soldier procuring him shall thereupon be dis- 
charged, but shall not be entitled to transportation at the expense of 
the Government. 

By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


198 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[NOVEMBER 21, 1862.—For Taylor to Randolph, relative to the 
execution of the conscript law in. Louisiana, see Series I, Vol. XV, 
p. 872. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 93. ( Richmond, November 22, 1862. 


I. The following acts of Congress, having been approved by the 
President, are published for the information of the Army: 


. (2) 
AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to provide for the public defense.” 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the sixth 
section of the act to provide for the public defense, approved on the sixth of March, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be amended by adding after the words “‘ brigades 
into divisions,” the words ‘‘ and divisions into army corps,” and each army corps 
shall be commanded by a lieutenant-general, to be appointed by the President, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who shall receive the pay of a briga- 
dier-general. 

Approved September 18, 1862. 


(3.) 


AN ACT to authorize the appointment of additional officers of artillery for ordnance duties. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Presi- 
dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, may appoint seventy offi- 
cers of artillery in the Provisional Army, for the performance of ordnance duties, 
in addition to those authorized by the act entitled ‘‘An act to authorize the appoint- 
ment of officers of artillery in the Provisional Army,” approved April twenty-first, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and that from the whole number of artillery offi- 
cers appointed to discharge ordnance duties there shall be one with the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel for each command composed of more than one army corps, one 
with the rank of major for each army corps composed of more than one division, 
and the residue with the rank of captain and first and second lieutenant in such 
proportion as the President shall prescribe. 

Approved September 16, 1862. 


(4.) 
os AN ACT in relation to the transfer of troops. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That it shall be the 
duty of the Secretary of War to transfer any private or non-commissioned officer 
‘who may be ina regiment from a State of this Confederacy other than his own, to 
a regiment from his own State, whenever such private or non-commissioned officer 
may apply for such transfer, and whenever such transfer can be made without 
injury to the public service; and the Secretary of War shall make regulations to 
facilitate such transfer: Provided, That this act shall not apply to any one who 
has enlisted as a substitute. ; 
Approved September 23, 1862. 


(Oak et 


AN ACT to regulate the rank of officers of the Provisional Corps of Engineers. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the officers 
of the Engineer Corps of the Provisional Army may have rank conferred on them 
during the war, equal to that authorized by law for the Engineer Corps of the Con- 
federate States Army: Provided, That the number of officers in each grade be 
limited to one colonel, three lieutenant-colonels, six majors, fifty [forty] captains, 
thirty first lieutenants, and twenty second lieutenants. 

Approved September 28, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 199 


(6.) 
AN ACT to increase the Signal Corps. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Presi- 
dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, may appoint one major, 
ten first and ten second lieutenants in the Signal Corps, and that the Secretary of 
War may appoint twenty additional sergeants in the said corps. 

Approved September 27, 1862. é 


(8.*) 
AN ACT to better provide for the sick and wounded of the Army in hospitals. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the commu- 
tation value of rations of sick and disabled soldiers in the hospitals of the Confed- 
erate States is hereby fixed at one dollar, instead of the commutation now allowed 
by law, which shall constitute the hospital fund and be held by the commissary 
and be paid over by him, from time to time, to the surgeon or assistant surgeon 
in charge of the hospital of which the soldier whose ration was commuted is an 
inmate, upon the said surgeon or assistant surgeon’s requisition, made in writing, 
when necessary to purchase supplies for said hospital: Provided, however, When 
said fund for any one hospital shall increase over and above the monthly expendi- 
tures of the same to an amount exceeding the sum of five thousand dollars, the 
said commissary shall be required to deposit the said excess over and above the 
said five thousand dollars in the Treasury of the Confederate States, or such other 
place of deposit where Government moneys are ordered to be kept; which said 
deposits, when so made, shall be passed to the credit of the said Confederate 
States, and be liable to draft as other public moneys are; and all such funds shall 
be accounted for by the said commissary in his monthly report and abstract as 
now required by law: And provided further, That all such surgeons and assist- 
ant surgeons who shall receive from the said commissary any part of said hospital 
fund, to be expended for the use of hospitals, shall be held liable for a faithful 
application of it, and in a weekly account and abstract, to be made out and for- 
warded to the office of the Surgeon-General, to be verified in every instance by 
vouchers, shall show what disposition has been made of it, which account, abstract, 
and accompanying vouchers, shall be placed on file. : 

Src. 2. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to make a 
contract with the several railroad companies and lines of boats for the speediest 
practicable transportation of all supplies purchased for the use of hospitals by 
agents accredited by the surgeon or assistant surgeon in charge for that purpose, or 
donations by individuals, societies, or States; and it shall be lawful for the Quar- 
termaster-General to furnish general transportation tickets to such agents upon 
all railroad trains and canal-boats when engaged in the actual service of said 
hospitals, upon the request of said surgeon or assistant surgeon. 

Sec. 3. That there shall be allowed to each hospital of the Confederate States, 
suits of clothing, consisting of shirts, pantaloons, and drawers equal to the number 
of beds in the same, for the use of the sick while in the hospitals, when so ordered 
by the surgeon or assistant surgeon in chargé, which said clothing shall be drawn 
upon the written requisition of said surgeon or assistant surgeon, and shall be 
receipted for and kept as hospital clothing, and be accounted for by him as other 
public property. 

Sec. 4. That there be allowed to each hospital, with rations and suitable places 
of lodging, the following matrons and female nurses and attendants, viz: Two 
matrons, to be known and designated as hospital matrons in chief, ata salary not 
to exceed forty dollars per month each, whose general duties shall be to exercise 
a superintendence over the entire domestic economy of the hospital, to take 
charge of such delicacies as may be provided for the sick, to apportion them out 
as required, to see that the food or diet is properly prepared, and all such other 
duties as may be necessary. Two matrons, to be known and designated as assist- 
ant matrons, whose general duties shall be to superintend the laundry, to take 
charge of the clothing of the sick, the bedding of the hospital, to see that they are 
kept clean and neat,and perform such other duties as may be necessary, at a 
salary not to exceed thirty-five dollars per month each. Two matrons for each 


* For act No. 7 embodied in this order (but here omitted), see ‘‘An act to amend 
an act entitled ‘An act to provide further for the public defense,’ approved April 


Ohio ag in General Orders, No, 82, Adjutant and Inspector General’s 


200 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ward, at a salary not to exceed thirty dollars per month each, to be known and 
designated as ward matrons, whose general duties shall be to prepare the beds 
and bedding of their respective wards, to see that they are kept clean and in 
order, that the food or diet for the sick is carefully prepared and furnished to 
them, the medicine administered, and that all patients requiring careful nursing 
are attended to, and all such other duties as may be necessary. And all surgeons 
and assistant surgeons in charge of a hospital are hereby authorized to employ such 
other nurses, either male or female, as may be necessary to the proper care and 
attention of the sick, ata salary each not to exceed twenty-five dollars per month, 
and also the necessary cooks, at a salary not to exceed twenty-five dollars each 
per month, and one ward-master for each ward, at a salary not to exceed twenty- 
five dollars per month each, giving preference in all cases to females where their 
services may best subserve the purpose; and in the event a sufficient number of 
such nurses and ward-masters cannot be employed, not liable to military service, 
and it shall become necessary to assign to this duty soldiers in the service, then, 
upon the requisition of such surgeon or assistant surgeon in charge of such hospital, 
the soldier or soldiers so assigned, who are skillful and competent, shall be per- 
manently detailed to this duty, and shall only be removable for neglect or inatten- 
tion by the surgeon or assistant surgeon in charge : Provided, In all cases, that all 
other attendants and servants, not herein provided for, necessary to the service of 
said hospital, shall be allowed, as now provided by law. 

Src. 5. That the hospitals of the Confederate States shall hereafter be known 
and numbered as hospitals of a particular State ; and in all cases where the same 
can be done without injury to the patients or great inconvenience to the Govern- 
ment, all sick or wounded soldiers, being citizens or residents of such particular 
State, shall be sent to such hospital as may represent the same, and to such pri- 
tee or State hospitals representing the same, which may be willing to receive 

em. 


Src. 6. That all persons authorized to be employed by section fourth of this act, ~ 


who are not engaged in the military service, and whose pay is not now provided 
for by law, shall be paid monthly by any quartermaster or other person author- 
ized to pay troops in the military service, upon a muster or pay roll, to be made 
out and certified to by the surgeon or assistant having in charge the hospital or 
hospitals in which said persons have been employed. 

Src, 7. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized, in such way and man- 
ner as he may deem best, and under such rules and regulations as he may pre- 
scribe, to enter into and perfect some suitable arrangement with the railroad 
companies, their officers, or authorized agents, whereby seats in one or more cars 
of each railroad train, as the necessities of the case may be, shall be reserved for 
the use of the sick and wounded soldiers who may desire transportation on any 
such railroad, and that no person not sick or wounded, and not anattendant upon 
the sick and wounded, shall be permitted to enter any such car or cars so reserved 
until the said sick and wounded and their attendants shall first have obtained 
seats; and, also, shall perfect some arrangement with the said railroad companies, 
their officers or agents, whereby all conductors having in charge any such trains 
shall be required to provide, for the use of the sick and wounded in the cars so 
reserved, a sufficient quantity of pure water. 

Src. 8. That all surgeons and assistant surgeons in charge of a hospital, having 
im his or their charge any sick or wounded soldier, desiring transportation as 
aforesaid, shall, in all cases, detail some competent person, acting under his or 
their authority, whose duty it shall be to accompany all such sick and wounded 
to the depot of any such railroad, to see that all such are properly cared for, and 
that they obtain seats on the said car or cars so reserved. 

Approved September 27, 1862. 


(10.*) 


AN ACT to enable the President of the Confederate States to provide the means of military trans- 
ortation by the construction of a railroad between Blue Mountain, in the State of Alabama, and 
ome, in the State ot Georgia. 


Whereas, the Confederate States are engaged in a war, the extent of which has 
no parallel in modern history, and the President, by his message of the twenty- 
fourth of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to the Congress, has rec- 
ommended the importance of constructing a railroad between Blue Mountain, in 
Calhoun County, Alabama, and Rome, in the State of Georgia, as a means of 
transportation needful for the pnblic defense, and the construction of which 


*No. 9 omitted as unimportant. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 201 


is also strongly recommended by the general in command of the military district 
in which said road is situated: Therefore, 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Pres- 
ident be and he is hereby authorized and empowered to make all contracts, 
embracing such terms and provisions as he may deem expedient, to effect a speedy 
construction and completion of the link of railroad aforesaid, with the several 
railroad companies whose charters extend over said line, in the manner he may 
am best calculated to promote the public interest and provide for the public 

efense. 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That to enable the President to accomplish the 
object herein contemplated, the sum of one million one hundred and twenty-two 
thousand, four hundred and eighty dollars and ninety-two cents, in the bonds of 
the Confederate States, is hereby appropriated, to be issued and applied by the 
order of the President, at such times and in such sums as he may deem proper; 
and that the President be directed to take a mortgage on said road and its appur- 
tenances for the ultimate repayment of the money so expended, with interest at 
eight per centum per annum, in aid of its construction. 

Approved October 2, 1862. 


(11.) 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act providing for the appointment of adjutants of regiments 
and legions, of the grade of subaltern, in addition to the subalterns attached to companies,” 
approved August 31, 1861. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the pro- 
visions of said act shall be extended so as to apply to independent battalions, and 
that on the recommendation of the commander of any such battalion, an adju- 
tant of the grade of subaltern may be appointed by the President for said bat- 
talion, who is not attached as subaitern to said battalion, and that said adjutant, 
when so appointed, shall have the same rank, pay and allowance as are provided 
by law for adjutants of regiments. 

Approved October 2, 1862. 


(12.) 


AN ACT supplemental to ‘‘An act authorizing the Secretary of War to grant transfers,” approved 
September 23, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever 
the Secretary of War shall grant transfers agreeable to the above act to any sol- 
dier now in service, he shall furnish transportation also. 

Approved October 2, 1862. 


(18.) 
AN ACT to empower certain persons to administer oaths in certain cases. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the oath 
required to enable sick, wounded, or other soldiers to receive their pay, may be 
taken before any quartermaster, who is hereby authorized to administer the same, 
or before any justice of the peace having jurisdiction, or any other officer having 
the right by the laws of the State to administer oaths. 

Approved October 2, 1862. 


(14.) 


AN ACT supplementary to “An act concerning the pay and allowance due to deceased soldiers,”’ 
approved February 15, 1862, and to provide for the prompt settlement of claims for arrearages of 
pay, allowances and bounty due deceased officers and soldiers. 


_ The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That claims due to 
deceased non-commissioned officers and privates for pay, allowances and bounty, 
may be audited and paid without the necessities of the parties entitled producing 
a pay-roll from the captain or commanding officer, when there is other official 
evidence of the amount due satisfactory to the Second Auditor, under such regu- 
lations as he has or may prescribe, with the approval of the Secretary of War. 
SEC. 2. The claims of deceased commissioned officers shall be paid to their heirs 
or representatives in the same manner as similar claims of non-commissioned 
officers and privates are now or may be directed by law to be paid; and to assist 
the Second Auditor in more effectually carrying out the provisions of this act 
and other pressing business of his office, the Secretary of the Treasury is author- 
ized to appoint an experienced accountant who, with the chief clerk, shall have 


authority to sign and attest such official business as said auditor shall approve 
and direct, 


202 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Src, 3. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to employ in the 
office of the Second Auditor as many additional temporary clerks as he may think 
necessary, to assist said auditor in the settlement of the claims of deceased offi- 
cers and soldiers, the compensation of said clerks to be four dollars per day, and 
without any addition whatever, for every day they shall be so actually engaged, 
except one, whose annual compensation shall be fifteen hundred dollars, the 
il to be paid weekly at the Treasury, upon ‘a certificate of service of said 
auditor. 3 

Sra. 4. This act shall take effect from its passage, and the third section shall 
continue in force for twelve months and no longer. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


(15.) 
AN ACT to provide for the organization of army corps. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the sixth sec- 
tion of an act to provide for the public defense, approved March sixth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-one, be so amended as to authorize the President to organize 
divisions of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States into army corps, and, 
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint officers to the com- 
mand thereof. : 

Approved October 6, 1862. 


(16.) 


AN ACT to authorize the establishment of camps of instruction and the appointment of officers to 
command the same. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be and he is authorized to establish camps of instruction for persons enrolled for 
military service, at such places and in such numbers in the several States as he 
may deem necessary, and to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, officers in the Provisional Army, with the rank and pay of major, to super- 
intend and command the same. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


(17.) 


AN ACT to repeal the law authorizing commutation for soldiers’ clothing, and to require clothing to 
be furnished by the Secretary of War in kind. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much of 
the existing law as provides commutation for clothing to the soldiers in the serv- 
ice of the Confederacy, be and the same is hereby repealed ; and hereafter the Sec- 
retary of War shall provide in kind to the soldiers, respectively, the uniform 
clothing prescribed by the Regulations of the Army of the Confederate States ; 
and should any balance of clothing be due to any soldier at the end of the year, 
the money value of such balance shall be paid to such soldier, according to the 
value of such clothing fixed and announced by order from the War Department. 

Approved October 8, 1862. ; 


(18.) 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act for the organization of the staff departments of the 
Army of the Confederate States of America,” approved March 14, 1861. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the first 
section of the act entitled ‘An act for the organization of the staff departments 
of the Army of the Confederate States of America,” approved March fourteenth, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be amended by adding to the Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Department one assistant adjutant-general with the rank 
of colonel. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


(19.) 


AN ACT to organize military courts to attend,the Army of the Confederate States in the field, and 
to define the powers of said courts. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That courts shall 
be organized, to be known as military courts, one to attend each army corps in 
the field, under the direction of the President. Each court shall consist of three 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 208 


members, two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and each member shall be 
entitled to the rank and pay of a colonel of cavalry, shall be appointed by the 
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall hold his 
office during the war, unless the court shall be sooner abolished by Congress. 
For each court there shall be one judge-advocate, to be appointed by the Presi- 
dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, with the rank and pay of 
a captain of cavalry, whose duties shall be as prescribed by the Rulesand Articles 
of War, except as enlarged and modified by the purposes and provisions of this act, 
and who shall also hold his office during the war, unless the court shall be sooner 
abolished by the Congress; and in case of the absence or disability of the judge- 
advocate, upon the application of the court, the commander of the army corps to 
which such court is attached may appoint or detail an officer to perform the 
duties of judge-advocate during such absence or disability, or until the vacancy, 
_ if any, shall be filled by the President. 

Src. 2. Each court shall have the right to appoint a provost-marshal, to attend 
its sittings and execute the orders of the court, with the rank and pay of a cap- 
tain of cavalry; and also a clerk, who shall have a salary of one hundred and 
twenty-five dollars per month, who shall keep the record of the proceedings of 
the court, and shall reduce to writing the substance of the evidence in each case, 
and file the same in court. The provost-marshal and the clerk shall hold their 
offices during the pleasure of the court. Each member and officer of the court 
shall take an oath well and truly to discharge the duties of his office to the best of 
his skill and ability, without fear, favor or reward, and to support the Consti- 
tution of the Confederate States. Each member of the court, the judge-advocate 
and the clerk, shall have the power to administer oaths. 

Sec. 8. Each court shall have power to adopt rules for conducting business and 
for the trial of causes, and to enforce the rules adopted, and to punish for con- 
tempt, and to regulate the taking of evidence, and to secure the attendance of 
witnesses, and to enforce and execute its orders, sentences and judgments, as in 
cases of courts-martial. 

Sec. 4, The jurisdiction of each court shall extend to all offenses now cogniza- 
ble by courts-martial under the Rules and Articles of War and the customs of war, 
and also to all offenses defined as crimes by the laws of the Confederate States or 
of the several States, and when beyond the territory of the Confederate States, to 
all cases of murder, manslaughter, arson, rape, robbery and larceny, as defined 
by the common law, when committed by any private or officer in the Army of 
the Confederate States against any other private or officer in the Army, or 
against the property or person of any citizen or other person not in the Army: 
Provided, Said courts shall not have jurisdiction of offenders above the grade of 
colonel. For offenses cognizable by courts-martial the court shall,on convic- 
tion, inflict the penalty prescribed by the Rules and Articles of War, and in the 
manner and mode therein mentioned; and for offenses not punishable by the 
Rules and Articles of War, but punishable by the laws of the Confederate States, 
said court shall inflict the penalties prescribed by the laws of the Confederate 
States; and for offenses against which penalties are not prescribed by the Rules 
and Articles of War, nor by the laws of the Confederate States, but for which pen- 
alties are prescribed by the laws of a State, said court shall inflict the punishment 
prescribed by the laws of the Statein which the offense was committed: Provided, 
That in cases in which, by the laws of the Confederate States, or of the State, the 
punishment is by fine or by imprisonment, or by both, the court may, in its dis- 
cretion, inflict any other punishment less than death; and for the offenses defined 
as murder, manslaughter, arson, rape, robbery and larceny, by the common law, 
when committed beyond the territorial limits of the Confederate States, the pun- 
ishment shall be in the discretion of the court. That when an officer under the 
grade of brigadier-general or private shall be put under arrest for any offense 
cognizable by the court herein provided for, notice of his arrest and of the offense 
with which he shall be charged shall be given to the judge-advocate by the officer 
ordering said arrest, and he shall be entitled to as speedy a trial as the business 
before said court will allow. 

Sec. 5. Said courts shall attend the Army, shall have appropriate quarters within 
the lines of the Army, shall be always open for the transaction of business, and the 
final decisions and sentences of said courts in convictions shall be subject to 
review, mitigation and suspension, as now provided by the Rules and Articles of 
War in cases of courts-martial, 

Sec. 6. That during the recess of the Senate the President may appoint the 
members of the courts and the judges-advocate provided for in the previous sec- 
tions, subject to the confirmation of the Senate at its session next ensuing said 
appointments. 

Approved October 9, 1862, 


204 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


(20.) 
AN ACT to provide shoes for the Army. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be and he is hereby authorized, on the requisition of the Quartermaster-General, 
to detail from the Army persons skilled in the manufacture of shoes not to exceed 
two thousand in number; and it shall be the duty of the Quartermaster-General 
to place them, without delay, at suitable points in shops under proper regulations 
eee by him, and employ them diligently in the manufacture of shoes for 
the Army. : 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That soldiers detailed under the provisions of this 
act shall be entitled to receive pay for extra duty, and also thirty-five cents per 
pair for shoes manufactured by them severally, in addition to regular pay and 
rations. 

Approved October 9, 1862. 

(21.) 


AN ACT to authorize the President to accept and place in the service certain regiments and bat- 
talions heretofore raised. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Presi- 
dent be and he is hereby authorized and empowered, whenever in his opinion the 
public good would be promoted thereby, to receive into the service regiments or 
battalions which have been organized in good faith prior to the first day of 
October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, under authority or by direction of the 
Secretary of War, or any general officer of the Government, although said 
regiments or battalions may be composed in part of persons between the ages of 
eighteen and thirty-five years: Provided, That this authority shall not extend to 
regiments or battalions organized after the said first day of October, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two, except in those States and locations where the conscript 
law may be suspended. 

Src. 2. That the President be and he is hereby authorized and empowered, 
whenever in his opinion it would promote the public good, to receive into service 
regiments or battalions which have been heretofore organized of conscripts by a 
general officer in any of the States lying west of the Mississippi River. 

Sec. 3. That all companies, battalions and regiments of infantry raised or 
organized before the first day of December next within the limits of Middle and 
West Tennessee, to be composed of residents of said districts, may be accepted by 
the President when, in his opinion, the public interest will be promoted thereby, 
and said troops shall be allowed to elect their own officers for the first election, 
after which all vacancies shall be filled by the President, under the act,and the 
acts amendatory of the same, providing for the public defense, passed sixteenth of 
April, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and also such counties in North Carolina 
lying east of the line of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad as are beyond the 
lines of the Army and exposed to the incursions of the enemy. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


(22.) 


AN ACT toamend an act entitled ‘‘An act to raise an additional military force to serve during the 
war,’ approved 8th May, 1861, and to provide for raising forces in the States of Missouri and Ken- 
tucky. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the first and 
second sections of the act to which this is an amendment, are hereby declared to 
have full force and effect in those States and districts in which the President may, 
under the law, suspend the provisions of the acts providing for the enrollment of 
persons for military service, or when said acts cannot be enforced by reason of 
the occupation of the enemy: Provided, That the troops received under the sec- 
tions of said act shall be received for three years or for the war. 

Sec. 2. That the President may, in cases when in his opinion the public interest 
requires that he should do so, appoint major and brigadier generals, with their 
appropriate staffs, and also the field, company, and staff officers to regiments, 
battalions, companies or squadrons before the same are organized, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, and if said regiments, battalions, companies 
or squadrons are not reported as complete within a reasonable time, the President 
may, in his discretion, vacate the commissions of said officers, who shall be entitled 
to the pay of their respective grades from the date of their respective appoint- 
ments until their commissions are vacated; and that companies of infantry shall 
consist of at least one hundred and twenty-five rank and file, companies of artil- 
lery of at least one hundred and fifty rank and file, and companies of cavalry of 
at least eighty rank and file. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 205 


(28.) 


AN ACT amendatory of an act entitled ‘‘ An act providing for the granting of bounties and furloughs 
to privates and non-commissioned officers in the Provisional Army,” approved December 11, 1861. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the above 
recited act be so amended as to secure to all soldiers and non-commissioned 
officers who shall have entered the armies of the Confederate States for three 
years or during the war the bounty of fifty dollars, as therein provided, although 
such soldier or non-commissioned officer may have been killed in battle, died, or 
been honorably discharged before the expiration of the first year’s service of his 
term, to be paid as other arrearages. 

Approved October 11, 1862. 


(24.) 
AN ACT to authorize the President to make certain appointments during the recess of the Senate. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Presi- 
dent be, and he is hereby, authorized to fill by appointment all offices created, 
and all vacancies which may have occurred during the present session of Con- 
gress: Provided, That said appointment shall, at the next session of Congress, be 
submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent: And provided further, That 
said appointments shall expire, unless confirmed, during the next session of the 
Senate. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


(25.) 
AN ACT to regulate and fix the pay of cadets in the service of the Confederate States. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the pay of 
cadets in the service of the Confederate States shall be the same as second lieu- 
tenants of the arm of service to which they are attached. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


(26.) 
AN ACT to relieve the Army of disqualified, disabled and incompetent officers. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever 
in the judgment of the general commanding a department; the good of the serv- 
ice and the efficiency of his command require it, he is authorized, and it is hereby 
made his duty, to appoint an examining board, to be composed of officers of a 
rank at least as high as that of the officers whose qualifications it is proposed to 
inquire into, which board shall immediately proceed to examine into the cases of 
such officers as may be brought to their attention for the purpose of determining 
their qualifications for the discharge of the duties properly appertaining to their 
several positions. ~ 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That whenever such examining board shall 
determine that any officer is clearly unfit to perform his legitimate and proper 
duties, or careless and inattentive in their discharge, then the said Board shall 
communicate their decision, together with the full report of their proceedings in 
the case, to the general commanding the department in which the examination 
shall have been held, who shall, if he approve the finding of the Board, be author- 
ized to suspend the officer who has been pronounced unfit for his position, and 
shall immediately transmit to the Secretary of War the decision and proceedings 
of the Examining Board with its own action and opinion indorsed thereon: Pro- 
pi That such officer shall be entitled to be heard and to call witnesses in his 

efense. 

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That the Secretary of War, if he approve the 
finding of the Board and the action of the general commanding the department, 
shall lay the same before the President, who is authorized to retire honorably, 
without pay or allowances, or to drop from the Army, as the circumstances of the 
case may warrant, and the good of the service require, the officer who has been 
found unfit for his position. 

Suc. 4, Be it further enacted, That in order to secure reliable information of 
the efficiency and competence of officers, it is hereby made the duty of each officer 
commanding a regiment, separate battalion, company, battery or squadron, to 
make to his immediate commanding officer, who shall transmit the same to the 
brigadier-general commanding, a monthly report in tabular form, a copy whereof 
shall be retained by the reporting officer, subject to the inspection of all officers 
interested therein, containing a list of all commissioned officers of such regiment, 
separate battalion, company, battery or squadron, in which shall be stated the 


206 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


number of days each officer has been absent from his command, with or without, 
or on sick leave; the number of times each officer has been observed to have been 
absent from his command when on march or in action; when and where each 
ofticer has been observed to have performed signal acts of service; when and 
where negligent in the performance of duty and inattentive to the security and 
economy of public property; printed blank forms of which said reports shall be 
furnished by the Secretary of War for the use of the officers whose duty it is made 
to make such reports. 

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That whenever any officer of a company, bat- 
talion, squadron or regiment shall have been dropped or honorably retired, in 
accordance with the provisions of this act, then the officer next in rank shall be 
promoted to the vacancy, if competent, such competency to be ascertained as 
provided in the first and second sections of this act, and if not competent, then 
the next officer in rank shall be promoted, and so on until all the commissioned 
officers of the company, battalion, squadron or regiment shall have been gone 
through with; and if there be no officer of the company, battalion, squadron or 
regiment competent to fill the vacancy, then the President shall, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, fill the same by appointment: Provided, 
That the officer appointed shall be from the same State as that to which the 
company, battalion, squadron or regiment belongs: And provided further, 'That 
nothing herein contained shall be construed as limiting the power heretofore 
conferred upon the President by existing laws to fill any vacancy by the promotion 
of officers or the appointment of privates ‘‘ distinguished in the service by the 
exhibition of extraordinary valor and skill:” And provided further, That vacan- 
cies arising under the operation of this act, in regiments or battalions which were 
organized under the laws of a State for the war, or for a period not yet expired, - 
shall be filled as in case of death or resignation. 

Approved October 18, 1862. 


(27.) 


AN ACT to authorize the grant of medals and badges of distinction as a reward for courage and good 
conduct on the field of battle. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be and he is hereby authorized to bestow medals, with proper devices, upon such 
officers of the armies of the Confederate States as shall be conspicuous for courage 
and good conduct on the field of battle; and also to confer a badge of distinction 
upon one private or non-commissioned officer of each company after every signal 
victory it shall have assisted to achieve. The non-commissioned officers and pri- 
vates of the company, who may be present on the first dress parade thereafter, 
may choose, by a majority of their votes, the soldier best entitled to’receive such 
distinction, whose name shall be communicated to the President by commanding 
officers of the company, and if the award fall upon a deceased soldier, the badge 
thus awarded him shall be delivered to his widow, or if there be no widow, to any 
relation the President may adjudge entitled to receive it. 

Approved October 18, 1862. 


(28.) 


AN ACT to authorize the formation of volunteer companies for local defense. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That for the pur- 
pose of local defense in any portion of the Confederate States, any number of 
persons not less than twenty, who are over the age of forty-five years, or other-. 
wise not liable to military duty, may associate themselves asa military company, 
elect their own officers and establish rules and regulations for their own govern- 
ment, and shall be considered as belonging to the Provisional Army of the Con- 
federate States, serving without pay or allowances, and entitled, when captured 
by the enemy, to all the privileges of prisoners of war: Provided, That such com- 
pany shall, as soon as practicable, transmit their muster-roll, or a list of the names 
of the officers and privates thereof, to the Governor of the State, the commanding 
general of the department, or any brigadier general in the State or Confederate 
service, to be forwarded to the Secretary of War; bu. the President or the com- 
mander of the military district may, at any time, disband such companies: 
Provided, That in the States and districts in which the act entitled ‘‘ An act to 
further provide for the public defense,” approved April the sixteenth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two, and the acts amendatory thereof, have been suspended, 
persons of any age, resident within such States or districts, may volunteer and 
form part of such companies so long as such suspension shall continue: Provided, 
That no person shall become a member of said company until he shali have first 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. DUN 


taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America in writing, a 
copy of which shall be filed with the muster-roll of said company as above 
prescribed. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


(29.) 
AN ACT to increase and regulate the appointment of general officers in the Provisional Army. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be and he is hereby authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
to appoint twenty general officers in the Provisional Army, and to assign them to 
such appropriate duties as he may deem expedient. 

Approved October 13, 1862. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Talladega, Ala., November 24, 1862. 
Hon. JOHN A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War, 
Confederate States of America, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I beg leave again to ask the attention of the Department to 
the urgent necessity of authorizing me to enforce the execution of the 
conscription laws in Northern Alabama or of adopting some other 
measures for the accomplishment of the same object. The Hon. 
George W. Randolph, Secretary of War, in a letter dated August 22, 
1862, instructed me as follows: 


If there is anything like organized resistance you will report to the Depart- 
ment, and not risk a collision with bands of men. 


In obedience to this order I have refrained from adopting any vig- 
orous measures for the enforcement of the law, but have repeatedly 
reported to the Department the fact that serious resistance to the law 
exists in various quarters, asking authority to enforce its execution. 
To these repeated representations I have never received any answer. 
The consequence is that the impunity with which enrolling officers 
can be defied has emboldened opposition, until now the evil has 
increased to such magnitude as to threaten the loss to the Govern- 
ment of a large share of the advantages that might result from a 
vigorous enforcement of the conscription, to give occasion for the 
murder of one man in the execution of his duty, and to create intense 
popular dissatisfaction at the idea that loyal and honest citizens are 
forced into the service, while the disloyal and refractory are left at 
large, defying the authority of the Government and its agents. Iam 
subjected to the daily mortification of receiving reports from enroll- 
ing officers of inability to execute the law without being able to afford 
them any assistance. I beg leave also to call your attention to the 
fact that more than four months ago I obtained the approval of the 
War Department to a requisition for 500 stand of ‘arms, with accou- 
terments to correspond, and a sufficient supply of ammunition, and 
an order from the Chief of Ordnance for the issue of the same. This 
issue has never been made, although repeated efforts have been used 
to obtain it. After great difficulty I have only recently been able to 
obtain 180 stand of arms without a bayonet ora cartridge. I respect- 
fully and urgently suggest that I should be at once furnished with 


208 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


arms and accouterments for 500 men and a sufficient supply of ammu- 
nition. Also, that I be authorized to purchase horses, saddles, &e., 
to mount twenty or thirty men, with suitable arms and accouterments 
for the same, and to make use of energetic measures for the enforece- 
ment of the law whenever necessary. I would respectfully remark 
that other camps have been fully supplied with arms and ammu- 
nition on requisitions made subsequently to my own, which had the 
expressed approval of the Department, and that they are nowhere 
more needed than here. 

I have the honor, sir, to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

W. T. WALTHALL, 
Major, Commanding. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, November 24, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


DEAR SiR: As directed by a joint resolution of the General Assem- ~ 
bly of this State, of which the inclosed is a copy, I make known their 
wishes to you, and respectfully request that you direct the Chief of 
Ordnance to give me an order upon Colonel Rains, of Augusta, for 
the powder. We anticipate trouble with our slaves during the 
approaching holidays and fear we shall need the powder. Most of 
the powder mentioned in the resolution was furnished by the State to 
supply Fort Pulaski before it fell into the hands of the enemy and to 
supply our batteries along the coast and around Savannah. Your 
early attention to this matter will greatly oblige the people of this 
State. 

I am, very respectfully, 
JOSEPH EK. BROWN. 


[Inclosure. ] 


Whereas, the State of Georgia has heretofore loaned to the Confed- 
erate Government about 160,000 pounds of powder; and whereas, the 
State now needs a portion of the same for its internal police: 

Be wt therefore resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, 
shat the Confederate Government is hereby respectfully requested to 
return to the Governo1 of Georgia 25,000 pounds of the amount of 
powder so loaned, as soon as the same can be done, for the use of the 
State. 

Be vt further resolved, That a copy of this preamble and resolution 
be forwarded to His Excellency the President of the Confederate 

States. | 
; JOHN BILLUPS, 
President of the Senate. 
JAS. “M. MOBLEY, 
Secretary of Senate. 
WARREN AKIN, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk of the House of Representatives. 


Assented to November 22, 1862. 
JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 209 
GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, | 
No. 95. Richmond, November 25, 1862. 1 


To carry into effect the provisions of ‘‘An act to better provide for 
the sick and wounded of the Army in hospitals,” approved September 
27, 1862, the following instructions are published: i 

1. The commuted value of rations for the sick and wounded in hos- 
pitals will be $1. Rations for hospital attendants will be commuted 
at the rates heretofore fixed by regulations. 

2. Commissaries of subsistence will transfer, for the purchase of 
necessary supplies for sick and wounded, to the medical officer in 
charge of the hospital (taking duplicate receipts therefor) such por- 
tion of the hospital fund as may be demanded, on requisition. 

3. Accounts current of the portion of the hospital funds thus trans- 
ferred will be rendered weekly to the Surgeon-General by the medical 
officer in charge of the hospital, accompanied by vouchers (No. —) 
for the expenditures. The fractional part of the week corresponding 
with the termination of a month will be included in the fourth or last 
account current of the month. The following form will be adopted :* 

4. A copy of the ‘“‘statement of the hospital fund” will be rendered 
monthly by medical officers to the Surgeon-General, according to the 
following form :* 

5. When a hospital fund shall exceed $5,000 the commissary of 
subsistence having the fund in hand will deposit such excess in the 
Treasury of the Confederate States, or other place of deposit where 
Government moneys are kept, to be liable to draft, as other public 
moneys are. Commissaries will account for hospital funds on their 
monthly abstract and summary statements. 

6. The quartermaster will have arrangements made with the various 
lines of boats for the speediest practicable transportation for supplies 
for the hospital, and general transportation tickets will be furnished 
to accredited agents engaged in the actual purchase of these supplies 
upon the request of the medical officer in charge of hospital. 

7. The medical officers in charge of general hospitals will make 
requisitions on the medical purveyors for hospital suits (shirts, panta- 
loons, and drawers) for the use of the sick and wounded while in 
hospital, not to exceed in number the number of beds, while clothing 
shall be borne on the returns and be accounted for as other hospital 
property. 

8. There will be allowed to each general hospital, with rations and 
suitable places of lodging, two chief matrons, at.a salary not to exceed 
$40 per month each, whose general duties shall be to exercise a super- 
intendence over the entire domestic economy of the hospital; to take 
charge of such delicacies as may be provided for the sick; to apportion 
them out as required; to see that the food or diet is properly pre- 
pared, and all such other duties as may be necessary. ‘T'wo assistant 
matrons, at a salary not to exceed $35 per month each, whose gen- 
eral duties shall be to superintend the laundry; to take charge of the 
clothing of the sick and the bedding of the hospital; to see that they 
are kept clean and neat, and perform such other duties as may be 
necessary. ‘Two ward matrons for each ward (estimating 100 patients 
for each ward), at a salary not to exceed $30 per month each, whose 
general duties shall be to prepare the beds and bedding of their 
respective wards; to see that they are kept clean and in order; that 
the food or diet for the sick is carefully prepared and furnished to 


* Omitted. 
14 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


210 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


them; the medicine administered, and that all patients requiring 
careful nursing are attended to, and all such other duties as may be 
necessary. One ward-master for each ward (estimating 100 patients 
for each ward), at a salary not to exceed $25 per month each; and 
such othér nurses and cooks, male or female (giving preference to 
females when their services may best serve the purpose), at a salary 
not to exceed $25 per month each, as may be necessary for the proper 
care of the sick. These attendants to be paid monthly, on hospital 
monthly rolls, by the Quartermaster’s Department, and to be removed, 
when expedient, by the medical officer in charge. Other attendants, 
not herein provided for, necessary to the service shall be allowed, as 
now provided by law. 

9. If a sufficient number of nurses and ward-masters, not liable to 
military service, cannot be employed, and it shall become necessary 
to assign to this duty soldiers in the service, then, upon the requisi- 
tion of the medical officer in charge of a hospital, the soldiers so 
assigned, who are skillful and competent, shall be permanently 
detailed to this duty, and shall only be removable for neglect or inat- 
tention, by the medical officer in charge. 

40. Hospitals will be known and numbered as hospitals of a partic- 
ular State. The sick and wounded, when not injurious to themselves, 
or greatly inconvenient to the service, will be sent to the hospitals 
representing their respective States, and to private or State hospitals 
representing the same. 

11. The Quartermaster-General will have arrangements made with 
the railroad companies to reserve seats in one or more cars, as may be 
necessary, for the use of the sick and wounded soldiers and their 
attendants to be transported, and until they are seated to prevent 
other persons from entering those reserved cars; and also to require 
conductors of the trains to provide for the use of the sick and 
wounded in the reserved cars a sufficient quantity of pure water. 

12. Medical officers in charge of hospitals will detail an attendant 
to accompany the sick and wounded, furloughed, discharged, or trans- 
ferred to railroad depots, to see that they are cared for and provided 
with seats in the reserved cars. : . 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., November 25, 1862. 
His Exeeliency President DAVIs: 

DEAR Sir: In accordance with my recommendation the Legislature 
has determined to raise 10,000 men to assist in the winter campaign. 
I am requested by the military committee to write Your Excellency 
to know if it will be possible to get any assistance in arms and muni- 
tions from the Confederacy, and also if Your Excellency would object 
to the State organization embracing the remainder of the conscripts 
under thirty-five years of age. The reason for asking the latter ques- 
tion is because it is thought that the State authorities could get out a 
considerable number of that class which the Confederate officers 
would not be able to reach. Please to answer at once, as the commit- 
tee’s action will await your reply, and time is everything. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
: Z. B. VANCE. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 211 


RICHMOND, VA., November 26, 1862. | 
Governor J. E. BRowWN, of Georgia: 


Sir: The present condition of public affairs induces me to address 
this circular to the Governors of the several States on a subject of 
vital importance to our people. The repeated defeats inflicted on the 
Federal forces in their attempt to conquer our country have not yet 
sufficed to satisfy them of the impossibility of success in their nefari- 
ous design to subjugate these States. A renewal of the attempt on 
a still larger scale is now in progress; but with manifest distrust of 
success in a warfare conducted according to the usages of civilized 
nations, the United States propose to add to the enormous land and 
naval forces accumulated by them, bands of such African slaves of 
the South as they may be able to wrest from their owners, and thus 
to inflict on the non-combatant population of the Confederate States 
all the horrors of a servile war, superadded to such atrocities as have 
already been committed on numerous occasions by their invading 
forces. To repel attacks conducted on so vast a scale the most ener- 
getic action of every department of the Government is directed; but 
appreciating the great value of the cordial. co-operation of the differ- 
ent State governments, and with unfaltering reliance on their patri- 
otism and devotion to our cause, I earnestly appeal to them for all the 
aid it may be in their power to extend to the officers of the War 
Department in the discharge of their duties within the several States, 
and for their co-operation in the following important particulars: 

First. In the enrollment of the conscripts and the forwarding of 
them to the proper points of rendezvous. 

Second. In restoring to the Army all officers and men now within 
the States absent without leave, or whose term of absence has expired, 
or who have recovered from disability and are now able to return to 
duty. . 

Third. In securing for the use of the Army all such necessary sup- 
plies as exist within the States in excess of the quantity indispensable 
for the support of the people at home. Prompt action in these mat- 
ters will save our people from very great suffering, will put our Army 
on a condition to meet the enemy with decisive results, and thus 
secure for us an early and honorable peace on the basis of recognized 
independence. In addition to the above urgent matters I beg respect- 
fully to ask the aid of the Executives of the several States in recom- 
mending to the several Legislatures such legislation as will enable 
the Governor to command slave labor to the extent which may be 
required in the prosecution of works conducive to the public defense; 
also the adoption of some means to suppress the shameful extortions 
now practiced upon the people by men who can be reached by no 
moral influence, and who are worse enemies of the Confederacy than 
if found in arms among the invading force. The armies in the field, 
as well as the families of the soldiers and other of the people at home, 
are the prey of these mercenaries, and it is only through State action 
that their traffic can be repressed. Their punishment is ardently 
desired by every patriot. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


(Same to Governors R. Hawes, of Kentucky; H. M. Rector, of 
Arkansas; F. R. Lubbock, of Texas; C. F. Jackson, of Missouri; I. G. 
Harris, of Tennessee; John Letcher, of Virginia; J. G. Shorter, of 


212 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC, 


Alabama; John J. Pettus, of Mississippi; F. W. Pickens, of South 
Carolina; John Milton, of Florida; Z. B. Vance, of North Carolina, 
and Thomas O. Moore, of Louisiana. ) 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, DEPT. OF JUSTICE, 
Richmond, Va., November 26, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a dispatch 
(telegraphic) from Lieut. Col. E. D. Blake, addressed to General 
Cooper, sent by you for my opinion. The question submitted is 
whether the term ‘‘army supplies” in the exemption law is general, 
or does it apply only to the Ordnance Department. I suppose refer- 
ence is here made to that portion of the exemption law which declares 
that ‘‘all artisans, mechanics, and employés in the establishments of 
the Government for the manufacture of arms, ordnance, ordnance 
stores, and other munitions of war, saddles, harness, and army sup- 
plies, who may be certified .by the officer in charge thereof as necessary 
for such establishments,” are exempt from military service in the 
armies of the Confederate States. 

The language used as well as the context shows that the term 
‘‘army supplies” is. used in its general sense, and not confined to 
ordnance stores or other things made in the Ordnance Department. 
By the terms of the act quoted the army supplies contemplated must 
be manufactured in the establishments of the Government, under the 
charge of an officer appointed by the Government. Whatever these 
army supplies may be, if manufactured in the establishments belong- 
ing to and under the control of the Government by artisans, mechan- 
ics, or other employés of the Government, they are covered by the 
law, and the artisans, mechanics, and employés in their establish- 
ments, if certified to be necessary by the officer in charge of such 
establishments, are exempt from military service of the Confederate 
States. The next clause to the one quoted has reference to artisans, 
mechanics, and employés in establishments owned by others than the 
Government, under contracts with the Government, in furnishing 
arms, ordnance, ordnance stores, and other munitions of war. This 
clause is subject to a proviso, which places it under the control of the 
chief of the Ordnance Bureau, and this clause is confined strictly to 
the Ordnance Department. 

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. H. WATTS, 
Attorney-General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., November 26, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: I inclose you herewith a copy of resolutions of the Alabama 
Legislature approved 25th November, declaring the liability of our 
militia officers to military duty under the conscription act, and on 
yesterday I telegraphed to you to the same effect, as follows: 

Alabama Legislature has resolved that militia officers are liable to enrollment 
as conscripts. This will surprise many, and if permissible I ask that they may 


have thirty days to volunteer into companies in service prior to 16th day of 
April last. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 213 


The spirit of our Legislature is fully up to the emergency of the 
crisis and the members are fully determined to remove every obstacle 
which might impede the action of the Confederate Government in the 
defense of the country, and are now engaged in the consideration of 
acts which will no doubt pass releasing from the operation of the 
exemption act large classes of our State officers and declaring them 
liable to*military duty. Many of these officers will be taken by sur- 
prise at the announcement of their liability, and in view of this fact 
and of the determination of the Legislature, reflecting the disposition 
and feeling of our people, I respectfully suggest that it will be but a 
fair return that the militia and other State officers thus affected may 
be allowed thirty days to volunteer in regiments, &c., organized and 
in service prior to the 16th April, 1862. This will but place them on 
a footing with others who have heretofore been liable and under the 
enforcement of the conscription act more easy for the enrolling officers. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER. 
Governor of Alabama. 


[Indorsement. ] 


DECEMBER 4, 1862. 
The ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 
I send the order giving the thirty days, as suggested by Governor 
Shorter’s letter. 
DA dares 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure.] 


JOINT RESOLUTIONS in relation to the liability of militia officers of this State 
to enrollment under the conscription acts of the Confederate States. — 


1. Be a resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives ef 
the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, That in the 
opinion of this General Assembly militia officers of this State between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-five years are now subject to enroll- 
ment under the conscription acts of the Confederate States, unless 
exempt on some other ground than that they are militia officers. 

2. Be at resolved further, That if there be any law of this State 
which has been or may be construed to exempt such officers from the 
operation of said conscription acts the same is hereby declared to be 
inoperative to that extent. 

3. Be vt resolved further, That His Excellency the Governor be, and 
he is hereby, requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the 
Secretary of War of the Confederate States. 

Approved November 25, 1862. 


OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE, 
Montgomery, Ala., November 26, 1862. 
I, P. H. Brittan, secretary of state of the State of Alabama, hereby 
certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the joint reso- 
lutions of the Alabama Legislature, approved November 25, 1862, as 
taken from the original rolls on file in my office. 
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State this 26th day 
of November, 1862. 
[ SEAL. | P. H. BRITTAN, 
Secretary of State. 


214 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


A PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA. 


Whereas, in order to stop, if possible, the wicked system of specu- 
lation, which is blighting the land, and prevent the production of 
famine in the midst of plenty, the Legislature of North Carolina, by 
a joint resolution thereof, ratified on the 22d day of this month 
(November), have authorized me to lay anembargo upon the exporta- 
tion from the State of certain articles of prime necessity, except to 
certain persons and for certain purposes: 

Now, therefore, I, Zebulon B. Vance, Governor of the State of North 
Carolina, do issue this my proclamation, forbidding all persons, for 
the space of thirty days from the date thereof, from carrying beyond 
the limits of the State any salt, bacon, pork, beef, corn, meal, flour, 
potatoes, shoes, leather, hides, cotton cloth, and yarn and woolen 
cloth. The following persons are alone to be exempted from the pro- 
hibition, viz: All quartermasters’ and commissary agents of the Con- 
federate Government, and of any State of the Confederacy, exhibiting 
proper evidence of their official character; also all agents of any 
county, district, town, or corporation of other States who shall exhibit 
satisfactory proof of their authority to purchase such articles in behalf 
of such town, county, district, or corporation for public uses or for 
distribution at cost and transportation, and not for resale or profit; 
also all persons who make oath before the nearest justice of the peace 
that the articles purchased are for his own private use, and not for 
resale, before they are removed; also all persons, non-residents, who 
may have bought such articles before the date hereof. The exception 
is to extend to salt made by non-residents on the sea-coast and in their 
own works, and to cargoes entering any of our ports from abroad. 
Any of said articles that may be stopped in transitu from our borders 
are to be confiscated to the use of the State. Until further orders the 
colonels of militia in the different counties are enjoined to see that 
this proclamation is enforced. Not intending or desiring to prevent 
the people of our sister States from sharing with our own citizens what- 
ever we can spare, but to repress speculation so far as may be possible, 
I earnestly appeal to all good citizens to aid and sustain me in the 
enforcement of this proclamation for the coming good. . 

In witness thereof, I, Zebulon B. Vance, Governor, captain-general, 
and commander-in-chief, hath signed these presents and caused the 
great seal of the State to be affixed. 

Done at our city of Raleigh this 26th day of November, A. D. 1862, 
and in the year of our independence the eighty-seventh. 

[SEAL. | Z. B. VANCE. 

By the Governor: 

R. H. BATTLE, JR.,; 
Private Secretary. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 96. fichmond, November 27, 1862. 

Commandants of conscripts will cause the following order to be 
published for at least seven times in a sufficient number of newspapers 
in each State of the Confederacy to insure its reaching every part of 
the country: 

I. All commissioned officers and enlisted men who are now absent 
from their commands from any other cause than actual disability or 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 215 


duty under orders from the Secretary of War or from their depart- 
ment commanders will return to their commands without delay. 

II. Commissioned officers failing to comply with the provisions of 
the foregoing paragraph within a reasonable length of time, in no 
case to exceed twenty days after the publication of this order, shall be 
dropped from the rolls of the Army in disgrace, and their names will 
be furnished to the commandant of conscripts for enrollment in the 
ranks. , 

Ill. All enlisted men who shall fail to comply with the provisions 
of paragraph I of this order within a reasonable length of time shall 
be considered as deserters and treated accordingly, their names to be 
furnished to the commandant of conscripts in their State for publica- 
tion or such other action as may be deemed most efficacious. 

IV. In order to insure the efficient co-operation of all concerned to 

carry this order into immediate effect, department commanders are 
directed to require from the commanding officer of each separate 
command in their departments a prompt report of the names of all 
commissioned officers and.enlisted men now absent from their com- 
mands. These reports must state in each case the cause of absence, 
and any regimental, battalion, or company commander who shall 
neglect to furnish such a report, or who shall knowingly be guilty 
of concealing any case of unauthorized absence, shall, on conviction 
thereof, be summarily dismissed. 

V. Under the provisions of the second clause of paragraph II of 
General Orders, No. 82, commissioned officers and privates who are 
incapable of bearing arms in consequence of wounds received in 
battle, but who are otherwise fit for service, are required, if not 
otherwise assigned, to report to the nearest commandant of conscripts 
in their respective States, who will, if they are fitted for such duty, 
assign them to the collection of stragglers and the enforcement of the 
provisions of this order, with full powers to call upon the nearest 
military authority for such assistance as may be necessary thereto. 

VI. Officers of the Quartermaster’s Department charged with pay- 
ment of troops are hereby directed not to pay any commissioned 
officer, non-commissioned officer, or private who does not furnish 
satisfactory evidence that he is not liable to the penalties described 
in the foregoing order. Any disbursing officer who shall make pay- 
ment in violation of this order shall be liable on his bond for the 
amount of such payment. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF EAST FLORIDA, 

Tallahassee, November 27, 1862. 

Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN, . 
Chief of Staff and Assistant Adjutant-General: 


Str: I have reason to believe that the duty of enrolling conscripts 
under the law in this State is being neglected by the officers appointed 
in each county for that purpose. The camp of instruction has been 
established some four months, and I am informed there are now more 
than 140 present. This, with 44 sent from camp to the gun-boat 
Chattahoochee, would make a total of less than 200 sent up from the 
several counties in the State. Some counties I understand have fur- 
nished none. So long as the duty of enrolling conscripts is intrusted 


216 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to State officers, who are in some instances aspirants for political pre- 
ferment, there is reason to believe that it will be neglected. It is true 
that there are not a great many conscripts in the State, Florida having 
furnished for Confederate service a number equal to her entire voting 
population, but it is due to the brave men who have so promptly vol- 
unteered for the defense of the country that those subject to the law 
should be enrolled and placed in the service. I think His Excellency 
Governor Milton is satisfied that the law is inefficiently executed, and 
that if called upon by the Secretary of War he would have no objec- 
tion to the appointment of Confederate officers or the detail of suit- 
able non-commissioned officers or privates for the enrollment of con- 
scripts in this State. I respectfully submit the matter through the 
commanding general for the consideration of the Honorable Secretary 
of War. 

I have the honor to be, general, with great respect, your obedient 
servant, | | 

JOSEPH FINEGAN, 
Brigadier-General, Commanding. 


[Indorsement. ] 


HpDQrs. DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, 
Charleston, S. C., December 3, 1862. 


Approved and respectfully forwarded for the information of the 
War Department and such instruction as it may think proper to give. 
G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
General, Commanding. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., November 28, 1862. 
Col. WILLIAM M. BROWNE, 
Aide-de-Camp to the President: 


COLONEL: You will proceed with all convenient dispatch to Mill- 
edgeville, Ga., and present to His Excellency Governor Brown the 
letter which you will find herewith.* You will confer with the Goy- 
ernor in relation to the subject of this letter, and represent to him the 
existing necessity for the adoption of active measures to send for- 
ward recruits to fill the thinned ranks of the regiments from Georgia, 
now in the field, and hoping that the decision of the supreme court 
of Georgia may be regarded as conclusive of the constitutional ques- 
tion presented, assure him of the pleasure it will afford me to have 
his co-operation in attaining this important object. After you have 
seen the Governor, you will put yourself in communication with the 
commandants of camps of enrolled recruits in Georgia, personally 
inspect their commands, and report to me the numbers of men 
enrolled and liable to conscription, and such other facts in relation 
thereto as may be requisite for better comprehension of the case. 
You will also inquire into the subject of supplies for the Commissary 
and Quartermaster Generals’ Departments, and with this view you 
will confer with such officers of these departments in Georgia as you 
may think proper. When you have concluded the above-mentioned 
duties you will return and report in person to me. 

Very respectfully, 


JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
a A 8) is ee 
*See November 26, p. 211. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 217 


CIRCULAR.| ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, November 29, 1862. 


Str: Your attention is directed to the second clause of paragraph 
IV, General Orders, No. 82, from this office (copy herewith*), which, 
among other things, directs that in a given contingency ‘‘a commis- 
sioned officer for each Congressional district, and a non-commissioned 
officer or private for each county, city, town, district, or parish, will 
be assigned to the duty of enrollment of conscripts under the com- 
mandant of conscripts.” 

The same paragraph requires that ‘‘in making such assignments 
officers and men disabled by wounds from active duty in the field, 
and acquainted with the localities in which they are required to 
serve, will be selected as far as practicable,” and further, that ‘‘ com- 
manding officers in the field will order such commissioned officers 
and non-commissioned officers and privates as they think qualified to — 
be enrolling officers or drill officers, and who are unfit for active 
service in the field, to report to the commandant of conscripts in 
their respective States, who will order such of them to duty as may 
be required and report the remainder by letter to the commanding 
general as not needed for such service.” 

For your information and guidance a list of the commandants of 
conscripts for the several States and their stations is forwarded here- 
with. + 

By General Orders, No. 96 (a copy of which you will receive as 
soon as printed),{ ‘‘commissioned officers and privates who are inca- 
pable of bearing arms in consequence of wounds received in battle, 
but who are otherwise fit for service, are required, if not otherwise 
assigned, to report to the nearest commandant of conscripts in their 
respective States, who will, if they. are fitted for such duty, assign 
them to the collection of stragglers,’ ’ &e. 

The importance of this subject must be obvious, and until the 
selections and assignments required are made it will be impossible to 
put the regulations which have been adopted for the collection of 
conscripts into efficient operation. 

The call made upon you in my letter of 25th instant for a list of 
disabled officers was, as then indicated, to assist in details for courts- 
martial, and incidentally for any exigencies that might arise in the 
enforcement of the conscript law. Keeping this in view no embar- 
rassment will be experienced on either subject. 

Iam, &c., 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., November 29, 1862. 
His Excellency Governor BRowy, of Georgia: 

DEAR Sir: My aide-de-camp, Col. William M. Browne, will hand 
you the inclosed circular letter addressed by me to the Governors of 
the several States.§ I have directed Colonel Browne to confer with 
you in relation to the subject of this letter, in the hope that by personal 
interview time may be gained in the accomplishment of the important 
results which I desire to attain. 

Respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


*See p. 164. + Not found. tSee p. 214. §See November 26, p. 211. 


218 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., November 29, 1862. 
His Excellency J. E. BRown, 
Governor of Georgia, Milledgeville, Ga.: 


Sir: The Department is informed that an act has passed the Legis- 
lature of Georgia prohibiting the distillation of whisky, and the Com- 
missary-General having made contracts for a large amount of that 
article in your State, I have the honor to request that such contracts 
may be excepted from the operation of the law. I have also to ask 
that, if consistent with your sense of public duty, you will allow the 
officers of the Commissary Bureau to continue their arrangements to 
the extent of 250,000 gallons of whisky without removing the distil- 
leries twenty miles from any railroad, such permission being deemed 
important to the public service. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ne 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., November 29, 1862. 


Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, 
Commanding : 

GENERAL: An act of the last Congress authorizes the President to 
accept the services of companies, to be organized into regiments or 
battalions under the act of May 8, 1861, under his direction, to be 
composed of men who reside in those portions of the country in which 
the law of conscription cannot be enforced. The island of New 
Orleans and the parishes on the river below New Orleans are subject 
to this act. In case, therefore, that companies -are organized of the 
legal size, composed of inhabitants of these districts and suitably sup- 
plied with officers, they will be accepted by this Department; but it 
must be understood that the conscription law cannot be relaxed in the 
districts in which it can be executed. There have been many appli- 
cations to this Department for leaves to raise companies, and this will 
serve as an answer to such applications. 

By order of the Secretary of War: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Acting Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, VA., November 29, 1862. 


His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 


Str: Your letter of the 10th instant suggesting the exemption from 
military service by direct Executive action of all those charged with 
the private custody of lunatics and idiots has received careful atten- 
tion. ‘The clause in the exemption act authorizing the Executive to 
extend the benefit of the act to cases not specified in it was intended 
to operate upon individuals and not classes; and in the present 
reduced condition of so many regiments it is necessary that the law 
should be rigidly construed. I regret that I cannot consistently adopt 
your suggestion. 

Very respectfully and truly, 
JEFFERSON DAYVIS. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 219 


GENERAL ORDERS, Abst. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 97. Richmond, December 1, 1862. 


I. Officers of the Quartermaster’s Department are expressly pro- 
hibited from visiting the seat of government for the purpose of 
obtaining supplies. 

The usual mode of effecting these objects by requisition is deemed 
sufficient, and no deviation from the established rules of the service 
in this respect will be permitted without the previous sanction of the 
Quartermaster-General, obtained through the regular channel of com- 
munication. 

II. Officers and agents of the Quartermaster’s Department are 
hereby ordered not to interfere with leather purchased or contracted 
for by officers or agents of the Ordnance Department. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


JOINT RESOLUTIONS in relation to the war debt of the Confederate States. 


Whereas, the Government of the Confederate States is involved in 
a war for the independence of each of the States of the Confederacy, 
as well as for its own existence; and whereas the destiny of each 
State of the Confederacy is indissolubly connected with that of the 
Confederate Government; and whereas the Confederate Government 
cannot suecessfully prosecute the war to a speedy and honorable 
peace without ample means or credit: Be it therefore 

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State 
of Alabama wn General Assembly convened, That in the opinion of 
this General Assembly it is the duty of each State of-the Confederacy, 
for the purpose of sustaining the credit of the Confederate Govern- 
ment, to guarantee the debt of that Government in proportion to its 
representation in the Congress of that Government. 

Resolved further, That “the State of Alabama hereby proposes to 
her sister States of the Confederacy to guarantee said debt on said 
basis, provided that each of the said States shall accept the proposi- 
tion and adopt suitable legislation to carry it into effect, in which 
event these resolutions shall stand as the guaranty of this State for 
the aforesaid proportion of the debt of the said Confederate Govern- 
ment. 

Resolved further, That His Excellency the Governor be, and is 
hereby, requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the Gov- 
ernor of each State of the Confederacy and to the President of the 
Confederate States. . 

Approved December 1, 1862. 


MILLEDGEVILLE, December 1, 1862. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON: 

You will greatly oblige me if you will inform me whether | the] order 
of Mr. Randolph to Major Dunwody not to enroll the commissioned 
officers of the militia of this State has been canceled and whether the 
enrollment as conscripts has been ordered. An early reply is respect- 


fully solicited. 
JOS. E. BROWN. 


220 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[First indorsement. ] 


Adjutant-General report. Has the order referred to been canceled ? 
Js Ai 
Secretary. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
December 5, 1862. 


Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. 
There is no evidence in this office of the original order referred to. 
JASPER 8S. WHITING, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[Third indorsement.] _ 


WAR DEPARTMENT, 
December 8, 1862. 


No such order appears upon the records of this office. 
R. G. HH. KEAR 
Chief of Bureau of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 2, 1862. 
Hon. E. 8. DARGAN, 
Mobile, Ala.: 


Sir: Your letter of the 26th ultimo relative to the cases of Beck- 
ham and Stallworth have been received. Cases founded upon the 
misery and confusion of families, when poverty, infirmity, disease, 
bereavement, neglect of business, and family distress in aggravated 
and sometimes in combined forms plead for the discharge of a soldier 
from the service, are abundant in this Department. But the fact 
that every army we have in the field is opposed by a superior force 
and that the fate of the Confederacy is suspended upon the events of 
a few weeks is the only answer that can be made to considerations of 
that nature. The cases you present for exemption must be deter- 
mined by the written law. The opinion of the Department is that 
the conscription acts and their complements, the exemption acts, do 
not operate to discharge persons from the Army who have heen 
enlisted for the war. The act of April 16 was executed to provide 
for the further defense of the country. Its declared object is in view 
of the exigencies of the country and the absolute necessity of keep- 
ing in the service our gallant Army and of placing in the field a large 
additional force, &c. It enacts ‘‘that the President be, and he is 
hereby, authorized to call out and place in the military service * * #* 
for three years * * * all white men who are residents * * * 
between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five at the time the call or 
calls may be made, who are not legally exempted from military sery- 
ice.” The conscription act of October 11 enacts in similar terms 
‘‘that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to call out and 
place in the military service of the Confederate States for three years 

* * all white men * * * residents * * * between the 
ages of thirty-five and forty-five at the time the call or calls may 
be made, and who are not at such time or times legally exempted 
from military service.” 

The act of 21st of April on the subject of exemption is the comple- 
ment to the act of April 16 on the subject of conscription. The 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 22t 


orders for the call were issued 28th of April. The exemption act of 
October was approved at the same time as the conscription act. The 
conscription act operates upon a portion of the population not belong- 
ing to the Army, and the exemption act applies to limit the generality 
of that act by a special reference to it. The disbanding of any por- 
tion of the Army or the discharge of individual soldiers from the 
specific contract for service under their enlistment is nowhere spoken 
of. On the contrary, the act of April with a strong hand retained 
men in the Army whose contract for service had expired, or would 
expire in a few days, without any reference to any exemption. The 
Department does not consider the exemption act of October as apply- 
ing to exempt persons called out and placed in service in April. The 
exemption was to exist at the date of the call, and that act was re- 
enacted unless the modification and repeal of that act was specially 
expressed by the act of October. These general views will explain 
the decision of the Department upon the case of Beckham. He is in 
the Army under a contract of service. The police clause in the 
exemption act has no reference to the Army more than any other. It 
could hardly have been possible for Congress to propose that every 
owner of five, six, or twenty slaves (as the State laws may be) should 
retire from the service to take care of his domestic interests under 
the name of preserving the police of the country. It might be well 
that of those between thirty-five and forty-five a portion should be 
retained to perform police duty and to guard the domestic tranquil- 
lity of the country. The case of Stallworth is one of hardship. If he 
is unable to perform duty he ought to be discharged; but the condition 
of his body must be decided by officers appointed for that purpose by 
law. His resignation discharged him from the contract of enlistment 
or for service as contained in his original muster, but on returning to 
civil life the law operated on him as to others in civil life. If he is 
between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, as is implied, the act of 
April operates upon him, and the Presidential call, unless it is lim- 
ited,embraces him. He would not be entitled to apply the exemption 
act of October, for when the call for service was made the exemption 
did not exist. But these views are communicated not as a decision of 
the case, but as suggestions to prepare it. Article X, page 14, as per 
Orders 82, shows that the facts should be exhibited to the enrolling 
officer, and that it comes here by appeal from the camp of instruction. 
A copy of those orders is inclosed.* 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
Very respectfully, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


—— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 2, 1862. 
J. D. BURDETT, Esq., 
Enrolling Officer: 

Str: Your letter of the 24th ultimo has been received. The Depart- 
ment found very early that the exemption. granted to firemen in 
Augusta was a mistake. Applications for exemption and abuse of 
that privilege of exemption was discerned to be an inevitable conse- 
quence. The Department has refused the privilege to Atlanta and 


* See p. 160. 


222 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Columbus within a very few days, and is now compelled to revoke the 
privilege conceded to Augusta. Firemen are not included in the 
exemptions specified in the act of October 11 on that subject. Classes 
of men quite as necessary to the well-being of a community are not 
exempt; and the action of the Department in allowing such an exemp- 
tion is questionable in point of law, and cannot but promote discon- 
tent among the people. You will, therefore, proceed to enroll persons 
as conscripts without reference to any exemption or claim to exemp- 
tion as firemen. The rule that has been applied in other cities must 
be adopted for Augusta. 

For Secretary of War. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
it. wa CAMPBELL, 
. Assistant Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES NITER AND MINING BUREAU, 
Richmond, December 3, 1862. 
‘Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Your attention is respectfully requested to the Government 
niter service. When called upon to organize this service the super- 
intendent submitted, among other essentials to a rapid and certain 
increase of supplies, that the officers appointed or detailed should 
possess special qualifications; the agents to be active business men of 
good standing; the laborers able-bodied men, and from the generally 
exposed service that the larger proportion must come from army 
details, conscripts, and free negro impressments; 3,000 was named as 
a maximum, including slave labor wherever it could be used. This 
was approved and the necessary orders were issued. <A printed copy 
of the more important is inclosed.* Work was fairly commenced in 
May last, and up to the close of October the Bureau returns gave for 
niter produced and collected, 200,820 pounds; niter from Mexico deliv- 
ered east of the Mississippi, 38,000 pounds; total, 235,820 pounds. 
Nitrified material in niter sheds, 120,000 cubic feet, and increasing 
rapidly. Correct returns from the several ordnance officers for Kuro- 
pean niter imported have not been all received, but the entire impor- 
tation probably exceeds the home production. The per diem yield of 
this production has steadily increased from 200 pounds in April to 
somewhat over 2,000 pounds in October. This yield very nearly meets 
the present demands of the service, if not quite. The labor return 
of force engaged in the production of niter and the supervision of 
lead mining and sulphur for October gave 1,117 white employés, 
including agents, clerks, contractors, and laborers, in all the niter 
districts. The office employés are generally exempts, from physical 
disability and other causes, but the field or outside force are within 
conscript age, and necessarily, for the work and localities demand it. 
A large number of free negroes impressed, together with about 200 
slaves, compose the residue of the working force. During the winter 
the demands for powder must increase from. the more frequent use of 
heavy ordnance. Arrivals from abroad are likely to decrease, and 
from the shorter days and inclement weather the home production is 
more likely to diminish than increase. 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHURITIES. 223 


The incursions of the enemy are becoming serious. In the Pendle- 
ton district several of our establishments have been broken up, ket- 
tles smashed, some of the workmen taken prisoners, and all dispersed. 
The yield for November in this and the adjoining Greenbrier district 
will be reduced from this cause at least 10,000 pounds. In Tennessee 
and Upper Alabama our works are frequently interrupted and in a 
recent case with loss of life. With reference to this, authority has 
been asked to organize and arm the working forces for their own pro- 
tection. An order issued authorizes a company of sixty-four non- 
conscripts to be raised and detailed to guard the Santa Cave. It is 
respectfully submitted, however, that the Government interests will 
be better met by making the workmen guard their own works under 
an organization similar to sappers and miners.. As an important 
precedent the reconsideration of this order is requested. On the 
army movements of Tennessee and Virginia during the present month 
depend at least 40 per cent of our home niter production. The supply 
of powder and saltpeter now on hand is considered ample for all con- 
tingencies of three months, and probably for the winter. But the sup- 
ply thereafter becomes the subject of concern, and it is recommended 
that the closest economy be directed in issues for coal mining and 
railroad work. It only remains to press production from domestic 
sources in the interior districts. The most earnest efforts have been 
made by publication, printed and personal appeals, from influential 
sources, sending agents to instruct families and to collect, but with 
discouraging results. Our planters and people in the several States 
from Virginia to Mississippi, in all of which niter districts have been 
organized, do not sufficiently respond to dispense with Government 
work and, in part, conscript labor. This is now reluctantly, and with 
great effort to avoid it, submitted as a necessity for a future supply 
at all approaching army wants. I have respectfully to request a 
general order directing the extension of niter production in the 
interior districts of North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and, if 
operations are thus to be extended, authorizing the use of conscript 
labor where indispensably needed. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Lavish JOHN, 
Major and Superintendent. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
NITER AND MINING BUREAU, 
Richmond, December 3, 1862. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: In connection with an official communication of this date I 
respectfully call your attention to the frequent communications 
from enrolling officers on the subject of conscript labor in the niter ~ 
service; also to the official indorsements on the letter of Major 
Swanson, Camp Watts, November 19, and Major Mallett, Raleigh, 
November 8. 

Under past orders from the Department contracts have been made 
and details granted from the Army and from conscripts. To guard 
against possible abuse of these exemptions, all niter agents have 
been instructed to assess every individual holding a certificate ata 
reasonable per diem of work, to report cases of non-compliance to the 


224 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


nearest enrolling officer, and otherwise to facilitate the discharge of 
his duty. These instructions have been obeyed to the extent of my 
official information. It is certainly the case that many attempts have 
been made by designing men to avoid military service through niter 
as well as through commissary, ordnance, and other contracts of the 
service, and whatever ground there really exists for complaint comes 
from this source. But in no one instance thus far has any agent of 
this Bureau been found to be improperly connected therewith. One 
case is now under official investigation upon specified charges called 
for from the office complaining. The number of these communica- 
tions is owing to the frequent change of the enrolling and recruiting 
officers and their entire misapprehension of the nature and ‘wants of 
the niter service. Previous to the issue of Order 66 our workmen 
were forcibly taken from niter works, and three times from one of the 
Virginia caves. Frequent apologies have been made for wrong done 
when facts were ascertained, and in one case by a general command- 
ing department. But I regret to perceive from an official indorse- 
ment of Judge Campbell, referred to, that the amende does not reach 
the office which files these complaints, and that a misapprehension 
injurious to the service and unjust to the officers of this corps is fast 
gaining ground, viz, that the niter service if not an evasion of public 
duty is at least of secondary importance. 

With two or three unimportant exceptions, appointments in the 
Niter Corps as officers or agents were not solicited but were tendered ; 
in several cases, upon an appeal from the superintendent, higher 
rank and more desirable service have been given up. Jam sure that 
I speak for all the officers of this Bureau, in saying that they continue 
their present employment only under a sense of duty, and they do 
not wish to continue one moment longer than their services are con- 
sidered more valuable in producing munitions of war than in the 
ranks. 

It is therefore respectfully requested that the Department intimate 
by a general order whether this service is of sufficient importance to 
be continued—though conscript labor be necessary. 

Also, whether the labor necessary to produce saltpeter shall stand 
on the same footing as to exempts with that in ordnance shops and 
foundries, or otherwise. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
I. M. ST, JOEie 
Major and Supermtendent. 


[Indorsement. ] 


In transmitting this communication I deem it just to the office of 
the Niter Bureau to say that whatever suspicion is now cast upon 
their service is probably due to irregularities existing prior to the 
organization of the Bureau—irregularities which they have labored 
successfully to correct in most cases. 

It was reported to me that an officer of the Subsistence Department 
in North Carolina undertook to give niter contracts to his neighbor, 
without the shadow of authority, and that he gave exemptions upon 
such contracts. Such unauthorized action it has been the duty of 
this corps of officers to correct, but they have nevertheless borne a 
portion of the odium arising from them. 

uf commend the suggestion of Major St. John to special attention. 

J. GORGAS, 
Colonel. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 225 


GENERAL tee ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 98. Richmond, December 3, 1862. 

Col. William M. Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, is hereby 
specially assigned to take supervision and control of the transporta- 
tion for the Government on all the railroads in the Confederate 
States. . 

1. He is empowered to make contracts for transportation with said 
railroads, or any of them, and such negotiations and arrangements 
with them as may be requisite or proper to secure efficiency, har- 
mony, and co-operation on the part of said railroads, or any proper 
number of them, in carrying on the transportation of the Government. 

2. He will take direction of all agents or employés engaged by the 
Government in connection with railroad transportation; will retain, 
engage, or dismiss such as may be requisite, and take charge of and 
employ all engines, machinery, tools, or other property of the Govern- 
ment owned or used for railroad transportation; and may exchange, 
sell, or loan such machinery with or to any railroad company to 
facilitate the work of transportation; and may generally assist and 
co-operate with the railroads in effecting the work of transportation. 

3. The better to accomplish such ends, he may require co-operation 
and assistance to such an extent as can be reasonably granted by the 
Quartermaster and Commissary Bureaus; and may apply for details 
from the Army of such artisans, mechanics, and workmen as may be 
necessary to facilitate the due accomplishment of his duties. 

4, He will report, through the Adjutant and Inspector General, to 
the Secretary of War. 

By order: 

5. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


; DALTON, December 3, 1862. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


I beg leave to repeat my telegram of Ist instant. You will greatly 
oblige me if you will inform me whether the order of Mr. Randolph to 
Major Dunwody not to enroll the commissioned officers of the militia 
of this State has been annulled, and whether the enrollment as con- 
scripts has been ordered. An early reply is respectfully solicited. 
JOS. E. BROWN. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 3, 1862. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCK, 
Governor of North Carolina: 


Str: Your letter to the President informing him of the prospect of 
a law for the raising of 10,000 men in your State to assist in the winter 
campaign, and asking to be informed whether any assistance in arms 
and ammunition may be expected from the Confederation, and also to 
know whether objection would be entertained to the State organization 
embracing the remainder of the conscripts under thirty-five years of 
age, has been referred by him to this Department. In reply I have 


15 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


226 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC, 


to say that it is hoped the assurances generally given a few days since 
to a committee of your Legislature in a conference with the President 
will have inspired the fullest confidence in the desire of the Presi- 
dent and this Department to do all in the power of the Government 
for the defense of your State, and with that end to co-operate with 
and advance the laudable efforts of your authorities to add to existing 
forces. Still, while every disposition will exist in this Department to 
afford arms and munitions to such State forces as may be raised, yet, 
in view of possible contingencies under the exigencies of the service, 
the Department cannot feel certain of having arms and munitions at 
command, and can come under no positive engagement to supply them. 
I am instructed, too, to say that the President does not feel author- 
ized, under the existing provisions of the conscript law, to relinquish 
claim on any of the persons who are made subject to its operation and 
liable to be called into the Confederate service. Only those beyond 
the prescribed ages or exempt under the law are, by the intendment 
of that law, subject to be recruited and organized for retention in 
State service; but most valuable assistance may, and it is hoped will, 
be rendered by the co-operation of the State authorities as well in the 
enforcement of that law as by the employment of those not subject to 
conscription, in swelling under State authority our means of defense. 
With assurances of the highest respect and esteem, 
Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


JONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 4, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of 
November 26, inclosing a copy of the joint resolutions of the Senate 
and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, approved 
November 25,1862. These resolutions impart great satisfaction to 
this Department. By devoting the officers of her militia to the serv- 
ice of the Confederacy, Alabama evinces now, as ever heretofore dur- 
ing the war, the high patriotic spirit with which she responds to all 
demands on the valor and resources of her people to achieve the com- 
mon safety and independence of the States. Such course must meet 
the grateful appreciation of the whole Confederacy and confer lasting 
honor on her in the records of history. This Department is too sen- 
sible of the sacrifices (involved by this act of disinterestedness) on 
the part of the officers subjected by the resolution not to respond 
most cheerfully to the suggestion made by Your Excellency to lighten 
them by allowing thirty days within which they may volunteer into 
companies in service prior to the 16th day of April last. The order 
shall be given accordingly. . 

Accept assurances of the high consideration and esteem with which 
I remain, 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 22% 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, December 5, 1862. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
. Secretary of War: 

Str: The purchases of ordnance and ordnance stores in foreign 
markets on Government account are made by Maj. Caleb Huse, C. 5. 
artillery, who resides in London, and whose address is No. 38 Claren- 
don Road, Notting Hill, London West. Major Huse was detailed for 
this duty in April, 1861. 

His instructions directed his attention chiefly to the purchase of 
small-arms, but his list embraced all the most necessary supplies. 
Under these instructions he has purchased arms to the number of 
157,000 and large quantities of gunpowder, some artillery, infantry 
- equipments, harness, swords, percussion-caps, saltpeter, lead, &e. 

In addition to ordnance stores, using a rare forecast, he has pur- 
chased and shipped large supplies of clothing, blankets, cloth, and 
shoes for the Quartermaster’s Department without special orders to 
do so. 

- Of course a large proportion of his purchases have fallen into the 
hands of the enemy. 

To pay for these purchases funds have been from time to time sent 
to him by the Treasury Department, on requisitions from the War 
Department, amounting in the aggregate to $3,095,139.18. These 
have been wholly inadequate to his wants and have fallen far short 
of our requisitions. He was consequently in debt at latest advices 
to the amount of £444,850, a sum equivalent, when the value of 
exchange is considered, to $5,925,402 of our currency. 

While this capacity for running in debt is the best evidence of the 
ability of Major Huse, the debt is a matter that calls for immediate 
attention. 

An agent, Mr. Norman 8S. Walker, was lately dispatched with 
$2,000,000 in bonds of the Confederate States. 

The instructions to Mr. Walker direct him to return to Bermuda 
after the disposition of the bonds in England and after conference 
with Major Huse. 

He is to remain there as a resident disbursing agent, and is, in con- 
junction with Mr. 8. G. Porter, charged with the transfer of the car- 
goes of the Harriet Pinckney, now there, and other ships hereafter to 
arrive, to the ports of the Confederate States. 

It is respectfully urged that further and immediate steps should be 
taken by the Treasury Department to supply funds for the liquidation 
of this indebtedness. 

A large part of the cargoes have been landed at Nassau, and thence 
transmitted to the ports of the Confederate States in fast steamers. 
Their destination has lately been changed to Bermuda, where several 
most valuable cargoes are now awaiting transportation. It appears 
to me to be the appropriate duty of the Navy Department to assist in 
the running in of these cargoes; but if the burden of it is to be borne 
entirely by the War Department it is highly important that light- 
draft steamers should be purchased and used solely for the trans- 
portation of cargoes from Bermuda. 

I have made this statement for the information of the Honorable 
Secretary of War, at the suggestion of the Assistant Secretary of War, 


228 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and respectfully call special attention to the subject of funds to be 
transmitted and to the transfer of stores from Bermuda here. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, | 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 99. \ Richmond, December 5, 1862. 

The superintendent of the Niter and Mining Bureau is authorized 
and directed to press the home production of niter from plantation 
and domestic sources. Where indispensable the labor of conscripts 
is authorized in interior districts, and details will continue to be made 
as at present; but officers and agents of the Bureau will exercise 
especial caution to use this: labor as a last resort. Resignations in 
the Niter and Mining Corps must be placed upon the same footing with 
resignations in the line in front of the enemy. Faithfully executed, 
this service is second to no other engaged in the public defense. 

By order: | 

. S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector Gteneral. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, . 
No. 285. \ Richmond, December 5, 1862. 
* * * * * * * 


XIV. Militia officers and other State officers of the State of Ala- 
bama who may be or have been declared by the Legislature of said 
State to be subject to conscription will be allowed thirty days to vol- 
unteer in regiments and companies organized and in service ab to 
April } 16, 1862, 

* * C * * * 
By Piracs of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 5, 1862. 
Lieut. Col. J. B. WEEMS, 
Commanding, ‘Calhoun, ar 


Your letter of the 26th has been received. The principal points to 
be attended to in respect to the distribution of conscripts are disposed 
of inarticle No. 5, paragraph VIII, of the General Orders, No. 82. The 
commandant of the conscripts by that paragraph will determine the 
quota to which each regiment is entitled in order to fill it to its max- 
imum, and it is under his direction that the action contemplated in 
article 3, paragraph X, of the orders must be carried out. The prin- 
ciple of apportionment of conseripts is that of equality ‘‘in propor- 
tion to their respective deficiencies,” and it was not designed to 
disturb that rule of equality by permitting the commanding general > 
in the field to detail officers for the purpose of enrolling for particular 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 229 


regiments, &c. There is no direction to the commanding general of 
a department or of an army to apply to this. Department for a permis- 
sion to detail officers to make enrollments. He may do so under the 
Orders 82 without such a permission. But the action of those officers 
is to be regulated by instructions from the commandant of conscripts, 
and they cannot make any disposition of them without his consent. 
That disposition is subject to the rule before stated. The object of 
the privilege conceded to the commanding general was not that he 
might appropriate a greater number of conscripts than others, but 
only by superior energy and activity he might obtain his quota with 
more rapidity than others. The paragraph, or paragraph X, with 
this explanation, will be intelligible. 
For the Secretary of War. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
ee A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


| DECEMBER 6, 1862.—For Vance to Seddon, recommending delay in 
the destruction of cotton in the State of North Carolina, &e., see 
Series I, Vol. XVIII, p. 792. | 


GENERAL ORDEBS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 100: ‘ , Richmond, December 8, 1862. 
I. The following act and regulations in reference thereto are pub- 
lished for the information of all concerned: 


AN ACT to repeal the law authorizing commutation for soldiers’ clothing, and to require clothing to 
be furnished by the Secretary of War in kind. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much 
of the existing law as provides commutation for clothing to the soldiers in the 
service of the Confederacy be, and the same is hereby, repealed; and hereafter 
the Secretary of War shall provide in kind to the soldiers, respectively, the uni- 
form clothing prescribed by the Regulations of the Army of the Confederate 
States; and should any balance of clothing be due to any soldier at the end of 
the year, the money value of such balance shall be paid to such soldier, according 
to the value of such clothing fixed and announced by. order from the War 
Department. 

Approved October 8, 1862. 


II. In accordance with the above act of Congress no payment of 
commutation for clothing will be made for a period extending beyond 
October 8, 1862. When payment of said allowance has been made 
prior to the promulgation of this order, for a term which will not 
expire until after the date of -this act, issues of clothing in kind 
will be made, to commence at the end of such period. Where it 
has not been so paid clothing will be furnished from the 8th of Octo- 
ber, 1862. | 

Ill. A soldier is allowed the uniform clothing stated in the follow- 
ing table, or articles thereof of equal value. When a balance is due 
him at the end of the year he will be allowed the money value 
thereof, as herein set forth, to be paid him upon the muster and pay 
roll of his company. When he shall have drawn clothing in excess 
of -the amount allowed it will be charged against him upon the mus- 
ter and pay roll of his company. If discharged before the expira- 
tion of the year, and he shall not have been furnished with clothing 


230 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in kind, or paid commutation thereof, for the period of service ren- 
dered since the 8th of October, 1862, he will be entitled to receive the 
money value of the clothing allowed, in proportion to such period of 
service: 


For three years. 3 
PG 
. Gey = 
Clothing. oi ’ iS) 5 
P gee ga 
As Fs i e 
Fy MN AH mH 
Caps, complete .... 25.2... 2 nee eee ene een ee eee eee n cece ncn e ete een ene 2 1 1 $2. 00 
Coverveeces coset eeweee EGG rete flere tah ee teteinls terete tae a gd behhe Cane Oo ee ee reer 1 1 it 38 
JSaGketseccecs oes et ete eee teens oe eee eee eee eee eee eerie 2 1 af 12. 00 
TTT OUSGES. <.cc.cc- ec nin es eee edo ae wie avelm suave wae cate ete eet ere ecole ae eee 3 2 2 9.00 
Shirtsieiece c's scl kc Sea Sa eae Eels eee eet ate tane aira tee ee eee 3 3 2 3. 00 
Noah's) 4: eS es nt, MES RS See EES SRO SOIR Soars sonic tiooaon 3 2 2 3. 00 
SOG BS ieratctele ore seas a Serle earth asta wiocag reget ase ip ete ale aya te afer pairs 4 4 4 6. 00 
Soekste Gen Sooo Ree aie ceria nis eee ee ie te eee eee (0) 4 4 4 1. 00 
Leather stock . 2 e038 toe ot.c oeise crea ras be ee ee eae aisle ee eee eee 1 eee ae 25 
Greatcoat 2.20 oe Se ie Hers Sie re rc ce ae en eee ee eee Ba ee es a. 25. 00 
Stable frock (for mounted men) J. 2222. 52-- 22 o> se saeele eee eee Ie ideen alee ome 2.00 
Fatigue overalls (for engineers and ordnance) .........------------------- 1 1 1 3. 00 
Blanket... on. das ce he eaice we Sas ne ele eleleiine acare wrele ee ent tee eee odes ae 1 7.50 


IV. When clothing is needed for issue for the men the company 
commander will procure it from the quartermaster on requisition, 
approved by the commanding officer. 

V. Ordinarily the company - commander will procure and issue cloth- 
ing for his men twice a year. At other times in special cases such 
articles as the soldier may need will be issued to him. 

VI. Officers receiving clothing will render quarterly returns to the 
Quartermaster- General. 

VII. Commanders of companies will take the receipts of their men 
for the clothing issued to them, on a receipt roll, witnessed by an offi- 
cer, or in the absence of an officer by a non-commissioned officer, 
the witness to be witness to the fact of the issue and the acknowledg- 
ment and signature of the soldier. The several issues to a soldier to — 
be entered separately on the roll, and all vacant spaces on the roll 
to be filled with a cipher. The roll is the voucher for the issue to the 
quarterly return of the company commander. Extra issues will be 
so noted on the roll. 

VIII. Each soldier’s clothing account is kept by the company com- 
mander in a company book. This account sets out only the money 
value of the clothing which he received at each issue, for which his 
receipt is entered in the book, and witnessed as in the preceding 
paragraph. 

IX. When a soldier is transferred or detached the amount due to 
or by him for clothing will be stated on his descriptive List. 

X. When a soldier is discharged the amount due to or by him for 
clothing will be stated on the duplicate certificates given for the set- 
tlement of his accounts. 

XI. Deserters’ clothing will be turned into store. The invoice of it, 
and the quartermaster’s receipt for it, will state its condition and 
the name of the deserter. | 

XII. The inspection report on damaged clothing shall set out, with 
the amount of damage of each article, a list of such articles as are fit 
for issue, at a reduced price stated. 

XH. Commanding officers may order necessary issues of clothing 
to prisoners and convicts, taking deserters’ or other damaged clothing 
when there is such in store. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 231 


XIV. In all cases of deficiency or damage of any article of clothing 
or camp or garrison equipage the officer accountable for the property 
is required by law to show, by one or more depositions setting forth 
the circumstances of the case, that the deficiency was by unavoidable 
accident or loss in actual service, without any fault on his part, and 
in case of damage that due care and attention were exerted on his 
part, and that the damage did not result from neglect. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 8, 1562. 
J. W. ELLIS, Esq., 
Senate Chamber, Raleigh, N. C.: 


Str: I have received your application for discharge on the ground 
that you are a member of the Legislature of North Carolina. Neither 
the exemption law of October nor that of April, 1862, operated to dis- 
charge persons from service. The Department has granted furloughs 
to other members of the Legislature of North Carolina, to extend one 
week beyond the expiration of the session at which their presence was 
necessary. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, December 9, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I respectfully beg leave to again call your attention to the 
operation of General Orders, No. 98, assigning Col. W. M. Wadley, 
assistant adjutant-general, to the supervision and control of railroad 
transportation, and also to repeat some of the views I had the honor 
to present to you verbally. By the provisions of the Army Regula- 
tions the Quartermaster’s Department has been charged with the duty 
of providing transportation for troops and all army stores, equipage, 
and supplies. During the present war it is well known the Govern- 
ment has been greatly dependent upon the railroads of the Confed- 
eracy for the transportation of troops and supplies, and has been 
obliged to employ them to the utmost extent of their capacity. All 
contracts with the railroad companies have been made by this depart- 
ment, and the payment of their accounts has consumed a large pro- 
portion of the estimates made for expenses of military transportation. 
The control of this important means of transportation has been one 
of the most responsible duties of this department, mainly because of 
its intimate connection with the movements of our armies in the field 
and their dependence upon it for the prompt delivery and quick 
removal of military supplies; and the railroads have become so much 
identified with most of the duties of this department that much 
inconvenience, confusion, and embarrassment will result if their super- 
vision be transferred to another department of the public service 
altogether unconnected with this. Ido not object to the policy of 


232 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


placing all railroad transportation under the supervision of an able 
and competent officer, as Colonel Wadley is known to be; on the con- 
trary, I had the honor to suggest that such an arrangement should be 
made, with the expectation, however, that the superintendent of this 
transportation should report to this department and act under its 
authority. The absolute necessity for this is, I submit, most appar- 
ent, as it is essential to the dispatch of the business of this office that 
I should be regularly and promptly informed of such regulations for 
railroad transportation as might be adopted by the general superin- 
tendent, and particularly that I should be advised of the terms of 
compensation agreed upon, that the necessary estimates to provide 
for its payment might be made. For these and other reasons, which 
will be readily suggested, I submit that the effect of the general 
order referred to will be to occasion difficulty and embarrassment to 
this department unless Colonel Wadley be directed to report regu- 
larly to this office. 
| A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Noe tOr, Richmond, December 9, 1862. 


I. Clause 1, paragraph VI, General Orders, No. 82, current series, is 
so amended as to provide that one of the three surgeons for each Con- 
gressional district shall be a medical officer of the Army, and that the 
two others (to be recommended by the commandant of conscripts to 
the Adjutant and Inspector General) shall be selected from Congres- 
sional districts different from that in which they are to examine con- 
seripts. 

II. As in the ease of ‘‘ barrels and sacks,” officers of the Subsistence 
Department receiving beeves will deliver to the commissaries from 
whom they draw supplies a like number of hides. The issuing com- 
missary will transfer them to the quartermaster charged with their 
collection. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
AGpanne and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 11, 1862. 
Hon. JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama, Montgomery: 

Sir: Your communication of the 20th of November to the Secretary 
of War, inclosing copy of an act of the General Assembly of Alabama 
to aid in providing shoes for the Alabama soldiers in the Confederate 
Army, &c., has been referred to this office. In reply thereto I have to 
state as follows: The State of Alabama will be allowed $7 for each 
pair of shoes furnished to this department on account of Alabama 
soldiers, and the same will be distributed as far as practicable in strict 
accordance with the directions given by the State authorities. 

Your obedient servant, 
A.C. MYERS: 
Quartermaster- General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. pais: 


Resolutions in relation to the present war. 


Whereas, the State of Georgia has, ina spirit of fraternal sympathy, 
pledged herself by resolutions solemnly adopted by her Legislature 
to co-operate with her sister States of the Confederacy in the impend- 
ing struggle for our lives and liberties, and to this end to contribute 
all the means at her command to the support of the common cause: 
Therefore . 

Be it resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of 
the State of Florida in General Assembly convened, That it is the 
sense of this Legislature that Florida, one of the first States to secede 
from the old Union, will be one of the last to lay down its arms, and in the 
impending struggle will stand by her sister States to the last man 
and the last musket, until peace is established on the basis of a sepa- 
rate nationality, and the independence of the Confederate States is 
unconditionally acknowledged by the United States. 

Be it further resolved, That a copy of said report and resolution be 
transmitted to the President of the Confederate States, and also to 
the Governors of each State, and to the Congress of the Confederate 
States. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 9, 1862. Passed 
the Senate December 9, 1862. Approved December 11, 1862. 


Nassau, NEW PROVIDENCE, December 12, 1862. 
Hon. G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: My last dispatch was under date of the 12th ultimo by the 
Kate, since which the steamers Herald (now Antonica) and Leopard 
have arrived from Charleston. I have shipped by.the Antonica the 
following remnants ex Melita:* Five cases knapsacks, 3 cases boots, 
3 cases percussion-caps, 1 case saddlery, 2 cases cavalry saddlery, 1 
case friction-tubes, 2 cases bayonet scabbards, 5 bales army cloth, 2 
bales army cloth. 

Also to Dr. Chisolm, medical department, South Carolina and Geor- 
gia, 6 cases and 3 barrels medicines. By the Leopard, to leave in three 
days, I shall clear up the odds and ends of the Melita’s cargo, besides 
50 cases Enfield rifles, some medicines for Dr. Chisolm, and about 2 
tons of steel to Captain Childs. Both the Antonica and Leopard 
earry a large quantity of iron plates, a considerable shipment of 
woolens, all the blankets and shoes that could be got together, and a 
variety of other useful stuff on private account. 

Mr. S. G. Porter, Government agent, arrived here on the Herald, 
bound to Bermuda, but was detained for some time by sickness. The 
communication between here and Bermuda being so sparse, Mr. Porter 
concluded to charter a schooner, and would have left ere this but for 
a violent storm that has prevailed for some days past. I expect he 
will get off by the day after to-morrow. Mr. Porter has fully 
explained to me the important nature of the business confided to 
him, but I am apprehensive he may be partially thwarted by the 
paucity of suitable steamers to transship Government property from 
Bermuda to the Confederacy. As far as I can learn, all the suitable 
steamers from England are bound to this place, the owners deeming 
it the best policy to load at Nassau. It is very certain they have 


* Commercial marks omitted. 


234 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


taken a strong objection to Bermuda. Mr. George Wigg, formerly 
of New Orleans, and a very intimate personal friend, expects sev- 
eral steamers here, but is unwilling to divert them to Bermuda 
unless at a difference of freight, which I consider to be admissible. 
Still, he is anxious to further the interests of Government and will 
give us the preference of room over all other parties. If Mr. Porter 
should be blocked in his operations at Bermuda I have counseled him 
to send a cargo here, which I could dispatch in a very brief period. 

Captain Malcolm, the naval commander at this station, assured me 
the day before yesterday that the Federal cruisers have received 
express instructions from their Navy Department not to molest neu- 
tral vessels bound from a neutral to a neutral port, even if laden with 
munitions of war, unless the course of the vessel should justify a 
reasonable suspicion that she intended to violate the blockade. ‘To 
use his own language, she would be in the legal prosecution of her 
voyage, and her seizure under such circumstances would be decidedly 
illegal. This source of apprehension removed, it might perhaps be 
good policy to divert some of the accumulation of stuff at Bermuda 
to this place, so as to get it into the Confederacy at the earliest 
moment. The steamer Antonica, one of George Wigg’s vessels, left 
England on the 3d ultimo for Saint Thomas, and instructions have 
been sent to her to proceed to Havana, where she will take a pilot and 
run the blockade at Mobile. She is a clear eleven and a half knot 
boat, and has a very valuable cargo, consisting in part of 22,000 pairs 
of shoes, 30 tons of gunpowder, blankets, &c. The steamers Pearl 
and Eagle (paddle), sixteen to eighteen miles an hour certain, are 
expected here every moment. The Thistle (a fast screw) will be due 
in eight days. Then there is a new screw, under a builder’s guar- 
anty of £5,000 to run fourteen miles an hour, earrying 700 tons of 
cargo, which will be out on the 20th proximo. All these are George 
Wise? Ss vessels, so that you will perceive the facilities offered for the 
transshipment of cargo. In addition to these there are no less than 
six steamers expected to make their appearance within the next sixty 
days. Before that time no less than 100,000 pairs of shoes and a 
vast quantity of blankets will reach this place, irrespective of some 
private ventures which will increase the amount. 

I have mentioned these matters so that in case the necessity arises 
you will appreciate the reasons that may compel Mr. Porter to send 
some of the Government property from Bermuda to this place. Mr. 
Porter has no doubt addressed the War Department fully on the sub- 
ject, and any instructions that may be deemed requisite to carry out 
its views here will be promptly obeyed. 

lam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER. 


[DECEMBER 12, 1862.—For Pickens to Davis, and Davis’ reply (14th) 
in relation to execution of conscript law in South Carolina, see Series 
I, Vol. LIII, p. 269. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 104. Richmond, December 18, 1862. 
I. Encampments of troops near towns and villages must be avoided 
where it is not indispensable. Whenever it is so, a sufficient force 
for guards and outposts must be selected from the best disciplined. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 235 


troops, and assigned as a garrison, &c.; and officers and men will not 

be permitted to enter the town or village except on written permis- 

sion of the commanding officer. 

II. Arms must not be carried from the camp, nor will mounted men 
in camps be permitted to ride their horses, except upon duty. 

III. Private property is invariably to be respected, and must not be 
taken or used, except when indispensable for the public service, and 
then only by orders of competent authority, and inthe manner pointed 
out in the Army Regulations and orders of the Quartermaster and 
Commissary Departments. 

IV. The reckless destruction of fencing, wood, and other property 
of the citizens, which has occurred in so many instances, cannot be 
too strongly condemned. Commanders of troops of whatever grade 
should, by the exercise of diligence and strict discipline, endeavor to 
prevent such results, entailing, as they will, poverty upon individuals 
and useless expense on the Government. Fencing ought not to be 
disturbed where it can possibly be avoided; and when wood is neces- 
sary for the public use, that which is least valuable must be selected 
with as little waste as practicable. 

V. A careful observance of these orders is enjoined on the Army as 
of the first importance to the public interests. All violations of them 
are directed to be reported to the proper authority for such punish- 
ment as may be requisite. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMEET, 
Richmond, December 13, 1862. 


His Exeellency JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama: 


SIR: Owing to some inadvertence unusual in the Department, your 
letter inclosing liberal and patriotic resolutions of the Senate and 
House of Representatives of Alabama, tendering aid in procuring sup- 
plies of shoes for the Army, did not come under my observation until 
a day or two since. I have therefore to apologize for my delay in 
responding, which rendered necessary the telegram from you. ‘To 
that telegram I replied as soon as I could confer with the Quarter- 
master-General. I have only now to reiterate the assurance of my 
telegram that all shoes suitable for the Army will be taken thank- 
fully and paid for at $7 per pair, and that in distributing them the 
Quartermaster-General shall be instructed to conform as far as prac- 
ticable to your wishes. I cannot refrain from once more acknowledg- 
ing with grateful appreciation the zeal and liberality manifested by 
your State in sustaining the common eause of the Confederacy. 

With sentiments of high respect and esteem, your obedient servant, 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[DECEMBER 13, 1862.—For Seddon to Lubbock, in relation to a 
suspension of the conscript law in Texas, see Series I, Vol. LIL, 
p. 838. | 


236 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 13, 1862. 
Maj. J. C. JOHNSTON, 
Athens, Tenn.: 


Masor: You are hereby instructed to report to General J. EK. John- 
ston, and under his directions select a suitable location for a camp of 
instruction for Kentucky recruits. You are to receive and muster 
into the Confederate service such Kentuckians as wish to join it, to 
afford them shelter and instruction, and otherwise properly provide 
for them for a reasonable time, giving each of them the selection of 
the Kentucky regiment to which he will attach himself, and transpor- 
tation to it when the selection is made. In case they prefer it, when 
enough recruits are assembled to form a company they shall be organ- 
ized into a company under the conscript act by the election of their 
officers, and the company attached to whatever Kentucky battalion of 
the line they may elect not having ten companies. 

You are directed to observe a conciliatory course toward recruits, 
and to induce as large numbers as possible to avail themselves of the - 
benefit of your camp. ‘The camp should be located as near the Ken- 
tucky line and in as plentiful a region as is safe. 

Report any case of difficulty immediately to this Department. 
Except as above directed, you are instructed to observe General Orders, 
No. 82, herewith inclosed.* 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
Richmond, December 15, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have received to-day copy of Colonel Gorgas’ letter of 5th 
December, sent me in yours of the 12th instant, in relation to money 
required to meet purchases of arms in Europe. As far back as 28th 
May last I notified your Department that the absence of commerce 
had cut off the supplies of sterling exchange, and that some arrange- 
ment had better be made between the Warand Navy Departments for 
the appropriation of the limited amount which could be purchased. 
No such arrangement was made, and the requisitions of the Navy 
Department absorbed what was then on hand. Sincethattime I have 
purchased all the exchange which could be had, paying as high as $3 
for $1. Bonds were then sent over to Europe to raise funds. for the 
use of both Departments, of which no account has yet been received; 
and to pay for the purchases ordered by the Quartermaster-General 
‘a letter of credit in advance of funds was sent to our bankers in 
favor of Major Ferguson for $500,000. This credit will probably 
exhaust all the funds. which will be at our credit from bills of exchange 
upon Major Ferguson’s arrival in Europe. Since that time we have 
continued to pur rchase all the exchange which has been offered, and 
have added an authority to our agent “to make use of the $2,500, 000 of 
coin of the Bank of Louisiana, which was seized for the use of the 
Government. You will perceive, therefore, that although without any 
knowledge of the wants of Colonel Gorgas or his contracts, this 
Department has used every exertion to place funds in Europe. Permit 


* See p. 160. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 25% 


me to add that when contracts to so large an extent as those men- 
tioned by Colonel Gorgas are made payable abroad without consulta- 
tion with this Department it cannot hold itself responsible for any 
failure to pay them. 
Respectfully, C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


[First indorsement. ] 


To Ordnance Bureau and then file. 
Iv AG Say 
Secretary. 
[Second indorsement. ] 


DECEMBER 29, 1862. 

Respectfully returned. 

Following letters have been written: July 12, 1862, requested that 
£250,000 be sent to Major Huse as soon as practicable. October 24, 
1862, called Secretary’s attention to indebtedness of Major Huse and 
submitted an account from Major Huse’s letter. December 5, 1862, 
recapitulating Major Huse’s account, showing disbursements and 
funds wanted. 


J. GORGAS, 
Colonel. 

GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 105. j Richmond, December 15, 1862. 


I. Some confusion having occurred in the payment of troops in 
hospital, as authorized in paragraph III, General Orders, No. 65, 
modified by paragraph I, General Orders, No. 67, and by paragraph IT, 
General Orders, No. 68, it is hereby directed that. the orders above 
referred to be so limited as to embrace only the monthly pay of the 
soldier mustered on the hospital rolls; and all quartermasters making 
payments to troops referred to in said orders are required regularly 
to forward, through the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, to 
the company commanders of such troops (to be noted on the company 
rolls) an accurate list of the persons and amounts so paid and the 
particular time for which such payments have been made. 

II. No transportation tickets will be issued except when the appli- 
cant presents conclusive evidence that he has proper authority for his 
absence from his command and is entitled to transportation. A regis- 
ter will be kept in the transportation office, upon which the name of 
the applicant for transportation and the authority upon which trans- 
portation is given will be recorded in every case. Every precaution 
will be taken against imposition and fraud, and whenever such fraud 
or imposition is detected it will be immediately reported to the 
proper authorities. 

By order: 

; | 5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. . 


Resolution to guarantee by the States the debt of the Confederate 
Government. 


Whereas, the Government of the Confederate States is involved in 
a war for the independence of each of the States of the Confederacy 


238 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


as well as for its own existence; and whereas the destiny of each 
State of the Confederacy is indissolubly connected with that of the 
Confederate Government; ‘and whereas, also, the Confederate Govern- 
ment cannot sucessfully prosecute the war to a speedy and honorable 
peace without ample means and credit: 

Resolved, therefore, by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the State of Florida in General Assembly convened, That this General 
Assembly concurs in the opinion of the General Assembly of the 
State of Alabama that it is the duty of each State of the Confederacy, 
for the purpose of sustaining the credit of the Confederate Govern- 
ment, to guarantee the debt of that Government in proportion to its 
representation in the Congress of that Government. 

Resolved further, That the State of Florida hereby accepts the 
proposition of the said State of Alabama to guarantee said debt on 
said basis, provided each of the said States shall accept the proposi- 
tion and adopt suitable legislation to carry it into effect, and that their 
resolutions shall stand as the guaranty of this State of the aforesaid 
proposition of the debt of the said Confederate Government. 

Resolved further, That His Excellency be, and is hereby, requested 
to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the Governor of each State of 
the Confederacy and to the President of the Confederate Government. 

Passed the Senate December 13, 1862. Passed the House of Repre- 
sentatives December 15, 1862. Approved by the Governor December 
15, 1862. 


—_——__— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 15, 1862. 
ROBERT BUNCH, Esq., 
Consul of Her Majesty 
the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Charleston, S. O.: 

Str: The receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, in which you say 
that you ‘‘ have been informed that James E. Haley has been forced into 
the camp at Knoxville,” and complains of ‘‘the persistent ill-treatment 
of a British subject, perpetrated in violation of all international law and 
the law of the Confederate States,” and protest against the ‘‘ violence 
committed upon James E. Haley, a subject of the Queen of Great Brit- 
ain,” andexpress yourself asinjured ‘‘ by the want of common courtesy,” 
which has been shown to yourself in this matter, not even areply being 
returned to your letter, and finally threaten to call the ‘‘ attention of 
Earl Russell to the increasing and apparently systematic persecution 
to which Her Majesty’s subjects here of late have been exposed at the 
hands of the War Department and of its officers,” is acknowledged. 

The several acts of the Congress of the Confederate States which 
_ provide for additional forces for the public defense are published in 
General Orders, No. 82, which issued from the Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office in this Department. <A copy of these orders is inclosed 
to you.* 

The United States having called into their military service some 
700,000 men, a number approximating to the number of the military 
population of the Confederacy, these acts of Congress became neces- 
sary. The actof April last continued in the Army all the persons then 
in the service who were residents of the Confederate States, between 
the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years, and enabled the President 
to place in the service all residents of the same class who were not 


*See p. 160. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 239 


legally exempt. The Department did not retain in the Army, but dis- 
charged from it, all foreigners not domiciliated who had volunteered at 
the expiration of their term of enlistment, and in May last announced 
in orders that ‘‘foreigners who have not acquired a domicile in the 
Confederate States” were legally exempt from conscription. Several 
hundred foreigners were thus discharged from the Army under this 
construction of the act, and the same interpretation serves as a shelter 
to a very large number of aliens who previously were regarded as per- 
manent residents of these States. 

In July orders were published by the Department prohibiting the 
reception of unnaturalized foreigners as substitutes. In September 
orders were issued to the effect that all enrolling officers are hereby 
expressly prohibited from enrolling as conscripts foreigners not domi- 
ciled in the Confederate States. ‘‘ By domicile is meant permanent 
residence.” And again, in Orders No. 82 it is said ‘‘foreigners not 
domiciled in the Confederate States are not liable to enrollment. Dom- 
icile in the Confederate States consists in residence with intention per- 
manently to remain in those States and to abandon domicile elsewhere. 
Long residence of itself does not constitute domicile. A person may 
acquire domicile in less than one year, and he may not acquire it in 
twenty years’ residence. If there is a determination to return to the 
native country and to retain the domicile there, no length of residence 
ean confer domicile.” 

There can be no mistake of the principle upon which this Depart- 
ment in administering the legislation of the Confederate Congress has 
proceeded. As Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ire- 
land has no minister near this Government, nor any other accredited 
diplomatic agent here to call in question this principle, the Depart- 
ment feels under no obligation to discuss or defend it. 

By a reference to the Orders, No. 82, Article X, you will find that 
‘‘applications for exemption must in all cases be made to the enroll- 
ing officer, from whose decision an appeal may be taken to the com- 
mandant of conscripts. The Department will not consider the appli- 
cation until it has been referred by the latter officer.” The exemption 
act comprehends large classes of citizens who are not included among 
those from whom military service is required. Their claims to exemp- 
tion are brought under the revision of this Department by this regu- 
lation. The alien who has not acquired a domicile is subject to the 
same regulation and may seek his protection in this form. The com- 
mandant of conscripts is a field officer and has been selected for his 
ability, among other qualifications, to determine questions that might 
arise under this act. The alien is not deprived of any privilege that 
has been conceded to a citizen. Mr. Haley had it in his power to bring 
his case before the Department, and from his failure to do so the 
presumption is that he has acquired a domicile in these States. The 
Department has exposed in this with more particularity its principles 
and mode of proceeding than in its former communication to you, 
but itis not able to perceive that any material omission was then 
- made. It has nothing to detract from that communication. 

In reference to your remark upon the discourtesy to which you have 
been subject, the Department is entirely unable to make any applica- 
tion of it. It has listened to your remonstrances and expostulations 
with the same degree of patience as if you had been regularly accred- 
- ited to this Government, and it has afforded you in respectful terms 
full information of whatever it was necessary for you to know to per- 
form your duties, or what you might consider to be your duties, 


240 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Under the sense of what is becoming and proper it has replied to 
your letter without the slightest expression of complaint of the tone 
you have thought proper to assume. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
December 15, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN LETCHER, 
Governor of Virgina: 


Sir: The operatives in the Tredegar Works at Richmond were 
organized, commissioned, and armed by you as a battalion for home 
service on the 3d day of >: une, 1861, and had an effective force of at 
least 300 men, rank and file. 

Up to the period when the first of the battles around Richmond was 
fought, in June last, this battalion had been regularly mustered, 
drilled, and promptly ‘turned out for service when required, but upon 
ordering a muster for inspection on this day I am informed by the 
commandant, Major Archer, that the men claim exemption from all 
military duty under some act of Congress or order of the War Depart- 
ment; that in consequence the drills have been discontinued, and that 
now seareely the force of a single company could be mustered. 

I am also informed by Major Archer that there are in the various 
foundries and workshops, including the Government works in the 
city of Richmond, probably 3,000 able-bodied young men, or men in 
the prime of life, who might be organized upon the same principles 
as the Tredegar Battalion, and would constitute a very effective force 
for the defense of the city. In every ward of the city there is a mili- 
tary hall or some building which might be conveniently used for night 
drills by companies. These night drills under competent officers 
would, I know, afford the needful military instruction, and with bat- 
talion or regimental musters, according to the force, on Saturday 
afternoons, would be all the necessary tax upon the time of the men, 
and not withdraw any of them from the customary working hours, 
since, as to that, Saturday, as I am informed, is universally regarded 
among them as a broken or half day. 

It is my duty to report the condition of the Tredegar Battalion to 
you, but I have extended the report so as to include the whole mate- 
rial of the city capable of armed service for local purposes, confident 
as I am that the Confederate Government, at very little trouble or 
expense, may organize into companies, battalions, and regiments, for 
the protection or defense of the metropolis, an effective force of two 
or three regiments. 

The subject is respectfully submitted for your consideration. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. H. RICHARDSON, 
Adjutant- General. 
[First indorsement.] 
, DECEMBER 19, 1862. 

This communication to me from Adjutant-General Richardson is 
respectfully referred to Honorable Secretary of War, as it contains © 
some valuable suggestions that may be of service in arranging for 
city defense. 


JOHN LETCHER. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. _ 241 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Adjutant-General COOPER: 


The object recommended is approved. How may it best be accom- 
plished ? 
JP 9A2 8.5 
Secretary. 
[Third indorsement. ] 


JANUARY 4, 1863. 


Referred to the several chiefs of military bureaus for their views, 
to be returned to this office: Quartermaster-General, Commissary- 
General, Chief Engineer, Chief of Ordnance, Surgeon-General. 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[Fourth indorsement. ] 


DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS, 
Richmond, Va., January 6, 1863. 


It is impracticable to carry out the within suggestions as proposed. 
The men in the foundries, workshops, and bureaus have not the time 
to appropriate to drills and military exercises without neglecting their 
proper duties or imposing too much physical and mental taxation. 
The Chief of Ordnance has a reserve of arms kept for this special 
purpose, which, when the time comes, can be placed in the hands of 
the men. 

Very respectfully, 
ARNOLD ELZEY, — 
Major-General. 


CIRCULAR.| ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, December 15, 1562. 


In all applications for details or assignments from the chiefs of 
military bureaus the application will give the present assignment of 
the officer concerned and his location. It will then, upon being 
received at the office of the Adjutant and Inspector General, be 
referred to the general commanding the army or department in which 
the staff officer is serving, for his report on the case, before the detail 
or assignment can be announced in orders. 

 §. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 294. Richmond, December 16, 1862. 
*% * * * * * % 


II. Brig. Gen. Gabriel J. Rains is hereby assigned to duty as general 
superintendent of the conscription service for the Provisional Army 
of the Confederate States. He will forthwith proceed to Richmond 
and enter upon the duties of his office. 

* * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 


* * * 


JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-Greneral. 


16 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


242 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 16, 1862. 


His Excellency JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
: Governor of Alabama: 


Your letter of the 27th ultimo to Admiral Buchanan, inclosing the 
application of sixty-two of the men of the Jeff Davis Legion to you, 
to solicit your aid and influence in obtaining a transfer of their com- 
pany to the gun-boats now being built for the protection of the cities 
- of Mobile, Selma, and Montgomery, has been sent to this Department 
through the Navy Department. The Army of Northern Virginia is 
at this time in front of the most powerful army of our enemy. It 
cannot be re-enforced, while that of the enemy can draw support from 
the recruits that the United States are constantly making. The army 
of the enemy is superior to ours in equipment, numbers, and supplies. 
It is, therefore, obvious that applications for details or removals can- 
not be granted. There is much homesickness in the Army, and the 
Department is pressed by every influence and in every form to grant 
discharges or to allow removals. Mothers, sisters, wives, and daugh- 
ters are pleading for the return of those who they last year cheered 
and stimulated to go to the battle-field. The Department hopes that 
the Chief Magistrates of the States will discourage the display of the 
uneasy and restless spirit that exists on this subject, and maintain to 
the highest elevation the patriotism of the country. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


COLLECTOR’S OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI 
’ 2 ’ 
Tangipahoa, La., December 16, 1862. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram 
of the 11th instant, in the following words, viz: 
Your request for leave to obtain salt on same terms precisely as Governor of 


Mississippi is granted, but with the earnest injunction that only salt absolutely 
necessary for the people of Louisiana within your district be so obtained. 


However questionable the policy inaugurated by the Governor of 
Mississippi may be, I found, in view of the extreme want of salt in 
this portion of Louisiana, and the repeated demand for the same 
privilege for this people as that granted to Mississippi, and the fact 
that the transit of both cotton and salt for Mississippi had to be made 
through the territory of Louisiana, that this grant might be necessary 
to secure the public tranquillity. In the absence of the Governor or 
any representative of the Chief Executive of this State I deemed it to 
be my duty for these considerations to make the request which you 
have deemed proper to grant. I beg to assure you that I fully 
appreciate the importance of the injunction contained in your dis- 
patch, and shall only exercise the discretion placed in my hands to 
the best of my ability to promote the public interests. 

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
F. H. HATCH, 
Collector. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 243 


GENERAL nce ma ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 107. Richmond, December 17, 1862. 

I. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 72, currént series, is modified 

as follows: | 

- Medical officers, referred to in said order, will not hereafter issue 
certificates for furloughs, except when the health of the soldier requires 
his removal, or a change of climate; and in all such cases this fact 
must be distinctly stated in the surgeon’s certificate. 

If. Whenever, in the opinion of the commanding officer of a military 
department, the object of the first [fourth] paragraph of General 
Orders, No. 72, has been for the time being accomplished, by suffi- 
ciently reducing the number in hospital, he may suspend the sessions 
of the medical boards until the condition of the sick and wounded 
renders it expedient to reassemble said boards. 

U1. Officers charged with the duty of enrolling conscripts are 
hereby instructed that the resignation of officers does not of itself 
exempt the party resigning from the provisions of the conscript law. 
All such persons’ are subject to enrollment and examination, in 
common with other parties of conscript age. 

IV. Lieut. Col. Smith Stansbury is hereby detailed for the same 
duty as that assigned in paragraph III, General Orders, No. 80, current 
series, to Lieut. Col.W. Le Roy Brown, and he will proceed immediately 
to Charleston, S$. C., and to Mobile, Ala., for the purpose of examining 
candidates for appointments as artillery officers for ordnance. duty, 
under the act of Congress approved September 16, 1862. 

The generals commanding at those points will, on his application, 
associate with him any two artillery officers performing ordnance 
duties he may select, who, together with himself, will constitute an 
examining board. 

Due notice will be given through the local papers of the time at 
which examinations will be held. 

Applications for permission to be examined will be made, as per 
General Orders, No. 80, to the general commanding. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 17, 1862. 
His Excellency J. G. SHORTER, | 
Governor of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala.: 


Str: I have received your telegram, and regret to hear that the 
Legislature of Alabama has adjourned. The arrangements contem- 
plated by the Department for the manufacture of salt in your State 
are deemed of the first importance, and the only thing now needed to 
complete them is the assurance of a sufficient quantity of land to 
carry on the necessary operations of the manufacture. Twenty acres 
of saline land are ample to afford a supply of salt water, but a larger 
quantity is needed for the purpose of evaporation, &e. Under the 
circumstances and in consideration of the emergency, could not Your 
Excellency permit the Confederate Government to use the adjacent 
property which I am informed belongs to the State to the extent of 
100 acres? 

With sentiments of high respect and esteem, your obedient servant, 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


244 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 17, 1862. 
Hon. HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON, 
Bartow, Jefferson County, Ga.: 


Str: Your letter of the 10th instant has been received. Your 
inquiry is whether you have a right to have an overseer between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five, under the circumstances in which 
you are placed as a Senator obliged to be absent for a portion of the 
year. ‘The key to the construction of the conscription and exemption 
acts is contained in the first sentences of the former. This sentence 
is Similar in each, and I quote from the last act: 

That the President be and he is authorized to call out and place in the military 
service of the Confederate States for three years * * * all whitemen * * * 
residents * * * (between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, act of April) 
* * * (between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, act of October) at the 


time the call or calls may be made, and who are not at such timeor times legally 
exempted from military service. 


The exempts are determined by the exemption bills. Your planta- 
tion at the date of the calls had an owner resident upon it, and was 
not in the charge of an overseer exclusively. Your overseer, if you 
had one, was not then exemptassuch. He was liable to conscription, 
and you could not by an ex post facto act relieve him. The Presi- 
dent has not made a call for persons between forty and forty-five. 
You can employ such a person, and if he has the charge of your 
plantation at the time of a subsequent call and there is no adult 
upon it he would probably be exempt from that call. 

For Secretary of War. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ftachmond, Va., December 18, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES M. MASon, 
Minster, &c., at the Court of Saint James: 


Str: This will be transmitted to you by Capt. William G. Crenshaw, 
of Richmond, Va., who has been for some time past serving with distine- 
tion as the captain of a battery raised by himself in our Confederate 
Army. He has been one of the most intelligent, extensive, and 
successful merchants of our city; having besides other important 
enterprises almost inaugurated and established the coffee trade 
between Virginia and Brazil; and such confidence has been felt in 
his commercial knowledge and enterprise that it has been thought 
advisable, first by the Navy Department, and now by this, that he 
should go to England to attend to important interests of the former 
Department, and to initiate and carry out, if, on fuller inquiry and . 
ascertainment of the chances of success, he should deem it judicious, 
operations for running the blockade of our ports, and supplying this 
Department on a considerable scale with the munitions, army supplies, 
and drugs, so essential to maintain the efficiency of our forces. The 
scheme of these operations in its details will be explained to you best 
by Mr. Crenshaw in person. 

Its general features are that steamers or vessels, as he may conclude 
best adapted for the purpose, should be built or purchased by him in 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 245 


England. That he shall associate with him in the enterprise some 
leading English house of large means, in conjunction with whom he 
shall take one-fourth interest in the vessels and in their cargoes, and 
shall purchase and sell on commission the goods to be sent to this 
country, and the cotton to be sent forward in return. Thus a part- 
nership or joint interest will exist between this Department on the 
one side and himself, in conjunction with the English firm on the 
other, and this partnership is to extend likewise to the commission on 
the one side for the purchase of goods in England, and on the other 
(this Department) for the purchase of cotton here. The commission 
for the sale of cotton will be to him and his English coadjutors alone, 
and shall not exceed 24 per cent., with such guaranty in case of sales 
on credit as the usage of the trade allows. His fourth of the goods 
reaching this Confederacy, at the option of this Department, to be taken 
by it at moderate valuation according to the market rates here, and 
if not taken to be sold by his own selected agent. It is understood 
that this enterprise is to be undertaken on a calculation of general 
chances, and notwithstanding one or more losses at first is to be per- 
severed in toa full trial. This is deemed essential to justify the 
private venture and is déemed judicious for the Government. It is 
likewise understood that it is so to be arranged, either by the English 
house taking its pecuniary advance solely in the value of the ship or: 
by advances upon it, that the ships may be owned, cleared, and sailed 
as British property and be under the English flag. In the purchase 
or building of the ships to start, and until advances are repaid by the 
cotton imported, large sums will have to be advanced on behalf of this 
Department out of such means as the Government can command 
abroad, and I must rely on and invoke your authority and aid to 
facilitate to Mr. Crenshaw the command of adequate resources. In 
such a transaction as the Department thus engages in it reposes large 
confidence in Mr. Crenshaw’s character, capacity, and judgment, and 
must likewise ask at your hands much similar trust in his integrity, 
discretion, and tact. In neither case, I feel assured, will it be abused, 
as he will be actuated in the whole business, I am confident, more by 
patriotism and a desire to serve our great cause than by a spirit of 
gain. I should add that on engaging in this enterprise he will feel 
bound, though with reluctance, to resign his commission as an officer 
in the Confederate service, since he would consider private interest 
in such a venture inconsistent with the relation of an officer, and 
besides he would have to remain long abroad. 

I have omitted to state one other particular of the understanding 
with Mr. Crenshaw, which is that the goods running the blockade to- 
the extent of the fourth interest held by him and his English asso- 
ciates shall be admitted free of duties, but on his share of the cotton 
taken out he will be liable to the specific duty of one-half per cent. pre- 
seribed by Congress as a pledge for one of the loans of the Govern- 
ment. This feature of exemption from duty on the goods running 
the blockade, it is thought, may prove of decided advantage in 
winning English coadjutors. 

In conclusion I cannot refrain from expressing personally my cor- 
dial good wishes for your health and success in your responsible sta- 
tion and giving renewed assurance of the high consideration and 
esteem with which 

lam, most truly, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


246 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 297. Richmond, December 19, 1862. 
** *% * * * * : * 


XIII. Enrolling officers in the Department of East Tennessee will 
report through the commandant of conscripts to the general command- 
ing the department, who is hereby authorized to give such instrue- 
tions not inconsistent with acts of Congress and to render such aid 
as may be necessary for the enforcement of the conscript laws. 

XIV. Enrolling officers in the department commanded by Maj. Gen. 
John H. Forney will report through the commandant of conseripts to 
the general commanding the department, who is hereby authorized 
to give such instructions not inconsistent with acts of Congress and to . 
render such aid as may be necessary for the enforcement of the con-— 
script laws. | 

* * * * * * + = 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA, 
Raleigh, December 19, 1862. 


His Excellency President DAVIS: 


DEAR SiR: I beg leave to call your attention to the inclosed memo- 
rial from representatives of the people of the Tenth Congressional Dis- 
trict of this State. I know all the facts set forth to be true, being 
intimately acquainted with the district, and have no hesitation in say- 
ing that if any section of the Confederacy is deserving of the exercise _ 
of the discretion vested in you by the exemption act in its favor it is 
that mountain region of North Carolina. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[First indorsement. ] 


Respectfully referred to Secretary of War. 
WM. M. BROWNE, 
Colonel and Arde-de-Camp. - 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Respectfully referred to the President. | 
J. anew 
Secretary. 


[Third indorsement. ] 


There is much force in the within appeal, and if the point of maxi- 
mum in the old regiments is touched so as to present the case of a 
reserve, if seems proper and politic to grant relief by enrolling and 
leaving at home for the present the men of this district as a reserve, 
subject to future call. Inquire and confer. 

J. D. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 2AT 


{[Inclosure. ] 


RALEIGH, N. C., December 11, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States of America: 


DEAR SiR: The undersigned, senators and representatives from the 
Tenth Congressional District of North Carolina, now attending the 
General Assembly, desire to call your attention to the following state- 
ment of facts: 

The people living in the counties composing the Tenth Congres- 
sional District own comparatively but few slaves, and have, therefore, 
to rely mainly upon white labor for the cultivation of their lands and 
their supplies of provisions. In nearly all the counties we represent 
the number of volunteers and conscripts furnished to the Confederate 
Army is almost equal to our entire voting population. This district 
is composed of fifteen counties. These counties do not [contain] as 
many slaves, all told, as some single counties in the middle and east- 
ern divisions of the State. It is manifest, then, that the levies made 
by the conscript law upon our section have well-nigh stripped us of 
our laboring population. We further state that with aid of the con- 
seripts during the last summer we haye been unable to produce 
sufficient supplies for the present winter and coming spring. We 
hope, however, by the strictest economy and the abandonment of a 
portion of our live stock to prevent actual starvation. It must be 
borne in mind, nevertheless, that great privation and suffering are 
inevitable. We could cite hundreds of instances where three or four 
families of women, numbering from ten to fifteen children, have been 
thrown together into one house, not having so much as a boy large 
enough to go to mill. These noble women are now aided by the few 
scattering men whoremain at home. But if the remaining conscripts, 
from thirty-five to forty or forty-five, are enrolled and ordered into 
camp, it can result in nothing short of actual starvation among some 
of these helpless women and children. Moreover, it will be impossi- 
ble for the few old men and boys remaining at home to-cultivate one- 
half the amount of land that was cultivated last summer in that 
section, and hence the danger of a general famine through that entire 
district. This section of the State which we represent is very moun- 
tainous and remote from railroad facilities, and cannot, therefore, 
procure provisions from abroad. 

We are free, though the task is an unpleasant one, to state another 
fact. Most of the cases of desertion among the soldiers from that 
section have been produced by the sufferings of their families and 
parents at home. We challenge the Confederacy to produce a more 
loyal and brave people than ours, and instance as an example the 
glorious Sixteenth North Carolina Regiment. Yet with all their loy- 
alty, if the law be enforced and the remaining conscripts be taken, it 
will produce the deepest discontent and dissatisfaction among the 
soldiers already in the field from that section. We had reason to 
a that you would have exempted that section from any further 
eall. 

In view of the foregoing facts we respectfully ask that you will 
suspend the enforcement of the conscript law in the Tenth Congres- 
sional District of North Carolina. We now appeal with confidence 
to you in behalf of these helpless women and children, believing that 
you cannot consent to see any one section of our beloved Confederacy 
reduced to actual starvation while some of our sister States are behind 
us in furnishing men for the field. So far we have done our duty and 


248 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


leave results to you; and for our official position we refer you to Goy- 
ernor Vance and to our Representative in Congress, A. T. Davidson, 
and hope that the facts set forth may receive at your hands due con- 
sideration. 
We are, sir, yours, respectfully, 

C. D. SMITH, Senator; 

W. M. SHIPP, Senator; 

M. O. DICKERSON, Senator; 

S. J. NEAL, Senator, 

[AND TWELVE REPRESENTATIVES. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 109. Richmond, December 20, 1862. 


I. The following appointments under the act of October 9, 1862, 
providing for the appointment of military courts to attend the Army, 
have been made by the President, and are announced for the infor- 
mation of all concerned: 

1. Ineut. Gen. James Longstreet’s corps.—Charles L. Scott, Ala- 
bama, presiding judge; Albert P. Hill, Mississippi; L. W. Spratt, 
South Carolina; Charles M. Blackford, Virginia, judge-advocate. 

2. Lneut. Gen. T. J. Jackson’s corps.—Richard H. Lee, Virginia, 
presiding judge; James Jackson, Georgia; David M. Carter, North 
Carolina; Daniel A. Wilson, Louisiana, judge-advocate. 

3. General G. T. Beauregard’s corps.—D. F. Jamison, South Caro- 
lina, presiding judge; L. M. Lamar, Georgia; Capt. W. C. Bird (First 
Florida Volunteers), Florida; A. H. Boykin, South Carolina, judge- 
advocate. 

4, Ineut. Gen. Leonidas Polk’s corps.—Andrew Ewing, Tennessee, 
presiding judge; Edward 8S. Worthington, Kentucky; J. A. P. Camp- 
bell, Mississippi; Thomas W. Brown, Tennessee, judge-advocate. 

5. Ineut. Gen. H. K. Smith’s corps.—Thomas Ruffin, North Caro- 
lina, presiding judge; James Neil, Tennessee; Charles B. Thomas, 
Kentucky; Shelby Williams, Tennessee, judge-advocate. 

6. Lneut. Gen. T. H. Holmes’ corps.—Trusten Polk, Missouri, pre- 
siding judge; George C. Watkins, Arkansas; Maj. W. P. Townsend 
(Fourth Texas Volunteers), Texas; Lionel L. Levy, Louisiana, judge- 
advocate. 

7. May. Gen. John H. Forney’s corps.—Thomas J. Judge, Ala- 
bama, presiding judge; 8. W. Fisk, Louisiana; Samuel J. Douglass, 
Florida; J. Little Smith, judge-advocate. 

8. Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones’ corps.—Col. P. T. Moore, Virginia, 
presiding judge; W. H. Norris, Maryland; Col. A. T. M. Rust, Vir- 
ginia; Septimus T. Wall, Kentucky, judge-advocate. 

9. Maj. Gen. G. W. Smith’s corps.—William B. Rodman, North 
Carolina, presiding judge; John M. Patton, Virginia; Bradley T. 
Johnson, Maryland; W. P. Johnston, Georgia, judge-advocate. 

II. The above-named members of the courts referred to will report 
without delay to the commanding officers of the respective army 
corps to which they have been assigned, to whom the letters of 
appointment will be forwarded, except in those cases where they have 
been delivered to the parties, or may be called for at this office at an 
early day. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


/ re CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 249 


SPECIAL wert _ ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 298. Richmond, December 20, 1862. 
% * * * * * *K 


XIII. Authority is hereby granted A. A. Stewart to raise a com- 
pany of men over the conscript age (forty-five years) for service in 
the State of Florida, and not to be attached to any regiment or bat- 
talion. 

* * * *" * * * 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., December 20, 1862. 


GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


For the consideration of matters of vital interest to the safety of 
the State you have been called into extra session. © The magnitude of 
the preparations and the vast armies sent by our enemies for our 
subjugation require corresponding efforts on our part to render our 
defense successful. To effect this end I recommend that the entire 
white male population of the State from sixteen to sixty years of age 
be enrolled in the militia, and that such as are deemed able to go 
into active service be called at once to the defense of the State. This 
class who are able for active service in the field will probably consti- 
tute one-half of the entire population subject to military duty. The 
other half could be organized as a reserve to be armed and drilled for 
local defense against raids of small foraging parties of the enemy. 
One-fourth of this reserved class could act as armed patrols in their 
respective counties, and thus give a feeling of security to the people 
in every county in the State. As it isa matter of necessity to the 
safety of the State and the successful prosecution of the war to fill up 
our regiments now in the field and to return to the Army the hundreds 
who are absent without leave, or on expired furloughs, or have recov- 
ered from disability and are now able to return to duty, I suggest the 
importance of requiring the sheriffs, magistrates, and constables to 
aid the military authorities of the State and of the Confederate 
States to enroll, and if necessary to arrest, conscripts and send them 
to the proper camps, and to arrest and send to their commands all 
who owe service to the country and either neglect or refuse to per- 
form it. The prompt and faithful performance of this duty should 
be enforced by heavy penalties, extending to even the dismissal from 
office for willfully failing or refusing to give the required aid in 
arresting and sending back to duty those who seek to avoid it. I 
recommend that the Legislature pass an act disfranchising every cit- 
izen who shall be convicted of evading or refusing to perform the 
military duties required of him by law, either by leaving the State, 
or hiding out from home, or otherwise. Such are not fit to associate 
on terms of equality with the loyal and brave who return with hon- 
orable scars from the battle for independence. Slave labor has been 
employed by State and Confederate authorities on works deemed 
necessary for the public safety. The liberal and patriotic have 
cheerfully responded to the calls for slaves for this purpose, while 
some have refused to contribute anything, or even to send their 
slaves on assurance of full and ample compensation. I ask that 


250 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


authority be given the Executive—under such restrictions as may be 
deemed wise—to call out for the State or Confederate authorities 
such number of slaves as may be necessary for such works in the 
future; and that the burden may be equally borne by all I suggest 
that the slaves be enrolled. 

While asking for more stringent legislation to compel the citizen to 
do his duty to the State and country, I will respectfully remind the 
Legislature that one class of our citizens has claims upon the State as 
imperative and as sacred as any claim the State can have upon the 
soldier in this perilous hour. I allude to the families and dependents 
of our soldiers now or soon to be in the field. Deprived of the means 
of support by calling the husband and father to the Army, they may 
justly claim protection and supply of the necessaries of life from the 
State which now requires the services of their natural protectors. 
The provision heretofore made by the Legislature is found to be 
wholly inadequate. Owing to our drouth of the past season, which 
extended over a large portion of the State, and the necessity of eall- 
ing more men into the field, the number of destitute families will be 
greatly increased and thereby add largely to the wants of our people, 
who are even now in some districts suffering for bread. Such a con- 
dition of affairs ought not to be allowed to exist while there is means 
within the State to prevent it. I therefore recommend that the most 
liberal provisions be made by the Legislature in behalf of the families 
of our soldiers now in the field, and the widows and orphans of such 
as have fallen in defense of their country; and I further recommend 
in this connection that discretionary power be given to the boards of 
police in each county to extend any legislative provision that may be 
made by county taxes if such legislative provision should again be 
found inadequate to supply the necessaries of life to the sufferers of 
their respective counties. The most pressing want of our people at 
the present time is a supply of salt. During the last summer I sent 
agents to Virginia, Alabama, and Louisiana in order to secure, if 
possible, a supply of salt for the people of the State, either by pur- 
chase or by mining. Their missions have, however, from various 
causes proven entirely unsuccessful, except the agent to Louisiana, 
who succeeded in purchasing a small quantity of salt in New Iberia, in 
Louisiana. About 40,000 pounds of salt are now at Vicksburg, which 
I propose to distribute to the destitute families of soldiers. Some 
other contracts have been recently made for a large supply of salt, 
and.if I should be successful in these I hope to be able to supply the 
State. These contracts I will be pleased to submit to any committee 
that the Legislature may appoint for that purpose. If these efforts 
should prove a failure, I know of no other source of supply but by 
mining on State account at New Iberia, La., where the deposit, so 
far as is known, is unlimited. In that event I ask that authority be 
given to use the slave labor of the State and the wagons and teams 
necessary for the mining and hauling the salt to Atchafalaya, the 
nearest point to steam-boat navigation. While my efforts have pro- 
cured but a very small amount of salt on State account, I have given 
all the information and assistance in my power to private enterprise, 
and it affords me much satisfaction to say that in consequence of such 
information and assistance many individuals have succeeded in sup- 
plying themselves and neighbors with salt. I have been unable to 
obtain transportation sufficient to convey the salt obtained to the 
interior of the State. I therefore request that the Legislature will 
take some action in the premises so as to secure speedy transportation 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. : 251 


for the salt that may be obtained in the future; and as the item of 
bread is of vital importance to a large portion of the State, it would 
be well for the Legislature to include transportation for corn and 
wheat in any provision made for the transportation of salt. The 
exorbitant prices asked for every article of food, by those who are 
engaged in buying and selling for profit and many who produce them, 
is putting the means of living beyond the reach of many of our poor 
citizens; if permitted to go unchecked, will transfer the property of 
the country to the hands of the worst and least patriotic of our popu- 
lation. I ask that a law be passed prohibiting the buying and selling 
of grain for profit and its distillation into spirits, and that some rea- 
sonable price be fixed beyond which the extortioner cannot go with- 
out incurring a heavy penalty. | | 

The military bill passed at the last session of the Legislature made 
no provision for the appointment of the staff of the major-general of 
the State militia. I recommend that authority be given to the major- 
general to appoint his staff, as the duties of his office cannot be per- 
formed without such aid. 

Treasury notes-to the full amount authorized by the Legislature at 
its last session have been advaneed on cotton. This act for the relief 
of the people and for supplying a sound circulating medium for the 
State has accomplished all that its most sanguine friends expected, 
and of the $2,500,000 appropriated by the Legislature for military 
purposes but $381,534 have been expended, leaving in the treasury a 
balance of $2,118,466. No further appropriation in this behalf is 
required. 

For the information of the Legislature as to the condition of the 
State troops, I respectfully refer you to the report of Maj. Gen. T. C. 
Tupper, herewith transmitted.* The minute men now in the field 
have done good service, and they cannot be too highly commended. 
Their presence and efficiency have done much to restrain the inroads 
of the invading foe. 

The State armory at Brandon is doing all that could be expected, 
with the limited means in our possession, in the construction and 
repairing of arms. For full information upon this subject I refer 
you to the report of the chief of ordnance, herewith transmitted.* 

You will see by the report of the adjutant-general of the State 
that we now have forty-six regiments of infantry in the Confed- 
erate service, besides the cavalry and artillery and the unattached 
battalions and companies of the several arms which were organized 
by and reported to the Confederate authorities at Richmond, leaving 
no record of their existence or strength in the office of the adjutant- 
general in this State. Since your last session Mississippi has become 
the theater of war. After the fall of New Orleans and Memphis 
three sides of the State were exposed to the Northern plunderer. 
Until recently our people have suffered, compared with the four | 
States adjoining, but little loss of property, for the enemy have been 
required to pay in blood for the plunder they gathered on our soil. 
Their efforts were mainly directed to clearing the Mississippi River 
of the only remaining obstruction to its free navigation. Some forti- 
fications hastily constructed at Vicksburg were at the beginning of 
the contest scarcely deemed worthy of their notice, but after months 
past spent in bombarding, and at times the most furious that has ever 
occurred upon this continent, the united efforts of both the upper 


* Not found. 


252 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and lower fleets could not secure the safe passage of one boat. Bat- 
tered and bootless they retired in acknowledged defeat. The spell 
which attended the name of gun-boats was broken at Vicksburg. 
While this brilliant success to our arms, occurring on her soil, adds 
renown to the State, Mississippi can only claim a share of the glory of 
the achievement. Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Missouri had gallant representatives there to share the danger of the 
conflict and the honors of the triumph. Nor should I forget the 
brilliant part played in this defense by the Confederate steamer 
Arkansas and her heroic officers and crew. Though baffled last sum- 
mer, the enemy have worked with all the energy which wounded pride 
and bitter hate could give them, and are now returning to the siege 
with larger fleets and much larger land forces. We have not been 
idle spectators of their preparations, and the history of Southern tri- 
umph at the Hill City I hope is not yet finished. Thanks to the 
energy of our mechanics and the skill of our engineers, the foremost 
of their gun-boat fleet lies a shattered wreck at the bottom of the 
Yazoo River. The torpedo has at last done its work. I hail this 
success as a happy omen of our triumph over our enemies in the 
approaching struggle—that triumph must be sought by patient endur- 
ance and hard fighting. From all the accounts of the devastations 
committed wherever their troops have marched over our soil it is 
manifest that we have nothing to lose by fighting. Mississippi is now 
called on to put forth all her strength to repel the invasion of her 
enemies, who have discarded both the principles and practice of civil- 
ized warfare. The struggle is now for her existence as a State. Her 
sons have won for her an enviable renown by gallantry unsurpassed 
on many fields and attracted to her the bitterest hatred of the com- 
mon enemy of the Confederacy. 

I appeal to the Legislature for such legislation as in their wisdom 
they may deem necessary to enable the State to maintain the proud 
position among her sister States won for her by the blood of her heroic 
sons. Let us convince the world by our actions that all the patriotism 
and courage did not go out of the State with the regiments that have 
heretofore gone to meet the enemy on more distant fields. If Missis- 
Sippi is true to her former history, I have an abiding confidence that 
after a few months more of suffering and trials the God who loves jus- 
tice and rewards devotion will bless our land with independence and 
peace. 

JOHN J. PETTUS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 110. fichmond, December 22, 1862. 


I. The attention of the Army is called to General Orders, No. 52, 
from this office, requiring commanding officers to report the facts and 
circumstances of ‘‘extraordinary valor and skill” displayed by offi- 
cers and soldiers which may entitle them to recommendation to the 
President for promotion to vacancies in their companies, as provided 
by the act of April 21, 1862; and due observance of said order is 
enjoined on all concerned. 

II. The Fifty-second Article of War directs that ‘‘any officer or sol- 
dier who shall misbehave himself before the enemy, run away, or 
shamefully abandon any fort, post, or guard which he or they may be 
commanded to defend, or speak words inducing others to do the like, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 253 


or shall cast away his arms and ammunition, or who shall quit his post 
or colors to plunder and pillage—every such offender, being duly con- 
victed thereof, shall suffer death or such other punishment as shall 
be ordered by the sentence of a general court-martial.” 

The enforcement of the foregoing article is enjoined on all officers 
and non-commissioned officers of the Army; and, in order the better 
to carry its provisions into effect, it is hereby made the duty of all 
company commanders to see that the company roll is regularly called 
before and after each battle, and to arrest and, whenever proper, 
report for trial by court-martial all absentees who are without the 
requisite excuse. 

The number of the Confederate Army who bring disgrace upon it 
by a violation of the article above quoted is happily small, and it is 
therefore the more incumbent that their disreputable conduct should 
be exposed and punished, and the fair name of the large number who 
respect its honor and character be thus publicly vindicated. 

By order: 

: S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 299. AE December 22, 1862. 
* * * * * *k 


X. Authority is hereby granted Capt. Frank EK. Burke, Seventh 
Confederate Regiment Cavalry, to raise a battalion of cavalry in the 
States of Georgia and Alabama of men not subject to conscription 
under the call of the President and the existing law. 

* * * * * “5 5 


By command of the Secretary of War:. 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


An egngal to the people of eleinorn 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., December 22, 1862. 

In view of the anticipated effect of the eoneenng law upon the militia 
system of the State, on the 12th day of May last I invited the able- 
bodied men of Alabama, not subject to conscription, to form volun- 
teer companies. That invitation did not receive the attention it 
merited. The Legislature has adopted no law for the improvement 
of the militia organization of the State. The impaired conditio of 
thatsystem leaves no means of making the remaining military strer th 
of the State available for its protection and defense, except by ie 
formation of volunteer companies. The State is now threatened: m 
severaldirections. Ourunscrupulous foe has collected all his resources 
for one stupendous effort to subjugate and enslave us. He can never 
repeat the effort. He makes it the crisis of his cause. If foiled in 
this last desperate struggle, exhausted and dispirited he must yield 
the contest. Our brave peoplé may congratulate themselves upon the 
opportunity to hasten the achievement of peace and independence by 


254 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETO, 


an exhibition of the fortitude and courage necessary to defeat the 
enemy in this last great and convulsive effort. The ultimate triumph 
of our glorious cause is now clearer than it has ever been. There is 
no reason for despondency. Our people will not shrink in this their 
final trial. The splendid yictory at Fredericksburg will be followed 
by still more decisive results upon other fields. By repeated shocks 
the enemy’s vastly accumulated power will be broken. At no distant 
day we shall enjoy, in the blessings of peace and good government, a 
reward for all our suffering. Alabama must be true to herself and do 
her duty in the emergency. She must be ready to meet and quell the 
domestic and social disturbances which may spring up as the tide of 
war approaches; to resist hostile raids; to protect her people and 
their property in any assailed quarter; to give death to every wan- 
derer from the lines of our invading army, and if need be to increase 
the strength of the Confederate forces fighting upon our soil in its 
defense. for the accomplishment of these objects she looks and can 
only look to the voluntary movement of a patriotic people—too brave 
to suffer their cities and towns to be sacked; their homes to be dese- _ 
crated, and their country to be desolated, without striking a manly 
blow in their defense. I therefore call again upon the men and 
youths of the State, exempted from the service of the Confederate 
States by reason of their age or other cause, who are capable of bear- 
ing arms, to speedily organize themselves into companies to consti- 
tute a reserve force, subject to service in this State upon the eall of 
the Executive. They will be called into service only when necessity 
requires it. Their services may never be needed, but it is the part of 
wisdom and manly courage to be ready. It is the part of folly and 
cowardice to wait until the enemy’s foot is upon our soil and his 
muskets gleam in the hands of brutal soldiers at our doors. Shall I 
call in vain upon Alabamians to prepare to stand and fight upon their 
own soil in its defense? Alabama has given freely of her sons to our 
country’s cause, but her warlike strength is not yet exhausted. I 
send to her people my warning, and I leave it for them to decide 
whether, in the hour of trial which may be before us, they will be 
ready with as much of the remaining military strength of the State as 
may be required. 

People of Alabama! I must appeal to you for your aid to the Goy- 
ernment in another matter. It is due to the great cause in which we 
are engaged; it is just to those now bravely enduring the trials and 
perils of actual war that all within the ages prescribed by the act of 
Congress, known as the conscript law, should be in the service. A 
considerable number of persons in every part of the State, both 
officers and privates, who belong to the Army and are fit for duty, are 
lingering at home upon various pretexts, while their more manly and 
patriotic comrades, with ranks thinned and weakened by their 
absence, bear the shock of an unequal contest. So, too, a large num- 
ber of persons subject to conscription are shrinking from the toils 
and perils which those of like age are bravely enduring, and hiding 
from the enrclling officer, to whom patriotism requires that they 
should promptly report themselves. Now, when the last great strug- 
gle of the war is upon us; now, when there is an opportunity to share 
in the closing triumphs of this great contest; now, when our soldiers 
in the field, standing with fearless resolution amid sufferings and 
dangers which would appall men less noble and brave, call upon 
those of like age with themselves for aid and relief; now, when every 
strong right arm is needed to strike the quick and effective blows 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES, 255 


which are to give us peace, it is a shame and an iniquity that those 
two classes of persons should successfully evade the service they owe 
to their country. Every community owes it to its own reputation and 
to the country to give no shelter to those who belong to the two classes 
above described, and to drive them by the withering punishment of 
public scorn to their proper places. I-call upon all the officers, civil 
and military, of the State, and upon all good and patriotic citizens, tio 
give all their influence, personal or official, to constrain those persons 
into the path of duty and patriotism; and I especially invoke them 
to give their aid to the proper officers in arresting and coercing those 
who yield to no gentler means. It may be a disagreeable task, but 
the evil is great and ruinous to our country’s cause, and it is the part 
of the patriot now to shrink from no task, however disagreeable or 
dangerous it may be, when the country calls. It is the pride of Ala- 
_bama that her soldiers never falter upon the battle-field. Let us hope 
that none will be permitted to hide under cover of home from their 
appropriate duty. I subjoin directions to guide in the formation of 
companies under this proclamation: 

1. Each company must consist of not less than forty privates, four 
corporals, four sergeants, two lieutenants, and a captain. When the 
number of privates in a company exceeds sixty it shall be entitled to 
another lieutenant. The captain and lieutenants will be elected by 
the company, and the non-commissioned officers will be appointed by 
the captain. 

2. As soon as the requisite number of men have been enrolled, and 
the company officers have been appointed, the captain will make out 
the muster-roll, showing the name, age, and rank of every member of 
the company, accompanied by the certificate of the commanding offi- 
cer to the correctness of the roll. These muster-rolls will be at once 
forwarded to General H. P. Watson, adjutant-general of Alabama 
Militia, when the company will be at once accepted into the service of 
the State. 

3. The companies thus formed will be subject to the order of the 

Governor, but will not be called into actual service except in cases of 
urgent necessity, and then they will be employed only for purposes 
of local and State defense. 
4, Each company will provide its own arms as far as possible, and 
the deficiency will be supplied by the State when the company is called 
into actual service. Captains of companies will be authorized to pur- 
chase all the powder and lead which can be procured in their respect- 
ive neighborhoods, and upon properly certified vouchers the State 
will pay for the same, which will be retained for company use, to be 
accounted for by company commanders. It is earnestly hoped that 
every man in the State who has in his possession either arms or muni- 
tions, which he is not able to use in the public service, will place 
them at the disposal of his neighbors who attach themselves to this 
organization. 

5. It is not intended that this organization shall interfere with the 
business pursuits of the people, as the companies will only be called 
into service in cases of actual necessity; but for the purpose of acquir- 
ing some proficiency in drill, I request that in all our cities and large 
towns the business hours may be closed at 8 p. m., that the balance of 
the day may be devoted to drilling, and that companies organized in 
the country will drill as often as practicable, not to interfere too seri- 
ously with their industrial pursuits. Even should this arrangement 
occasion some inconvenience, the public safety requires it and no 
good citizen will hesitate to adopt it. 


256 CORRESPONDENCF, ETC. 


6. All companies reported under this proclamation will be enrolled 
as part of the State guard. When called into service they will be 
paid and subsisted by the State as other troops. Should it be thought 
necessary, the companies will be united into battalions and regi- 
ments, and.in that event the field officers will be appointed by the 
Governor. 

7. All companies desiring to do so may, by complying with its pro- 
visions, be regarded as an organization under the act of Congress of 
13th October, 1862, a copy of which is appended to this proclamation.* 
Companies desiring to be so organized should report to me. 

In testimony whereof I, John Gill Shorter, Governor of the State of 
Alabama, have hereunto set my hand and caused the great seal of the 
State to be affixed this the 22d day of December, A. D. 1862, and of 
the Confederate States the second year. 

[SEAL. | JOHN GILL SHORTER, 

Governor of Alabama. 

By the Governor: 

P. H. BRITTAN, 
Secretary of State. 


- EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, F'la., December 22, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America, Richmond, Va.: 


SIR: By direction of His Excellency Governor Milton I have the 
honor to inclose to you a copy of a preamble and resolution adopted 
by the General Assembly of the State of Florida at its late session 
requesting Your Excellency ‘‘to allow persons in this State liable to 
conscription until the 15th March, 1863, to volunteer in the Confed- 
erate service for the defense of the State,” and most respectfully to 
ask your favorable consideration of the same. 

Very respectfully, 
SAMUEL BENEZET, 
Prwate Secretary to the Governor. 


[Inclosure. ] 


RESOLUTION requesting the President to allow persons in this State liable to 
conscription until 15th March, 1863, to volunteer in the Confederate service for 
the defense of the State. 


Whereas, the citizens of the State of Florida capable of bearing 
arms have enlisted in the service of the Confederate States to so great 
an extent as to leave but few at home for the protection of the women 
and children of the State and the control of the slaves; 

And whereas, the number of slaves and the quantity of provisions, 
cotton, and tobacco in the State left thereby comparatively unpro- 
tected by reason of the small number of troops serving in Florida, 
the proximity of the coast to the rich planting regions, and the 
accessibility of the country by means of the rivers Saint John’s and 
Apalachicola render the State an inviting field for invasion by the 
enemy; 

And whereas, a successful invasion by the enemy would be attended 
by most disastrous results to the country at large in the loss of a 


* See p. 206. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 20% 


large number of slaves and a vast quantity of provisions, and in the 
evil of having our entire population thrown for support on the 
already burthened resources of other parts of the Confederacy, and 
in addition thereto the State would become a rendezvous for fugitive 
Slaves from Alabama and Georgia: Therefore— 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
State of Florida in General Assembly convened, That the President 
of the Confederate Statés be, and he is hereby, requested to exempt 
all citizens of the State of Florida from conscription who shall by 
volunteer enlistment enter the C. 8. service by the 15th day of March, 
1863, to be mustered into said service expressly for the defense of the 
State. 

Passed the House of Representatives December 11, 1862. Passed 
the Senate December 12, 1862. Approved by the Governor Decem- 
ber 13, 1862. 


_ CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 22, 1862. 
Mr. BERNARD AVEGNO, 
Commercial Agent of the Confederate States at Vera Cruz: 


SiR: It is hoped by this Department that your position as commer- 
cial agent at Vera Cruz will afford you the opportunity to render val- 
uable assistance in obtaining for it munitions and army supplies. 
Besides the general advantages offered by that city as affording in a 
contiguous country a neutral port of convenient access, peculiar facil- 
ities will probably at this time be afforded of introducing or procuring 
there such essential supplies for our armies, from the occupation of 
the city and a large portion of Mexico by the forces of the Emperor 
of the French, and the consequent necessity of the importation there 
‘ under the French flag of large quantities of the articles wanted by 
us. I need not suggest to you the various means by.which under such 
circumstances the supplies we need may be introduced with but little 
liability to the risk of seizure as contraband of war, or may be pro- 
cured there from French citizens who may have brought them with a 
legitimate view to the supply in the first instance of the requirements 
of their own Government and its army. Your own experience and 
intelligence will best suggest or devise the most judicious and feasible 
modes of procedure. On the presumption that such opportunity will 
not be lost by you, I have caused to be made out, and you will here- 
with receive, lists from the heads of bureaus of this Department of 
the munitions, stores, and army supplies which are most desirable to 
be obtained. Should you succeed you will contract with the parties 
with whom you deal, or otherwise arrange, that the articles obtained 
or contracted for shall be delivered to agents or officers of this Depart- 
ment at Matamoras, or some other town of Mexico equally convenient 
to our border, to be there on receipt paid for either in sterling 
exchange, coin, or cotton at its value in coin at the place of delivery. 
Arrangements will be made by this Department with the Treasury 
Department to have such payments promptly made. I should like- 
wise add that to secure the proper quality of the articles required they 
should be subject to inspection and approval by some competent 
officer or agent of this Department either at Vera Cruz or at the point 
of delivery. On notice by you of such prospect of success as would 
justify the presence of such inspecting officer or agent, he will be 


17 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


258 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


appointed or sent either to that city or to the point of delivery, as you 
may advise. Report from you, as early and whenever the opportunity 
offers, of your prospects and proceedings will be acceptable to the 
Department. 
Very respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[DECEMBER 23, 1862.—For proclamation of Jefferson Davis, de- 
nouncing Benjamin F. Butler as a felon and outlaw, see Series II, 
Vol. V, p. 795. | 


MONTGOMERY, December 23, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Randolph County defies enforcement of conscript act; an armed 
force made jailer surrender keys and liberated deserters. Infection 
will spread unless promptly arrested. Advise sending battalion of 
Colonel Hannon’s cavalry regiment, now at this place, to Randolph 
County. Major Hannon, commanding conscript camp, and the State 
can supply arms, &c. Major Swanson needs another company of 
same regiment, the greater portion of the company he has being out 
after deserters from his camp. I say again, speedy action is necessary 
or deserters from every quarter will increase. Unreliable conscripts 
from this State should be sent to Virginia at once. 

JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


APJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
; hichmond, December 24, 1862. 
Hon. JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala.: 
Please communicate following order to Colonel Hannon, viz: 


Proceed immediately with your battalion of cavalry to Randolph County, Ala., 
and there take efficient measures to enforce the conscript act. Suppress infection 
and arrest deserters. If possible send a company of your regiment to Major 
Swanson. The State will furnish you with arms, &c. 


Please also communicate the following to Capt. R. H. Powell, viz: 


You are assigned tothe command of Camp Watts, Ala. Report orders to Major 
Swanson. 


S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, F'la., December 24, 1862. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States of America, Richmond, Va.: 
Str: By direction of the Governor I have the honor to transmit to 
Your Excellency copies of resolutions passed by the General Assembly 
of the State of Florida at its late session, viz: Resolution to guaran- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 259 


tee by the States the debt of the Confederate Government ;* resolution 
in relation to the present war. t 
Very respectfully, 
SAMUEL BENEZET, 
Private Secretary to His Hacellency Governor John Milton. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., December 24, 1862. 


GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


The sick and wounded soldiers from the State of Mississippi demand 
at the hands of the Legislature that attention which will insure their 
comfort and proper treatment. The hospital system of the C. 8. Army 
is necessarily imperfect, and it has failed to give that speedy relief to 
our suffering soldiery which their cases often imperatively demand. 
A more perfect system of hospitals, perhaps, under existing circum- 
stances cannot now be established without the assistance of the 
States themselves. I have good reason to believe that separate State 
hospitals, whenever they have been permitted to be established by the 
Confederate authorities, have done much good. And it is believed 
also that the appointment by State authority of skillful and efficient 
surgeons to visit the hospitals in the different departments and see to 
the condition of our sick and wounded soldiers would result in much 
good. I therefore recommend that the Legislature make provision 
by law for the appointment of at least two competent surgeons—one 
for the Department of Virginia and the other for the West—whose 
_ duty it shall be to attend to the wants of our sick and wounded in 
their respective departments. 

JOHN J. PETTUS. 


| DECEMBER 24, 1862.—For Governor of Texas to Magruder, in rela- 
tion ‘‘to calling out at once all the militia the State can possibly 
arm,” see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 840. | 


C. S. WAR DEPARTMENT, ENGINEER BUREAU, 
Richmond, Va., December 26, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to present the following report and recom- 
mendations relative to the engineer service of the C. 8. Army: 

During the past campaign the greater part of the officers composing 
the Corps of Engineers have been actively employed in the direct line 
of their profession, but the emergencies of the service have called to 
other duties a number of the officers belonging to the regular corps 
who have had the most experience as military engineers. Of the 
thirteen officers composing this corps, and formerly in the U.S. Army, 
seven have been thus detached, and four of the remaining six had a 
very limited experience in the former service. The great and respon- 
sible labor of the military engineer in our Army has been in conse- 
quence committed to the officers of the provisional corps, who have 
been necessarily appointed from the civil engineers of the country. 
Many of these, though of clever attainments in their profession, had 


* * See December 15, p. ies +See December 11, p. 283. 


260 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


had no experience in military constructions up to the date of appoint- 
ment, and had therefore much to learn at the same time they were 
called on to reduce it to practice. With but few exceptions these 
officers have been constantly and actively employed in their pro- 
fession, some as reconnoitering and topographical officers with the 
mobolized armies of the Confederacy, also in the construction of 
roads and bridges needed for the advance of our forces, or in their 
destruction to retard the enemy; others in the location and erection 
of works of defense for the protection of points vital to the public 
safety and in the construction of barriers in river and harbor channels. 

The many points to be defended have caused a wide distribution of 
the officers on engineer duty, viz: To the Trans-Mississippi, the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, rivers flowing into the Gulf, the 
Department of South Carolina and Georgia, Eastern North Carolina, 
Petersburg, Richmond, Northern Virginia, Western Virginia, and 
Tennessee. ‘To perform the engineer service throughout this exten- 
Sive field there are available six officers of the Corps of Engineers, 
Army of the Confederate States, and ninety-three officers of the pro- 
visional corps; but a part of the latter are called from time to time to 
other duties, as the construction of the Piedmont Railroad, the link 
of railroad from Rome, Ga., to the Blue Mountains in Alabama, the 
New Orleans and Texas and Texas and New Orleans Railroads, and 
to assist in the service of the Niter Bureau. The officers, being zeal- 
ous and untiring, have accomplished much, but over the wide field of 
operations for our armies much has been, for the want of more engi- 
neers, unavoidably left undone. As yetour armies are without regu- 
larly organized engineer troops. Two or three companies of men 
only have been formed by selecting mechanics from some of the regi- 
ments in the service and assigning them to do the duties of engineer 
troops, but we have not even one company of pontoniers nor a pon- 
toon train. These deficiencies ought to be supplied as soon as possi- 
ble, and I beg to urge upon your favorable consideration the impor- 
tance of adding to the armies in the field the following organization of 
engineer troops. With the present strength of the Confederate Army 
there should be at least 4,000 engineer troops to perform the following 
duties, viz: Under engineer officers assist in making reconnaissances 
and surveys of the country occupied; lay out, construct, and repair 
roads, prepare and place pontoon and trestle bridges; mark out and 
aid in the construction of all military works, defensive or offensive, 
viz, field forts, military trenches, parallels, saps, mines, and other 
works of attack, batteries, lines of infantry cover, rifle-pits, and works 
for obstructing rivers and harbors. The men should be selected for 
their skill in some mechanical branch of labor, as carpenters, masons, 
blacksmiths, wheelwrights, boat-builders, caulkers, saddlers, shoe- 
makers, &c., and having the requisite skill they should receive higher 
pay than that allowed by law to the soldiers of the line. In the organi- 
zation of a company there should be the following grades: Sergeant 
or master workman, corporal or overseer, private of the first class or 
artificer, and private of the second class or laborer. Each company 
to be commanded by a captain of engineers and three lieutenants— 
one first and two second—to be detailed from the line of the Army to 
serve with thecompany. Thestrength of a company to be as follows: 
Seven sergeants, 7 corporals, 2 musicians, 40 artificers, and 45 laborers, 
making a total of 101 rank and file. These companies to be organ- 
ized into regiments of ten companies each. The regimental officers 
to be one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major, one adjutant, 
with the rank of captain; one quartermaster and commissary, with 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 261 


the rank of captain; one sergeant-major, and one quartermaster- 
sergeant. | 

As the conscription has taken into the Army the citizens of the 
country between the ages of eighteen and forty, it will be necessary 
in forming the engineer companies to select the men from the troops 
now in service. Unless this be authorized it will require so long a 
time to organize the number of companies needed that much injury 
will result to the service. The term of service in the engineer com- 
panies for the men selected from the line should be equal to the 
remainder of the period for which they are already bound. An 
intelligent class of officers to serve with the engineer troops can be 
selected, I doubt not, from the lievitenants, sergeants, corporals, and 
privates now in the line of the Army, and I think one of the greatest 
merits of the plan proposed is that promotion is thrown open at once 
to the meritorious men in the ranks or lower grades of our Army. 
The selections for service in the engineers should be made from the 
particular army or army corps with which they are intended to serve. 
This will guarantee a fair distribution of the promotions throughout 
the service and greater certainty of advancement for merit alone. I 
propose that two of the ten companies composing each regiment be 
assigned to serve as pontoniers, each to be provided with a pontoon 
train complete, making eight trains for the engineer organization; 
that the colonel of engineers in charge of the Engineer Bureau, sub- 
ject to the approval of the Secretary of War, shall prescribe the 
number, quantity, forms, dimensions, &c., of the necessary wagons, 
pontoons, tools, implements, and other necessaries for each train. 
To supply the requisite number of officers of engineers to serve with 
the engineer troops, I propose that there be added to the Corps of 
Engineers, Provisional Army, four colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, 
four majors, and forty captains, with the same pay and allowances as 
now fixed by law. I propose the following as the monthly pay of 
engineer troops: That of sergeant-major, quartermaster-sergeant, 
and sergeant or master workman, $40; that of corporal or overseer, 
$30; privates of the first class or artificers, $23; musicians, $20; and 
privates of the second class or laborers, $18, with the same allowances 
as to other troops. I would under existing circumstances assign the 
four regiments of engineers as follows, viz: One regiment to the 
Army of Northern Virginia, now under the command of General 
Lee; one to Eastern and Middle Tennessee; one to the Valley of 
the Mississippi, including the Trans-Mississippi and the Gulf Coast; 
and the fourth to Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, the eastern 
part of North Carolina, and as far north as Petersburg, Va. These 
troops will add vastly to the efficiency of the engineer service and 
facilitate the movements of our armies in the field. Measures have 
been already taken by this Bureau to commence the construction of 
pontoon trains, and the work will be pressed forward as rapidly as the 
limited resources of the country will admit of. Authority has been 
given also to the senior engineer officer serving with the armies in 
Tennessee to prepare a train for immediate use in the Western 
Department, where one is much wanted. Every effort has been made 
by this Bureau to press forward the defensive works of the country, 
both of the coast and inland, and it is believed, even with our limited 
means, that enough has been or will be done at the most important 
points to give comparative security. The policy of defending all the 
inlets of our coast has been wisely abandoned and our strength con- 
centrated at the great military and commercial points. In fact, such 
concentration, both for coast and inland defense, is a necessity, and 


262 CORRESPONDENCE, E‘TC. 


by it alone can we oppose successfully the great strength and num- 
bers of our invaders. 

It has been my wish to have examinations and surveys made by com- 
petent military engineers at each place where our depots and bases of 
operations have been established, with a view to the prompt location 
and erection of defensive works for their protection in case the enemy 
should unfortunately penetrate toward the heart of the Confederacy. 
It might be wise to mark out on the ground even the outlines of the 
necessary works, so that a large laboring force might be in the emer- 
gency occupied at once in their construction. Important as are these 
measures, they have not been entered upon for the want of officers of 
engineers to perform the duty, but as soon as other calls of immediate 
necessity will permit this service will be undertaken. Engineer offi- 
cers serving with troops in the field prepare maps, whenever possible, 
of their reconnaissances and surveys and forward them to this Bureau 
for file, but the want of time and opportunity has made it difficult for 
them in most cases to carry out my instructions in this regard. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Your obedient servant, 
J. F. GILMER, 
Colonel of Engineers and Chief of Bureau. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 26, 1862. 


His Excellency JOSEPH EK. BRown, 
Milledgeville, Gla.: 


Sir: The President referred to this Department your letter of 
November 24, covering the resolutions of the Legislature of Georgia, 
requesting the return of a part of the powder loaned to the Govern- 
ment by that State; but owing to an accidental detention, under the 
pressure of business, your communication did not reach me until 
yesterday. I immediately directed the Chief of Ordnance to order 
Colonel Rains, at Augusta, to place 10,000 pounds of powder at your 
disposal, and informed you of my action by telegraph. » Recent de- 
mands from your section of the country have drawn so largely upon 
our supplies of ammunition in that quarter as to render it inexpedient, 
in the opinion of the Chief of Ordnance, to furnish a larger quantity 
at present, but the Government recognizes to the full extent its obli- 
gation to return the powder so patriotically placed at its disposal by 
the State of Georgia; and should it be needed the quantity mentioned 
in the resolutions of the Legislature (25,000 pounds) will be delivered 
to your order from any of the arsenals in the State which may be most - 
convenient to the points threatened. I trust, however, ‘that your 
anticipations of trouble with the slaves during the Christmas holidays 
will not be realized. 

With sentiments of esteem and respect, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, December 26, 1862. 
Davip IRWIN, Esq., 
Marietta, Gia.: 


Sir: Your letter requesting a reconsideration of my decision against 
exemption of firemen has been received. The act of Congress does 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 263 


not exempt firemen from service. The Department found that it 
could not make an exemption for one place and not grant the same 
privilege to another. Applications had come from a number of other 
cities, and complaints were made that the exemption of this class only 
furnished a convenient covering for capable arms-bearing men to 
escape a charge imposed upon the body of the people. The first want 
of the Confederacy is for men to meet the enormous and well-equipped 
armies of our enemy, and to furnish them every community must 
forego much that is necessary to its convenience and security. The 
Department therefore can find no safe rule in administering the law 
of exemption except that of adhering strictly to the statute. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, December 29, 1862. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


DEAR SiR: I inclose you herewith copy of resolutions passed by the 
General Assembly of this State, which were approved on the 13th 
instant, for the organization of. two regiments of State troops for the 
protection of the people of this State against the inroads of the invader 
and for the performance of police duty within the limits of this State; 
to maintain the public peace and the security of our wives and chil- 
dren against servile insurrection or rebellion. 

In your letter to me of 29th of May last you say: 

Congress may call forth the militia to execute Confederate laws. The State has 
not surrendered the power to call them forth to execute State laws. Congress may 
call them forth to repel invasion ; so may the State, for it has expressly reserved 
this right. Congress may call them forth to suppress insurrection ; and so may 


the State, for the power is impliedly reserved of governing all the militia except 
the part in actual service of the Confederacy. 


In conformity to your opinions as above expressed the Legislature 
of this State have, by their resolutions, authorized me to raise said 
two regiments out of any of the militia of this State who are not in 
the active service of the Confederacy or out of any other able-bodied 
men who may volunteer. Sincerely desiring harmony and concord 
between the State and the Confederate authorities in all matters per- 
taining to the common defense, I have instructed the militia officers of 
this State, in mustering volunteers into her service, ‘‘ to muster in no 
one between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who has been actually 
enrolled into Confederate service by any enrolling officer of that 
service.” | 

The doctrine of the concurrent jurisdiction of the State and the 
Confederacy over the militia, in case of invasion or insurrection and 
for the execution of their laws, respectively, having been laid down by 
you in plain terms, the General Assembly have preferred to act upon 
that doctrine, and, without waiving the right of the State over her 
whole militia, to confine the organization which they direct to such of 
her militia as have not been actually enrolled into Confederate serv- 
ice. I shall require of the State officers a strict conformity to this 
direction of the General Assembly of the State, and respectfully 
request that you give such orders to your enrolling officers within this 
State as will cause them to act upon your own construction of the 


264 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Constitution as above quoted, and to interfere with no part of the 
militia of this State who have been called forth by the State and 
actually mustered into her service to be used for the suppression of 
insurrection and the repulsion of invasion. Inclosed I also send copy 
of the general order from the office of the adjutant and inspector 
general of this State, under which the two regiments are to be 
organized. 
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


Resolutions passed by the General Assembly of Georgia authorizing 
the Governor to organize two regiments of State troops to be employed — 
im the military service of the State for the protection of her people 
against the invading forces of the enemy and for internal police 
duty. - : 


Resolved by the General Assembly, That the Governor be, and he is 
hereby, authorized to call into the service of the State two regiments 
of militia, to consist of companies not exceeding 100 men, rank and 
file, including the two companies now in service on the Western and 
Atlantic Railroad; such amount of said force to be employed for 
guarding and protecting the railroad bridges of this State as he may ~ 
deem necessary, and the remainder of said force to be used for such 
purposes and at such points in this State as to His Excellency shall 
seem advisable. 

Resolved further, That His Excellency the Governor be, and he is 
hereby, authorized in raising said regiments to advertise and eall for 
volunteers from all the militia except the part in actual service of 
the Confederacy, and from such able-bodied citizens of this State not 
subject to military duty as will volunteer, stating where each regi- 
ment will be located or expected to perform service; and the same 
Shall be organized by the adjutant-general of this State pursuant to 
the laws of force in said State and such rules and regulations con- 
sistent therewith as he may prescribe therefor. 

fesolved further, That the regiments so organized shall be goy- 
erned by and subject to the Rules and Articles of War of the Con- 
federate States, the military laws of the Confederate States, and the 

Jonfederate Regulations for the Army, so far as consistent with the 
constitution of Georgia. 

Resolved further, That the pay and allowances of the officers, non- 
commissioned officers, musicians, and privates shall be the same as in 
the Confederate Army, and drawn from the military fund provided 
for the year 1863 according to the usage now obtaining. 

~ WARREN AKIN, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk of House of Representatives. 
JOHN BILLUPS, 
President of the Senate. 
JAMES M. MOBLEY, 
Secretary of the Senate. 


Approved December 13, 1862. 
JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 265 


{Inclosure No. 2.] 


GENERAL ORDERS, STATE OF GEORGIA, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 23. Milledgeville, December 17, 1862. 


Under the resolution of the General Assembly assented to Decem- 
ber 13, 1862, authorizing two regiments to be organized for the service 
of the State, the Governor will accept the first fifteen companies ten- 
dered that shall consist of not less than 90 nor more than 100 men, 
rank and file. In addition, he will accept three companies to be made 
up within the counties of Gilmer, Fannin, Union, Towns, Rabun, 
Habersham, White, and Lumpkin as soon as tendered, if made up 
within a reasonable time—say thirty days from the date of this 
order. In his opinion reasons exist which justify the exception from 
the State at large of the counties above named, and he hopes that 
those citizens within these counties who may have been dissatisfied 
will no longer stand out against the laws of their country, but will, 
now that an opportunity is offered, take up arms in defense of their 
own State. All the companies thus raised will serve within the limits 
of Georgia, and so soon as ninety-four men are actually associated 
together, will elect their company officers, to wit, captain, first, second, 
and third lieutenants, pursuant to the laws now of force in the State. 

These eighteen companies, when organized, together with two com- 
panies of bridge guards already in service, will be formed into two 
regiments of ten companies each. The ten companies organized near- 
est the upper line of the State will constitute the first regiment, and 
the ten companies organized nearest the lower line’ of the State will 
form the second regiment. Until further orders the headquarters 
of the first regiment will be at Atlanta and of the second regiment 
at Macon, though the companies of each will be stationed at different 
points and be moved frequently, either. by detachments or by com- 
pany, through the counties of that division of the State to which they 
may be attached, the better to suppress insurrection and to preserve 
the public peace. When necessary the companies of each regiment 
will be concentrated or otherwise combined, as in the opinion of the 
Governor the interests of the State may require. 

By the resolution of the General Assembly authorizing these regi- 
ments, it is provided that the ‘‘ Governor shall advertise and call for 
volunteers from all the militia except the part in actual service of the 
Confederacy, and from such able-bodied citizens of this State not sub- 
ject to military duty as will volunteer.” It is to be distinctly under- 
stood, therefore, that no one between the ages of eighteen and forty- 
five will be received who has been actually enrolled into the Confed- 
erate service by any enrolling officer of that service. On the other 
hand, the Legislature ciaims the right for any one to volunteer for the 
State service who is not in actual service in the Confederacy; and it 
is expected that no one who has been mustered into the State service 
will afterward be disturbed by any enrolling officer. As these two 
regiments are auxiliary to the great objects of the Confederacy, there 
is no reason why perfect harmony should not exist between the State 
and the Confederacy in their organization. Any colonel, lieutenant- 
colonel, major, or captain of the militia in actual commission is hereby 
authorized to muster into the service of the State any and all persons 
presenting themselves as volunteers, and as fast as mustered in to 
give to each a furlough of fifteen days and a certificate that he has 
been so mustered in; and if any person thus mustered in does not 
within fifteen days associate himself with one of the first fifteen com- 
panies to be formed, as above provided, and tendered to the Governor, 


266 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


he will be considered as discharged from service without cost to the 
State. Any company failing to tender as one of the first fifteen will 
be rejected, and the individuals composing it will no longer be con- 
sidered as in the service of the State. 

As these regiments may be needed during the war or for a shorter 
period, they will be taken into the service for no specified term, but 
until disbanded. The pay and allowances of the officers, non-com- 
missioned officers, musicians, and privates of these regiments will be 
the same as in the Confederate Army. 

The following oath of allegiance will be administered by mustering 
officers to such as may volunteer: 


; --do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will 
bear true allegiance to the State of Georgia, and that I will serve her honestly 
and faithfully against all her enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and 
obey the orders of the Governor of the State of Georgia and the orders of the 
officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for the government 
of the troops of Georgia. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me at 


this the —— day of -——_, 18—. 


The following certificate will be given to persons mustered in as 
above: 


I certify that has this day been mustered into the military service 
of the State of Georgia by me under General Orders, No. 23, of December 17, 
1862, from the adjutant and inspector general’s office, and that he has a fur- 
lough for fifteen days from this date, with the privilege within that time to 
associate himself with any volunteer company which he may select and to assist 
.in its organization, with the right to vote for his officers. The officer mustering 
in will forward the name of each person so mustered in to the adjutant and 
inspector general’s office. 


By order of the commander-in-chief: 
HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 112. Richmond, December 30, 1862. 


I. The Bureau of Superintendent of Conscripts having been estab- 
lished in this city under the direction of Brig. Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, 
all reports, returns, and communications from commanders of camps 
of instruction will hereafter be addressed to that Bureau. 

II. The Ordnance Bureau will hereafter transfer to the Quarter- 
master’s Department all ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies for 
which transportation may be required, which department will be 
charged with and responsible for the safe and speedy delivery of the 
same. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA HEADQUARTERS, 
Columbia, December 30, 1862. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have.the honor to inclose certified copy of ‘‘An act to organize 
_ and supply negro labor for coast defense, &¢.,” to which I ask your 
immediate attention. 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 267 
[Inclosure. ] 
THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 


At a General Assembly begun and holden at Columbia on the fourth 
Monday in November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-two, and thence continued by divers adjourn- 
ments to the eighteenth day of December, in the same year. 


AN ACT to organize and supply negro labor for coast defense in compliance with 
requisitions of the Government of the Confederate States. 


SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
now met and sitting in General Assembly, and by the authority of the 
same, That from and after the passage of this act this State shall be 
divided into four territorial divisions as follows, to wit: 

Division No. 1: The judicial districts of Pickens, Greenville, Spar- 
tanburg, Anderson, Union, York, Chester, Laurens, Abbeville, and 
Newberry to constitute the first division. 

Division No. 2: The judicial districts of Lancaster, Kershaw, 
Chesterfield, Marlborough, Darlington, Marion, Sumter, Clarendon, 
Williamsburg, and Horry, including Upper All Saints, to constitute 
the second division. 

Division No. 3: The judicial districts of Fairfield, Richland, Lex- 
ington, Edgefield, Barnwell, and Orangeburg to constitute the third 
division. 

Division No. 4: The judicial districts of Charleston, Colleton, Beau- 
fort, Georgetown, including Lower All Saints, to constitute the fourth 
division. 

Sec. 2. That the negro labor hereinafter required shall be furnished 
by the several di.tricts aforesaid as follows, to wit: First, by division 
No. 2; next, by division No. 3; next, by division No. 1, and last, by 
division No. 4. 

Sec. 3. That as soon as the Governor shall have received from the 
Confederate Government, through the proper officer authorized thereto, 
written assent and agreement to the terms and conditions hereinafter 
set forth, he shall call for such labor as may be demanded by the 
Confederate military authority from the several divisions in the order 
aforesaid, to be furnished by the slave-holders thereof in proportion to 
the slave population as specified in the last census return of this 
State: First. That the slaves liable to this call shall be the same that are 
liable to road duty in this State. Second. Thatit shall be the duty of 
the commissioners of roads and the authorities of incorporated cities, 
towns, and villages not subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioners 
of roads in the performance of road duty in the several districts to 
summon the owners to furnish their respective quotas of slave labor 
which the Governor shall require. Third. That each levy under the 
call shall serve for one month, and until relieved in turn by the next 
levy; and if the said commissioners of roads or any of them shall 
neglect or refuse so to summon such slave-owners to send their said 
slaves in pursuance of the requisition aforesaid, such commissioners or 
commissioner shall suffer for each and every such neglect or default the 
Same pains and penalties, and in the same manner, as now prescribed 
by statute law in this State, and that the boards of commissioners 
shall have power to appoint commissioners in such divisions as are 
now vacated by the absence of commissioners in the present war, for 
the ensuing year, from citizens of any age. Fourth. That such notice 


268 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


shall be given by the engineer or other officer of the Confederate 
Government of all requisitions for negro labor, except the first, as 
will enable the owners of slaves to have thirty days from the time of 
summons to the time of furnishing their respective quotas of slaves; 
that the first requisition may be made with such notice as the urgency 
of the case will permit. Fifth. That the Confederate authorities shall 
furnish transportation by railroad from the depot nearest the owner’s 
residence, the owner to transport his or her slaves, at his or her own 
expense, to such depot, irrespective of the distance of such depot 
from his or her residence. Sixth. That rations shall be supplied by 
the Confederate authorities to the said slaves from the time of their 
arrival at such depots until their return to the homes of their owners. 
Seventh. That the pay of each slave shall be eleven dollars per month, 
to be paid by the Confederate Government, and to be sheltered and 
receive all proper medical attendance in case of sickness. Eighth. 
That the Confederate Government shall be liable to the owner for any 
loss or damage of or to the slave or slaves during his or their service, 
or from disease contracted in service, such liability to commence on the 
arrival of such slave or slaves at the railroad depot for transportation 
and to continue until his or their return to the same, and the value 
shall be assessed as hereinafter provided. 

SEC. 4. That a State agent shall be appointed by the Governor, who 
shall receive for his services the pay of a lieutenant-colonel of infan- 
try, as allowed by the Confederate Government during his employ- 
ment, to be paid to him monthly by the Confederate Government, and 
there shall be also one overseer for every one hundred slaves, said 
overseers to be selected by the owners, or their agents, and to receive 
each fifty dollars per month during his employment, to be paid . 
monthly by the Confederate Government; these said overseers to be, 
during their employment, subject to the orders and the jurisdiction 
of the Confederate military authorities. 

SEC. 5. That it shall be the duty of the State agent to visit all the 
camps of the laborers, to examine their condition, to observe their 
treatment and discipline, to examine their food, both as to quality 
and quantity, and see that it is the proper ration for each, as is allowed 
by law, and particularly to inform himself as to their medical and 
surgical attendance and care, and, whenever required, to report the 
Same to the Governor; and especially at the conclusion of the tour of 
service of each bevy it shall be his duty to make such a report to the 
Governor, in whose possession it may be open for examination by the 
owners of the said slaves. 

SEC. 6. That it shall be the further duty of the State agent to col- 
lect and receive the slaves as they shall be called into service at the 
several railroad depots where they are to be delivered, to give receipts 
therefor to the owners or their agents at such depots, and send for- 
ward the said slaves to their points of destination; and he shall also 
be present at the assessment of the slaves, hereinafter provided, and 
see that the same is made in duplicate, and certify the same, one 
copy to be given to the owner and the other to be retained by the Con- 
federate authorities. 

SEC. 7. That it shall be the duty of the said State agent to certify 
the bills for the pay of the said slaves for their respective owners, - 
specifying the number of the said slaves, the time they have been 
employed, and the names of the owners, which bills, so certified, shall 
entitle the owners by themselves, or the order indorsed thereon, to 
receive the same from Confederate authority. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 269 


Sec. 8. That in case of any attack by the enemy the slaves shall be 
immediately removed to some place of safety, and it shall be the duty 
of the State agent and overseers to carry this provision promptly into 
execution, subject to the order and direction of the Confederate com- 
manding officer at the time and place where the slaves are employed. 

SEC. 9. That before the slaves shall be employed in labor by the 
Confederate authorities they shall be assessed by an assessor to be 
chosen by said authorities, and an assessor selected by the owner or 
State agent; the assessment shall be in writing and contain the name 
of the owner, the name or names of the slave or slaves, and his or 
their respective value or values, to be taken in duplicate in presence 
of the State agent, who shall certify the same, one copy to be delivered 
to the owner and the other to be retained by the Confederate author- 
ities, and such assessment shall be conclusive of the value of said 
slave or slaves. 

SEC. 10. That it shall be the duty of the commissioners of roads to 
see that one or more of their number be present at respective railroad 
depots, where the said slaves are delivered to the State agent by the 
owner, to verify the quota which each owner is bound to furnish under 
the eall, and in default thereof they shall be liable to the same pen- 
alties as now provided by law for not summoning hands to work on 
the railroads in the several districts. 

SEC. 11. That if any owner of slaves shall neglect or refuse to send 
his slave or slaves liable to the call hereinbefore mentioned after the 
notice herein provided shall have been given him or her by the com- 
missioner so to do, such owners shall be liable to the same fines and 
penalties now provided by statute law for default in the performance 
of road duty, of which default the Board of Commissioners shall have 
full jurisdiction. 

SEC. 12. That no slave-owner shall be exempt from supplying slave 
labor for such requisitions by reason of his slave or slaves being 
employed at the passage of this act in manufacturing or on railroads, 
or in the boiling of salt, or in any Government contract; but in such 
case the owner may commute for such service by paying into the State 
treasury a sum of money to be computed at eleven dollars per month 
for each of such slaves for the time their labor would have been 
required under this act. 

SEC. 13. That in the apportioning of the levies in the said several 
divisions slave-owners who have already furnished the slave labor 
shall be credited therefor in the requisitions to be made under this 
act, and no more labor shall be required from such owners than may 
be sufficient, with the labor already furnished by them, respectively, 
to make up-their respective quotas. 

In the Senate house the eighteenth day of December, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and in the eighty- 
seventh year of the sovereignty and independence of the State of 
South Carolina. 

W. D. PORTER, 
President of the Senate. 
A. P. ALDRICH, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 


SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE, 
| Columbia, December 29, 1862. 
I hereby certify the foregoing to be a true copy of an act entitled 
“An act to organize and supply negro labor for coast defenses in com- 


270 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


pliance with requisitions of the Confederate Government,” ratified the 
18th day of December, A. D. 1862, and now on file in this office; words 
‘‘Government of the” interlined on first page before certifying. 
Given under my hand and the seal of the State. 
[SEAL. | WM. R. HUNTT, 
Deputy Secretary of State. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 306. Richmond, December 31, 1862. 
*k * * *k * * * 


XV. Maj. George Johnston, quartermaster, is hereby assigned to 
duty as inspector of field transportation. He will receive from time 
to time instructions from the Quartermaster-General and will be 
governed accordingly. 

* kK *k *k * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


RICHMOND, VA., December 31, 1862. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General : 


GENERAL: Having asked a conference of the presidents and super- 
intendents of the railroads in the Confederate States on the 15th 
instant at Augusta, Ga., for the purpose of consultation as to Gov- 
ernment transportation, I have the honor to report the result of that 
conference and of my subsequent action: 

Agreeably to my call there was a general attendance, and, after 
organizing, I read to the convention a letter (copy of which is hereto 
attached and marked A) setting forth as briefly as possible the object 
to be accomplished and expressing a desire on my part to do all that 
I could to aid the roads. Whereupon the convention appointed three 
committees, one to confer with me and report business for the conven- 
tion; one to take into consideration a tariff of charges for Govern- 
ment transportation, and one to report a schedule to be run between 
Richmond, Va., and Montgomery, Ala. The committee appointed to 
confer with me had under consideration a plan or system to be adopted 
by which to carry on Government transportation. This committee 
was unable to agree and so reported to the convention, but submitted 
a plan which had been suggested by a part of the committee, and which 
I believed would work satisfactorily. In the report of the convention 
this plan appears as having been proposed by me, whereas it was, as I 
have said, suggested by a part of the committee; but as they could not 
agree and did not submit a majority and minority report this method 
was taken to bring some plan before the convention. Upon this plan 
some debate was had, and when it was put to vote it was rejected, as 
will be seen by the report of the convention (which is hereto attached 
and marked B). Having rejected this plan, a resolution was intro- 
duced expressing an earnest desire to co-operate with me in carrying 
on Government transportation, but failing to agree upon any definite 
plan of action I regarded the resolution as of no value beyond the 
expression of the good wishes of the convention. The committee 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 201 


to whom was referred tariff of charges for Government transporta- 
tion made areport proposing a very considerable advance upon the 
present rate. While it was under consideration I said to the conven- 
tion that I had hoped the tariff of charges would not have been dis- 
turbed for the present; that while there were roads that ought to 
receive a larger compensation than at present, there were, I was satis- 
fied, others that were fully remunerated by the present rates; that I 
did not think a uniform rate just, but I should require more time 
than I then had to enter into any consideration and.agreement for a 
change, and that I should feel bound to report against the tariff of 
charges then proposed; yet, upon the report of this committee being 
put to vote, it was, with some modification, adopted by the conven- 
tion. In my judgment this tariff is not equitable with any classifica- 
tion of the railroads that can be made, and I respectfully submit 
whether or not the action of the convention in this particular shall be 
ratified. 7 

The committee to whom was referred a schedule between Richmond, 
~Va., and Montgomery, Ala., failed to arrive at anything satisfactory. 
Having in my judgment failed to accomplish anything practicable by 
the action of the convention, I addressed a circular to the presidents 
of the railroads in the country (copy of which is hereto attached and 
marked C), asking that the superintendent of each road be allowed 
to act as my assistant in conducting Government transportation and 
indicating his duties in so doing. ‘To this circular I hope for a favor- 
able response, and I trust a system may be built up from it which 
will result satisfactorily. 

Having thus stated the action of the convention of the presidents 
and superintendents of railroads and what I have done to organize 
- a system of Government transportation, it may be proper for me to 
give some idea of the origin of the difficulties and detentions of the 
transportation of Government freights, which it is- proposed to obvi- 
ate by my appointment. Amongst the first and most important is 
the disregard many army officers have for the private property of rail- 
road companies; as, for instance, ordering rolling-stock from one road 
to another without making any effort or provision for returning it, or 
even without examining into the safety of the cars to run. Impress- 
ing cars and engines has been a common occurrence, and to such an 
extent has the ordinary routine of employés been interfered with that 
they cease to feel a proper interest in conducting a business which 
invests them with no responsibility so long as quartermasters are 
exercising a quasi control of the road and its stock. This involves 
the Government in much additional expense and causes the demor- 
alization of railroad employés. At some depots where ordinarily the 
railroad companies would transship freight at their own expense, 
quartermasters feeling that some extra vigor is necessary in times 
of such delay, will employ labor at Government expense to do the 
transshipping or loading which should properly be done by the rail- 
road companies. This plan having once been started must continue 
so long as there is any interference with freights after the Govern- 
ment agents turn it over to the railroads. The railroad employés are 
much more competent to perform all the duties pertaining to the safe 
and rapid transportation of freights than any one not conversant with 
the very many details connected therewith, but-they can only remain 
efficient so long as they are held to an entire and strict responsibility. 

In regard to these difficulties I would suggest that they might be 
reached and remedied by a general order, the details of which I will 


272 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


furnish if my views are carried out. As of still greater importance 
than the foregoing difficulties I would ask attention to the actual con- 
dition of the rolling-stock and machinery now in use, and the searcity 
of men to operate the roads and repair the machinery. Many of the 
roads had scarcely enough of anything at the beginning of our 
troubles for more than ordinary repairs, and the wealthiest and most — 
provident companies are beginning to feel severely the want of all 
kinds of supplies. To some extent the Government can give them 
relief by permitting the iron foundries and rolling-mills now engaged 
wholly on Government works to furnish them with the necessary 
materials, and by permitting the detail of men already enlisted or 
exempting from conscription of such men as are necessary for the 
safe conduct of the railroads of the country. There is not a railroad 
in the country which has an efficient force to-day, and the power 
vested in the enrolling officer is seriously diminishing even the small 
number of men left to perform duties upon roads, the suecess of. 
which is of the first importance to the Confederacy. These diffi- 
culties must be remedied or the roads will very soon be quite unable 
to meet the requirements of Government, and the election must now 
be made between letting them go down or rendering them the neces- 
sary assistance for successful operation. 

Trusting that these hasty observations and suggestions will meet 
with approbation, 

Iam, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[First indorsement. } 
| JANUARY 1, 1863. 
Respectfully submitted to Secretary of War. 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Examined. Colonel Wadley’s views on the proposed tariff of prices 
approved. Oral instructions given as to further negotiations and 
arrangements with the roads. 

J, sae 
Secretary. 
A. 


AuGUSTA, December 15, 1862. 


PRESIDENTS AND SUPERINTENDENTS OF RAILROADS IN THE CON- 
FEDERATE STATES: 


GENTLEMEN: I have asked a conference with you for the purpose 
of taking into consideration the difficulties that now exist in Govern- 
ment transportation, and as far as practicable to remedy any defect 
that may be found in the present plan upon which it is transacted. 
Safety and dispatch are the ends desired. To accomplish these ends 
it is necessary to arrange schedules so as to enable your trains to con- 
nect with as little delay as possible, and to have a mutual under- 
standing and agreement for the delivery and receipt of freight 
between connecting rvads. In this connection I desire to avoid send- 
ing messengers with freight. Ido not know the nature or extent of 
the difficulties that have been experienced, and therefore I cannot 
suggest a remedy, but I presume the want of rolling-stock by some 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 213 


roads, while that of others has been scattered over distant lines leav- 
ing the owners without sufficient to transact their business, is among 
them. As a partial remedy to the roads in want of rolling-stock, I 
propose to part with all that is owned by Government, and I desire 
the roads having a superabundance to supply (as far as practicable) 
those that are deficient. I do not suppose there is enough to supply 
all, yet a fair distribution will very much relieve the wants of the 
country, and I trust that those more fortunate than their neighbors 
will promptly come to their relief in this time of need. To prevent 
ears from being scattered I think that an arrangement should be 
entered into in reference to interchange between roads, and when 
once determined on let it be rigidly enforced. In providing for trans- 
shipment it may be desirable that exceptions should be made for 
heavy ordnance. I requested the Quartermaster-General to have his 
bureau represented at your meeting in order to meet any questions 
that may arise in reference to evidence of transportation or of audit- 
ing your accounts, and to represent this department allow me to 
introduce to you Major Wood and Captain Smith, of the Quarter- 
master’s Department. If there are other matters in reference to Gov- 
ernment transportation upon which it is desirable to have an under- 
standing, or if there is anything I can do as the agent of the Govern- 
ment to facilitate transportation, I shall-be-very willing to-co-operate 
with you. ‘With this brief statement of my object in calling you 
together, I trust that you will unite in trying to accomplish the desired | 
object. With your cordial co-operation I am sure all difficulties will 
vanish, and without that co-operation I am equally certain that my 
appointment will be of no avail. /In-conclusion let me beg that you 
~will take sufficient time to mature whatever we undertake todo. I 
desire all possible dispatch, but from my past experience in meetings 
of this charater I am satisfied that there is too much haste in bring- 
ing them to a close. 
I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 
B. 


AvucGusta, December 15, 1862. 

Pursuant to a call from Col. William M. Wadley, assistant adjutant- 
general, the convention of railroad officers met in the Masonic Hall 
at 10 a.m. On motion of Mr. Pollard, Mr. Cuyler, president of the 
Georgia Central Railroad, was called to the chair, and Alfred L. 
Tyler and William L. Clark were appointed as secretaries. The 
meeting having been organized, the following roads were found to be 
represented: 

Alabama and Florida Railroad of Alabama, ©. T. Pollard, presi- ~ 
dent, 8. G. Jones, superintendent; Alabama and Mississippi Rivers 
road, W. 8S. Knox, secretary and treasurer; Alabama and Tennessee, 
T. A. Walker, president, William Rothrock, superintendent and engi- 
neer; Alabama Shelby Coal Mine Branch, William Rothrock, superin- 
tendent and engineer; Atlanta and West Point, John P. King, presi- 
dent, George G. Hull, superintendent; Georgia Central and branches, 
R. R. Cuyler, president, G. W. Adams, superintendent; Charleston 
and Savannah, B. D. Hasell, president; East Tennessee and Georgia, 
C. Wallace, president; East Tennessee and Virginia, J..R. Branner, 
president; Rogersville and Jefferson, R. C. Payne, president; Florida, 
Atlantic and Gulf, 8. L. Niblack, president and superintendent; 

18 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II | 


274 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, Charles Ellis; Virginia 
Central, Charles Ellis; Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, R. L. Owen, 
president; Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, J. U. Horne, president; 
Brunswick and Florida, C. L. Schlatter, president; Western and 
Atlantic, by letter from J. 8. Rowland, superintendent; Montgomery 
and West Point, C. T. Pollard, president, D. H. Cram, superintend- 
ent; Wilmington and Manchester, T. D. Walker, president; Wil- 
mington and Weldon, 8. D. Wallace, president, S$. L. Fremont, 
superintendent; Mobile and Girard Railroad, B. E. Wells, engineer 
and superintendent; Mobile and Ohio, L. J. Fleming, superin- 
tendent; Nashville and Chattanooga and branches, V. K. Stevenson, 
president; Nashville and Northwestern, V. K. Stevenson, president; 
New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern; North Carolina Central, 
by letter from T. J. Sumner, superintendent; Muscogee Railroad, 
J. L. Mustian, president, W. L. Clark, superintendent; Macon and 
Western Railroad, Isaac Scott, president, A. L. Tyler, superintendent; 
Southwestern, R. R. Cuyler, president, Virgil Powers, superintendent; 
Orange and Alexandria, R. L. Owen; Richmond and Petersburg, 
Charles Ellis, president; Petersburg Railroad, C. O. Sanford, super- 
intendent; Savannah, Albany and Gulf, Hiram Roberts, president, 
G. I. Fulton, superintendent; Raleigh and Gaston, W. J. Hawkins, 
president; Charlotte and South Carolina, E. Hurlbut, superintendent; 
Georgia Railroad and branches, John P. King, president, George 
Yonge, superintendent; Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio, EK. Hurlbut, 
superintendent; South Side Railroad, H. D. Bird, superintendent; 
Richmond and Danville, C. G. Talcott, superintendent; Southern 
Railroad, by letter from M. Emanuel, vice-president; Northeastern, 
S. S. Solomons, superintendent; Cheraw and Darlington, 8. 8. Solo- 
mons, superintendent. 

The chairman then proceeded to read Order No. 98, from the 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, stating what powers, the 
Government had delegated to Colonel Wadley, after which the latter 
proceeded in the following letter to explain his reasons for calling 
the meeting. * 

On motion of Mr. Pollard the chair appointed a committee of eight, 
including the chairman of the convention, to take into consideration 
the matters represented by Colonel Wadley and to report at 3p. m._ 
The following-named gentlemen composed that committee: Pollard, 
King, Owen, Ellis, C. Wallace, Stevenson, Fleming, Cuyler. 

On motion of Mr. Fremont a committee of five was appointed to 
arrange rates of transportation for ‘‘men and things.” The chair 
appointed Fremont, Adams, Yonge, Scott, Horne. 

On motion of Mr. Sanford a committee of eight was appointed to 
consult with Mr. Offutt, of the Post-Office Department, and arrange 
schedules for the Southern route. The chair appointed Messrs. San- 
ford, Ellis, Fremont, Walker, Yonge, Hull, Crain, Jones. 

The meeting then adjourned till 3 p. m., at which time it met and 
was called to order by the chairman, when it was found the committee 
was not ready to report, and was further adjourned till 10 a. m. 
next day. 


TUESDAY, December 16, 1862, 


The convention met at 10 a. m. and was called to order by the 
chairman. The minutes of yesterday were read and confirmed. The 


*See preceding letter, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 275 


committee on transportation made a report, which, on motion of Mr. 
Pollard, was referred back for amendments. The committee to take 
into consideration the matter reported by Colonel Wadley offered the 
following: 


The committee to which was referred a resolution to confer with Colonel 
Wadley, chief of Government transportation, and to procure for the consider- 
ation of the convention such matters as will enable the railroad companies to meet 
the views of the Government, respectfully report that they have been unable to 
agree. They submit to the convention the following plans proposed by Colonel 
Wadley, upon which he believes he can carry out satisfactorily the duties which 
devolve upon him as chief of Government transportation. 

C. T. POLLARD, 
Chairman. 


PLAN PROPOSED BY COLONEL WADLEY. 


I would suggest for the consideration of the committee that harmonious and 
efficient action in relation to the public transportation can be secured upon a plan 
of this character: 

First. My appointment of the several railroad superintendents as my assistants 
in the performance of my duties, without compensation; these assistants to observe 
the direction and carry out my views as chief manager of transportation, and to 
make reports to me at such times, and from time to time, as I may direct. 

Second. The several railroad companies to allow the passage of their cars over 
adjoining roads, and for such distances and terms as to repairs and safe and 
speedy return, and upon such compensation and method of payment as I may pre- 
scribe. It is contemplated, by a regular system of reports from the assistants, to 
keep me at all times advised in relation to the situation and condition of the cars 
permitted to go on adjoining roads, so as to secure me their quick return in good 
[repair] to the roads to which they belong. 

Third. In cases of necessity such railroad companies as may have it in their 
power to do’ so to allow, at my request, their locomotive engines to pass over 
adjoining roads in charge of the enginemen belonging to them, to be assisted by 
competent enginemen of the road receiving aid, and under such regulations as to 
rate of speed and tonnage hauled as I may prescribe, or such as the assistants 
belonging to the companies aiding and aided may be agreed on. The rate of 
compensation to be fixed by me. 

Fourth. The Government, through its proper agents, to furnish to the several 
railroad companies all such railroad supplies, including subsistence for their 
negroes engaged in the repairs of road, as the Government may be enabled to 
furnish, at such cost, to be paid promptly in cash, as I may prescribe. 

Fifth. The Government to be at the expense of returning to the several compa- 
nies such of their engines, cars, &c., as were ordered from the railroads owning 
them by the Government, and this return to be made as soon as it can be safely 
done under my direction. 

Sixth. The Government to aid in the construction of such railroad connections 
between roads as I may consider and report to be necessary. 

Seventh. Demands for Government transportation to be made upon me, or any 
of my assistants, by any commanding officer authorized to make it, and where 
delays are occasioned by the act of such officer due compensation to be deter- 
mined by me to be made to the company delayed. 

Highth. The appointment by me at Government expense of agents to superin- 
tend the carriage of goods or troops over such breaks as may exist at the termini 
of railroads. 

Ninth. Such companies as may have more engines or cars than necessary for 
their business to sell the same to companies wanting aid, at prices to be agreed 
upon. 


Mr. Pollard offered the following resolution: 


Resolved, That the railroad companies represented in this convention concur in 
ny te suggested by Colonel Wadley, chief of Government transportation, and 
adopt it. 

Mr. Stevenson offered the following substitute, which, on motion, 
was adopted by a vote of twenty-five ayes to eight nays: 


fesolved, That the convention of railroad officers now holding take this means 
of acknowledging their approval of the appointment of Colonel Wadley by the 


276 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Government to take the direction of Government transportation; and the rail- 
roads cheerfully pledge to the Government their assistance and co-operation with 
Colonel Wadley in carrying out the wishes of the Government and in perfecting 
the connection of roads and quick transfer of freights and passengers from road 
to road. 


Mr. Owen offered the following resolutien, which was adopted : 


Resolved, That in view of the existing necessity of some agent for the Govern- 
ment upon each line of railroad, the superintendent of each road be requested to 
offer his services to Colonel Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, and assist him 
in carrying out his views and make such reports to him as may be deemed neces- 
sary to him: 


The committee on transportation submitted the following amended 
report, which, on motion, was adopted: 


REPORT. 


In view of the greatly enhanced value of every article entering into the con- 
sumption of railroad companies, and as railroad companies have been forced to 
increase their charges for the transportation of freight and passengers in their 
general business, your committee can see no reason or justice for retaining the 
present rates for carrying for the Government. We therefore submit the follow- 
ing tariff of charges: For troops—To be 24 cents per man per mile on main or 
thoroughfare lines, and on side or local lines, 84 cents per mile. All soldiers on 
furlough to be charged at the foregoing rates. Commissioned officers or Govern- 
ment agents traveling with or without requisitions shall be charged full fare. The 
roads to be classed by Colonel Wadley, chief of Government transportation. On 
things—First class, percussion-caps, powder, and fixed ammunition, 60 cents per 
100 pounds per 100 miles. Second class, all articles not enumerated in the first, 
third, fourth, and fifth classes, 30 cents per 100 pounds per 100 miles. Third class, 
live stock, $30 per car per 100 miles; less than a carload local rates will be charged. 
Fourth class, hay, fodder, shucks, bran, straw, empty wagons, ambulances, and 
other Government carriages, $20 per carload per 100 miles. Fifth class, wood, 
coal, lumber, stone, and bricks to be carried by special contract, or at local rates 
of each road. For all distances less than 50 miles, to be paid as 50 miles, and for 
50 miles and less than 100 miles, to be paid as 100 miles. Extra or special trains 
ordered by proper authority, to be paid for at the rate of $1 per mile for the loco- 
motive and one car, and for every additional car 10 cents per mile for freight and 
15 cents per mile for passenger cars. When an officer having proper authority 
orders a train to be held in readiness for transportation of troops, the proper 
charge for the locomotive shall be $25 per day and $3 per day for each car, includ- 
ing the services of conductor, engineer, train hands, and firemen while so held, 
and no charge to be less than for one day. When trains of one road pass over 
another carrying troops or freight of any kind, the road owning the train shall 
receive as full compensation for such trains one-eighth of its earnings, to be paid 
by the road owning the track passed over. For the transportation of the bodies 
of soldiers killed in battle or that die in service each road shall adopt its own rules 
and rates of charge. The Government should in all cases state by what train, 
freight or passenger, the transportation is to be performed, and when it is by pas- 
senger train 50 per cent. additional to the foregoing rates shall be charged. It 
is the decided and unanimous opinion of the committee that all Government 
trains should be discontinued at once and the machinery turned over to the roads 
most in need of it, to be determined by Colonel Wadley, chief of Government 
transportation. The committee recommend the rates fixed in this report be not 
applied to roads west of the Mississippi River. The committee submit the follow- 
ing resolutions and recommend their adoption : 

1. Resolved, That the foregoing rates of transportation of men and things and 
the rules of charges set forth in this report be, and the same are hereby, adopted, 
to take effect on the 1st day of January next. 

2. Resolved, That thisconvention are of opinion that the amount due each rail- 
road company for transportation of men and things should be settled monthly by 
the quartermaster nearest the principal office of the company within fifteen days 
after the close of the month. 

Respectfully submitted. 

S. L. FREMONT. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 277 


By Mr. Adams: 


Resolved, That Colonel Wadley be earnestly requested to have all the cars 
seized and removed from the various roads by Government officers returned at the 
earliest practicable moment to the roads to whom they belong. 


Passed. 


By Mr. 8. L. Niblack: 


Resolved, That the roads in the State of Florida are excepted from the report of 
the committee on transportation as adopted by the convention. 


Passed. 
By Mr. Pollard: 


Resolved, That such roads as have been or may be in the possession of the 
enemy, or partially destroyed, be excepted from the report of the committee reg- 
ulating the rates of transportation. 


Passed. 
By Mr. Fleming: 


Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the chairman to confer with 
the Postmaster-General and to petition Congress for an increase of compensation 
for the transportation of the mail, and the passage of a law for the more equitable 
adjustment of fines and forfeitures for failures to perform the same. 

Passed, and the chair appointed Fleming, Sanford, Stevenson, Ellis, 
and Owen. 

The committee on schedules not being ready to report, were relieved 
from further duty. 


By Mr. Adams: 


Resolved, That the secretaries have a sufficient number of copies of the proceed- 
ings of the convention printed and send ten copies to each road represented, by 
express, with bill of proportionate expense of printing. 


Passed. 
The meeting adjourned sine de. 


C. 


AuGustTa, GA., December 17, 1862. 


To ; 


DEAR SiR: Having failed at the recent meeting of presidents and 
superintendents of railroads in the Confederate States to agree upon 
definite. plan for carrying on Government transportation over the sev- 
eral railroads of the country, and deeming it of the first importance 
that some system should be agreed upon by which all will act in har- 
mony, I respectfully submit and ask your concurrence and agreement 
to the following: 

Your superintendent to act as my assistant, without compensation, 
in conducting Government transportation over your road, it being his 
duty to receive from commanding and authorized officers orders for 
transportation, and to order and conduct such transportation to des- 
tination or to a connecting road, as the case may be; to receive from 
and deliver to connecting roads all freight from or destined to con- 
necting lines; to report to me at least once a week the general condi- 
tion and state of Government transportation and conduct of Govern- 
ment agents on his road, and in the event of any accident or stoppage 
of Government freight or troops to make special report of the same by 
telegraph; in the event of any unusual amount of freight or troops to 


278 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


be transported, to be reported by telegraph or letter to the superin- 
tendent of the road over which the same may have to pass in order 
that he may be prepared for the same; to make immediately a full 
and accurate report of the amount and condition of his rolling-stock 
and the general condition and wants of his road, and in the event of 
any change in his rolling-stock or road to report the same. My object 
in obtaining the information in reference to the rolling-stock, condi- 
tion, and wants of the several roads in the country is to enable me 
to aid those in want so far as may be in the power of the Goy- 
ernment to supply. If you agree to this plan of earrying on Govern- 
ment transportation you will please notify me at Richmond, Va., and 
instruct your superintendent to enter upon the discharge of his duties 
in accordance with it immediately. On the other hand, if you object 
to the plan, or to your superintendent acting as my assistant, be 
pleased to notify me, in order that I may provide some other manner 
of superintending and conducting Government transportation over 
your road. 
I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


Consolidated abstract from returns of the Confederate forces on or about December 
31, 1862. 


[Compiled from such returns as are on file in the War Department. ] 


re) ne ate 
Present for duty. a | oe 
P| ie lS 
F Pe 5 
Command. = i) 2 
f ey ae 
S d Bb bn ® 2 
shed 
Esl o on a0 eS 
io) = <q 4 A 
Department of Northern Virginia (Lee)......-. 5, 827 70, 972 91,093 | 152,842 | Dee-31, 1862 
Department of Western Virginia (Jones) .--.-.-.- 241 3, 922 | 4, 802 6, 731 | Dec. 31, 1862 
Department of Henrico (Winder)..-....----.... 85 1,486 | g2, 017 2,680.| Dee. 10, 1862 
North Carolina and Southern Virginiaa (G. W. 2, 204 32, 087 40, 547 50, 871 | Dee. 21, 1862 
Smith). 
Department of East Tennessee (E. K. Smith) -- 499 6, 797 9,268 | 15,4385 | Dee.31, 1862 


Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and 1, 226 19, 237 25, 159 34,170 | Dec. 30. 1862 
Florida (Beauregard). 
Department of the Westb (Johnston).........- 4, 245 54, 548 68, 439 99,536 | Dec. 10 and 
20, 1862 
Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana 2, 878 36, 592 48,141 70,155 | Dee. 31, 1862 
(Pemberton). 


Valley District of Virginia (Davidson) .--...-. 42 496 1, 695 1,788 | Nov. 30, 1862 
Trans-Mississippi Department c (Holmes)..... 587 9, 237 12, 854 17, 231 | Nov. 30 and 
Dec. 4,1862 

Lotal:uct. 22, 22264 5ec teenie ascites see epee ee 17, 834 | 235,374 | 304, 015 449, 439 


aIncluding the commands of Elzey, French, and Whiting. 

b The only returns of this command on file of an approximate date are for the Army of Tennessee 
(Bragg), December 10, 1862, and for the District of the Gulf (Buckner), December 20, 1862. 

e¢The only returns of this command on file of an approximate date are for the District of Western 
Louisiana (Taylor), December 4, 1862, and for the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona 
(Magruder), November 30, 1862. 


Act of the General Assembly of Louisiana. 


AN ACT to authorize the Governor of the State of Louisiana to press into the 
service of the State slaves and other property for the public defenses of the 
State during the present war. 


SECTION 1. Be at enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the State of Lowsiana in General Assembly convened, That 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 279 


the Governor of this State be, and he is hereby, authorized to press 
into the service of the State, forthe purpose of constructing fortifica- 
tions and other works for the public defenses, not exceeding at any 
one time one-half of all the able-bodied male slaves from eighteen to 
fifty years of age, belonging to any one person or persons, or under 
the charge of any person or persons, within the State of Louisiana, 
together with such utensils and other movables deemed necessary to 
work such slaves pro rata; and the slaves so pressed shall be valued 
by sworn appraisers, to be named, one by the officer charged to make 
the press and another by the owner or persons having charge of such 
slaves; and in case of disagreement the two appraisers to choose an 
umpire; and in case of neglect or refusal of the owner or persor. hav- 
ing chargé of such slaves, then and in that case both appraisers are 
to be named by the officers and the utensils and movables are to be 
appraised in like manner. And it is hereby made the duty of the 
several sheriffs in the State to furnish a list of the owners and num- 
ber of slaves owned or in possession of each within their respective 
jurisdictions, and that the Governor shall delegate the same authority 
to the military officer (State or Confederate) commanding the depart- 
ment where the fortifications or other works are to be erected either 
to protect or redeem any portion of the State. 

Suc. 2. Be it further enacted, &c., That in case of the loss of any 
such slave or slaves by reason of being so pressed into the service of 
the State, then and in that case the owner or owners shall be entitled 
to demand and receive the value of such slave or slaves, payable in 
State treasury notes, and the owner or owners of such slaves shall be 
entitled to demand and receive wages for such slave at the rate of $1 
per day for each and every day actually employed on the works and 
in going and returning, to be paid in the treasury notes of the State 
or Confederate States, and the utensils and other property pressed 
shall be paid in like manner or returned in kind.. 

Ma * * * * * * 


Approved January 1, 1863. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 1. { Richmond, Va., January 2, 1863. 
* * * * *K * k 


XXII. The following-named officers are assigned to duty with 
Brig. Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, general superintendent of conscription 
service in this city, and will report accordingly: Lieut. Col. George 
W. Lay, assistant adjutant-general, Provisional Army, C. 8.; Lieut. 
Col. A. C. Jones, Forty-fourth Virginia Volunteers. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 3, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States of America: 
Str: I have the honor to submit to you the following report of the 
action and condition of this Department: 
After the toils, privations, and many battles of the past year, it is 
gratifying to be able to present the Army as fully equal, if not supe- 


280 - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


rior, in all the elements of strength to what it. has been at any pre- 
vious period of the war. Its numbers, though still seriously inade- 
quate to fill fully its organizations, yet afford a nearer approximation 
than heretofore to that result. When, in addition, it is considered 
that a large proportion of these consist, not of new recruits, but of 
soldiers inured to the exposures of service and made veterans by the 
ordeal of constant danger, its superior endurance and stability must 
readily be acknowledged. It is not deemed requisite to state its pre- 
cise aggregate nor to detail the exact proportions of its respective 
branches of service. It may be sufficient to say generally, in respect 
to the latter, that it is believed they exist in such respective propor- 
tion as approved military judgment considers most promotive of effi- 
ciency and co-operation. The Army thus constituted, could it be 
recruited and maintained to its full complement, would, in all proba- 
bility, be the largest in proportion to population ever maintained in 
actual service by any nation, and would attain the maximum which ~ 
the productions and resources of even the wide, expansive, and fer- 
tile regions of the Confederacy would, without oppressive exactions 
on the people, render judicious to sustain. Nor, when it is recollected 
how, with numbers much short of this standard of completion, it has 
in the past generally wrested victory from the far superior forces of 
the enemy and repelled the horde of invaders on which, with the pre- 
sumptive insolence of anticipated success, our foes have relied to 
overwhelm us, can it be doubted that such an army would be fully 
adequate to all future needs and exigencies and sufficient to assure 
final peace and independence. To secure the completion of its num- 
bers reliance must be placed on the measures of legislation known 
popularly as the acts of conscription, approved, the one on the 16th 
of April, 1862, and the other on the 27th of September, 1862. By the 
first’ of these acts all the male citizens of the Confederacy, capable of 
bearing arms, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, with a 
few guarded exceptions, were constituted soldiers of the Provisional 
Army and devoted first to filling up the ranks of the old organiza- 
tions. This was one of the most remarkable ordeals to which the 
patriotism and self-devotion of any people were ever subjected. It 
was demanded by the imperious necessity of the crisis. Without 
decadence of the real valor of our people or their invincible deter- 
mination to achieve their independence, the first flush of enthusiasm 
and the rush of volunteers, fired by threatened invasion, had compara- 
tively ceased, and, not unnaturally, under experience of the diseases, — 
privations, and hardships of a soldier’s life and the influence of delu- 
Sive hopes of a speedy peace inspired by early victories, the spirit of 
volunteering had died out. 

While, however, the ardor of the individual did not suffice for the 
proffer of self-devotion, the sentiments and convictions of the mass 
recognized as the most sacred obligation the stern duty of defending, 
if need be, with their entire numbers their imperiled liberty, fortune, 
and homes. They were engaged in a righteous war for all men hold 
dear. Toes as malignant in intent, as unscrupulous in means, with 
numbers unexampled in modern war, aided by patient training, com- 
plete organization, and all the appliances of military science, were 
pressing on for their subjugation or extermination. The contrast 
presented at the same time by our banded forces was not less striking 
than discouraging. The periods of enlistment of more than two-thirds 
of our soldiers were very near their termination, and it was manifest 
that, notwithstanding the ulterior purpose of the great majority at 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 281 


some future time to re-enlist in the ranks of the armed defenders of 
their country, their resolution was not sufficient to resist the prospects 
cherished for months amid the sufferings and monotony of the camps 
of returning to their homes and there temporarily enjoying their 
habitual comforts and pleasures. They had, too, for self-justification 
the plea that they had borne their part of the burden and peril and 
that it was inequitable that numbers equally interested and capable, 
but only less bold or more prudent, should enjoy all the benefits with- 
out sharing in their trials and dangers. Our Army was in incipient 
disorganization and on the eve of dissolution. The natural conse- 
quences ensued in a series of grave disasters. Reverse succeeded 
reverse. In the east, Roanoke Island, the key to the inland waters of 
North Carolina, was captured. We had to fall back from Manasses, 
abandon our defenses at Yorktown, and yield Norfolk with all the 
advantages of its contiguous navy-yard and dock. In the west, Forts 
Henry and Donelson fell, with the loss at the latter of the gallant 
force who had victoriously repelled till exhaustion disabled them to 
meet overwhelming numbers. All defenses on the Upper Mississippi 
had to be yielded or abandoned, and Nashville, the capital, and Mem- 
phis, the leading city, of Tennessee became the unresisting prey of 
the victors. 

Finally, as the crowning stroke of adverse fortune, New Orleans, 
the commercial emporium of the South, with the forts that guarded 
the outlet of the great artery of trade in the West, after resistance so 
feeble as to arouse not less of shame than indignation, passed into 

the occupancy of our foes. It was the darkest hour of our struggle, 

and with a people of less heroic resolve and invincible spirit waging 
war against hosts avowing such malignant intents, it might well have 
caused discouragement and dismay. But to their honor be it said it 
only roused amore indomitable will and nerved to sterner struggles. 
A supreme effort of self-devotion and courage was recognized as 
necessary. The bill of conscription was passed and bravely accepted. 
Its first effect was to retain in the Army the soldiers whose terms of 
enlistment were just expiring. How great the sacrifice involved in 
the renewal of all their privations and dangers and the renunciation 
of their anticipated release and enjoyments may better be conceived 
than portrayed. Yet was there scarce a murmur of disappointment 
and disaffection, and not an instance, as far as known, of resistance 
orrevolt. Scarce less meritorious was the action of the great body of 
the people who, with full realization of all to be encountered, yielded 
es egal or their dearest kindred to the call of their country’s 
need. 

The results worthily rewarded such sacrifices. The Army was 
speedily reorganized and recruited, and with sterner sense of the task 
and renewed hope it prepared to meet the exultant foe. The rapid 
concentration of the armies of General Sidney Johnston and General 
Beauregard, in the west, enabled them, with some approximation to 
equality of force, to strike a decisive blow and to win the brilliant 
victory of Shiloh, where the enemy was only saved from utter destruc- 
tion by the hasty arrival of re-enforcements too numerous to be more 
than successfully repelled. In the east the happy boldness of Gen- 
eral Magruder at Yorktown stayed at a critical time the advance of 
the grand Federal army destined for the capture of our Capital 
until our forces, rescued by the consummate strategy of General J. E. 
Johnston from the presence of enveloping armies, could arrive to the 

‘rescue. Signal checks given in partial battles at Williamsburg and 


282 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


elsewhere dismayed and baffled the Federal army in its advance until 
General Johnston had securely withdrawn his forces to his chosen 
lines of defense. Meanwhile General Jackson by a series of rapid 
movements and bold attacks, in which strategy equaled valor, with 
far inferior numbers defeated successfully four generals with as many 
armies, swept the Valley of Virginia of hostile forces, made the 
Federal authorities tremble in their Capital, and fr ustrated the com- 
binations by which the enemy had purposed to aid General McClellan 
and environ Richmond by large converging armies. During these 
operations the grand army of McClellan, inveigled by the skill of 
General J. E. J ohnston to settle down on the swamps of the Chicka- 
hominy to the prudent occupation of digging trenches and earth- 
works, was on the first favorable opportunity stricken with marked 
success in the severe engagement of the Seven Pines. Unfortunately 
before his guidance had consummated victory General Johnston was 
wounded and disabled. Our army was then transferred to that 
consummate commander, General R. E. Lee. Soon thereafter sum- 
moning to his aid General Jackson, the prestige of whose name and 
recent exploits sufficed for the security of the Valley, he, in pursuance 
of a plan as admirably conceived as on his part boldly executed, 
assailed McClellan in flank and rear and by-a series of bloody vic- 
tories drove from their labored defenses his grand army. Shattered 
and dismayed it cowered for protection under cover of its gun-boats, 
there to swelter and waste beneath the oppressive sun and pestilent 
malaria of a shadeless plain on the banks of the Lower James. Even 
that measure of good fortune was due solely to those accidental » 
miscarriages in combinations which in war often mar the wisest 
arrangements. The execution of General Lee’s plan, with vigor 
equal to its conception, must inevitably have eventuated in the cap- 
ture of the enemy’s whole demoralized army. 

While these triumphs were being won another large army of the 
enemy was advancing through Piedmont Virginia, toward its central 
lines of communication under the command of General Pope. He had 
disgraced the character of an officer by braggart boasts, and outraged 
humanity and civilization by stimulating and sanctioning desolating 
ravages and vindictive cruelties by his unscrupulous troops. General 
J ackson, dispatched with a moderate force to stay his progress, 
administered a speedy rebuke to his arrogant vaunts and gave an 
earnest of coming chastisement by defeating, in the sharp engage- 
ment of Cedar Run, his advanced division under General Banks. 
Soon after General Lee, despising the shrunken proportions and 
quelled spirit of the orand army in its unenviable asylum, proceeded 
with the larger proportion of his forces to unite with Jackson and 
confront the then collected and imposing army of Pope. By a suc- 
cession of movements too masterly to be comprehended, and too 
rapidly executed to be withstood by Pope, he broke up his communi- 
cations, interrupted his supplies, and by throwing forces in his rear 
drove him to rapid flight, chased him from the Rapidan to Bull Run, 
and at last forced him, but not until sustained by large re-enforce- 
ments from Washington, to a decisive battle on the already memo- 
rable field of Manassas. There a second victory, scarce less decisive 
than the first, attested the continuing superiority of our troops and 
the unchanged favor of the God of battles. The enemy fled for 
refuge under their old defenses at Arlington and again spread dread 
and confusion i in their quaking Capital. Instead of wasting strength 
and resources by either assailing the strongholds of the enemy or 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 283 


tarrying in the country wasted by the repeated ravages of war Gen- 
eral Lee, with boldness and dexterity, passed his army rapidly into 
Maryland. There with part of his forces he penetrated to the center 
of the State, collecting large stores of much-needed supplies, and by 
strong appeals rousing the people of that oppressed State to strike 
for their own deliverance. With another portion the rapid Jackson 
moved to the capture of Harper’s Ferry with its hostile force of 11,000 
men and great stores of munitions andsupplies. This was crowned with 
perfect success and must be recognized as among the most brilliant 
achievements of the war. Under the shock of our victories in the 
Valley and around Richmond and of the successes of our arms in the 
west the Federal Executive, still tenacious of the hope to crush us 
by surpassing numbers and resources, had ordered a draft of 600,000 
more men to be at once furnished and hurried to the support of his 
still superior but disheartened armies. From the numbers of this call 
may be inferred both the extent of the panic and the losses of the 
enemy from our successive victories. At the commencement of the 
campaign they had based their boasts and their hopes on having 
700,000 men in arms for our overthrow, and before that campaign was . 
half completed their fears called for nearly a duplication of their 
original numbers. 

While the events last described were occurring rapid and great 
additions under this call had been made to the Federal armies and 
not merely of untrained levies since the judicious disposition of them 
in garrisons and the remoter and less exposed theaters of action had 
placed at disposal large numbers of their best troops whose spirits 
had not been broken by defeat. By these means General McClellan, 
who had been summoned with his shattered remnant of the grand 
army to the defense of the Capital, was enabled at the head of an 
immense army to issue forth to attack General Lee and relieve Harper’s 
Ferry. The movement, though more prompt than was anticipated, 
was too late for the latter purpose, as Harper’s Ferry had already 
yielded, yet it brought him in the face of our, forces before they had 
been concentrated from that and their other operations in Maryland. . 
The first shock of his whole force was thus cast on one of the columns 
of General Lee’s army guarding his rear at Boonsborough, and though 
most bravely sustained and even repelled by the gallant General D. 
H. Hill, yet his necessary retirement to the point of concentration 
selected by General Lee gave to the enemy the appearance of a first 
success, and was unscrupulously trumpeted as a great victory to 
animate the hopes and courage of the Federal army. Thus reinspirited 
with treble odds of numbers and artillery they ventured an attack on 
General Lee in the position near Sharpsburg, where he had collected 
the larger portion of the forces remaining to him after so many arduous 
marches and glorious:victories. The battle, protracted from morn to 
night, was stubborn and bloody, but resulted in the final repulse of the 
enemy from allour positions. The field remained in our occupancy and 
the next morning to the challenging fire of our guns no response was 
made and no enemy appeared. McClellan had withdrawn, as after- 
ward appeared, some five miles in retreat. The victory was ours, 
but gained over numbers already overwhelming and certain to be 
immediately re-enforced, it could not be followed up and improved. 
Exhausted by the unwonted celerity of past movements and by the 
inevitable losses of his many victories, and exposed to have his com- 
munications and supplies intercepted by his host of foes, General Lee 
judiciously withdrew his army, with all its numbers and stores, in 


284 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


safety across the Potomac. The enemy, finding in this movement of 
wise precaution a pretext for the arrogant claim of victory, followed 
to the river-bank, but ventured not to assail their retiring conquerors, 
much less to cross the river in pursuit. Our gallant army, in proud 
defiance of the hosts gathered on the opposite shore, rested and recruited 
on the Virginia side with the satisfaction of having well-nigh destroyed 
two grand armies of invaders, and severely staggered a third, more 
numerous than either. . 

A pause of martial inaction ensued for some weeks, and may be 
considered as affording a termination in the east to one of the most 
remarkable campaigns of history. In the west less brilliant, but still 
very decisive, successes attended our arms. From the effects of the 
victory of Shiloh and of the reinvigorated ranks and spirits of our 
forces under the action of the conscript law our forces in each depart- 
ment prepared to make active advanees, and by combined movements, 
pressing forward their discouraged and retreating foes, to repossess the 
country previously occupied by them and to go forward to the redemp- 
tion of the State of Kentucky, and the attack of one or more of the 
- leading cities in the west. In the prosecution of this plan North 
Alabama and Mississippi were speedily cleared of the footsteps of the 
foe. All of Tennessee, save the strongholds of Memphis and Nashville 
and the narrow districts commanded by them, were retrieved, and by 
converging armies nearly the whole of Kentucky was occupied and 
held. The signal victory of Richmond was won with the capture and 
dispersion of nearly the whole much superior forces of the enemy by 
the skill and valor of General E. Kirby Smith and his brave command, 
while a series of brilliant cavalry movements and successes, won 
by the gallant Colonel Morgan, broke up all efforts on the part of the 
disaffected Unionists or scattered Federal forces to rally and combine 
and afforded at once protection and encouragement to rise to the 
loyal citizens of the State. These movements threatened the safety 
and excited the greatest consternation of the cities of Cincinnati 
and Louisville. Meanwhile General Braxton Bragg, with a well- 
appointed army, trained and disciplined under his efficient organiza- 
tion, moved boldly forward through Tennessee and Kentucky. By 
doing this he so flanked and endangered the rear of General Buell, 
in command of the leading army of the enemy in the west as to com- 
pel him to rapid retreat for refuge and re-enforcements on the Ohio 
at Louisville or elsewhere. Had General Buell, as might naturally 
have been expected from his numbers, been more bold to encounter 
his enemy or less rapid in his flight, General Bragg would probably 
have accomplished, after sweeping all foes from before him in Mid- 
dle Kentucky, the great object of overthrowing Buell’s army and 
capturing Louisville. Unfortunately, Buell effected his evasion of 
battle and escaped safely to that city which, under the occupancy of 
his army, became too strong for assault. Sheltered in Louisville, Buell 
was enabled to receive and organize the very large re-enforcements 
which the draft of the Federal Government and the dread of invasion 
in the populous States of the Northwest caused to be forwarded with 
extraordinary dispatch. His forees, before superior, became vastly 
larger than all our commands in Kentucky, and he began by various 
movements to threaten our connections and communications with the 
more southern States. 

About the same time the diversions which were expected to be 
made by our forces still remaining on the southern borders of West 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 285 


Tennessee, toward Memphis and Nashville, failed of anticipated 
success. One division sustained a check at Iuka and was obliged to 
fall back, and some time later the whole command, in a most daring 
and determined attack on the intrenched positions of the enemy at 
Corinth, were defeated with serious loss and driven to a rapid retreat. 
Before these events had fully occurred General Bragg had concluded 
that prudence required the present withdrawal of our armies from 
Kentucky and the removal into security of the large and, under our 
circumstances, most valuable supplies of every kind which had been 
collected during the occupancy of that abundant and unexhausted 
country. His arrangements were being made with due care and 
deliberation for these. ends, and portions of his forces, preceded by 
immense trains were already moving southward, when General Buell, 
under the encouragement of his great numbers, at last ventured 
attack on one of his divisions. The result was, when comparative 
forces are considered, the brilliant victory to us of Perryville.. Its 
results were seen in the subsequent prudent avoidance of all inter- 
ruption or disturbance by the enemy to the quietly retreating columns 
of our armies, with their gathered stores, who resumed commanding 
positions of their selection in the State of Tennessee. Thus in Ken- 
tucky, as in Virginia, our armies, not conquered or repelled, but 
diminished by their own successes, were, from mere paucity of num- 
bers, constrained to retire to avoid environment by overwhelming 
forces, but under the protecting prestige of victory were prudently 
respected and unassailed by their enemies. 

Of the various operations of our forces in more limited theaters it is 
impracticable, within reasonable limits, to give a succinct account. 
It is sufficient to say generally that from the reorganization of our 
Army and the turn in the tide of fortune, that successes have been 
numerous and reverses very few, and that with scarce an exception, 
in small actions, as in great engagements, the superior skill of our 
officers and valor of our soldiers have been signally vindicated. More 
special allusion, however, is due to the memorable repulses of the 
enemy with their formidable gun-boats at Drewry’s Bluff, near Rich- 
mond, and at Vicksburg. At each were illustrated not more signally 
the fortitude and valor of the armed defenders than the heroic resolve 
and self-devotion of the citizens who preferred for their fair cities 
destruction to subjugation. The examples were pregnant with moni- 
tion and encouragement. The gun-boats lost their prestige of terror. 
Cities ceased to be abandoned or surrendered on the approach of a 
foe, and all were taught how free men, above fear and ready for all 
sacrifice, may proudly defy the most potent agencies of modern war-. 
fare. The foregoing detail has been indulged in from a double 
purpose: 

First. To render a tribute of justice to our armies, whose grand 
achievements being then in process of accomplishment, my predecessor, 
from considerations of prudence, abstained in his last report from com- 
memorating; and secondly, and more especially, to demonstrate the 
imperious necessity that demanded the first enactment of conscription 
and the glorious effects that at once vindicated the wisdom of its adop- 
tion and repaid the sacrifices of our soldiers and people in accepting it. 
It is hardly too much to say that it wrought our salvation from destrue- 
tion or infamous thraldom. Could it, indeed, have been somewhat 
sooner adopted or more speedily and thoroughly executed, it may well 
be doubted whether the first act alone might not have sufficed to have 


286 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


extorted from our obdurate foes, in their own Capital or on their own 
conquered soil, permanent peace and independence. At the eulmi- 
nating point of our late successful advances could 50,000 more troops 
of the Confederacy have been added to the victorious armies of Gen- 
erals Lee and Bragg the full fruition of our highest hopes would 
almost have been assured. In no spirit of vain regret is this reflec- 
tion indulged, but because of its deep practical monition for the 
future. In lieu of such happy consummation our triumphal progress 
was arrested and our victorious armies compelled to retire before the 
hosts summoned to the field by the large draft of the Federal Govern- 
ment. -Thesame necessity is therefore again pressing on our people with 
scarce less stringent urgency. In wise prevision of it the second act of 
conscription, heretofore referred to, was judiciously provided by Con- 
gress at its last session, giving to Your Excellency the power to call 
into the Provisional Army all subject to military duty between the 
ages of thirty-five and forty-five, or such part thereof as in your judg- 
ment was necessary to the public defense. Under this act you have 
called into service, for the present, only those between the ages of 
thirty-five and forty who are subject to military service and not 
exempted by an act passed soon after, known as the exemption act, 
exempting certain classes of persons and such others as the President 
Shall be satisfied, on account of justice, equity, or necessity ought to 
be exempted. This call, as well as the first act of conscription, are now 
being actively executed by the Department. A sub-bureau, attached 
to the Adjutant-General’s Department, has been organized, charged 
with this subject exclusively. In every State one or more camps of 
instruction for the reception and training of conscripts has been, or 
is being, established in judiciously selected locations. 'To each State 
an officer, styled a commandant of conscripts, is appointed, charged 
with the supervision of the enrollment and instruction of conscripts, 
and he recommends a surgeon, a quartermaster, a commissary, and 
the drill-masters requisite. 

Pursuant to another act of Congress, approved October 11, 1862, in 
each city, county, parish, or district in the several States a place of 
rendezvous for persons enrolled is established, where they are exam- 
ined by surgeons, and in each Congressional district a board of three 
surgeons is appointed to make the examinations aforesaid. It has 
not been found practicable to spare from the service of the armies 
and hospitals a sufficient number of Confederate surgeons to consti- 
tute these, but at least one in each district will be associated with 
local surgeons of repute for the duty, and the effort will be made to 
prevent, by exchanges with other districts, surgeons of any particular 
county from officiating on the conscripts therefrom. In at least each 
county or city an enrolling officer is expected to act, and he is 
instructed to enroll all not of the exempted classes between the 
specified ages of eighteen and forty, so that those who have evaded 
or been neglected in former enrollments and the number, startlingly 
large, of soldiers who, on one pretense or another, are avoiding serv- 
ice, as well as those embraced by your late call, may be subjected to 
duty: In the enforcement of the law of conscription the Department 
is constrained to be inflexible, and even appear harsh. The sacri- 
fices exacted for service are painfully realized, but they are felt to be 
imperatively demanded for public safety. The exemptions, though 
far more liberal in the last than the former acts, still affect compara- 
tively few, and those of certain limited classes, while the exempting 
power vested in your discretion seems.to contemplate only individual — 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 287 


cases of persons who ought to be exempted on account of “justice, 
equity, or necessity.” In considering the character of the classes 
exempted it is evident that Congress contemplated the enumeration 
of all of the prescribed ages whose offices or functions seemed more 
essential to the public weal at home than in the service. The princi- 
ple of the bill is, therefore, that the whole necessary operations of - 
society and business can and must be done by the exempts and those 
above and below the prescribed ages, while all other white males 
eapable of bearing arms shall be in the armies of the Confederacy for 
the sacred duty of public defense. This principle the Department 
rigidly applies, with but few inconsiderable exceptions of the clearest 
equity or necessity. An impression has strangely prevailed that the 
exemptions prescribed by the act availed as well to discharge from 
the Army as to exonerate from the call of conscription. For this no 
foundation can be found in the law, while the earnest aim, clearly 
expressed in the first act, to retain the Army as absolutely essential, 
as well as the general phraseology of the law, excludes such con- 
struction. 

The whole scope and operation of the second act apply exclusively 
to those to be subjected to the expected call of the President, and 
the act of exemption, passed to limit and define it, can, of course, 
have no wider stretch. The very term of exemption implies freedom 
from a call to be made, not discharge from existing service. It is 
well, too, in every view, that such is the only reasonable construction 
of the acts, for a more mischievous mode could hardly have been 
devised to weaken and dissatisfy the Army than to have made the 
grounds of exemption causes of discharge. Apart from the inevit- 
able loss in numbers to the Army, it could not be expected that the 
soldiers not embraced, seeing comrades equally capable of service 
discharged on such grounds as, for instance, that they had planta- 
tions with twenty slaves without other male adult on them, or 
because of their addiction to special mechanical, mining, or manu- 
facturing pursuits, would not feel the gravest discontent and indigna- 
tion. Demoralization, if not more disastrous effects, must inevitably 
have ensued. There are certain classes of officers and employés not 
exactly engaged in State or Confederate service, yet so important in 
their public ministry, such as the officers and police of cities, firemen, 
superintendents of water or gas works, and the like, and others again 
essential to corporations, private in interest, but highly important to 
the transaction of general business or to works of public benevolence, 
such as the officers and clerks of express companies, of leading banks, 
evangelical societies, and similar institutions, to whom it might be 
advisable to extend the privilege of exemption. The classes of 
tradesmen or mechanics exempted in deference to the peculiar 
needs of society might also be enlarged. There are, too, in the 
Confederacy districts of not very fertile country where the citizens 
are generally in moderate circumstances and have few or no slaves. 
The draft on them of all the males between eighteen and forty will 
probably remove their laboring classes to such an extent as to 
endanger scarcity and even destitution among the remainder. Some 
relaxation of the law graduating the number to be conscribed in 
proportion to the deficiency of slave labor in every county or district 
would be both equitable and judicious. One of the exemptions of 
the act, that whieh ‘‘to secure the proper police of the county” 
exempts ‘one person on each plantation of twenty negroes on which 
there is no white male adult not liable to military duty,” has caused 


288 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in many portions of the Confederacy dissatisfaction and complaint. 
This has been in many instances from mere invidiousness in regard- 
ing the slaves merely as property and not as a servile class to be con- 
trolled from considerations of general safety. In others, where the 
slaves are regarded only as helpless dependents to be cared for and 
cherished, the claim has been asserted that similar privilege of exemp- 
tion should at least be accorded to those who had many helpless 
children or females dependent solely on their care or labor. The 
latter view would alone seem entitled to consideration. It would 
probably relieve the law from much odium and yet only promote 
equity and the public good if when, as in cases not unfrequently pre- 
sented, eight or ten helpless whites are dependent on one male friend 
within the prescribed ages exemption should be accorded by law. 

It will be observed you have not yet exhausted your power of eall. 
The faithful execution of that mode, it is confidently hoped, will dis- 
pense with the need of further draft on those who, from their age, are 
apt to be by their larger ties and interests most essential to society. 
Our armies may thus be adequately recruited and maintained at 
the maximum required by their organizations. More need scarce be 
desired. | 

The organization of the Army has been advanced by the appoint- 
ment under the act of Congress of five lieutenant-generals. They 
were all major-generals and selected for approved skill, conduct, and 
experience. They are all now in active service, some commanding 
separate departments and others leading army corps under a general 
in the field. Major and brigadier generals in requisite numbers to 
meet the exigencies of the service have been appointed and assigned. 
The policy of organizing the brigades with troops and generals from 
the several States has been pursued, and as opportunities offer, with- 
out detriment to the service, will be carried out. The greater satisfac- 
tion of the men from each State when collected together, the generous 
emulation for glory to their State and the fair apportionment of offi- 
cers assured to each State according toits contribution of defenders to 
the country will, it is hoped, overbalance the inconvenience of sepa- 
rating regiments and companies previously associated and the liabil- 
ity to State jealousies. The policy will be persisted in to a full trial 
of its merits. 

The military courts authorized at the last session of Congress have 
been constituted. In making the appointments, while qualifications 
were first considered, preference among the applicants was, as far as 
the range of choice allowed, given to those who had been wounded or 
disabled in service. These tribunals supply a need much felt by our 
commanders in the field. The necessity of frequent courts-martial 
caused much embarrassment and many delays. Without them now 
the prompt administration of the military law may be secured, de- 
sertion and straggling checked, license of all kinds restrained, and 
temperance, discipline, and subordination advanced. The various 
branches of special service heretofore established have proved judicious 
and worked generally well. The battalion of sharpshooters attached 
to each brigade has done much to restore our superiority as marks- 
men, which had begun to be endangered by the guns of long range and 
constant practice therewith of our lessskillful adversaries. On many 
occasions the efficiency as well as the valor of these battalions has 
been strikingly exhibited, and they are now felt as almost a necessity 
to a proper organization. The appointments of artillery officers for 
ordnance service and of engineers, have as yet been made only in 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 289 


part. Boards, however, have been constituted for the examination of 
candidates and are required to hold their sessions in different parts 
of the Confederacy, so as to afford similar facilities of access to those 
at a distance from the Capital. Some sessions have been held and 
reports have been made assigning the order of merit in which the sue- 

cessful candidates have passed. It is the purpose of the Department 
when these lists have been completed to make the appointments from. 
them, and as justice and implied faith seem to demand, to give prior- 

ities in commission according to the reported grades of qualification. 

The engineer officers already appointed and acting have proved most 
efficient aids, as well in field operations as in local works and 

defenses. They have had, however, no special corps of men, but 

only such as when occasion required were detailed for the special 
service. It may be well doubted whether a company or two in each 
brigade should not be specially devoted to engineering work and be 
exclusively commanded by engineer officers. Greater skill and effi- 

ciency could not fail to be attained by the men so employed, while 

the inconveniences which often arise from the delays in special details 
and the occasional controversies arising between the officers in. com- 

mand of the detailed men and the engineer officers guiding their oper- 

tions would be avoided. In connection with such a corps a company 
of pioneers and pontoniers, armed only with revolvers and sabers, but 
carrying some effective tool, as an ax, a pick, or a spade, might be 

advantageously constituted under the command of an engineer officer. 

One detachment of them might precede each brigade in its march, 

smoothing the roads and bridging the small streams, while another 
should accompany the trains prepared to remove impediments or give 
prompt assistance in case of accidents. The celerity of army move- 
ments, on which often great results depend, would be sensibly 
increased by such an arrangement. 

The officers for ordnance service, as far as appointments have been 
made, have rendered the distribution of munitions and the supply of 
arms and artillery more regular and complete, and have at the same 
time promoted economy in consumption, care in preservation, and 
greater efficiency in their use. . : 

The Signal Corps has been filled and organized and is now in effect- 
ive operation. It justifies the expectations entertained of its utility 
and contributes materially to the dispatch of orders, the transmission 
of intelligence, and the general safety of the Army. The policy of 
organizing corps of partisan rangers has not been approved by expe- 
rience. The permanency of their engagements and their consequent 
inability to disband and reassemble at call precludes their usefulness 
as mere guerrillas, while the comparative independence of their mili- 
tary relations and the peculiar rewards allowed them for captures 
induce much license and many irregularities. They have not unfre- 
quently excited more odium and done more damage with friends than 
enemies. The men composing them would be more useful in the reg- 
ular organizations, and while the Department has been reluctant to 
disband them it avoids raising more and endeavors to persuade and 
promote the conversion of existing corps into similar bodies in the line 
of the Provisional Army. The principle now applicable to nearly all 
the regimental and company organizations, of promotion by seniority 
and of election in the lowest grade only, is believed to have given 
more satisfaction than did that of general election. A feeling 
of greater security and more professional pride is engendered and 

19 R R—SERIES IV, VOL IL 


290 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


stronger inducements are presented to all: subordinate officers to 
improve and prepare themselves for higher positions. Still, nan army 
where a large proportion of the officers have had no previous military 
training or experience, due assurance cannot be felt of the competency 
of those on whom promotion may by this rule be cast. A provision 
against gross incompetency is indeed made by the authority conferred 
by act of Congress for the convening of a board to determine qualifi- 
cations, but resort to this remedy is naturally odious and in practice 
it proves but little efficacious. It is not to be denied that promotion 
by seniority alone represses ambitious aspirations and the spirit of 
enterprise and daring which promotion by merit inspires. Some 
recognition of this and desire to avoid its effects have been manifested 
by the enactment of Congress allowing promotions to be made by the 
President in cases of distinguished skill or valor, but save in the rare 
case where recommendation of extraordinary merit is given by the 
commanding general such appointments can only be made to a 
vacancy in the company, battalion, or regiment to which the party is 
attached. Besides, where promotion by seniority is the almost uni- 
versal rule, the exercise of this appointing power becomes odious, is 
construed into injustice to all the inferior officers of the special organ- 
ization, and breeds discontent and dissension. In consequence it is 
very rarely exercised, and the injurious effects of promotion by senior- 
ity alone are not by this provision effectively counteracted. It issug- 
gested that some beneficial effect in inspiriting to deeds of valor and 
the display of extraordinary merit would result from confining elec- 
tion to the lowest grade (the starting point on the road to honors) to 
those, if any in the company, who had been recommended by their 
commanders for distinguished skill and valor. This would not deprive 
the company of the privilege of election, but would confine the choice 
among the most worthy. Still, the higher and more important grades 
would be supplied only by seniority, and with deference it is reeom- 
mended that some mode be devised by the wisdom of Congress to have 
vacancies of that class more frequently the rewards of high deeds and 
superior qualifications. This is the more necessary, since the commis- 
sions of officers in the Provisional Army being dependent on the con- 
tinuance of their organizations, some of the most valuable in the 
service have been thrown out by the dissolution or disbanding of their 
companies or regiments when, often through their own gallantry, too 
much reduced for service. Under the present system, however meri- 
torious or efficient, there is no place for them in the line, and they can 
only be replaced in the Army by conscription as privates. This is 
searce less just than impolitic. Some provision should be adopted by 
which such officers should retain their commissions, or the privilege 
of appointment to vacancies which they are eminently fitted to fill 
should be accorded them. The hardships to the officers in such eases, 
together with reluctance to lose their services, have sometimes induced 
generals in command, particularly in the most distant departments, 
to assign such officers temporarily to vacancies for which the officers 
entitled by seniority were known to be less competent, or to special 
duties. An embarrassment results. The officers in some cases after 
a long service find that they have lost their commissions by the pre- - 
vious disbanding of their commands and can neither be recognized 
nor receive their pay as officers. Some appropriation to meet such 
cases and provide compensation at least for the period of their actual 
service should be provided. | 

In this connection another interesting class of cases deserves pass- 
ing notice. It has repeatedly happened that officers who have raised 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 291 


companies or regiments, or who have been passed over by a State 
with their commands to the Confederate service after joining some of 
our armies, but before their muster-rolls have been duly returned or 
notice properly given to the Adjutant-General, have been captured 
or had their commands broken up and dispersed by the enemy. Some 
in such cases have pined long in prison, others have served in assigned 
commands for months, and when either exchanged or led to apply for 
recognition and pay as officers have found no authority in the Depart- 
ment to allow either. Several cases like these of peculiar hardship 
. occurred among the officers of the Louisiana State troops transferred 
to the Confederate service, who were either captured or dispersed 
after the fall of New Orleans. It is reeommended that wherever their 
imprisonment or service as officers can be satisfactorily established 
payment to them be authorized by law. 
Measures to afford adequate supplies of ordnance, arms, and muni- 
tions for the Army have claimed the earnest attention of the Depart- 
ment. ‘The increased stringency of the blockade by the enemy, while 
it has made the importation of sufficient supplies more difficult and 
costly, has at the same time induced more energetic efforts to find and 
develop all internal resources. The results so far are very encour- 
aging. Our present supplies are at least as abundant as they have 
been at any time past, and our prospects for the future more promis- 
ing. ‘Two establishments, in addition to the leading one heretofore 
existing at this city, for making ordnance have been founded in 
interior towns under the auspices of the Department, one of which is 
already in successful operation and the other will be in a very short 
time. Besides these some smaller establishments have been fostered 
and engaged in similar work. Thus the serious anxiety which resulted 
from dependence on a single establishment liable to be interrupted by 
casualties or the chances of war has been removed and a larger pro- 
vision secured for future supplies. Of small-arms the Department 
can now furnish stores more adequate to the requirements of the 
Army than at any preceding date, while of munitions it entertains no 
dread of deficiency. In these particulars, also, by the encouragement 
and establishment of manufactures within the Confederacy, the 
Department is daily becoming less dependent on foreign supply, and 
it indulges the hope that it will at no remote period be able to dis- 
pense altogether with that reliance. In this connection it would be 
injustice not to refer to the efficient aid which has been rendered by the 
Niter Bureau, which is charged with much more general operations 
than its name would indicate. The most serious embarrassment to be 
apprehended in reference to the ordnance supplies is in the deficiency 
of iron. Before the war nearly all iron-works within the States of the 
Confederacy had languished or decayed, and from the sense of precari- 
ousness in the future and the scarcity of suitable labor it has been 
very difficult to establish them in sufficient numbers and on an ade- 
quate scale to meet the necessities of the war. It has been necessary 
that the Department should stimulate enterprise by large advances 
and liberal contracts, and likewise contribute by details to the supply 
of labor. Many new furnaces have been established, and those in 
operation have been enlarged and tempted to continue more uninter- 
ruptedly in blast. If the contracts made with the Department are only 
fully carried out, it is believed the supply will prove adequate, but 
there are many difficulties in the prosecution of the work from the 
enhancement of all prices and from the temptations constantly offered 
to contractors to prefer the superior profits which they can command 


292 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


by supplying the general market. In some instances the Department 
has had no alternative but to resort to impressment to enforce the 
fulfillment of its contracts or to supply its pressing necessities. 
Embarrassments of the like nature have affected the operations of 
the Quartermaster’s and Subsistence Departments. For some of the 
leading articles required by the former reliance has necessarily been 
placed to a considerable extent on foreign supplies, since they are not 
adequately furnished within the Confederate States. This has spe- 
cially been the case with woolens and leather, and under the losses 
and interruptions caused by the blockade there have been at times , 
rather scant supplies of blankets, shoes, and some other articles of 
clothing. Still, by using to the utmost internal resources, by the 
establishment of factories and the organization of workshops, and by 
greater economy in use the Army has never been allowed seriously to 
suffer. Of late great success has attended importations, and besides 
contracts for supplies have been made on liberal terms to so large an” 
extent that security is now felt of timely and abundant provision. 
To attain a result so indispensable to the comfort and preservation of 
our gallant armies, the Department will spare no exertion or sacrifice. 

For due supplies of forage and subsistence reliance has been placed 
on the productions and resources of the Confederacy alone, and so 
far they have proved abundant. They are, however, more affected 
by the peculiar circumstances of the country. The harvests of the 
past season have not generally proved propitious, and notwithstand- 
ing the much larger breadth of land devoted to the culture of cereals 
and forage the product in many extensive districts of the Confederacy 
is below the average, and in some threatens scarcity. The cost and 
want of transportation make difficult the collection, distribution, and 
equalization of such products. In addition, the ravages of war, 
prosecuted by our malignant enemies in shameful violation of all 
civilized usage for the ends of rapine or destruction, have desolated 
considerable districts of fertile country. The districts thus devas- 
tated have been, too, mainly those which have heretofore afforded the 
largest supplies of meat. The rearing of animals for food has been 
since the war very generally increased throughout the Confederacy, 
and from other districts larger supplies than heretofore may be 
expected. Still, the scarcity of grain and forage must check consid- 
erably this increased production and render adequate supplies for 
the future more doubtful. A yet greater cause renders the procure- 
ment of the supplies that exist difficult. The redundant issue of 
Treasury notes, which the needs of the Treasury have made inevi- 
table by inflating the currency far beyond the wants of the country 
for a circulating medium, has caused a great enhancement of all 
prices and inspired a general and inordinate spirit of speculation. 
As the cause of enhancement has been and must be continuous, being 
the necessary issue of Treasury notes, so the increase in prices has 
been, and without check from legislation must be, steadily progressive. 
This is so understood or has been so experienced by all classes- that 
there is on the part of all having the necessary supplies to sell the 
strongest repugnance to part with them, even at the exaggerated cur- 
rent rates, from the conviction that a longer holding will assure still 
higher prices. The motive is so influential and general that itis next 
to impossible to supply the necessities of the Government at fair 
prices or by voluntary contracts. Resort to the power of impress- 
ment has become an absolute necessity for the support of our armies. 
It is a power of great delicacy, liable to perversion and abuse, and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 293 


should be surrounded by every safeguard of equity consistent with 
its exercise. The sanction and regulation of the power by law is ear- 
nestly commended to the early consideration of Congress. By con- 
trolling the transportation on the railroads on some judicious general 
system and the due regulation and exercise of the power of impress- 
ment, the evils referred to may in a measure be remedied and the 
supplies absolutely essential may be commanded. But it is not to be 
disguised that a more complete remedy is desirable and that it only 
ean be found in the regulation of the currency, the cessation of infla- 
tion, and the consequent reduction of prices to a more stable stand- 
ing. This more appropriately pertains to the province of the Treasury 
Department, by the able head of which it will doubtless be fully pre- 
sented. As, however, the War Department is the great consumer and 
most prejudiced by this evil, it may be pardonable to say that there 
is but one radicalremedy. That is easyand simple. It is by legisla- 
tion to limit the negotiability of the Treasury notes, so that there 
never shall be outstanding at any one time more than the maximum 
required for the circulation of the Confederacy. The estimates of the 
several bureaus of this Department for the period ending June 30, 
1863, are herewith submitted.* They will be found to be large, but 
not larger, it is believed, than the exigencies of the service require. 

An interesting report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is 
herewith submitted.t During the last summer there were among the 
tribes in the Indian country some agitations and disturbances which 
threatened internal conflicts and a possible outbreak upon the con- 
tiguous States. They have, however, been happily appeased, and 
there is every reason now to expect tranquillity among themselves and 
their amity and alliance with the Confederate States. 

From the preceding imperfect review may be found assurance of 
the increasing power, means, and resources of the Confederacy for 
the successful prosecution of the war. We have room, too, for grat- 
ulation at the firmness, unity, and self-devotion of our people and the 
skill and valor of our generals and soldiers, and much cause of devout 
gratitude to the God of battles for the signal triamphs vouchsafed 
over the hosts of our malignant foes. Nor can I conclude without 
commemorating another glorious victory that has just crowned the 
triumphs of the year and given added cause of thankfulness and 
rejoicing. General Lee and his noble command have, at Fredericks- 
burg, hurled back in dismay, with frightful slaughter, the grand 
army of invasion, engaged for the fourth time in the vain task of con- 
quering our Capital. They had sacked and desolated the town—one 
of the most reputable of the State—with rapacity and brutality that 
would have disgraced savages, and it was made the appropriate scene 
of their retribution, for its streets were piled with their dead and 
wounded. From the face of the avengers they slunk away amid storm 
and darkness, leaving to our gallant army the assurance of acknowl- 
edged superiority and affording to all a bright augury of their future 
total expulsion from our soil. Such happy result will likewise be 
advanced by the renewed gallant repulse of the enemy’s combined 
attack by land and water on Vicksburg and by the decided victory of 
General Bragg and his brave command, which, on the 31st ultimo, 
crowned the triumphs of the year. Scarcely less hopeful assurance 
is afforded by the indecisive and bloody struggle of the 2d instant, 
which, while resulting in the temporary retirement of General Bragg’s 


* Details omitted in view of summary, next post. 
{See January 12, p. 352. 


294 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


forces to a better line of defense, inflicted such grievous losses on the 
enemy as to leave his army too shattered and dismayed to follow. 
Respectfully submitted. 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


—_————. 


Estimates for the War Department from the 1st day of February, 1863, to the 
30th day of June, 1863. 


For pay, transportation, and other allowances of the Quartermas- 
ter’s Department, as per estimate of Quartermaster-General___ $171,707, 927. 00 
For subsistence of the Army, as per estimate of Commissary- 


General’. . =o. USCC See se 48, 656, 500. 00 
For expenses of engineer service, as per estimate of Chief of 
Engineer. Bureau, 2.0220 ese Al a ee 3, 000, 000. 00 
For Ordnance Bureau, as per estimate of Chief of Ordnance __.__. 15,900, 000.00 
For Medical Department, as Per estimates of Surgeon-General: 
NO 1G). Bol yO Poe aye toe Re eee eee $2, 650, 000. 00 
i Fun depen poate seotr iat ih FE eM ct 890, 000. 00 


——_ 3, 540, 000. 00 
For civil expenditures of the War Department, as per estimate of 


the disbursing clerk .-..~ /.-4 ii... ..22) 2 eee 172, 688. 23 } 
Total: ewe EPeP Nee Ce A IS A 242, 977, 065. 23 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 1. Richmond, January 3, 1863. 


I. The following orders are published for the information of the 
Army: 

All white male citizens of the Confederate States between the ages 
of eighteen and forty who are not exempt by the act of October 11, 
1862, are liable to conscription; and all such as have been ‘already 
enrolled and mustered will be held as though in service of the Con- 
federate States, until otherwise ordered. Exemption will not take 
place until after enrollment, when enrolling officers will grant certifi- 
cates of exemption in all cases clearly within the meaning of the act. 
All doubtful cases for exemption will be referred for decision to com- 
mandants of camps of instruction, and, if necessary, by them to the 
chief of the Bureau of Conscription in Richmond. Sueh eases will 
not be required to report in person to the camp of instruction until - 
final action is had on the same. 

II. Enrolling officers are required to be vigilant in the discharge of 
their duties within the district confided to them, not only in respect 
to the enrollment of conscripts, but also in the apprehension and 
arrest of stragglers and deserters from the Army. Complaints hay- 
ing been made of harsh treatment to conscripts by enrolling officers 
in certain localities, which treatment is calculated to prejudice the 
cause of the Confederate States, by encouraging opposition to the 
acts of conscription, it will be the duty of commandants of camps of 
- instruction to report to the Secretary of War, for discharge from 
conscript service, any officer who shall offend in this particular. It 
is required of all enrolling officers to encourage and promote a good 
understanding with the people of the district in which they may be 
serving; and it is impressed on them that firmness of purpose, tem- 
pered with kindness and forbearance, will best promote the objects 
to be attained. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 295 


Ill. Enrolling officers will furnish to commandants of camps of 
instruction, at the end of each month, a complete roll of the con- 
seripts made by them during the month. Such rolls will also embrace 
the names of persons who have been enrolled and exempted within 
that period. One copy of these rolls will be immediately forwarded 
by the commandants of the camps of instruction to the chief of the 
Bureau of Conscription in Richmond for file and future reference. 

IV. All commissioned officers between the ages of eighteen and 
forty who have become disconnected with the Army by the operation 
of General Orders, Nos. 48 and 96, of 1862, or by reason of the non- 
re-election, resignation, or dismissal, unless actually disabled (of which 
they must ‘furnish evidence), are subject to conscription; and while 
substitutes between the above ages, and who are not embraced in the 
provisions of the exemption law, will be held in service to the end 
of the terms for which they have engaged, the principals within the 
same ages, for whom the substitutes may have engaged to serve, will 
be liable to conscription. 


By order: 
5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 2 Richmond, January 3, 1863. 


I. The following orders are published for the information and guid- 
ance of all concerned: 

Recognizing the necessity of officers of railroads having full con- 
trol of their business, in order to insure safety and dispatch in trans- 
portation, military officers are prohibited from interfering with the 
engines, cars, running of trains, or with the control and management, 
in any way, of railroads. 

II. When transportation of troops or freight by railroad is neces- 
sary, a quartermaster or other authorized officer shall make requi- 
sition for the same upon the superintendent or proper officer of the 
railroad, furnishing the necessary evidence of transportation and 
delivering the troops or freight to be transported. 

Ill. In the event that more freight is to be transported over any 
road than the road has the ability to carry promptly, the officer fur- 
nishing evidence of transportation will indicate to the railroad officer 
what shall take precedence. In the absence of any special order as 
to what freight shall go first, the railroad officer shall be governed by 
any general order the Quartermaster-General may issue in regard 
thereto. 

IV. Where troops or freight is to be moved out of the usual routine 
of a railroad, the officer having charge of such movement will fix 
with the superintendent, or other officer of the road on which the 
movement is to be made, the day and hour of departure, and when 
so fixed the troops or freight must be ready at the appointed time. 

V. In the event of any military necessity for an unusual move- 
ment at any particular point, the commanding officer at such post 
will communicate fully the character and extent of service to the 
principal officer of the road or roads from which it is required, and 
i the personal supervision of the proper railroad officers to the 

uty. 

VI. Quartermasters and commissaries will exercise discretion in 
shipping freight not wanted for immediate use, and that may be 


296 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


stored at safe and convenient points, taking care not to block up 
roads and thereby impede transportation. ) 

VII. When it is necessary to send a special messenger with freight, 
such messenger must travel with the freight placed in his charge, and 
his transportation shall be so specified on its face, in order to prevent 
him from traveling in any other way. 

VIII. Enrolling officers will permit conscripts enrolled while in the 
employment of railroads to remain at their duties until Col. William 
M. Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, decides as to who of them it is 
necessary should be detailed for service on the road. | 

IX. Any violation of these orders, or remissness on the part of rail- 
road officers to perform promptly all Government transportation, will 
be reported to Col. William M. Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, 
who will indicate from time to time where his headquarters will be. — 

By order: 


S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


Act of the Legislature of Mississippi. 


AN ACT to authorize the impressment of slaves and other personal property for 
military purposes. 


SECTION 1. Be tt enacted by the Legislature of the State of Missis- 
sippi, That to provide for the public safety by aiding the military ~ 
forces of this State and of the Confederate States engaged in defend- 
ing the same to repel invasion and repress insurrection, the Governor 
of this State be, and he is hereby, invested with full power to impress 
able-bodied male slaves between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, 
or so many thereof as he may deem necessary, or as may be required 
by the military necessities or exigencies of the State, or as may be 
called for or required by the military commander of the State or Con- 
federate forces therein, with the use of tools and implements, wagons, 
teams, and harness which may be necessary to render the labor of 
the slaves impressed effective; also subsistence for the same. 

* oo * *% * *e *k 


SEC. 2. Be wt further enacted, That the owners of all slaves 
impressed into the military service under the foregoing section shall 
be entitled to the same pay, rations, clothing, or commutation there- 
for for each of them as privates in the military service of this State, 
the said pay to be made monthly in advance by warrant of the State 
treasury upon the requisition of the Governor to the auditor, founded 
upon the return by the party making the impressment; but if the 
owner or owners of such slaves as impressed shall refuse to receive 
such compensation, then the party making the impressment shall act 
as arbitrator in behalf of the State, and the owner shall select a dis- 
interested party to act as arbitrator in his behalf, and they to select 
an umpire in case of disagreement, who shall proceed to assess the 
monthly value of the service of the slave or slaves so impressed, and 
the award shall be final. 

* * * *k *k *k * 

NEC. 11. Beit further enacted, That the Governor shall: prescribe 
rules and regulations which shall. be observed by all military 
commanders and other persons having charge of slaves hereby 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 297 


impressed, for the employment of suitable overseers or managers for 
the same, and also for the necessary care, protection, health, medical 
treatment, and return of said slaves. 

SEC. 12. Be wt further enacted, That if any slave impressed under 
this act shall die or become permanently disabled by reason of neglect 
or want of proper attention or care on the part of any of the agents 
or officers of the government of the State or the Confederate States, or 
shall be killed, disabled, or taken by the enemy, the owner of such 
slave shall be entitled to be paid all damages sustained thereby out 
of the State treasury, and it shall be the duty of the Governor, on 
application of the owner, agent, overseer, manager, or person having 
possession of such slave, to appoint one suitable person as arbitrator 
on behalf of the State, and such owner, agent, overseer, manager, or 
other person shall appoint an arbitrator on the part of such owner, 
who shall proceed under oath to ascertain the value of such slave or 
other damage sustained by such owner, with power to appoint an 
umpire in case of disagreement, and the award of the majority of 
them, made in writing, shall be filed in the auditor’s office, and the 
auditor shall issue his warrant for the amount of such award when- 
ever the Legislature shall have made an appropriation for that 
purpose. 

SEC. 13. Be wt further enacted, That this act take effect and be in 
force from and after its passage, and continue in force for and during - 
the continuance of the present war. 

Approved January 3, 1863. 


UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 

| January 3, 1868. 

Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


SIR: We are advised by the notice of the enrolling officer of the 
Seventh Congressional District that the enrollment for military serv- 
ice of all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty will be 
enforced for the county of Albemarle between the 8th and 13th of the 
present month. We are also advised that students over eighteen 
years of age are subjects of conscription. 

The faculty of the university, impressed with the conviction that 
the withdrawal of students from the institution as conscripts would 
seriously affect its interests, and perhaps jeopardize its existence, 
without adding appreciably to the military strength of the Confederacy, 
have requested me to address you on the subject and ask your favor- 
able interposition in such manner as may appear to you expedient and 
consistent with your sense of duty. 

I am too sensible of the value of your time to the public service to 
trouble you with a recital of the considerations which, in the opinion 
of the Board of Visitors as well as the faculty, render it of the last 
importance to the future prospects of the institution that its opera- 
tions should be continued without interruption during the war. 
Among these considerations I may merely cite the danger of the per- 
manent loss of the annuity if operations are once suspended. The 
authorities are committed with, I believe, entire unanimity to the 
policy of continuance, notwithstanding the discouraging fact that 
the number of students has been reduced from upward of 600 in 1861 
to less than 40 in 1863. The conscription falling upon the small 


298 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


number now attending the lectures will almost certainly inflict a 
blow which will prostrate the institution and close its doors during 
the war. I have to-day examined the matriculation book, and find 
the whole number of students now subject to conscription, excluding 
three Marylanders, amounts to eighteen. Some of these have come 
of military age since they entered the university in October, and a 
majority have been in military service at some time during the war, 
but have been discharged for various causes. If the conscription is 
enforced in regard to students, I do not think that more than ten con- 
scripts, if so many, can be added to the Army from the university, 
but the process of enrollment and subsequent proceedings will so 
interrupt the routine of duties at the university as to render the 
remainder of the session of little profit to those who may not be with- 
drawn, if it should not lead to an absolute suspension of the opera- 
tions of the institution. I trust, therefore, you may deem it expedi- 
ent, under the discretionary power vested in the President by the act 
of the 16th April, 1862, to exempt ‘‘such other persons as he shall be 
satisfied, on account of justice, equity, or necessity, ought to be 
exempted,” which power, it is presumed, is practically exercised 
through the Secretary of War, to instruct the enrolling officer, Col. 
Alex. Taliaferro, for the Seventh Congressional District, not to 
include the students of the university in the enrollment for his dis- © 
‘trict; or, if the enrollment is indispensable, perhaps you might deem 
it expedient to grant all the students taken as conscripts furloughs 
until the close of the present session—4th of July—when they might 
be required to report for duty. May I ask you the favor to make 
known to me at an early day any measure of relief you may be pleased 
to grant, that the uneasiness and uncertainty in prospect of the con- 
scription may be removed. 
With the highest respect, S. MAUPIN, 

Chairman of the Faculty. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Columbia, January 4, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, . : 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I had the honor of transmitting to you on the 30th of Decem- 
ber a copy of an act passed by the Legislature of this State at its 
recent session, entitled ‘‘ An act to organize and supply negro labor 
for coast defense, in compliance with requisitions of the Confederate 
Government,” and of requesting an expression of assent or dissent to 
the provisions of the said act on the partof the Government. Refer- 
ring to the third section of the said act, I beg leave to renew the 
request made in my last communication on this subject, and am, 

With great respect, your obedient servant, . 
M. L. BONHAM. 


——_—___—_ 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Raleigh, N. C., January 6, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: Sometime since when in Richmond I had the honor to mention 
to the President the subject of enforcing the conscription in counties 
wholly or in part under the control of the enemy. In view of the 
difficulty of the case, I asked his consent to raise by volunteering 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 299 


all the troops I could in such of our eastern counties. To this he 
consented, and under my authorities some four or five companies 
have been raised and the volunteering is stillgoingon. Theenrolling 
officers have, however, applied to me for instructions, thinking it their 
duty under orders to conscript all they find of the proper age and to 
prevent any more from volunteering. Having only a verbal under- 
standing with His Excellency, I thought it best to lay the matter before 
you and have the written consent of the Department, so as to avoid 
any appearance of conflict and relieve the enrolling officers. The 
policy is so obvious that I need not dwell upon it. A large propor- 
tion can and have been obtained where it would be impossible to 
enforce the law. When it can be vigorously executed, of course, it 
is best that it should be done. Allow me to hope that it may not be 
inconvenient for you to give me an early reply. 
Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Z. B. VANCE. 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, January 7, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: In reply to the accompanying resolution* of the House of 
Representatives of the Confederate States, transmitted to me by you, 
I have the honor to state that I have fixed the 1st day of September 
as the period to which my report is made. From some of the more 
remote arsenals and depots statements of fabrications and issues have 
notyetcomein. The reportis not, therefore, as fullas could be desired. 


Small arms (rifles, muskets, carbines, and pistols): 


OES RIO S25 2s, ae Se ae Sree ek ee 14, 349 

A 2 ASE Nee late it a 2s) AR dene _ 294, 753 

Re PO ANIC 0 eh ee dh ek 9, 876 
Infantry accouterments (sets): 

Peemree ee ce eo) oo ke Lr ci ae eee ee eae, ee 248, 006 

a Be ERS Fee a) 08 Co ee ne | ee ee 408, 756 

SEC fem A eee 25, 457 
Infantry equipments: 

EUR A MTR Ree Meier ST Mk Po er a ee 137, 913 

EE, eer Reese ele ae Ns Foes 2 eke 252, 415 

Sueeenntre es enti Pt ee ri yo OL) Le a at 18, 579 
Public armories: 

Rifles, muskets, and carbines manufactured per month__-.___._.___- 2, 050 
Private armories: 

Rifles, muskets, carbines, and pistols manufactured per month...... 1, 550 

Seemetaniitactured, per months. .0sc. lobe 3, 500 
Average cost of— 

SerMoree MaUskeb 2... sas. - 2. Se Sect Re eet ah eae eee $21.50 

Era Meme en ee A Su I Ree oS 42.50 

Sencar Se hey a ee Se oe he 18.00 


Other private armories are under contract, and it is expected that - 
the supply will be increased from’ them 500 firearms per month dur- 
ing the present year. 

The capacity of the public armories will also be increased and the 
new and large armory at Macon, Ga., it is hoped, will be in operation 
before the close of the year. ; 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


*See Dixon to Davis, September 10, 1862, p. 80. 


SUG Is CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., January 7, 1863. 


Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR CONFEDERATE STATES, 
Richmond, Va.: 


Str: Iam directed by His Excellency John J. Pettus, Governor of 
Mississippi, to say to you that in October last all Mississippi State 
troops in active service, militia and volunteers, were placed under the 
orders of the Confederate authorities of this department, with the 
understanding that during the time they should so remain they were 
to be treated in all respects like Confederate troops. In pursuance of 
this understanding Lieutenant-General Pemberton issued his General 
Orders, No. 7, an extract of which you will find inclosed. Sinee that 
time another question has come up not heretofore provided for. It 
is this: Cavalrymen of the State troops have their horses killed in 
battle, and thereby lose their saddles, bridles, &c., and guns, and 
call upon the Confederate authorities for payment therefor, which is 
refused upon the ground that they are State troops. This decision, 
His Excellency thinks, is not right, and refers the matter for your 
adjudication. The property being lost in the Confederate service, 
the Confederate Government should pay for the same. Your earliest 
attention is called to the above. | 

Very respectfully, 
JAMES H. RIVES, 
| Prwate Secretary. 


[First indorsement. ] 


JANUARY 19, 1863. 
(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL: 
Have allowances been made in such eases ? 
J... Avaese 
Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
January 21, 1863. 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


The seventh section of the act (No. 48) approved March 1, 1861, 
provides in the last clause that volunteers shall be allowed compen- 
sation for horses killed in action. In the previous part of the section 
reference is made to ‘‘ militia or volunteers,” &c., but the last clause 
just quoted excludes all mention of the former. The construction 
would seem to be that no provision is made to compensate mounted — 
militiamen for horses killed in action. 

Respectfully, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 
[Third indorsement.] 
JANUARY 24, 1863. 
(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL: 

Consider the case with reference to the act of Congress of March 
3, 1849, on this subject. 

By order of Secretary of War: 


J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 301 
[Fourth indorsement. ] 


QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
January 30, 1868. 


I think the ease is clearly within the provisions of the act of 1849. 
The payments would under that act be made after adjustment by the 
Second Auditor, and not the Quartermaster’s Department, the only 
eases in which compensation is made by this department being under 
the act of March 6, 1861. 

Respectfully, 
A. C. MYERS. 
Quartermaster- General. 


{Inclosure. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, Hpgrs. DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LaA., 
NO. 7. Jackson, October 25, 1862. 
* * * * *k * * 

Il. Whenever State troops are organized and serving under the 
Confederate authorities they shall be entitled to the same pay and 
allowances as Confederate troops regularly mustered into Confederate 
service; therefore all State troops now serving in this department 
and serving under Confederate authorities will receive the same pay, 
the same medical attendance, and the same allowance of quartermas- 
ter’s and commissary stores as other troops recognized and known as 
Confederate troops. 

*k *K k * *% * *k 

By command of Lieutenant-General Pemberton: 

J. R. WADDY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


KING AND QUEEN CoURT-HOUSE, January 7, 18638. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR: 


Sir: I arrived at this place on the 29th ultimo, and immediately 
commenced a tour through the counties of Gloucester and Mathews. 
The enemy is making almost daily raids in those counties, stealing 
and destroying everything they can lay hands upon. The people are 
much excited and beg for a force to keep them back. I think I shall 
be able to collect in these counties from 150 to 200 conscripts, and 
from King and Queen, Middlesex, and Essex, from 100 to 150. As I 
passed on in my tour I advertised, calling on all liable to the conscript 
act to appear on yesterday (7th [6th] of January) at Saluda (head- 
quarters of Captain Littleton’s cavalry company) to be examined 
preparatory to being enrolled, &¢., and the result was as follows: 
We examined 71; 31 were received; 18 were exempt on account of 
physical disability, and 22 on the ground of being C. 8. and State 
officers, millers, tanners, ministers. of the gospel, physicians, &c. My 
reason for selecting Saluda as a point of rendezvous for examination 
and enrollment, &c., was the great danger of being surprised and 
‘captured by the enemy lower down. When Captain Clopton’s com- 
pany shall be organized I will have at my command two full com- 
panies. At least 150 conscripts in Gloucester and Mathews will not 
only not appear, as ordered to do, but will force to be collected by a 
military force. I shall use the two companies for that purpose, and 


302 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


no time nor energy will be wasted in accomplishing the object. Shall 
I proceed to enroll in the counties of King and Queen, Middlesex, 
and Essex? I can soon get all in those counties, if authorized to do 
so. Inclosed I send you a letter from Capt. John T. Seawell (and 
authority from Secretary Randolph), who has been taken by the 
enemy and paroled, relative to commissioning Capt. Thomas C. Clopton 
as commandant of his company. I have on a list in camp, independ- 
ent of those examined as above stated, sixty-five that have enrolled 
for Captain Clopton’s company. Most of them are conscripts, and 
about one-half those that had enrolled for Seawell’s company. Shall I 
organize the company under Clopton, or enroll them as conscripts? 
If allowed to be organized it will be a valuable guard to the people of 
this section, and much assist me in my work of apprehending and 
enrolling the unwilling conscripts. I presume Captain C. is too well 
known to you to require recommendation from me. I regard him a 
man of energy and courage. If authorized to organize the company - 
I shall, as soon as they are sufficiently drilled, order them to Gloucester 
Court-House, and Captain Littleton’s company to Mathews County. 
This force will keep off all marauding parties and quiet the people. 
In addition to the good these companies can do as represented, they 
can also render valuable services in apprehending the blockade- 
runners and their goods in this section of the State; and on this point 
I ask instructions. The most illegal traffic is daily going on between 
this class of citizens and the enemy. Flour, pork, meal, and, indeed, 
almost every article, are being carried across the bay to the Eastern 
Shore, and across the Rappahannock to the Northern Neck of Vir- 
ginia, and exchanged for Yankee goods which they now run through 
the lines to Richmond. This class of men are mostly conscripts and 
outrageous extortioners. Give me the authority and I believe I 
could apprehend hundreds liable to military service, and secure for 
the Government (at reasonable prices) large quantities of heavy wool- 
ens, Shoes, blankets, medicines, and other army goods; or by confis- 
cation suppress the trade entirely. Please give me instructions what 
todo. Ishall, however, in the meantime take charge of this class of 
individuals and their goods, and hold them until I get instructions 
from your Department. Captain Littleton’s company, divided into 
Squads, is now operating in portions of Gloucester and Mathews, by 
my order, arresting unwilling conscripts and bringing them in. The 
Northern Neck of Virginia, I understand, is worse than Yankeedom 
itself. The most unlicensed trade is going on. That section ought 
to be under military control by all means. Write me on this point 
also. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, . 
D. J. GODWIN, 
Colonel and Enrolling Officer, &e. 


P. S.—Since writing the above a detachment of Captain Littleton’s 
company has brought into camp five persons engaged in running into 
our lines from those of the enemy a large and excellent assortment of 
goods. All the men, except one, are, in my opinion, liable to the eon- 
script act. Two are from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, two from this 
county, and one claims to be a Marylander. From what information I 
can gather some of the party have probably taken the oath of alle- 
giance to the United States Government, and may be spies. What 
Shall I do with them and their goods? I have charge of both and will 
await your order. Is a Marylander found in Virginia liable to be 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 303 


enrolled as a conscript? Please give me written instructions on all 

the points referred to in my letter and oblige, &e., 
2 De se) G., 

Colonel, ke. 


I also inelose the application of J. D. Ailsworth and P. G. Dudley 
to be authorized to run through our lines such goods as our army 
may need. I have no doubt by licensing good men it would result 
advantageously to our cause. That, however, is a matter to be deter- 
mined by you. If authorized, I could select good and reliable men. 
Instruct me fully. Excuse haste, &e. 

Dar Pa Ge 
Colonel, Ke. 


{Inclosure No. 1.] 


GLOUCESTER COURT-HOUSE, December 30, 1862. 


Hon. Jamns A’ SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR Sir: About the 22d of August last authority was sent to me 
from the War Department to raise one or two companies of partisan 
rangers in the county of Gloucester and those adjacent. Such a com- 
pany as would be of any service had not been fully raised by me 
when I was taken by the Yankees and paroled. The men who had 
joined are still extremely anxious to get the company up, and have 
obtained the consent of Dr. Thomas C. Clopton, of this county, to 
take charge of it. J write to ask that if possible the authority given 
to me, and which I now return, may be transferred to him. He has 
had a good deal of experience as a cavalry officer, and from his great 
énergy and general character I know of no one so well calculated to 
make such a company useful. He can hand you a copy of the names 
of the men already enrolled, and if they can be transferred to him, as 
soon as he has the authority to raise a company, by me, the men will 
prefer it, and he can soon raise a very fine company. We are utterly 
unprotected here, and even a small force under the control of a brave 
but prudent man will tend very much to help us, especially if Lin- 
coln’s proclamation shall have much effect on the slaves. 

Very respectfully, 
JOHN T. SEAWELL. 


|Sub-inclosure. ] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
| fichmond, August 22, 1862. 
JOHN T. SEAWELL, Esq., 

Gloucester County, Va.: 


Stk: Upon the recommendation of General Lee you are authorized 
to raise one or two companies of partisan rangers (cavalry or infantry) 
for the defense of Gloucester and the adjacent counties, yourself 
to be commissioned captain of the first company, and John K. Little- 
ton, of King and Queen, of the second, if it should be organized, from 
the date of muster into service. These companies must be regu- 
larly enlisted for three years or the war, on the same terms as other 
volunteers, receiving the same bounty, subsistence or commutation, 
pay, &c., under the same regulations, and they must be fully organ- 
ized with the requisite minimum numbers of men, and regularly mus- 
tered into the C. 8. service. In the absence of a mustering officer you 
are authorized to muster the companies into service, and you will 


304 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


forward the muster-rolls by the first opportunity to the Adjutant- 
General. The companies must furnish, so faras possible, their own 
arms and equipments, but your requisitions forwarded to the Chief of 
Ordnance at Richmond will receive the earliest possible attention, so 
far as practicable. Being raised within the lines of the enemy and 
without the scope of the conscription, these companies may receive 
into their ranks volunteers of any age. Though raised and intended 
immediately for the defense of their own section of country, yet they 
are not to be mustered for local service, but will be subject to the 
orders of the general commanding the military department in which 
they are included, and to him reports must be made when practicable. 
When communication is impossible you must act on your own respon- 
sibility, being the senior captain. All other officers, except the cap- 
tain in the said company or companies, must be elected. 
Respectfully, 
GEO. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


SALUDA, MIDDLESEX COUNTY, VA., January 8, 1868. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR: 


Str: We solicit of you the privilege of running the blockade and 
bringing such goods from the enemy’s lines as the Government may 
need. We are citizens of this State and have proved our loyalty to 
the Government by taking an active part in sustaining her rights. 

Very respectfully, 
JOSIAH D. AILSWORTH. 
PEYTON G. DUDLEY. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 8, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: On the 9th ultimo I had the honor to submit to you certain 
considerations relative to General Orders, No. 98, which assign Col. 
W. M. Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, to the supervision and 
control of railroad transportation. My aim was to exhibit the pro- 
priety if not the absolute necessity of requiring Colonel Wadley to 
report regularly to this office, and I presented views and facts tending 
to show that unless such a relation shall be established between that 
officer and this department much inconvenience and confusion will 
result. I beg leave to renew my suggestions and to present some 
views not included in my former letter. ! 

The second paragraph of General Orders, No. 98, prescribing the 
duties of Colonel Wadley, seems to be in conflict with paragraph II of 
General Orders, No. 112. By the former the direction of all Govern- 
ment agents or employés engaged in railroad transportation, the con- 
trol of all machinery and rolling-stock belonging to the Government, 
the power to dispose of the same, the authority to appoint and dis- 
miss agents heretofore employed by the Quartermaster’s Department, 
and the sole supervision and management of railroad transportation 
are conferred upon Colonel Wadley. By the latter order the trans- 
portation of all ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies is transferred 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 805 


to the Quartermaster’s Department, to which it properly belonged, ° 
because it is a duty especially devolved upon it by the Regulations, 
as will be perceived by a reference, under the head of ‘Army 
Transportation,” to paragraphs 985 to 996, inclusive. 

This order further charges the Quartermaster’s Department with 
‘the safe and speedy delivery” of these stores, and makes it responsi- 
ble for the same, although by the terms of the previous order (No. 
98) the control of all railroad transportation and the agents and 
employés connected with it had been transferred to an officer uncon- 
nected with this department and in no sense responsible to it. 

_ As stated in my former letter, all payments for railroad transporta- 
tion are provided for in the estimates of the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment, and all accounts therefor are audited and paid by it, while the 
power of contracting with the railroad companies and fixing the sched- 
ules of their compensation belongs to an officer who is not required 
even to inform the department of the terms of the contracts he may 
make. It seems evident that with this divided control over the same 
subject unity is scarcely attainable. I beg leave to observe further that 
by the Regulations all officers charged with the disbursement of money 
or the custody of public property in connection with military trans- 
portation are held responsible for the same, and required to give 
‘good and sufficient bonds fully to account” therefor. To change the 
system of official responsibility and accountability prescribed by the 
Regulations involves a policy as to the propriety of which grave doubts 
may well be entertained. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
TAY Ca MYERS; 
Quartermaster- General. 


CIRCULAR.| ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
fichmond, January 8, 1868. 


sir: Your attention is called to the great necessity which now 
exists for strenuous exertions in securing men to fill up the commands 
of the Army within a reasonable time. You are therefore desired to 
detail from your command such suitable officers and men as can be 
spared to proceed at once to those sections of the country in which 
their regiments were raised, for the purpose of gathering conscripts 
and conducting them to their commands, without passing them 
through camps of instruction in the ordinary manner. 

Every encouragement will be offered by the officer thus detailed 
consistent with the law and the regulations of the service, and by 
kind treatment and arguments addressed to the patriotism and sense 
of duty of citizens to induee them to enter the service of their coun- 
try. Such persons as are liable to conscription will be allowed to join 
any particular company and regiment requiring recruits in the com- 
mand in which the officer may be serving. In like manner such 
_ persons as are within the conscript age and may come forward and offer 
themselves for service will be allowed to volunteer, and will receive 
all the benefits which are secured by law to volunteers. Recruits 
thus obtained, however, must in all cases enter companies already 
in service, and cannot be organized into new companies and regiments. 

The officers and men detailed by this authority will be governed, 
generally, by the acts.of conscription and exemption and the regula- 
tions in connection therewith, published in General Orders, No. 82, of 


20 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


306 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


1862, from this office. Copies of this order will be furnished to par- 
ties intrusted in this circular on application to this office. 
By order of the Secretary of War. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 8, 1863. ° 


His Excellency T. O. MOORE, 
Governor of Lowsvana: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 24th ultimo, 
objecting positively to the export of cotton in Louisiana for the pur- 
pose of introducing salt into your State. I think you have misap- 
prehended both the extent and purpose of the dealing proposed to be 
allowed. The President had authorized Governor Pettus, of Missis- 
sippi, to procure as far as necessary salt in exchange for cotton, and 
supposing that the district in Louisiana through which such salt was 
to be transmitted would feel as a great injustice that they should be 
denied a privilege which they saw enjoyed by a people just beyond 
their limits in Mississippi, I authorized a supply to be obtained for 
them, but only to the extent of their pressing needs. I am pleased 
to hear that no necessity exists for such supply to them, and shall 
have no objection to the restriction of the privilege. The policy of 
trading in cotton with New Orleans is strongly disapproved by the 
Department. In some few instances for articles of prime necessity 
to our armies contracts have been made with parties living in 
Orleans to pay in cotton, but the cotton is not to be delivered till the 
articles are first received, and, in addition, there is the positive rela- 
tion that the cotton shall be shipped, not from New Orleans, where 
it is not to go, but from a lake port, under the certificate of a foreign 
consul, direct to Europe. Even these contracts have been reluc- 
tantly made and only to assure the indispensable end of maintaining 
our armies in comfort and efficiency. 

With high consideration and esteem, most respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 8, 1863. 
His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, 
Governor of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.: 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 
inelosing a copy of an act of the Legislature of South Carolina in 
reference to the organization of negro labor for coast defense.* The 
Department considers the proposed system for the employment of 
slaves well arranged and judicious, and approves highly of the action 
of the Legislature; but there is one provision of the law, viz, that 
which requires payment for slaves who escape to or are captured by 
the enemy, with regard to which the Department does not feel author- 


* See p. 267. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 307 


ized to take any action, as Congress alone can provide for such 
payment. 
With high consideration and regard, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


COLUMBIA, January 8, 1863. 
Hon. WILLIAM PORCHER MILEs, 
Member of Congress, Richmond: 


My DEAR SiR: Since I sent you a copy of a paper about the con- 
scription laws I find the proceedings of the War Department have 
virtually suspended their operation through camps of instruction and 
substituted a system of recruiting and volunteering. A circular 
order (8th January, 1863) does away entirely with the necessity of the 
vast and expensive machinery set in motion under the law. It is 
very far from being an improvement on the law, for it is nothing 
more or less than a system of impressment, and will produce infinite 
discontent and bring but few men from this State. It is a mistake. 
Already under it the country is flooded with ignorant subaltern 
officers, selected and sent out because they are useless in the field, 
to enlist or gather up men under the regulations of General Orders, 
No. 82; that is, they are appointed enrolling officers to administer 
the grave and delicate functions of the conscript laws. It breaks up 
the enrolling system established by law and puts the matter vir- 
tually in the hands of men selected as recruiting sergeants. The 
order is made on the plea of getting the men more rapidly in the field. 
It will utterly fail in that purpose. Had the Department acted pre- 
cisely under the law and Orders No. 82, and sent the officers provided 
for to me on the 1st day of December, I would by the Ist of March 
have had every man liable in South Carolina in the field. Up to this 
day they have sent me but three officers. It is true, about a week 
since there was forwarded a list of about sixty to choose from. 
Major Melton and myself have sought every information concerning 
them from members of the Legislature, and as yet we have not been 
able to select but two as at all fitted for the service. Many of them 
can searcely write their names. My opinion is that under the errors 
of the Department and the entire want of comprehension by it of the 
scope and purport of the law, together with this eircular order, you 
had better repeal the whole system and begin anew. As it now is so 
confused, so utterly fruitless, becoming so odious, it is much worse 
than nothing. Properly administered I regard it as an eminently wise 
system, and while General Orders, No. 82, is seriously defective, the 
defects might have been remedied in the mode of executing it. The 
modifications have increased the defects and neutralized all the good. 
I think you have been driven from a most admirable policy and sys- 
tem by the incompetency of those to whom their administration was 
intrusted. Had the President and Secretary held the matter in their 
own hands, and administered it as a vast civil machine, as well as the 
nursery of the military force of the country, it would have been 
effectual and permanent. But when you were mayor of Charleston 
you had as well have put your policemen to administer your finance 
and sanitary ordinanees as for the people who have been to be put at 
this conscription law. Either leave the whole matter to the States, or 
make it a civil as well as military process. 

Very truly and respectfully, yours, 
JNO. S. PRESTON. 


308 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 8, 1863. 
Prof. 8. MAUPIN, 
Chairman of the Faculty, Uniwersity of Virginia: 

Str: I have received your letter asking that the students of the 
University of Virginia be exempted from conscription or furloughed 
until the end of the present session. In reply I have the honor to say 
that as Congress, after a careful consideration of the whole subject, 
declined to exempt the students of colleges, the Department does not 
feel authorized to grant exemption in this case. The students must 
be enrolled, if of conscript age, but may then be furloughed or detailed 
until the 4th of July, on condition that they then report themselves 
at once to the camp of instruction. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


—_———— 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 3.. Richmond, January 9, 1863. 


‘I. The attention of officers is called to the thirty-fourth article of 
Army Regulations, and especially to those paragraphs of the article 
which relate tothe channel of military correspondence. It is no exag- 
geration to state that nearly one-third of the correspondence received 
at the War Department and at this office from officers of the Army and 
others in the military service comes directly from the writers with- 
out passing through the prescribed channel. ‘Therefore, all indirect 
communication with the Department is prohibited, and where it is 
attempted, either in person or by letter, the application will be referred 
to the proper military commander before action is taken on it, and 
instructions will at the same time be given to bring the offender to 
trial for violation of the regulations and orders respecting military 
correspondence. These regulations were made after long experience. 
They have been found indispensable and must be observed. 

II. Not only are all papers and applications to be forwarded through 
the regular channels of communication, but the officers through whom 
they come, and who are generally supposed to be informed on the 
merits of the case presented, are required to express their opinions 
thereon, either in approval or disapproval. ‘These opinions are fre- 
quently important to the Department, and the rule which prescribes 
them must not be overlooked. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 9, 1863. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Governor of North Carolina: 
Sir: Your letter of the 6th instant has been received. By an act of 
the late session of Congress (No. 51) the President was authorized 
and empowered to receive into the service companies or regiments 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 309 


that might be formed in such places as to which the conscription acts 
had been suspended or cannot be enforced by reason of the occupa- 
tion of the enemy, under and according to the first and second sec- 
tions of the act of the 8th of May, 1861, providing for the raising of 
additional forces to serve during the war. The Department will, 
under the terms of that act, accept companies or other organizations 
that may be formed under it by the direction of Your Excellency. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., January 9, 1863. 


GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES: 


In response to your resolution adopted on the 8th instant I state: 

First. That from the information I have received the foree under 
General Floyd amounts to about 3,600 men. This information was 
received from Colonel Clarkson on a recent visit to this city. 

Second. When the State Line was organized the conscript law, as 
it then stood, embraced persons liable to militia duty between the 
ages of eighteen and thirty-five years. In the loyal portion of the 
State, where the conscript law could be executed, General Floyd, so 
far as I am informed and believe, received only such persons as were 
under eighteen and over thirty-five years of age. Any conscripts 
that may be found in the State Line have come from the disloyal 
counties of Virginia and from the States of Tennessee and Kentucky; 
and these were received in pursuance of an understanding and agree- 
ment between the then Secretary of War and General Floyd. Some 
of the officers under General Floyd are within the conscript age; but 
all such were appointed with the knowledge and concurrence of the 
War Department. General Floyd has acted in perfect good faith in 
his efforts to raise the State Line, and has studiously endeavored to 
avoid conflicts with the Confederate authorities. 

Third. Reference to the eighth page of my message, sent in the 
first day of the session, will furnish the answer to the last inquiry. 
It will be found under the head of ‘‘Expenses of the war.” The 
report of Colonel Smoot, therein referred to, gives details showing 
the amounts expended and the objects for which the expenditures 
were incurred. This report has been in the hands of the Public 
Printer for several days, and will be delivered, I suppose. in a short 
time. 

Respectfully, 
JOHN LETCHER. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
Richmond, January 10, 1868. 

Hon. T. 8. Bocock, 
Speaker House of Representatives, Confederate States of America: 
SiR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the condi- 
tion of this Department. The statements for the last year were made 
up to the 18th of February, 1862, the termination of the Provisional 
Government. From the commencement of the permanent Govern- 


310 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. | ‘ 


ment to the 3lst of December, 1862, the receipts and expenditures 
were as follows: 


RECEIPTS. 
Patent: fund oo... Ao dp widbecwpie = Sa Peete ere ata ee $13, 920 
Customs oo Se ae a ie ce ee ee 668, 566 
Miscéllaneots oi! A. eS OS ee re 2,291, 812 
Repayment of disbursing officer$ _______..-. JU eE.e 3, 839, 268 
Interest.on loans’) eins 2. be. Corners Goel eae ee oe 26, 583 
Call-loan certificates «22 Wo gy. eed eee eee oo be ee 59, 742, 796 
One hundred million lognve26 4422. so ae ee ee .- 41,398, 286 
Treasury notes oiios ee a SB Br aa aiid 215, 554, 885 
Interést-bearing noted 22.02 ce ae eh 113, 740, 000 
War tax... noe ee re a rr 16, 664, 513 
Loan, 28th February, 1861222. 2 a eee ee ee ay 375, 276 
Coin received from Bank'of Louisianae.. 2.2 Ae 2. 539, 799 
Total, More 2 gD Bes Se _. 457, 855, 704 
EXPENDITURES 
War Department. 322 22 341, 011, '754 
Navy Department... i: 22l0c2tb. G2. 4. ee ee 20, 559, 283 
Civil, miscellaneous, foreign intercourse, and customs-_-_....------.-- 13, 673, 376 
PUBLIC DEBT. 
Interest on: publie:debt (loans): c.205 25 Ate aa eee $5, 892, 989 
Payment of Treasury notes, act of March 9, 1861— 
Principals Ce. eis ee Ges ee . $545, 900 
Interest oi ee ee ne a, oe Ge eee 20, 860 
—_—-—— 566, 761 
Redemption of 6 per cent. certificates_-_.-.._.-.---------- 11, 516, 400 


Redemption of Treasury notes called in for cancellation 
and reimbursement of principal, under act of May 16, 
jk 1) aan acetal AL Serre ears ME ee 28, 751, 172 
————— 41,727, 222 


} 416, 971, 735 
Add balance against the Treasury on February 18, 1862__-_-._.--_--- 26, 439, 572 


443, 411, 307 


Amiount of receiptea ice liS ie Mase Us OA Cee die 457, 855, 704 
Deduct amount of expenditures. = 2i02.. 2225-0. 2-2 2 448, 411, 3807 


Balance 220 28.0 2k shoe ne 14, 444, 397 


This balance consists in part of the coin on hand received from the 
Bank of Louisiana and the remainder in interest-bearing Treasury 
notes. The appropriations made by Congress and not yet drawn from 
the Treasury are as follows: 


Civil and miscellaneous. 3.) Pec pedi i ves ae Ae 2 $10, 925, 049 
‘War. Department :20 ae. oe oa ee ee ee ee eee ee” 57, 865, 879 
Oustoms on ae accel ee 396, 612 
Navy, Department 2320 ee en 2 ee ee ee Jee 12, 692, 373 

Total... ee. ee 81,879, 913 


.The estimates for the support of the Government to the Ist of July, 
the end of the fiscal year, are as follows: 


Inegisla Liye yoo APO 2) Pe ee eee Yi Pe) oh ae hte eine ee $231, 600 
Executive (salary of President, &c.)_.....---------.--- Xp ke 13, 471 
Treasury. Department... oo Se ee ee eee ee 29, 929, 697 
War )\Department.ovo. ot aoe Pe ee ee ee ee 2 ae 242, 977, 067 
Navy Departmenti?. S22. fac Sa ee eer a ee 16, 948, 870 
State (Department. 2290 2 lo se ee ee an ee ce 150, 253 
Department of: Justice. 202b5 CORE Qi eee ge be 0 oe Se 172, 632 
Post-Office Department .._________._...._--- ieee el a eC, Se 60, 123 
Miscellaneous.e 2020 Coe ul. oe eee ee Ce 10, 000 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 311 


In order to ascertain the amount to be raised by Congress we must 
add— 


ES ESTE SS SE a ee a $290, 493, 713 
eenurawn appropriations. .-.-.-2- +2... ole. 81,879, 913 
—_—— $372, 373, 626 
And deduct the balance in the Treasury -_----. ._- ce ih tet, AGURY a eae ede 14, 444, 397 
Perma ation ng. tO De, TOIseG 6 ow ao Lan dy eeyoeb eects 307, 929, 229 


The debt of the Government at the same date was as follows: 


BONDS AND STOCK. 


Under act of February 28, 1861 .........-. RS Ee a RE ep $14, 987, 000 
ITIP Cet TOO hs ee ee a Sek Se ey 6, 414, 300 
SMEOR CC Mt@UGt LO. LOQPor sree foo 8 ee ae 67, 585, 100 
Deposit certificates under act December 24, 1861: | 
mena ei ie Sa a fe ee a ees SS oh ey, $69, 005, 370 
I ee i a ay ee 12, 516, 400 
56, 488, 970 


145, 475, 370 


apt ie Oe ER Ad pecs oD RS a 992, 000 
mrp motos 8. Pas See Pe leet 10, 919, 025 
Wen CTIC Peo) Ve he ke 272, 022, 467 
UM Reade ee ee ho ee la 120, 480, 000 
Sa es on dine me 6, 216, 200 
—_——#— 410, 629, 692 
oe RR 0: 2 oe eae ee ae ee 556, 105, 062 


In the above statement is contained a large amount of bonds and 
interest-bearing notes, which are on hand in the various depositories 
not yet issued. It is important to bear this in mind in estimating the 
effect of the act of the last session upon funding Treasury notes. The 
loans in which such notes are funded are those mentioned in the 
schedule as loans of May 16 and August 19. The amount of those 
loans, as reported at the last meeting of Congress, was on the Ist of 
August $41,577,250. 


By the statement now reported the total amount of these bonds is... $73,999, 400 
From which should be deducted amount on hand not yet disposed 


(ke liana agp aa Sa a Rl a 8, 000, 000 
; 65, 999, 400 
And in order to ascertain the amount of Treasury notes funded there 
must be deducted for the bonds issued for produce, say....--.----- 7, 000, 000 
58, 999, 400 - 
Pepeeremnuani. repotted: Atgust 1.2 oil ge LL Aegean 41,577, 250 
os EE a eee eee a pig) 3a ieee 17, 422, 150 


This balance shows the amount of Treasury notes funded in five 
months, the average being about three and a half millions per month. 

During the same period the interest-bearing Treasury notes have 
increased from $22,799,900 to $120,480,000; increase, $97,680,100; from 
which deduct notes on hand, $11,004,600; real increase, $85,775,500. 

This large increase of interest-bearing notes affords satisfactory evi-_ 
dence that the issue of them was a judicious measure, and for any 
ordinary war the bonds and interest notes, amounting together to a 
monthly sale of $20,500,000, would have sustained the Government 
without any resort to paper currency. But the estimates call for 


312 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


more than twice the amounts furnished by these resources, and we 
are compelled to resort to the Treasury notes to supply the deficiency. 
It becomes, then, a most important inquiry whether the issue of such 
notes can be continued, and if it ean, then to what extent? In a 
former report it was shown that the circulation of the Confederate 
States before the war might be estimated at $100,000,000. In the ex- 
isting state of things it is probable that a larger amount of currency 
is required. In time of peace money passes rapidly from hand to 
hand, and the same money in a single day will discharge many obli- 
gations. <A large portion, too, of the operations of business are per- 
formed by bills of exchange and bank checks. In the present stag- 
nation of commerce and intercourse larger amounts of ready money 
are kept on hand by each individual and the Confederate Treasury 
notes and call certificates are used as a substitute for bills and drafts 
to a considerable extent. If this view be just we may venture to add 
as much as 50 per cent. to the usual amounts of currency, and this 
would raise the sum total at which it might stand to $150,000, 000. 
The difference between this sum and the actual circulation will show 
the redundancy. The actual circulation embraces not only Treasury 
notes, but bank notes and State emissions of Treasury notes. In 
ordinary times coin would also form a part, but at present not only 
the coin but a large portion of the bank notes have been withdrawn 
from circulation. 

The issue of Treasury notes on the last day of December amounted 
to $290,149,692, exclusive of interest-bearing notes. By adding to this 
sum a sufficient amount to cover the State treasury notes and the bank 
notes in circulation we can arrive at the sum total of the currency; 
$20,000,000 added to the Treasury notes would. probably represent the 
whole. It is this aggregate which must be kept in view when we deal 
with the currency as a measure of values. It is the whole mass as it 
is accepted by the community in exchange for its various commodities 
which by its proportional relation to those commodities determines 
their prices. By a law as invariable as any law of physical nature 
these prices rise or fall with the actual volume of the whole currency. 
Neither skill nor power can vary the result. It is in fact a relation 
subsisting between two numbers, the one representing the total values 
of property and the other the total circulating medium. The nature 
. of that medium cannot change it. It would exist with a currency of 
gold with as much certainty as with one of paper, if the gold were 
kept within the country by restraints equal to those which retain the 
paper. Assuming, then, that entire confidence exists in our currency, 
the mere fact that its actual volume has been increased threefold, 
would lead us to expect a corresponding increase in prices. Such 
increase, although eventually certain, does not usually appear at the 
Same moment with the expansion. Like the moon’s attraction upon 
the ocean, the time of high water is postponed for a certain period 
beyond the moment at which the influence has been exerted, and the 
length of the interval is affected by exceptional causes. But although 
there may be delay the event is certain. Prices will reach the height 
adjusted by the scale of issues and they can only be restored to their 
usual condition by a return to the normal standard of currency. In 
other words, the only remedy for an inflated currency is a reduction 
of the circulating medium. Is this reduction practicable? Before 
answering this question it is important we should be fully assured of 
the excessive issue of paper currency. If the country were open to 
foreign intercourse the difference in value between coin and paper 
money would at once afford a test. But in the present condition of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 513 


trade coin cannot be imported, and gold and silver have become arti- 
cles of commerce like iron and lead. They cannot, therefore, take 
their usual place as absolute measures of value. Difficulties some- 
what of the same kind attend other tests, such as bills of exchange, 
real estate, or commodities in general use and of which there is no 
searcity. Ordinarily the average price of wheat, grain, and other like 
articles of prime necessity would furnish a guide. But the want of 
transportation causes a fluctuation of demand and supply from day 
to day and thus deranges prices. Making all due allowances for 
fluctuation, we find that the present prices of such articles range as 
nearly three times the usual peace prices. 

Notwithstanding the interruption of commerce, we find also that 
the foreign exchanges and even coin stand at nearly the same rate. 
Reasons of a different character, but of equal force, apply to real 
estate and prevent its price from being a proper guide. The general 
increase, however, in its nominal value confirms the conclusions 
deduced from the other tests. These facts unite in establishing 
beyond doubt both the actual redundancy of the currency and its 
probable rate of excess. The remedy which is required in order to 
be effective must therefore withdraw two-thirds of the entire volume 
of the currency. The measures already adopted by Congress were 
intended to act in this direction. The Treasury notes were all made 
fundable originally in 8 per cent. securities, and it was supposed that 
the holders of notes would prefer investing them in bonds rather 
than hold them when depreciated. To stimulate investments the 
holders have been notified by the act of last session that after the 22d 
of April they can no longer invest in 8 per cent. securities. These 
measures, although judicious and well timed, are overpowered by the 
necessity which compels the Government to increase its issues. Not- 
withstanding the large and daily investments in bonds, the currency 
continues rapidly to grow in quantity. This increase causes a daily 
advance in prices, and the necessities of the Government compel it to 
purchase at these prices. The payment of enhanced prices again 
compels a further increase in these issues, and an ascending series of 
action and reaction is thus established between prices and issues 
which if not arrested must result in consequences disastrous to the 
best interests of the country. These effects are hastened by the inju- 
rious operations of the excess of currency upon the bonds of the Gov- 
ernment. ‘hese bonds are offered as absorbents for the Treasury 
notes and the high rate of interest which they bear is the inducement 
to take them. In our present circumstances this interest must be 
paid in Treasury notes. By depreciating these notes the interest 
suffers equal depreciation and an 8 per cent. bond becomes in effect 
a 4 or 3 per cent., according to the scale of issues of Treasury notes. 
The inducement to take the bonds is thus destroyed and the bonds 
themselves cease to afford relief to the currency. They offer still less 
inducement to any foreign purchaser, because he is informed by the 
rate of exchange that his interest will be paid in a currency which 
must be exchanged for his own at the rate of $3 for $1. It is plain, 
therefore, that the change required is a prompt reduction of the cur- 
rency to its normal condition. 

The question recurs, is this practicable? At the last session of 
Congress an effort was made to obtain this result by the proposal for 
a loan of one-fifth of all gross income to be paid in Treasury notes in 
exchange for bonds. The adoption of this measure would have retired 
a large amount of Treasury notes at an early period, and would thus 
have checked the advance of prices. It is the misfortune of every 


314 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


such failure that it leaves the evils increasing at a double ratio and 
subsequent remedies must be so much the more stringent. All the 
causes of excess continue in full operation. Prices increase, the Gov- 
ernment is compelled to purchase, and the purchases must be made 
by new issues. Each new operation aggravates the disease, and hesi- 
tation or delay is ruinous. The conditions, then, which any sufficient 
remedy must fulfill are, first, prompt and, secondly, effective reduction. 
To be effective the currency must be reduced at least to $150,000,000, 
already shown to be its extreme limit, and this reduction must be so 
prompt as to take effect before prices can undergo further increase. 
To meet these conditions I would respectfully propose that after the 
lapse of a reasonable time the issues of Treasury notes bearing date 
prior to the Ist of December, 1862, shall cease to be currency. This 
can be done with the least possible injury by following up the action of 
Congress at the last session and fixing a period of limitation for fund- 
ing these notes. As the law now stands these notes are receivable for 
Government dues and the holder is entitled to fund them in 8 per cent. 
securities until the 22d of April next, after which date he can fund in 
7 percents. I propose simply to fix a period of limitation for the exer- 
cise of this last-mentioned privilege by enacting that after the 1st of 
July next the privilege of funding these notes shall cease. Six months 
have already been allowed for investment in 8 per cent. securities 
according to the contract on the face of the note. Two months more 
will be allowed for investment in 7 percents, and if after so long a 
notice the holders do not choose to avail themselves of their privilege 
the good faith of the Government will stand clear of imputation. But 
it is essential to good faith that ample means should be provided by 
the Government to secure and pay the principal and interest of the 
securities in which the holders are required to invest. This can only 
be effected by an ample and permanent tax. Such a tax is the corner 
stone of the whole fabric. Without it the scheme has no foundation 
and can secure neither public confidence nor success. The proper 
extent of this tax will hereafter be considered. It is sufficient for the 
present to affirm that it must at least pay the interest on the entire 
public debt. To give completeness to the plan it would seem proper 
to provide measures for any future redundancy. We are happily 
relieved from this necessity by the patriotic proposal of several of the 
States to guarantee the whole or a large portion of the war debt of 
this Government. If all the States can be induced promptly to adopt 
this measure, means will thereby be furnished to absorb any excess 
of the new issue over the proper amount of currency. The guarantee 
of the States will enable this Government to reduce the interest of its 
bonds to 6 per cent., and if the States can be prevailed upon to extend 
the guarantee so as to cover the whole war debt, or at least $400,000,000 
or $500,000,000 thereof, the saving in interest will be so great as to 
enable the Government in due time to extinguish the whole principal 
of its debt. Upon a debt of $500,000,000 this saving will be just 
$10,000,000. The ability to apply this amount to the principal instead 
of the interest affords such obvious advantages as to insure the favor- 
able consideration both of Congress and of the States. An analysis 
of the scheme proposed will reduce it to three essential features: ~ 

First. A limitation upon the privilege of funding the notes issued 
prior to lst December. : 

Second. A war tax. 

Third. A guarantee by the States. 

I. In considering the first of these features the first inquiry which 
suggests itself is, what will be the effect of this limitation? Will it 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 315 


arrest the circulation of the notes and lessen the volume of the cur- 
reney? Its first effect will certainly be to add another stimulant to 
investment in bonds. Itwas unfortunate that the act of the last ses- 
sion postponed the change of interest for six months. The delay has 
deprived the remedy of much of its efficacy, and good faith requires 
that at least sixty days should be allowed forits operation. Otherwise 
i would have proposed to limit the funding privilege to the 1st of May 
instead of thelstof July. The effect of the stimulant is thus retarded. 
Still, the fact that there is a period of limitation will induce holders 
to come in before it expires. Those who desire to secure 8 per cent. 
securities will come in before the 22d of April or hold up until near 
that day the notes which secure that right, and all who can will come 
in before the Ist of July to save the final exclusion. It is probable 
therefore that throughout the entire period an amount will be with- 
drawn sufficient to check any rapid advance in the total amount of 
circulation. But when the final date of limitation approaches the 
notes will not pass readily from hand to hand, and the result will be 
that they are thrown out of ordinary circulation and relieve the cur- 
reney to that extent. The comparatively small amount then left in 
the hands of individuals will cease to have a purchasing power. 
They will pass only by special contract and their chief value will con- 
sist in their being receivable for Government dues. If at this point 
the Government will collect a tax sufficient to absorb the whole rem- 
nant, the relief afforded to the community and the currency will be 
made complete. Hitherto the policy of the Government has sought 
to absorb the circulation by inducements alone. Bonds at a high 
rate of interest have been offered, but the inducement has been 
abated by the depreciation of the currency in which the interest is 
paid. Itis proposed now to supply the deficiency by a small portion 
of constraint. We see on every side of us indications of the abun- 
dance of money. Large sums are everywhere held on deposit, but the 
holders propose for themselves more profitable investments than pub- 
lic securities. The ability to keep unemployed these sums, and to 
hold them for an indefinite time proves that no serious damage will 
be suffered by requiring their conversion into bonds. The large 
amount of money which is shown by the war-tax returns to be 
invested at interest in private hands confirms the belief that there is 
no want of capital among our people. It does not seem to. be a rash 
conclusion, therefore, that at least three-fourths of the currency out- 
standing on the Ist of December may be funded without substantial 
damage to private interests. If the remaining fourth could be 
absorbed by a tax the solution of the problem would then be com- 
plete. The people are fully prepared for the payment of a high tax. 
It may not be practicable to place it at so high arate as to absorb 
one-fourth of the entire currency to be called in, but it may approach 
so nearly as to leave unabsorbed only that portion which will remain 
outstanding in spite of all efforts to call itin. I will not venture to 
assert that grave objections may not be made to this scheme. Such 
objections will be found in the way of every plan. They are neces- 
sary results of the proportions of the war which is waged against us 
and of the enormous sums of money required to carry it on. But it 
appears to me that upon due examination these objections, if not 
entirely obviated, will be found to be counterbalanced by equivalent 
advantages. 

1. The first and most obvious objection to the scheme is that it is 

an infringement of the contract. The notes have been accepted 


316 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


upon the promise of the Government that they may be invested in 
interest-bearing public securities, and that promise is not fulfilled 
after the Ist of July next. It might be answered that Congress 
has already settled this principle by the act of last session which 
reduced the interest from 8 to 7 per cent. A still better answer will 
be found in the reasons which led to that act and which make neces- 
sary the one now proposed. A limitation of time for the performance 
of contracts has never been considered an infringement where suffi- 
cient opportunity is given to claim performance. Justice is satisfied 
by giving to the party full opportunity to receive the benefit of his 
contract. Upon this principle rests every change in statutes of limi- 
tation. Examples of the same principle are afforded in private matters 
by the laws of partnership and for the administration of assets. In 
public matters the history of every nation affords like precedents, which 
will probably find support in the laws of every State in our Confed- 
eracy. ‘The modification of the contract is substantially for the benefit 
of both parties. The object in view is to increase the value of the 
whole remaining currency. This object it effects by increasing the 
purchasing power of each note in proportion to the reduction of the 
whole. Assuming this reduction to be two-thirds, it follows that every 
holder of only one-third in proportion of the new issues will have the 
same value in money left after he shall have invested the other two- 
thirds in bonds. In other words, he will make a clear gain of those 
two-thirds. If he shall have in his possession none of the new issues, 
he will nevertheless gain in the reduced price of every article of 
consumption. 

2. Next it will be objected that after the lapse of the period of limita- 
tion the value of the note as money is taken away. It is true that the 
note will lose its function as money, but its intrinsic value is unim- 
paired. It is still receivable for public dues, and it still has the faith 
and property of the Confederate States pledged for its payment. It 
will even have a modified circulation. A great public exigency has 
arisen which compels a change, and all that the Government can do 
is to make the change with as little injury to private rights as pos- 
sible. This it endeavors to do by avoiding any direct interference 
with the contract and by giving to the holder ample opportunity to 
reap all its advantages. The time for the enjoyment of these advan- 
tages was no part of the contract, and every holder was bound to 
know that such an incident has always been considered within the 
control of the law-making power. 

3. It will be urged that the calling in the circulation, as proposed, 
will cause too large and sudden a contraction. An examination of 
the probable state of the currency at the date of limitation will show 
this objection to be unsound. The new circulation to be issued after 
the 1st of December will, on the 1st of July, probably be upward of 
$200,000,000. It will be issued gradually, and will fill up the chan- 
nels left by the funding of the old issues, and so far from producing 
contraction, the new issues will probably be in excess at too early a 
date. The danger at all times to this kind of currency is in that 
direction. 

4, A fourth objection will be found in the probable effect on the 
price of bonds. The large amount of currency turned into bonds will 
cause the supply to outrun the demand, and the usual consequences of 
such a condition of the market will follow. It cannot be denied that 
the price of bonds will probably fall, but this fall will in truth be 
merely nominal and will find a full compensation in the increased 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 317 


value of the currency for which they are sold and in which the inter- 
est will be paid. Those classes of the community which sell bonds 
from necessity or for the means of living will probably gain more in 
the reduced market prices of the articles which they purchase than 
they will lose in the reduced market value of the bonds which they sell. 
Those who hold the bonds on speculation would gain or lose accord- 
ing to their ability to hold them, while all those who have taken them 
as investment will escape injury by simply holding them according to 
their original purpose. The contraction of the currency will increase 
the value of the interest paid them during the war; and at the end of 
it they will have a security which will command a price which will 
amply repay their confidence. The most conclusive answer, however, 
to this objection is to be found in the fact that whatever may be the 
amount of depreciation on the bonds, it cannot exceed the deprecia- 
tion in the value of the currency. If the Government must issue an 
obligation in the shape of currency to pay $21 for a barrel of flour, 
which in a normal condition of the currency could be purchased with 
$7, it is actually selling its paper at one-third of its face. At the 
same time by excessive issues it is disturbing all other values and all 
the commercial relations of society. The depreciation in the bonds 
could never reach this high rate, neither would it affect the prices of 
commodities or commercial relations. If, then, we are reduced toa 
choice between evils, the reduced value in the bonds is manifestly 
the less. 

II. We now come to the consideration of the next great feature in 
the scheme, namely, the war tax. What shall be the subjects of that 
tax and what amount should it raise? The subjects upon which a 
tax may be levied are many, and the expediency of each involves 
questions which it is not proposed at present to discuss. It seems to 
me that a tax upon property and income is so much to be preferred 
to stamp duties, excises, licenses, and other like taxes which call for 
a machinery vexatious in its character and expensive in its operation 
that there will be little hesitation on the part of Congress in its accept- 
ance. ‘The direct tax heretofore levied has set in operation all the 
machinery necessary to levy another, and an income tax could be col- 
lected by the same means. It seems to me that both these forms of 
tax should be adopted. To lay a sufficient tax upon property alone 
would require too large an increase in the rate of last year. Such an 
increase would operate with peculiar hardship upon property produe- 
ing no income. On the other hand, a tax upon income is so easily 
evaded that of itself it would furnish an insecure resource. It is 
proper, however, that incomes should be taxed; otherwise the whole 
profits of speculation and trade, together with those resulting from 
skill and labor, would escape contribution. I propose, therefore, that 
a tax be imposed upon property and upon the gross amount of 
incomes of every kind, excepting those below some minimum to be 
adjusted by Congress. The next inquiry is as to the rates of these 
taxes, to adjust which it must first. be ascertained what amount it is 
necessary to raise. 


It has already been shown that up to the 1st of J uly next the Treas- 


mary noves in: circulation will exceed 2.2.22 3.958 le Le $500,000,000 
Deduct the circulation proposed to be left, say_.....-..----.----___- 150,000,000 
Ok SC a rite gli ga RS >. at Re aa 350,000,000 


The annual interest on this sum at 8 per cent. is ............-.-._--- 28,000,000 


318 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


To this must be added the interest upon about $120,000,000 of 7.30 


NOTES 2c. < oie ood - ephemeris See: Bae eed ce ee $8,760,000 
ia upon $60,000,000 of 6 per cent. certificates__...-.--.------------ 3,600,000 
Also the interest upon 8 per cent. bonds and stock, say about 

$100,000,000 .2o.. csc. PEDO Yee ee See ck es Se 8,000,000 
48,360,000 


This amount shows the lowest figures which should beraised by the 
tax. The soundest considerations of policy would add as largely to 
this sum as the people of our country can bear. If the tax be made 
payable in all kinds of Treasury notes it would absorb so much of the 
first issues, and by reducing the amount to be funded would abate the 
force of the objections to the scheme. If $60,000,000 of notes could be 
thus called in the benefits resulting would fully counterbalance every 
possible hardship—the currency would promptly recover its value, the 
bonds would become an object of investment instead of being thrown 
on the market, and a sure and steady system of finance would be estab- 
lished. A tax of 1 per cent. on property, if it could be made as pro- 
ductive as last year’s, would raise twice the amount of the last war tax, 
say $40,000,000. But inasmuch as portions of the States are in the 
hands of the enemy it would be proper to make a deduction of probably 
one-tenth, which would leave the amount at only $36,000,000. This 
sum would be subject to stil further abatement so long as the decision 
of the Confederate court of South Carolina as to the power of Congress 
to tax State bonds remains unreversed. The very large amount of 
money invested in this form was included in the war-tax act of the 
last year, and the tax thereon was paid everywhere, except by those 
who raised the question in South Carolina. For the ensuing year the 
case would be different. If the same tax were laid by Congress it is 
probable that the holders of State bonds would claim exemption 
under this decision, and Congress itself might be unwilling to re-enact 
in the same form a law which had been declared unconstitutional by 
the co-ordinate branch of the Government until that decision is 
reversed. The question is of such magnitude and involves such 
great interests that an appeal was taken. But this appeal cannot be 
decided until a supreme court shall be organized. It may be worthy, 
therefore, of the consideration of Congress whether the question 
should not be raised in another form by taxing the income of the 
bonds in the hands of the-citizens. The taxing power over income in 
the hands of the citizens for consumption may be distinguished from 
that over State bonds specifically as property. In my view both are 
constitutional, and the public interests demand that every proper 
effort should be made to insure consideration of the question in all its 
aspects. In either case, however, the tax would probably prove 
unproductive until the question shall be finally decided. 

It is necessary, therefore, to estimate for an abatement on the tax 
of last year. Assuming $100,000,000 as the probable amount invested 
in State securities, a tax of 1 per cent. would amount to $1,000,000, 
and so much must therefore be abated from the estimate. In estimating 
the rate of a tax on incomes the only basis to which I can refer is the 
value of the entire property in the eleven Confederate States. It may 
be assumed that the net income of this property is measured by the 
average rate of legal interest of the money which represents its value. 
it the tax were laid upon net income and that income were faithfully 
returned, it could in this way be estimated with some degree of accu- 
racy. But the devices are so many by which a return of net income 
can be evaded as to make such returns unreliable. <A resort to gross 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 319 


income is therefore more expedient. The difference between the two 
must be at least 25 per cent., but under existing circumstances and 
for the purpose of an estimate it would be prudent to disregard the 
difference and assume that the returns of gross income will be about 
equal to the average rate of legal interest. It is believed that even 
the proceeds of skill, speculation, and labor, which may be returned 
where no éapital is involved, will not materially vary the result. The 
estimate formerly made to Congress of the value of all the property in 
the eleven Confederate States in which taxes have been collected was 
$4,632,000,000. If we leave out the odd numbers in these figures on 
account of such property as is now beyond the reach of taxation and 
for other contingencies, we have in round numbers $4,000,000,000. 
The average of interest in the Confederate States may be set down 
at 7 per cent., which would make the total income equal to, say, 
$280,000,000. A tax of 10 per cent. on this sum would produce in 
the gross about $28,000,000, and this, added to the property tax of 
$35,000,000, would raise a sum total of $63,000,000, or in round num- 
bers $60,000,000 after deducting expenses and contingencies. It will 
probably be insisted that there is no occasion for the imposition of so 
heavy a tax, and many will contend that it is sufficient that the Gov- 
ernment pay the interest alone of the public debt. 

I ask leave most earnestly to dissent from this doctrine and to urge 
upon Congress a continuance of the policy already adopted by this 
Government of making portions of the public debt payable every six 
months after the probable termination of the war. The sinking 
funds devised by Mr. Pitt and the great statesmen of his time have 
proved deficient, not in principle, but in administration. The prin- 
ciple upon which they rest is the annual raising of an amount beyond 
the interest for the purpose of eventually discharging the principal. 
The punctual investment of these surplus sums at compound interest 
by the mere operation of numbers would be certain to discharge the 
debt in a given time. The failure of this plan in its effect upon the 
public debt of England arose from defects in its administration. As 
the invested fund increased in amount it offered constant temptation 
to the Government to make use of it, and the party in power often pre- 
ferred inventing pretexts to seize upon it or to court publie favor by 
calling off unpopular taxes required for its increase rather than con- 
tinue or augment those taxes. Besides, the neglect to make punctual 
investments as the interest accrued had a constant tendency to reduce 
compound interest to simple; and thus it was found impossible in a 
long course of years to preserve the fund inviolate or to maintain the 
constant supply from taxes, which the plan demanded. These defects 
are believed to be remedied by the plan upon which the $100,000,000 
loan of this Government has been issued. It resembles the sinking- 
fund plan in requiring an annual surplus of taxes beyond the amount 
of interest on the public debt, but it differs from it in applying this 
surplus to the immediate reduction of principal. The machinery 
of a fund is dispensed with together with all its attendant officials. 
The best practical investment is made by paying off so much of the 
public debt, and the temptations and waste incident to a fund are 
avoided. The full benefit of a sinking fund is thus secured without 
its disadvantages. All that is required is the original adjustment of 
the payments of principal through an entire series of years and the 
steady determination of Congress to raise annually a fixed sum suffi- 
cient to make these payments in addition to the yearly interest. The 
number of years in which the debt will be paid will depend upon the 


320 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


amount of this fixed sum. In proportion to its excess over the annual 
interest will be the shortness of the period. The first payments of 
principal will be comparatively small, but each will diminish the 
interest of the succeeding year, and will thereby set free a larger sum 
annually to be applied to pay the remaining principal until the debt 
be finally discharged. 

The act of Congress of the 12th of April, 1862, departed from this 
plan and made the next issue of bonds payable in thirty years, sub- 
ject to redemption at any time after the expiration of ten years. The 
whole subject necessarily comes up for consideration in adjusting the 
tax now to be laid by Congress. The $15,000,000 loan carries an inter- 
est of 8 per cent.; it is payable in ten years, but may be redeemed at 
any time after the 1st of September, 1866. The $100,000,000 loan is 
also an 8 per cent. loan, and is made payable in installments which 
fall due every six months for eighteen years from the 1st of January, 
1864, The first installment of principal, of $1,288,700, is payable the 
Ist of January, 1864; the second, of $1,340,200, is payable the 1st of 
July, 1864. The third loan is under the act of April, 1862; it is also 
an 8 per cent., payable, as above stated, at the pleasure of the Gov- 
ernment at from ten to thirty years. If Congress should approve the 
application of the plan of the $100,000,000 loan to the whole debt of 
the Government, then a change should be made in the loan of April, 
1862. No bonds have yet been issued under that act, and the matter 
is yet within the control of Congress. A modification of the law must 
be made at any rate to meet the reduction of interest required on 
notes issued subsequent to December 1. If the scheme of finance 
hereinafter proposed in relation to the debt guaranteed by the States 
Shall find favor with Congress, a further modification of the loan of 
the 12th of April, 1862, should be made by reducing the period for 
redemption from ten years to five years. This change will enable the 
proceeds of the sale of the 6 per cent. bonds guaranteed by the States to 
be applied in discharge of the 8 per cent. at the end of five years in 
case they cannot be purchased in the market sooner. 

III. We come now to the third feature in the scheme, namely, the 
guaranty of the States. The State of Virginia led the way and pro- 
posed that Congress should devise a plan for a loan to be guaranteed 
by the States. Congress did not see fit to take any action on the sub- 
ject at its last session. It was probably deemed best that the proposal 
should come from the States. An offer of their guaranty is certainly 
more beneficial to the credit of the Government than a request for 
aid. The delay has given the opportunity to the States to make the 
offer. The State of Alabama has offered a guaranty of her quota of 
the whole war debt upon certain conditions. The State of South 
Carolina has offered to guarantee a quota of $200,000,000 upon certain 
other conditions. A copy of the action of their respective Legisla- 
tures is herewith submitted.* The varying action of these two States 
evinces the importance of settling a definitive plan by Congress. It is 
probable that every State will cordially respond to such plan and sus- 
tain the credit of this Government. The great advantages to be 
derived from this guaranty have already been somewhat developed. 
It is only necessary now to give prominence to two of them—first, the 
opportunity which it affords of converting an 8 per cent. into a 6 per 
cent. debt, and, secondly, the premium which can be realized on the 
Sale of the bonds. The former will enable the Government to estab- 


*For resolutions of General Assembly of Alabama, see December 1, 1862, p. 219. 
The South Carolina document not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 321 


lish a loan on the principle already explained, and the latter will place 
in its hands ample means to call in the redundancy of Treasury notes 
after the Ist of July next, and to sustain the credit of its 8 per cent. 
securities or to purchase them. Assuming that the States may be 
induced to extend their guaranty to $500,000,000, I propose to adjust 
the debt upon the plan of the $100,000,000 loan, so as to insure its dis- 
charge within a given period. The length of this period depends upon 
the sum which Congress will devote to the annual payments. The 
commencement of the period or the date at which the first payment is 
to be made is, of course, within the control of Congress, and involves 
the same inquiry as to the amount now to be raised by taxes. <A post- 
ponement of this first payment of principal would seem to allow a 
diminution of the tax. But it must be observed that some consider- 
able time must elapse before the guaranty of the States can be had, 
and further time must then be consumed in carrying the plan into exe- 
cution and in procuring the terms of the sales. During all this period 
the 8 per cent. and 7.30 notes are outstanding and will absorb nearly 
aS much more money as will afterward be required to meet the first 
annual payments on the principal. Besides this it cannot be too 
strongly urged that the present is the appropriate moment at which to 
commence a proper system of taxes. The patriotism of the country is 
now fully aroused. The duty of contributing largely to the support 
of the Government is generally recognized. The large amount of 
money in circulation will make the payment easy, and the payment 
itself will aid the tax-payer by reducing prices to their proper condi- 
tion. Before leaving this subject I would respectfully submit that 
there is another plan for arranging the debt in installments, which 
would produce the same results. It is by issuing all the bonds in the 
usual form, payable at the same date, and attaching to them a con- 
dition that the Secretary of the Treasury shall annually or semi- 
annually, by lot, designate a certain portion to be paid off. If these 
annual payments were arranged on the same principle which governs 
the $100,000,000 loan and were made equally obligatory upon the 
Government, the result would be the same. <A reference to a few 
details will conclude all I have to say on this subject. 

With my last report was submitted a report from the War-Tax Office, 
to which I request your attention, particularly to the observations in 
relation to a uniform tax on slaves. It is proper also to make 
provision for a more equal assessment of property in each State. A 
commission of a certain number of the tax collectors from the various 
portions of each State should be appointed to meet and adjust the ~ 
rate at which the various kinds of property should be assessed. It 
seems to me also that the entire machinery of assessors provided by 
the last act can be dispensed with by charging the duties of the 
assessors on the district collectors and increasing their salaries. 
Exceptions may be made in case of large cities. This defect in 
salaries attaches to the entire arrangement of the last act. It is not 
a wise policy to confide large money arrangements to officers who are 
badly paid. The patriotism of the officers induced them during the 
last year to accept the offices with the small salaries allowed, but it 
would be neither wise nor just to ask a repetition of the sacrifice. 
The issuing of Treasury notes and the transfer of them to the various 
depositories, with the arrangements at those depositories for their 
receipt, custody, and disposal, have grown into some of the most 
important functions of this Department, 


21 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


322 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The engraving, printing, and preparing the notes involved great 
responsibilities and still larger expense, and I must again urge upon 
Congress the expediency of creating for this branch a separate bureau. 
The necessities of the times compel the transfer of the printing estab- 
lishments to Columbia. It seemed a better policy to encourage private 
competition and enterprise rather than undertake to carry on mechan- 
ical work by the Government. The engraving and printing, together 
with the manufacture of paper, have all been done by contract; but 
the handling of the notes after they are printed, and the trimming, 
numbering, and signing them, require a large number of clerks. I 
have been obliged greatly to increase the number under the authority 
of the act of March 7, 1861, and the whole number is now 262, of whom 
139 are ladies. I ventured upon the employment of the latter under 
the belief that they would be found diligent and efficient, and that Con- 
gress would approve the relief which was thereby extended to a large 
portion of the most loyal suffering and deserving of our country- 
women. In arranging their duties I reduced the time and work 
required below the rate required of men and made a proportionate 
reduction of salary. The plan has been found to work well. 

When it is considered that this very large branch of the business 
of the Treasury is without an appropriate head and must be superin- 
tended in all its details, as matters now stand, before the Secretary 
himself, it will, I trust, be deemed reasonable to establish a separate 
bureau for its administration. J am bound by a sense of public duty — 
again to say that it would conduce more to the public interest to 
dispense with most of this agency and have the signatures to the 
notes engraved and printed. Experience proves that any signature 
is readily imitated; that the signatures of the same writers vary so _ 
much as to afford no adequate guide, and that where so many signers 
are employed it is impossible to inform the community either as to 
their names or signatures. The written signatures, therefore, fur- 
nish no better security than the engraved. The issue and deposit 
of Treasury notes and the very large disbursements now made for 
the war have changed the entire character of the treasuries and 
depositories. Those at Richmond, Charleston, Montgomery, and 
Jackson have become large banks, and the number of clerks and the 
salaries of both officers and clerks are wholly inadequate. The 
assistant treasurer at Charleston has a salary of $2,500, and the clerks 
at each office are limited to $1,200. The teller in a bank receives as 
much for his salary as is now paid to the assistant treasurer at 
Charleston. That officer has for some time desired to resign, and for 
two months I have been seeking without success a proper successor. 
I have also been unable to procure competent clerks at the salaries 
prescribed and have been obliged to add to the sum. Congress may 
judge of the importance of these officers when they are informed that 
$5,000,000 or $6,000,000 are frequently in their hands on deposit. 
These officers, moreover, are made responsible for the acts of the clerks 
under them, a liability which under present circumstances no respon- 
sible party is willing to take. Unless these difficulties are corrected 
it will be difficult to retain the present incumbents and almost impos- 
sible to procure proper successors. 

The collection of the produce loan, together with the purchase of 
produce under the act of 21st of April, 1862, has been prosecuted 
with vigor. The total amount of subscriptions to the loan valued in 
money is about $25,000,000, of which $7,631,044 have been collected 
at an expense of one-third of 1 per cent, 


=< 
a 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 323 


The purchases of cotton thus far reported by the agents amounts to 
69,507 bales, costing $4,474,400. These purchases at the present 
moment have probably reached 250,000 bales, including those of which 
reports are on the way. In order to dispose of the.cotton two forms of 
certificates have been devised. By one the specific parcel of cotton is 
identified and disposed of; by the other the Government obligates itself 
to deliver certain quantities at certain points at a fixed price. By the 
advice of our ministers abroad some of the latter certificates, covering 
about 30,000 bales of cotton, have been placed as an experiment in the 
foreign markets, but sufficient time has not elapsed to hear from them. 
The details of this branch of the Department are set forth in the report 
of the clerk in charge, to which your attention is invited. The impor- 
tant and responsible duties intrusted to this clerk render it proper — 
that his office should be placed on a level with other branches in the 
Department. I would therefore respectfully recommend that the office 
be raised to the grade of a chief clerkship. The collated returns of 
the war tax have not been completely made in all the States. The 
report of the chief clerk in charge of this Bureau is so full and dis- 
tinct upon the several points to which attention is due that I cannot 
do better than refer you to a copy thereof, which is herewith pre- 
sented. The question that has arisen between the Governor of Ten- 
nessee and the Department is a mere question of estimate; but as it 
involves a large sum, the Secretary would respectfully ask the direc- 
tion of Congress as to some proper mode of adjusting the difference. 
The liberal manner in which the State has acted under the circum- 
stances may induce Congress to adopt an estimate which the Secretary 
would not feel himself empowered to accept. The suspension of the 
collection in several parts of other States is also submitted specific- 
ally to the attention of Congress in order that further instructions 
may be given. In relation to the State of South Carolina, it should 
be remarked that the Governor has directed the tax to be collected by 
the State tax collectors wherever practicable and the amount to be 
paid over to the Confederate Government. The legislation which will 
be required to carry into effect the several matters recommended in 
this report is the following: 

1. An act limiting the period for funding the Treasury notes bear- 
ing date prior to the Ist of December, 1862. 

2. Authority to issue a sufficient amount of Treasury notes to pay 
the appropriations required for the support of the Government to the 
Ist of July next. 

3. Authority to issue bonds and stock sufficient to fund the notes 
already issued, entitled to be funded at 8 per cent., and those hereafter 
to be funded at 7 per cent. 

4. A call upon the States to guarantee the war debt upon a plan to’ 
issue 6 per cent. bonds payable in installments in twenty-five years 
upon the plan of the $100,000,000 loan. : 

5. A modification of the loan act of April, 1862, by reducing the 
time to five years within which the Government may redeem the bonds. 

6. A war tax upon property and income. 

7. The appropriation act. 

8. The organization of a bureau in charge of the issue of Treas- 


ury notes. 
9. Increase of the salaries of the assistant treasurers and deposita- 
ries and their clerks. ° 


All of which is respectfully submitted. 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


324 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure.] 


WaAR-TAX BUREAU, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
January 6, 1863. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury : 


In obedience to your directions I have the honor to submit the fol- 
lowing report in reference to the operations and results of the war 
tax: 

There are thirteen Confederate States subject to the tax, but all pro- 
ceedings in relation to its collection in the States of Kentucky and 
Missouri, for obvious reasons, were suspended by you, and the sus- 
' pension was afterward confirmed by act of Congress, approved 
April 19, 1862, and consequently no collections have been made in 
either of those States. Out of the eleven remaining States the Legis- 
latures of all, except Mississippi and Texas, have assumed the tax. 
Owing to circumstances growing out of a state of war, and the inva- 
sion and occupancy of various portions of the Confederate States by 
the public enemy, the operations under the act of 19th of August, 
1861, have been very much retarded, and in some particular sections 
it has been entirely impracticable to effect the necessary organization 
of officers to assess property... For these reasons it is impossible to 
make a full and satisfactory report of the true results of the present 
system, or to exhibit the aggregate amount and value of property in 
the eleven Confederate States and the tax derivable therefrom. I 
propose, however, to give as accurate a report of the operations under - 
the law in each State as the materials at hand will admit, to which 
will be appended various tables, showing the aggregate amount of 
each species of property taxed in each of the States, the value of that 
property, aud the amount of taxes assessed thereon; also the amounts 
paid by or collected in each State, with a column showing the balance 
due or amount overpaid. The States will be noticed in alphabetical 
order and as they appear in the annexed Table A. | 

1. Alabama.—For this State a chief collector was duly appointed 
and commissioned, but before he had completed the organization of 
sub-officers, and had made the necessary distribution of forms and 
instructions, Huntsville, the place of his residence, was captured by 
the enemy, and the chief collector, as he represents, very narrowly 
escaped himself, leaving his family and all his papers and official 
documents within the lines and power of the enemy. And being thus 
expelled from his home and cut off from all communication with his 
family, or access to his office and papers, and being harassed in body 
and mind, he did very little or nothing toward the further prosecution 
of his duties, and consequently several officers who had been appointed 
resigned or refused to qualify; others failed to act for want of forms 
and instructions, and the whole business fell into confusion. It was 
supposed that the work was regularly progressing at the time this 
state of facts was brought to the knowledge of the Department, when 
measures were immediately adopted to effect a reorganization and set 
the machinery again in motion. With this view I was sent to Mont- 
gomery about the last of June,-and after conference with the Goy- 
ernor of Alabama Mr. Bradley, the chief collector, was induced to 
resign, and Judge Martin was appointed his successor. The State 
Legislature had some time before that assumed the tax and advanced 
as a payment $2,000,000. Many of the collector’s offices had become 
vacant, and some had never been filled at all. There was then no 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 325 


provision for the compensation of collectors where the tax had been 
assumed by the State, and the chief collector found great difficulty 
in procuring the services of competent collectors, and the result was 
tardiness and delays, which have prevented him from furnishing, as 
yet, a collated list of all the assessments in the State, whereby the 
true amount of tax might be ascertained. An estimate has, however, 
been made, liberal to the State, in deference to the opinion of Gov- 
ernor Shorter, by which the tax is set down at $2,000,000. Deducting 
10 per cent. from this amount, the net tax will be, according to this 
estimate, $1,800,000. This is, however, all guesswork, and I am 
inclined to the opinion that if the property of the State is faithfully 
assessed the sum paid will not much exceed, if anything, the net 
amount due. At any rate, there seems to be no necessity for legisla- 
tion until the full returns are received. 

2. Arkansas.—This State was subdivided into fifty-five collection 
districts, and of that number actual returns have been received and 
reported by the chief collector from forty districts, leaving fifteen not 
yet reported. The chief collector thinks returns will be received 
from a number of these, but others being occupied by the enemy, or 
disturbed by the operations of war, will not be reported at all. From 
the returns actually received, and an approximate estimate for the 
remaining districts, the whole tax of the State will be $725,000, and 
after deducting the 10 per cent. the quota of the State will be $652,500. 
Of this amount $400,000 has been paid, leaving a balance of $252,500. 
The invasion of the State and interference by military operations have 
prevented the chief collector from completing his collated list. I do 
not know that the Legislature has assumed the tax, having no official 
notice to that effect, but it has been virtually assumed by the Execu- 
tive in the payment of the above-mentioned sum. It may be proper 
to state that this sum was paid to General Hindman’s quartermaster. 
The payment was irregular; but the error has been corrected by a 
requisition at your request from the Secretary of War forthe amount, 
upon which a draft is to be issued in favor of said quartermaster, 
and when indorsed by him will be placed on the Treasurer’s books to 
the credit of the State as a payment on the war tax. The arrange- 
ment has not been completed, and for this reason the credit does not 
appear on the Treasurer’s books. 

3. Llorida.—In this State the operations of assessment were inter- 
rupted, and in some sections entirely thwarted by the enemy; yet the 
property of the State has been regularly assessed and returned, 
except that of the Fourteenth district, composed of the counties of 
Duval and Clay, and of the Fifteenth, embracing the county of Saint 
John’s. Owing to the continued occupation of these counties by the 
enemy no returns from them are anticipated, so the full amount of 
the State’s quota, as taken from the chief collector’s final report, is 
$251,233.19, and after deducting the 10 per cent. the net amount of 
tax is $226, 109, 88, of which has been paid into the Treasury $225,574.11, 
leaving a balance of $735.77. 

4. Georgia.—All the districts of this State were assessed in due 
time, and the chief collector’s collated list has long since been 
received. In this list the chief collector has not shown the number 
of acres of land, the number of slaves, &c., but merely shows the 
aggregate values of the different species ‘of property in each district; 
hence I have not been able to ascertain the average values, as in 
other States. The whole amount of tax assessed is $2,771, 236.01. 
The net tax after deducting 10 per cent. is $9 494,119.41, of which 


326 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


has been paid into the Treasury $2,477,218.18, leaving a balance still 
due of $16,894.23. 

5. Loursiana.—In this State the organization was pretty well com- 
pleted and assessments were progressing satisfactorily, when the fall 
of New Orleans threw matters into confusion and rendered it neces- 
sary for the chief collector, who resided there, to remove with his 
records and papers to a safer locality, which occasioned considerable 
delay in the progress of the work. Nevertheless, with great energy 
and perseverance, Mr. Lusher, the chief collector, prosecuted his 
labors and finally succeeded in having all the districts assessed; but 
the interruptions and delays to which he has been subjected have 
prevented him from forwarding a complete collated list. During the 
recent session of Congress, however, he presented a statement of actual 
returns from nearly all the districts, and for the few remaining an 
approximate estimate, based upon State documents, by which it was 
shown that the liberal advance made by Governor Moore of $2,500,000 
would probably overpay the State’s quota by $74,000, which was 
- refunded to the State’s agent by authority of an act of Congress. The 
whole matter will be subject to adjustment according to the true 
amount found to be due when full returns of assessment are received 
by the Department. 

6. North Carolina.—Notwithstanding the invasion of large por- 
tions of this State, and the consequent destruction and deportation 
of property by the enemy, the organization for ascertaining the 
amount of taxable property was perfected with commendable dis- 
patch, and all the counties were duly assessed and returned at an 
early period. Before the true amount was ascertained the State 
advanced $1,400,000. The whole amount of net tax was afterward 
Shown to be $1,288,825.31, which was overpaid by the sum of 
$111,174.69, which was refunded to the State by act of Congress, as in 
the case of Louisiana. So this constitutes a final settlement between 
the State and the Confederate States. 

7. South Carolina.—All the districts and parishes in this State 
were in like manner assessed, but several parishes contiguous to the 
sea and navigable waters near the coast have been subjected to the 
invasion and depredations of the enemy. For this reason Governor 
Pickens claimed exemption, by virtue of the act of 19th of April, 
1862, for the following parishes, to wit: All Saints, Saint George’s, 
Winyaw, Saint Helena, Saint John’s, Colleton, Saint Andrew’s, Saint 
Luke’s, and Saint James’ Santee, and a deduction from the ascertained 
quota of the State of the full amount of taxes: assessed in these 
parishes. After a prolonged correspondence with the Governor, in 
which he was urged to relinquish his demand and pay up the full 
quota, he declined, and insisted upon the exemption, and as the tax 
books had been turned over to the State authorities, and the Confed- 
erate collectors had been discharged, there was no other alternative 
left than to acquiesce in his demand, with the understanding that all 
moneys collected in these parishes should be paid over to the Confed- 
erate States. The whole amount of taxes assessed in the State, after 
deducting 10 per cent., is $1,798,076.52. There has been paid by the 
State $1,651,525.55, leaving a balance of $146,547.97, being a sum less 
than the amount of assessments in the exempted parishes after 
deducting 10 per cent. therefrom. The sum assessed on these | 
parishes less 10 per cent. is $151,995.60, the difference against the 
Government being $5,447.63. It is for Congress to determine the 
basis of final settlement between the State and the Confederate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 327 


States. As appropriate to this subject I deem it proper to call your 
attention to the following views of Joseph D. Pope, esq., chief col- 
lector for that State, as expressed in a letter to your address, dated 
the Ist of November last. He says: 

My individual judgment is that the parishes named are not in such condition 
as was contemplated by the exemption act of Congress; but the terms of the act 
are so general and broad that they may cover anything that the President of the 
Confederate States may agree to. It seems to me, if I understand the act, that 
unless the President agrees that these parishes shall be exempted, that the State 
must pay. Many of the people of Saint George’s and All Saints.can pay, and that 
would be a question between the State and the citizens. The object of the State 
in assuming the tax at all was to enable her to extend indulgence to those of her 
citizens who could not pay. For such she would advance the money and rely 
upon future payment from them. This is as it shouldbe. The indulgence should 
come from her instead of the Confederate States. 


In these views I fully concur, and would further add, that in 
assuming the tax the State took the jurisdiction of the whole matter 
of taxation out of the hands of the Government and now exercises 
exclusive control over it. The whole tax assessed upon the citizens 
was assumed, without exception or distinction; and it is competent 
for Congress to remove that suspension which its own exclusive action 
authorized for future consideration, and to require the State to pay 
her full quota without abatement, as the other States have done. 

8. Tennessee.—In this State a chief collector was duly appointed as 
in the other States; but the appointee, from severe illness, was pre- 
vented from immediately qualifying. His recovery was patiently 
awaited for some time; but finally, continued indisposition rendered 

it necessary to make a second appointment. This all produced delay, 
’ and before the second appointee could qualify and district the State 
and appoint sub-officers the same was invaded, the capital fell into 
the hands of the enemy, and such a state of general confusion fol- 
lowed as to render it utterly impracticable to do so, and all further 
efforts were abandoned. The Legislature, however, passed an act 
authorizing the Governor to agree with the authorities of the Confed- 
erate States upon the amount to be paid by the State of Tennessee as 
her quota of the war tax, and another act appropriating $2,000,000 
for that purpose. Every possible effort has been made through the 
chief collector to obtain reliable data for estimating the amount due, 
and from the most reliable information as to the taxable property of 
the State, derived from State returns and other sources, the Depart- 
ment estimated that the net tax would exceed the sum appropriated 
by over $200,000. The amount estimated is $2,450,000, less 10 per 
cent., making the sum of $2,205,000 net tax. This amount was long 
since proposed to the Governor. The Governor proposes a sum so 
much smaller than your estimate, to wit, about $1,500,000, that it is 
not likely to be agreed to. It will, therefore, devolve upon Congress 
and the Legislature of Tennessee to settle the amount to be paid, or 
to prescribe some mode of settlement. The Governor has paid into 
the Treasury $1,030,069.25, and the chief collector, Doctor Ramsey, 
has informed you that the Governor has ordered an additional pay- 
ment to be made of $400,000, making in the aggregate $1,430,069.25. 

9. Virginia.—There are in this State 149 counties and 11 cities, 
constituting as many collection districts. Ninety-seven counties and 
9 cities have been assessed and returned, leaving 52 counties and 2 
cities (Alexandria and Wheeling) which have not been assessed or 
returned. In the northwestern counties, for apparent reasons, no 
attempt has been made to appoint officers or to procure assessments. 


328 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In other counties in the eastern part of the State, where the people 
are loyal and patriotic, collectors were appointed and had given their 
bonds; but before the assessors had entered upon their duties the 
invasion of the enemy arrested further progress. The aggregate 
amount of assessment returns, as shown by the chief collector’s final 
report, is $548,164,215.91. The tax on this at one-half per cent. 
is $2,740,821.07, and the net tax after deducting 10 per cent. is 
$2,466,738.97. The amount paid by the State, as shown by the 
Treasurer’s books, is $2,125,000, leaving a balance of $341,738.97. 
For the information of Congress, in view of any future legislation in 
reference to the war tax, I have deemed it proper to present herewith 
a series of tables prepared by Col. H. T. Garnett, the chief collector, 
as well as to give a condensed statement of his views and suggestions 
in reference to the mode of assessing a more uniform value of certain 
property, which I beg leave to commend as being wise and appro- 
priate, and well worthy the attentive consideration of Congress. 
The copies of his tables, hereto annexed, are numbered from 1 to 4. 
Colonel Garnett refers to former suggestions made by him in refer- 
ence to the danger of rendering the ad valorem system of taxation 
unjust, unequal, and oppressive, and proceeds to remark upon the 
impossibility, from divers causes, of approximating a fair distribution 
of the burdens of taxation upon the principle of rating all property 
of the same class, &c., at one price or value. That climate, soil, and 
other causes, especially affecting slave property on the borders 
adjacent to non-slaveholding territory, all operate to depress or 
elevate values to such a degree that it is difficult to establish a just 
rule in the application of one price to all the same class. But in 
endeavoring to avoid this by giving discretion to a great number of 
assessors to fix the values of the same class of property in the same 
region, the result sought to be avoided will not be improved by pro- 
ducing inequality of tax where all the elements which determine 
values are exactly the same. He then illustrates by referring to the 
returns of assessors in coterminous counties, where climate, soil, &e., 
are identical, in which a marked difference in the assessment of 
Slaves is found to exist. For instance, the county of Dinwiddie con- 
tains only forty-six more slaves than the county of Essex, but the 
assessment upon the slaves of Dinwiddie is $521,975 more than that 
of Essex. This instance he regards as perhaps more glaring than 
any other to be found in the returns, but believes as a general rule it 
will obtain throughout. The assessors, having no opportunities of 
consultation and comparison of views, have produced almost as many 
variations and inequalities in their assessments as there are districts 
in the State. The remedy which he suggests is that Congress, com- 
posed as it is of representatives from all sections, should take the 
average of assessments now to be found in the returns from all the 
States and either agree upon that as a uniform price or value here- 
after to control the assessors, or divide the Confederacy either by 
grand divisions, having reference to soil, climate, and productions, 
and vary the rate to suit the circumstances of each, or adopt a 
uniform value in each State to govern the assessors in future. 

10. The only remaining States to be considered are Texas and Mis- — 
Sissippi, and, as has been stated, the only States in which the war tax 
is being collected by Confederate officers, all the others having 
assumed the tax. In Mississippi all the districts in the State have 
been duly assessed and returned, and the amount of tax thus assessed, 
as shown by the chief collector’s collated list, in the- whole State, is 
$2,240,813.43, and of this amount there has been collected and paid into 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. onO 


the Treasury $2,052,304.96. Suspension of collections has only been 
asked by the chief collector in one instance, that of the county of 
Tishomingo, which has long been in the possession of the enemy. 
Nevertheless, since asking this suspension the collector of that county 
has deposited with the chief collector about $18,000. 

11. Texas.—Collated lists of property rendered for assessment of 
non-rendered property, and property of alien enemies returned by 
receivers under the sequestration laws, have been received from the 
chief collector, which show an aggregate valuation of $318,214,621, 
the tax upon which is $1,653,917.80, the tax upon unrendered property 
being rated at 1 per cent. There has been collected and paid into 
the Treasury $1,211,918.21, leaving a balance of $441,999.59. 

Some months ago, it will be recollected, that large amounts of 
spurious Treasury notes were put into circulation, and in the State of 
Texas it is reported that large sums were paid out for beef-cattle, the 
consequence of which, in part, has been that several district collectors 
of the war tax have come into possession of these notes in the prose- 
cution of their collections, and not knowing from whom the notes 
were received, they have applied through the chief collector to the 
Department for relief. The chief collector has been informed by the 
Honorable Secretary that he possessed no authority to allow the col- 
lectors credit for these notes in the settlement of their indebtedness 
to the Government. The result will be that they will be required to 
make all such sums good unless Congress should grant them relief. 
It is well known that the larger denominations of these spurious notes 
were so skillfully executed that ordinary vigilance could not detect 
them, and as the loss thus falling upon unsuspecting collectors would 
in some cases not only deprive them of their salaries, but subject them 
to serious loss besides, I have thought proper to advert to the sub- 
ject as one which appeals to the justice and liberality of Congress. If 
an act for their relief should be passed I would suggest the propriety 
of requiring from each collector claiming its benefit a statement under 
oath as to the manner in which he obtained possession of.such notes, 
and that he was ignorant that the same were not genuine. 

Before closing this report I beg leave through the Honorable Seecre- 
tary to call the attention of Congress to the following suggestions: 
And first, as to the necessity of additional legislation in reference to 
the redemption of real property sold for taxes under section 12, act of 
19th of August, 1861, and as to the mode and manner of refunding 
purchase money after the lands have been redeemed. Under the sec- 
tion named the owners, their heirs, &c., shall have liberty to redeem 
any lands and other real property sold for taxes within two years 
from the time of sale upon payment to the collector for the use of the 
purchaser, his heirs, &c., of the amount paid by such purchaser, with 
interest for same at the rate of 20 per centum per annum. The 
third proviso of same section provides that when the owner shall be 
in the military service he shall have the same privilege within two 
years after the close of his term of service. The collector of the dis- 
trict in which the property is sold is the officer intrusted with the 

‘execution of these provisions, and under the act becomes the trustee 
of the purchaser to the amount of purchase money received, but 
the act is silent as to what disposition he shall make of it—whether 
he shall pay it over to the purchaser himself or to the chief collector. 
But the office of chief collector must expire and become vacated 
long before the time of redemption will expire. When the chief col- 
lector’s office is vacant there is no one designated to receive money 
from the collector, for all his transactions must be through the chief 


330 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


collector. Under the act all the official dealings of the Department 
are confined to the chief collector. The collector’s functions will also 
expire before the time of redemption, and in that event there will be 
no officer at all to receive redemption money. 

It is therefore obvious that Congress should make provision for 
these emergencies, and designate some officer to whom owners may 
apply for the redemption of their property at any time within the 
period allowed by law, and also direct what disposition such officer 
shall make of such funds. If the present system of taxation be con- 
tinued, then the new officers would stand in place of the old and con- 
tinue their duties. It would seem right and proper to authorize the 
trustee to settle with the owner near his home, without compelling 
him to go through all the forms and delay of drawing his money 
from the Treasury. 

Judge Handy, chief collector of Mississippi, represents that the col- 
lectors of that State have almost uniformly presented for his approval 
accounts for postage on letters and tax books sent to him, and for 
express charges upon assessment and receipt books; also accounts for 
traveling expenses to and from his office to make their payments as 
required by instructions. He properly decided that the present law 
did not provide for the allowance of such incidental expenses to the 
collectors. He further states that the expense of travel to make 
deposits by those collectors living at a remote distance has been oner- 
ous, and, if not refunded to them, will render the real compensation 
very unequal to those residing near him. It would seem to me just 
and proper to provide for the payment of all necessary postage and 
express charges for the transmission of tax and receipt books, and 
that those living at a distance who have expended large sums travel- 
ing to make their deposits should have the amount refunded to them, 
or each should be allowed a certain amount as mileage to defray these 
expenses. The same reasons will apply to Texas, but with greater 
force, by reason of the greater extent of her territory. 

Owing to the difficulty and sometimes impossibility of getting 
suitable persons to act aS assessors in certain localities, it has been 
necessary in a few instances to intrust the duties of assessment to the 
collector himself; and in such eases, as the law will allow only the 
compensation of one office, it seems to me that provision should be 
made authorizing the payment of both the compensation of collector 
as well as that of assessor, as he performs the duties of both. 

In some districts in States that have assumed the war tax no col- 
lector has been appointed, and in others he has died or left the office 
vacant by going into the military service; and in such eases it has 
been found necessary to appoint what are termed supervising assess- 
ors. The authority for this is derived under section 7 of the sup- 
plemental act of 19th of December, 1861. These have performed all 
the duties of collector, and as some doubt exists as to the authority 
to pay them the compensation of collector it would be well to provide 
compensation for them by act of Congress. 

In view of the probable legislation of Congress in reference to the 
war tax during the coming session, it would not be inappropriate 
to advert. briefly to the 10 per cent. allowed by the act of 19th of 
August, 1861, to such States as have assumed the war tax assessed 
upon their citizens. The presumption is at least reasonable that this 
per cent. was merely intended as indemnity to cover the expense the 
States would necessarily incur in collecting the tax from the people, 
and that no portion of it was granted as a bonus or pecuniary induce- 
ment to the States beyond the actual expense of collection. Noris it 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. Ba. 


supposed that the object of any State in accepting the offer was to 
speculate and make money out of the Confederate States, but rather 
to protect her own citizens from hardship and inconvenience by 
extending to them that indulgence in the payment of their taxes, 
where necessary, which the Confederate States could not, in the 
nature of things, afford to grant. The actual results, however, in the 
States that have not assumed the tax, and in which the same has been 
collected by Confederate officers, conclusively show that the per cent. 
allowed is far greater than was necessary to cover the expense of col- 
lection. In the State of Mississippi, for instance, where the net tax is 
$2,240,813, the actual expense of collection, as shown by the aggregate 
sum of the salaries of the collectors, is less than $40,000. The 
total amount assessed in the States which have assumed the tax is 
$17,057,192, out of which $1,705,719 is deducted as the 10 per cent. 
on that amount, to which add the compensation of the collectors in 
those States of $400 each, say $220,000, and we find that the average 
expense of collection in the States that have assumed is $213,968, 
whilst in the State of Mississippi, as already mentioned, where the 
tax is collected by Confederate officers, the whole expense does not 
exceed $40,000, or less than one-fifth of that in the other States. 

One of the most cherished and commendable objects of Congress in 
raising revenue to carry on the war has been to absorb as much as 
possible the great redundance of circulating currency issued in con- 
sequence of the necessities of the war; but the policy of giving the 
States a heavy premium to assume the tax of their citizens not only 
involves a positive loss to the Government of considerably over 
$1,000,000, but seems to be in direct conflict in its results with the 
policy of reducing the amount of circulating currency, for in some 
of the States that have assumed the tax their own treasury notes have 
been issued equal in amount to that assumed, so that the effect is to 
increase rather than diminish the paper currency of the country. In 
my humble judgment it is the better policy in every way for the Gov- 
ernment to collect its own taxes from the people, who are not only will- 
ing but able to pay them. 

I would respectfully refer to the present method of settling accounts 
for expenses of collecting the tax as one involving much unnecessary 
delay and expense, besides preventing the possibility of keeping an 
accurate account of the settlement and suspensions. By the system 
now in use this office is one of registry only, the accounts passing for 
settlement through the hands of the Auditor and Comptroller, and 
being filed in the office of the Register without any information of the 
settlement being conveyed to this office, so that we are absolutely 
ignorant of the disposition made or to be made of the accounts as they 
pass from our hands, and unable to supply the information which is 
daily demanded of us without oscillating perpetually in the other 
offices. In addition to this a large amount of correspondence is 
required by this digressive system, and much superfluous labor 
expended upon its prosecution which might otherwise be avoided. I 
would therefore earnestly urge upon the Secretary the importance of 
having a disbursing clerk appointed, who shall be bonded for the 
faithful performance of his duties, and shall be finally accountable to 
the Auditor for all settlements. This would insure immediate action 
upon all accounts, and by devoting all correspondence with regard to 
the expenditures to his care would enable him, comprehensively and 
intelligently, to render to the Department a clear and faithful exhibit 
of the expenses of collection at the same time that he is doing justice 
to the respective claimants by speedy action upon their accounts. 


332 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In conelusion I beg leave to recommend the suggestions contained 
in my report tothe Secretary dated 1lstof August, 1862, and especially 
those in reference to the compensation of collectors in any future act 
that may be passed; that is, to allow them a given per cent. on such 
an amount collected, and a diminished per cent. on all sums beyond 
such amount, thereby offering a personal inducement for a close and 
rigid collection of all the taxes assessed. 


Respectfully submitted. 


T. ALLAN, 
Chief Clerk of War Tax. 


; TABLE A. 
Railroad 
Real estate Slaves Merchan- | Bank stock, | 224 other | Money at in- 
? ‘ dise. 3 * | corporation terest. 
stock. 
Alabama @ . 2.55/22) scenes dawg clap Se 5 oie init lala) a allie mreie chars sa eieleicls erate te Sic nee |e 
ATKANGAB G iis. 2 cise se see ee t4e| scams aos meee alle nates» tien all coe ener eee ae 
Rlorida 22. ee $15, 507, 608. 00/$24, 117, 256. 00] $746,598.00) $403,537.00 $331, 049. 00) $6, 087, 169. 00 
Georgia....--.... 185, 185, 452. 94/236, 243, 819. 83) 8, 713, 671. 89} 20, 259, 541.65) 8, 736, 748. 50) 89, 911, 139. 34 
Lonisianad....223).-. 22 essen nie lo ee oe evs ce scam lee me amis sik Sere lemeenete eres oie ltoeee oe eee 
Mississippi--.--- 152, 626, 126. 00)227, 176, 794. 00} 5, 286, 247. 00 464, 311.00) 1, 468, 951. 00) 58, 078, 192. 00 
North Carvlina,. .| 97, 537, 424. 00/105, 467, 096. 00) 3,541, 109.00} 7, 217,892.00) 3, 303, 404. 00} 60, 257, 231. 00 
South Carolina .. 111, 770, 924. 00 184, 598, 640. 00) 5, 292, 594. 00) 13, 766, 632. 00, 10, 459, 289. 00] 64, 895, 125. 00 
Tennesseed.232 i olin 2 Sse e a ecto es see eas blasts tak ae eee eee lees 2. aan 
TEXAS Ui. eaten a: 124, 311, 376. 00) 97, 959, 814. 00] 6, 665, 561. 00)...........--- 3, 527, 204. 00) 32, 206, 181. 00 
Viroiniae cee ose: 257, 758, 827. 50/150, 428, 722. 84) 9, 883, 446, 59) 14, 176, 380. 00) 15, 396, 742, 63} 81, 776, 286. 63 
Gold Stock not 
Cash on | Horses, cat- Gold 5 : Pleasure 
obs and sil- | Pianos. : returned by 
hand. tle, &c. watches. | er plate. carriages. |, orporati ae 
AlaADAM BG 252 2j0 oc | Saeed wisi oe ol Socleeaic sac mwie | sales ole = ac'sie sli elodial asec oliae op teletel orale | ae rr 
APKANSAS G.... 52. | sa cepecccesslocee sce cesses ebcens cea Gecles cece heec| eee caine =e 
Mloridase 222.00 $675, 300. 00) $982, 381. 00] $142, 314. 00/$62, 062. 00'$79, 817. 00 $274,421.00) $71,049. 00 
Georvia . fe. ois 5, 187, 175.64} 753, 314. 63/1, 061, 480. 50/563, 164. 50 846, 984. 50/3, 351, 457. 00/¢3, 410, 000. 90 
AOUISTANA Close ce | carat so setae ae teeter ol eewacwecepe |e sed nccees| Seo ccne se cleemeee nee a 
Mississippi ..---.. 2, 668, 397.00) 291,495.00) 853, 997. 00/452, 231. 00|798, 470. 00/2, 116, 805.00} 431, 424. 00 
North Carolina. - ./4, 611,524.00} 345, 337.00) 534, 240. 00/268, 373. 00/475, 975. 00/1, 950, 836.00} 895, 184. 00 
South Carolina. -:|3,535, 471.00) 117,014.00} 852, 273. 00/946, 029. 00/620, 635. 00/1, 577, 849. 00) 1, 036, 313. 00 
Tennessee @ 2 se ona s Se obo) nccteie dhcp cee ten cca ves cecil nceemeScle cect ee een 
Texas 0. those. 2, 667, 412. 00/34, 046, 502. 00} 619, 426. 00/128, 839. 00/395, 974. 00)1, 341, 021. 00)........--_.. 
Varoiminitesiseces 8, 182, 559. 06] 3, 508, 083. 63) 893, 979. 50/743, 766. 43/821, 425. 00/2, 188, 834. 25) 2, 455, 661. 85 
: Amount paid 
Aggregate. aaa gay: Net tax. in Treasury to | Balance due. 
P : Dee. 1, 1862. 
Alabamaa ....-.. $400, 000, 000. 00 $2, 000, 000.00 | $1, 800, 000. 00 $2,000, 000.00 | ad $200, 000. 00 
Arkansasq@.-....- 145, 000, 000. 00 725, 000. 00 652, 500. 00 400, 000. 00 252, 500. 00 
Wigridases: so eee: 49, 480, 561. 00 e 251, 233. 19 226, 109. 88 225, 374. 11 TaD T7 
Georgia ....-..-.. 564, 174, 036. 00 Sf 2, 771, 236. 01 2,494, 112. 41 2, 477, 218.18 16, 894. 23 
Louisianaa ....-.. 539, 111, 240. 00 2, 695, 556. 20 2, 426, 000. 58 2, 426, 000. 00 . 58 
Mississippi-...... 447, 708, 440. 00 g 2, 240, 813.413) 2, 240, 813. 41 2, 052, 304. 96 188, 508. 45 
North Carolina. -. 286, 405, 625. 00 1, 432, 028. 12 1, 288, 825. 31 1,288, 825/31) 1tfee eee eee 
South Carolina... 399, 468, 798. 00 1, 997, 343.99 | e1, 798, 076. 52 1, 651, 528. 55 146, 547. 97 
Tennesseea ...-.. 490, 000, 000. 00 2, 450, 000. 00 2, 205, 000. 00 1, 030, 069. 25 1, 174, 930. 75 
YD CCN ee Se Sees 303, 869, 310. 00 1, 519, 346. 55 1, 519, 346. 55 1, 211, 918. 21 307, 428. 34 
Varoinia ste. so 548, 164, 215, 91 2, 740, 821. 07 2, 466, 738. 97 2, 125, 000. 00 341, 738. 97 


aNo assessment returns having been received from these States, their aggregates are, respectively, 
based upon estimates. ] 
bThe return for Texas does not include the tax upon sequestered or non-rendered property, which 
will yield an additional estimated revenue of $134,571.25. 


c Default list. 


d Overpaid estimate. 

e Double tax included. 
f After deducting for errors, as appears by report of chief collector. 
g Including tax on additional uncollected return. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 333 


TABLE B.—Showing the average values of certain kinds of property as assessed 
and returned in the several States under the war-tax act of August 19, 1861. 


Real Pleasure 


Horses, Gold ; 

States. estate.a | 5/@ves-? | atte, &c.| watches. | P1828: |carriages. 

Paueas nie eer ae ee eirete arate es eee ne elo N ofan. cw al'aeig cis veinfsal cece sts woe (pecepe ses cissce ee dosh | anecne a cae 
PERM ATNAS Eran ae oa e Soa c Pace tec ees [se to tee deal eced emicacia lees omettee ls ca cotecde Relat tlc denl Nae evecmes 
el Oritley serena s Sens < Sac shoe WAS oe scaku $4.98 | $437.08 $5. 54 $72.68 | $187.36 $96. 11 
SECT IE Geto dahl Seg an BS AS dBA Ge eEe Bonet een Sreene ee rsr cecouts Rigen leanne oceans |oee Siam Meee [cee aaa 
ROU PATA ete ewe tees ba Sea ala. caac Stee teaweelee Fave oracle ocee core lease ean ees come seeee leak see mente 
EMITS RAND ele ee ete ree cools slain crore erciels a aallrs sieiepeie wis him lefisia Stee reiais Saceistalni <i [aslo ew vicisie «eee wicleisln ale| arate sleete 
MOniiMmOGarolindmn ss oac 22.5 sc se ss eee fee 3. 45 S20 Oar teceae ese. 82. 68 197. 74 74.17 
Nomtil @arounass. 20. o2-b05-c. lcs Seen ce 6. 69 452.79 28. 87 70. 80 173. 79 79. 64 
BARE EUR NES Ce eet = orate Stag Syctanc = aye ose ec ese ate oo | Oe ata Se Seca alae en lats aiaial|la'sic gadis <.efell ais e's ai woleer |aaice aelereate 
On aoeeaeee te Oke ec cio Seles -oecane ees 2. 09 516. 13 10. 85 76. 84 217. 56 123. 64 
NibR OUTS Aiee eee ircls a= « - - Sosiccace ans 10.12 350. 00 25. 50 57. 60 133. 67 73. 33 
General average ..-.-.0----2.2--25 5. 46 416, 56 17. 69 72,12 182. 02 89, 37 

a Per acre. b Per capita. 


Colonel Garnett’s tables in reference to Virginia. 


TABLE No. 1.—Evhibiting total value of real estate and personal property in the 
State of Virginia in the year 1860, the total value in the districts now assessed in 
the same year, and the total amount actually assessed by war-tax assessors in 
1861; also the amount remaining unassessed, supposed to be caused by the excep- 
tions of the war-tax act, such as Confederate bonds and estates of less value than 
$500, &e. 


Total value of real and personal property in the State of Virginia 


OS Oe GLON oS alent lk Alo Sala ec $934, 261, 305. 00 
Total value of ditto in the districts now assessed in the same year 

a ee he eer ~~ = 1. 772,121, 746.00 

Total value of ditto in the unassessed districts.._._...---- 162, 139, 559. 00 

Total value, as above, of assessed districts.._-...--------------- 772, 121, 746. 00 

GUsteNe rato X ASSOSSINONLS ce 2 cin on Smee oe nwo ue ae 548, 164, 263. 00 

Pe Wal the ACLS en so Co ol 223, 957, 483, 00 


H. T. GARNETT, 
Chief Collector C. S. War Tax for Virginia. 


TABLE No. 2.—Ewvhibiting the total values of real and personal property in the 
districts now assessed in the year 1860; the amount actually assessed by war-tax 
assessors in 1861; total of the tax at one-half of one per cent. 


Total value of real and personal property in the assessed districts 
DnpnTEnIY Weta Shier OA os lacs ede ee ed 8) ae $772, 121, 746. 00 
Total value of ditto actually assessed by war-tax assessors, 1861_ 548, 164, 263. 00 


Total of tax at one-half of one per cent _--_----------.---- 2,'740, 821.00 


H. T. GARNETT, 
Chief Collector C. S. War Tax for Virginia. 


TABLE No. 3.—Exhibiting total value of real and personal property in the dis- 
tricts unassessed in the year 1860; the total estimated amount of the assess- 
ment under the war-tax act, had it been made, being in exact proportion in these 
as the actual assessment exhibits in the assessed districts ; also the tax upon this 
estimate at one-half of one per cent. 


Total value of real and personal property in the districts unas- 


nnIen mental. Ae he od SS ee eee Sees oe $162, 139, 559. 00 
Total estimated value had assessment been made by war-tax 

ETS UB ER Resist ee ee pe BP ae OO ae 115, 239, 743. 00 

Total tax upon this estimate at one-half of one per cent... - 576,198.00 


H. T. GARNETT, | 
Chief Collector C, S; War Tax for Virginia. 


334 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


TABLE No. 4.—Ewvhibiting the total population of the State by the census of 1860; 
total population of the districts assessed by war-tax assessors 1861, and the total 
population of districts not assessed. 


Total population, white, free, colored, and slave in State of Virginia by 


Gensus of 1860) 220008 PA on Bheeeee i222. 1,595, 814 
Total in districts assessed for -war. tax, 1861 2220.42 Jo....-.2..0 ae 1, 201, 331 
Total in districts unassessed for war tax, 1861 _______-.---------- 394, 483 


H. T. GARNETT, 
Chief Collector C. S. War Tax for Virginia. 


[JANUARY 10, 1863.—For Shorter to Davis, in relation to affairs in 
Alabama, see Series I, Vol. XV, p. 939. | 


[JANUARY 10, 1863.—For Lee to Seddon, representing the absolute 
necessity of increasing the Confederate armies, &c., see Series I, Vol. 
XT, p..LOsa. | ) . . 


[JANUARY 10, 1863.—For Seddon to Pettus, in relation to conscripts 
in Mississippi State organizations, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part I, 
p. 405. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., January 10, 1863. 
Col. D. J. GODWIN, 
Enrolling Officer : 

Sir: I have just received yours of the 7th instant. Your course so 
far appears judicious, and is approved. You will do well to let the 
company proposed to be raised by Mr. Clopton be constituted, whether 
of conscripts or others, as soon as possible. Also, let Captain Little- 
ton’s command be filled up, and I have authorized the Rev. Mr. Allen 
(formerly a preacher in Gloucester County), who has a half-formed 
company in Caroline, to complete, if he can, his company out of con- 
scripts or others in Mathews or Gloucester. I regard your position 
and the course to be pursued by you as rather exceptional, and have 
so instructed the Conscript Bureau, established since you left, with 
General Rains at its head, through which, however, you will report, 
and receive hereafter any instructions. The conscripts in Gloucester 
and Mathews, and perhaps in several other neighboring counties of 
the Northern Neck, are not strictly within the enemy’s lines, yet so 
subject to their control or interference as to render the regular 
enforcement of the conscript law in relation to them almost impos- 
sible. I therefore authorize you to engage them in service or get them 
out to our camps of instruction in the readiest and most efficient way 
practicable. As soon as you have organized any company or com- 
panies you will employ them to aid in enrolling and sending out all 
others liable to conscription, and at the same time to repress turbu- 
lence or disorder among the slaves or others, and to intimidate and 
restrain the depredations of the enemy. 

Your action in regard to the blockade-runners involves delicate 
discretion, and must be regulated by your best judgment. All trade 
with the enemy is demoralizing and illegal, and should, of course, be 
discountenanced, but at the same time, situated as the people to a 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 335 


serious extent are, beyond the power of active protection by us, and 
cut off from supplies through their regular avenues of trade (almost 
entirely by water or the railroad) by the enemy, some barter or trading 
for the supply of their necessities is almost inevitable and excusable. 
As far as there is any effort to establish a general trade with the 
enemy, especially with articles such as tobacco and naval stores, spe- 
cially prohibited to be sold to the North, it should be stopped. The 
rule I have adopted and generally acted on has been to give no permits 
or license to trade with the enemy, but that when goods were seized 
by the military to have such as were available for the Army selected 
and paid for at a moderate valuation not exceeding an allowance 
of 75 per cent. profit on cost to the owner, and the rest left to his 
own disposition, unless the Secretary of the Treasury intervened 
to claim them as forfeited, which so far he has never done. This 
course you may continue to pursue when you have no special reason 
to. suppose the parties spies, or so disloyal as to be dangerous charac- 
ters, in which event they should be sent to Richmond, to General 
Winder, with a report of the causes and grounds of suspicion. Should 
there be among the parties so found trading any by their nativity and 
age liable to conscription, they should be detained and sent forward 
as conscripts. Marylanders are not liable to conscription, and of 
course could not properly be detained. 
Respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


Nassau, NEW PROVIDENCE, January 10, 1863. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: My last communications to the War Department were under , 
date of the 12th and 14th ultimo, in original and duplicate, per steam- 
ers Antonica, Leopard, and Giraffe, since which I have learned through 
the public papers that you have been assigned by the President to the 
post made vacant by the resignation of the Hon. G. W. Randolph. 
Not having the pleasure of a personal acquaintance, I must refer you 
to your predecessor and to the Hon. J. P. Benjamin for any informa- 
tion you may desire in relation to the duties of this post, besides 
which my correspondence on file will apprise you of the course I have 
pursued as Government agent since my arrival here. 

The greater portion of the goods belonging to Government have 
been shipped, with the exception of the field artillery, which I declined 
to send forward, under the impression that it was not greatly needed 
at home. On this head I would refer to my letters of the 12th Novem- 
ber and 26th July last, and will await your instructions. I have on 
hand 230 boxes and packages steel, under orders to be sent to Capt. 
F. L. Childs, Charleston Arsenal; some 200 boxes fixed ammunition, 
and a quantity of lead, portions of which I should have dispatched 
by this conveyance but for a sudden advance in the rate of freight 
that hardly justified me to ship without conferring with you on the 
subject. Hitherto the price has been $500 Confederate currency per 
ton, payable on arrival of the goods, whereas now it has been fixed at 
£60 per ton, payable here in advance. This is equivalent to fully 
$900 at home, and to be paid, moreover, whether the goods arrive or 
not. IJ think it quite possible that some modification of these terms 


336 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ean be obtained from Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., or rather John. 
Fraser & Co., and at all events deem it advisable to await a commu- 
nication from you. The Antonica is to leave to-morrow morning with 
a valuable cargo, comprising in part army shoes, woolens, medicines, 
iron plates, &c., and will be followed by the Douglas in three days 
with a similar cargo. The Thistle is to leave about the same time 
with an equally desirable assortment, and during the next ten days I 
expect the Nicolai I, the Dauro, and the Calypso will get off, all three 
having large supplies of needful articles. There are several more 
steamers due from England, including the Flora, Ruby, Eagle, Pearl, 
and two others, names not mentioned. I am told that the Calypso 
has 148 cases army shoes for Government, but have received no 
advices from England. As she draws too much water, she may have 
to discharge part of her cargo, and it would be better, perhaps, to 
send some of this shipment by another and faster steamer. 

I shall be pleased to execute any orders you may transmit, and 
remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

L. HEYLIGER, 
Agent Confederate States of America. 


[JANUARY 11, 1863.—For Seddon to Vance, recommending a call of 
North Carolina militia to the extent of, say, 5,000, see Series I, Vol. 
XVIII, p. 840. | 


RICHMOND, January 12, 1863. 


The SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFED- 
ERATE STATES: 


At the date of your last adjournment the preparations of the enemy 
- for further hostilities had assumed so menacing an aspect as to excite 
in some minds apprehension of our ability to meet them with suf- 
ficient promptness to avoid serious reverses. These preparations were 
completed shortly after your departure from the seat of government, 
and the armies of the United States made simultaneous advance on 
our frontiers, on the Western rivers, and on the Atlantic Coast, in 
masses so great as to evince their hope of overbearing all resistance 
by mere weight of numbers. ‘This hope, however, like those previ- 
ously entertained by our foes, has vanished. In Virginia their fourth 
attempt at invasion by armies whose assured success was confidently 
predicted, has met with decisive repulse. Our noble defenders, under 
the consummate leadership of their general, have again, at Fred- 
ericksburg, inflicted on the forces under General Burnside the like 
disastrous overthrow as had been previously suffered by the succes- 
Sive invading armies commanded by Generals McDowell, McClellan, 
and Pope. 

In the West obstinate battles have been fought with varying for- 
tunes, marked by frightful carnage on both sides; but the enemy’s 
hopes of decisive results have again been baffled, while at Vicksburg 
another formidable expedition has been repulsed with considerable 
loss on our side and severe damage to the assailing forces. On the 
Atlantic Coast the enemy has been unable to gain a footing beyond 
the protecting shelter of his fleets, and the city of Galveston has just 
been recovered. by our forces, which succeeded not only in the cap- 
ture of the garrison, but of one of the enemy’s vessels of war, which 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. aes F's", 


was carried by boarding parties from merchant river steamers. Our 
fortified positions have everywhere been much strengthened and 
improved, affording assurance of our ability to meet with success the 
utmost efforts of our enemies, in spite of the magnitude of their 
preparations for attack. 

A review of our history during the two years of our national exist- 
ence affords ample cause for congratulation and demands the most 
fervent expression of our thankfulness to the Almighty Father, who 
has blessed our cause. We are justified in asserting, with a pride 
surely not unbecoming, that these Confederate States have added 
another to the lessons taught by history for the instruction of man; 
that they have afforded another example of the impossibility of sub- 
jugating a people determined to be free, and have demonstrated that 
no superiority of numbers or available resources can overcome the 
resistance offered by such valor in combat, such constancy under 
suffering, and such cheerful endurance of privation as have been 
conspicuously displayed by this people in the defense of their rights 
and liberties. The anticipations with which we entered into the con- 
test have now ripened into a conviction which is not only shared 
with us by the common opinion of neutral nations, but is evidently 
forcing itself upon our enemies themselves. If we but mark the 
history of the present year by resolute perseverance in the path 
we have hitherto pursued, by vigorous effort in the development 
of all our resources for defense, and by the continued exhibition 
of the same unfaltering courage in our soldiers and able conduct 
in their leaders as have distinguished the past, we have every 
reason to expect that this will be the closing year of the war. 
The war, which in its inception was waged for forcing us back 
into the Union, having failed to accomplish that purpose, passed 
into a second stage, in which it was attempted to conquer and 
rule these States as dependent provinces. Defeated in this second 
design, our enemies have evidently entered upon another, which 
can have no other purpose than revenge and thirst for blood and 
plunder of private property. But however implacable they may be, 
they can have neither the spirit nor the resources required for a 
fourth year of a struggle uncheered by any hope of success, kept 
alive solely for the indulgence of mercenary and wicked passions, 
and demanding so exhaustive an expenditure of blood and money as 
has hitherto been imposed on their people. The advent of peace will 
be hailed with joy. Our desire for it has never been concealed. Our 
efforts to avoid the war, forced on us as it was by the lust of conquest 
and the insane passions of our foes, are known to mankind. But 
earnest as has been our wish for peace and great as have been our 
sacrifices and sufferings during the war, the determination of this 
people has with each succeeding month become more unalterably 
fixed to endure any sufferings and continue any sacrifices, however 
prolonged, until their right to self-government and the sovereignty 
and independence of these States shall have been triumphantly vin- 
dicated and firmly established. 

In this connection the occasion seems not unsuitable for some ref- 
erence to the relations between the Confederacy and the neutral pow- 
ers of Europe since the separation of these States from the former 
Union. Four of the States now members of the Confederacy were 
recognized by name as independent sovereignties in a treaty of peace 
concluded in the year 1783 with one of the two great maritime powers 
of Western Europe, and had been, prior to that period, allies in war 

22 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


338: - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of the other. In the year 1778 they formed a Union with nine other 
States under Articles of Confederation. Dissatisfied with that Union, - 
three of them, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, together with 
eight of the States now members of the United States, seceded from it 
in 1789, and these eleven seceding States formed a second Union, 
although by the terms of the Articles of Confederation express provision 
was made that the first Union should be perpetual. Their right to 
secede, notwithstanding this provision, was neither contested by the 
States from which they separated nor made the subject of discussion 
with any third power. When ata later period North Carolina acceded 
tothat second Union, and when, stilllater, the other sovereign States, 
now members of this Confederacy, became also members of the same 
Union, it was upon the recognized footing of equal and independent 
sovereignties, nor had it then entered into the minds of men that sov- 
ereign States could be compelled by force to remain members of a con- 
federation into which they had entered of their own free will, if ata 
subsequent period the defense of their safety and honor should, in 
their judgment, justify withdrawal. The experience of the past had 
evinced the futility of any renunciation of such inherent rights, 
and accordingly the provision for perpetuity contained in the Articles 
of Confederation of 1778 was omitted in the Constitution of 1789. 
When, therefore, in 1861 eleven of the States again thought proper, 
for reasons satisfactory to themselves, to secede from the second 
Union and to form a third one under an amended constitution, 
they exercised a right which, being inherent, required no justifica- 
tion to foreign nations, and which international law did not per- 
mit them to question. The usages of intercourse between nations 
do, however, require that official communication be made to friendly 
powers of all organic changes in the constitution of States, and there 
was obvious propriety in giving prompt assurance of our desire to 
continue amicable relations with all mankind. It was under the influ- 
ence of these considerations that your predecessors, the Provisional 
Government, took early measures for sending to Kurope commission- 
ers charged with the duty of visiting the capitals of the different 
powers and making arrangements for the opening of more formal 
diplomatic intercourse. Prior, however, to the arrival abroad of those 
commissioners the United States had commenced hostilities against 
the Confederacy by dispatching a secret expedition for the re-enforee- 
ment of Fort Sumter, after an express promise to the contrary, and 
with a duplicity which has been fully unveiled in a former message. 
They had also addressed communications to the different cabinets of 
Europe in which they assumed the attitude of being sovereign over 
this Confederacy, alleging that these independent States were in 
rebellion against the remaining States of the Union, and threatening 
Europe with manifestations of their displeasure if it should treat the 
Confederate States as having an independent existence. It soon 
became known that these pretensions were not considered abroad to 
be as absurd as they were known to be at home, nor had Europe yet 
learned what reliance was to be placed on the official statements of 
the Cabinet at Washington. 

The delegation of power granted by these States to the Federal Gov- 
ernment to represent them in foreign intercourse had led Europe into 
the grave error of supposing that their separate sovereignty and inde- 
pendence had been merged into one common sovereignty, and had 
ceased to have a distinct existence. Under the influence of this error, 
which all appeals to reason and historical fact were vainly used to 
dispel, our commissioners were met by the declaration that foreign 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 339 


governments could not assume to judge between the conflicting rep- 
resentations of the two parties as to the true nature of their previous 
mutual relations. The Governments of Great Britain and France 
accordingly signified their determination to confine themselves to 
recognizing the self-evident fact of the existence of a war, and to 
maintaining a strict neutrality during its progress. Some of the 
other powers of Europe pursued the same course of policy, and it 
became apparent that by some understanding, express or tacit, Europe 
had decided to leave the initiative in all action touching the contest 
on this continent to the two powers just named, who were recognized 
to have the largest interests involved, both by reason of proximity 
and of the extent and intimacy of their commercial relations with the 
States engaged in war. It is manifest that the course of action 
adopted by Europe, while based on an apparent refusal to determine 
the question, or to side with either party, was in point of fact an 
actual decision against our rights and in favor of the groundless pre- 
tensions of the United States. It was a refusal to treat us as an inde- 
pendent government. If we were independent States the refusal to 
entertain with us the same international intercourse as was maintained 
with our enemy was unjust, and was injurious in its effects, whatever 
may have been the motive which prompted it. Neither was it in 
accordance with the high moral obligations of that international code 
whose chief sanction is the conscience of sovereigns and the public 
opinion of mankind, that those eminent powers should decline the 
performance of a duty peculiarly incumbent on them from any appre- 
hension of the consequences to themselves. One immediate and nec- 
essary result of their declining the responsibility of a decision which 
must have been adverse to the extravagant pretensions of the United 
States was the prelongation of hostilities to which our enemies were 
thereby encouraged, and which have resulted in nothing but scenes of 
carnage and devastation on this continent, and of misery and suf- 
fering on the other, such as have scarcely a parallel in history. Had 
those powers promptly admitted our right to be treated as all other 
independent nations, none can doubt that the moral effect of such 
action would have been to dispel the delusion under which the United 
States have persisted in their efforts to accomplish our subjugation. 
To the continued hesitation of the same powers in rendering this act 
of simple justice toward this Confederacy is still due the continuance 
of the calamities which mankind suffers from the interruption of its 
peaceful pursuits, both in the Old and the New World. 

There are other matters in which less than justice has been ren- 
dered to this people by neutral Europe, and undue advantage con- 
ferred on the aggressors in a wicked war. At the inception of hostil- 
ities the inhabitants of the Confederacy were almost exclusively 
agriculturists, those of the United States, to a great extent, mechan- 
ics and merchants. We had no commercial marine, while their 
merchant vessels covered the ocean. We were without a navy, while 
they had powerful fleets. The advantage which they possessed for 
inflicting injury on our coasts and harbors was thus counterbalanced 
in some measure by the exposure of their commerce to attack by pri- 
vate armed vessels. It was known to Europe that within a very few 
years past the United States had peremptorily refused to accede to 
proposals for abolishing privateering, on the ground, as alleged by 
them, that nations owning powerful fleets would thereby obtain undue 
advantage over those possessing inferior naval forces. Yet no sooner 
was war flagrant between the Confederacy and the United States than 
the maritime powers of Europe issued orders prohibiting either party 


~ 


340 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


from bringing prizes into their ports. This prohibition, directed atthe 
apparent impartiality against both belligerents, was in reality effect- 
ive against the Confederate States alone, for they alone could find a 
hostile commerce on the ocean. Merely nominal against the United 
States, the prohibition operated with intense severity on the Confed- 
eracy, by depriving it of the only means of maintaining with some 
approach to equality its struggle on the ocean against the erushing 
superiority of naval force possessed by its enemies. The value and 
efficiency of the weapon which was thus wrested from our grasp by 
the combined action of neutral European powers in favor of a nation 
which professes openly its intention of ravaging their commerce by 
privateers in any future war is strikingly illustrated by the terror 
inspired among the commercial classes of the United States by a sin- 
gle cruiser of the Confederacy. One national steamer, commanded 
by officers and manned by a crew who are debarred, by the closure of 
neutral ports, from the opportunity of causing captured vessels to be 
condemned in their favor as prizes, has sufficed to double the rates of 
marine insurance in Northern ports and consign to forced inaction 
numbers of Northern vessels, in addition to the direct damage inflicted 
by captures at sea. How difficult, then, to overestimate the effects 
that must have been produced by the hundreds of private armed ves- 
sels that would have swept the seas in pursuit of the commerce of our 
enemy if the means of disposing of their prizes had not been withheld 
by the action of neutral Europe. 

But it is especially in relation to the so-called blockade of our coast 
that the policy of European powers has been so shaped as to cause the 
greatest injury to the Confederacy and to confer signal advantages on 
the United States. The importance of this subject requires some 
development. Prior to the year 1856 the principles regulating this 
subject were to be gathered from the writings of eminent publicists, 
the decisions of admiralty courts, international treaties, and the 
usages of nations. The uncertainty and doubt which prevailed in 
reference to the true rules of maritime law in time of war, resulting 
from the discordant and often conflicting principles announced from 
such varied and independent sources, had become a grievous evil to 
mankind. Whether a blockade was allowable against a port not 
invested by land as well as by sea; whether a blockade was valid by 
sea if the investing fleet was merely sufficient to render ingress to the 
blockaded port ‘‘evidently dangerous,” or whether it was further 
required for its legality that it should be sufficient ‘‘really to prevent 
access,” and numerous other similar questions had remained doubtful 
and undecided. 

Animated by the highly honorable desire to put an end “to differ- 
ences of opinion between neutrals and _belligerents, which may 0¢¢a- 
sion serious difficulties and ‘even conflicts” (I quote the official lan- 
guage), the five great powers of Europe, together with Sardinia and 
Turkey, adopted in 1856 the following ‘‘solemn declaration” of prin- 
ciples: 

1. Privateering is, and remains, abolished. 

2. The neutral flag covers enemy’s goods with the exception of 
contraband of war. 

3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not 
liable to capture under enemy’s flag. 

4, Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective; that is to 
say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the 
coast of the enemy. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 341 


Not only did this solemn declaration announce to the world the 
principles to which the signing powers agreed to conform in future 
wars, but it contained a clause to which those powers gave immediate 
effect, and which provided that the states not parties to the Congress 
of Paris should be invited to accede to the declaration. Under this 
invitation every independent state in Europe yielded its assent—at 
least, no instance is known to me of a refusal; and the United States, 
while declining to assent to the proposition which prohibited priva- 
- teering, declared that the three remaining principles were in entire 
accordance with their own views of international law. No instance 
is known in history of the adoption of rules of public law under cir- 
cumstances of like solemnity, with like unanimity, and pledging the 
faith of nations with a sanctity so peculiar. 

When, therefore, this Confederacy was formed, and when neutral 
powers, while deferring action on its demand for admission into the 
family of nations, recognized it as a belligerent power, Great Britain 
and France made informal proposals about the same time that their 
own rights as neutrals should be guaranteed by our acceding as bel- 
ligerents, to the declaration of principles made by the Congress of 
Paris. The request was addressed to our sense of justice, and there- 
fore met immediate favorable response in the resolutions of the Pro- 
visional Congress of the 13th August, 1861, by which all the princi- 
ples announced by the Congress of Paris were adopted as the guide 
of our conduct during the war, with the sole exception of that relative 
to privateering. As the right to make use of privateers was one in 
which neutral nations had, as to the present war, no interest; as it 
was a right which the United States had refused to abandon, and 
which they remained at liberty to employ against us; as it was a right 
of which we were already in actual enjoyment, and which we could 
not be expected to renounce flagrante bello against an adversary pos- 
sessing an overwhelming superiority of naval forces, it- was reserved 
with entire confidence that neutral nations could not fail to perceive 
that just reason existed for the reservation. Nor was this confidence 
misplaced, for the official documents published by the British Govern- 
ment, usually called ‘‘ Blue Books,” contained the expression of the 
satisfaction of that Government with the conduct of the officials who 
conducted successfully the delicate business confided to their charge. 

These solemn declarations of principle—this implied agreement 
between the Confederacy and the two powers just named—have been 
suffered to remain inoperative against the menaces and outrages on 
neutral rights committed by the United States with unceasing and 
progressive arrogance during the whole period of the war. Neutral 
Europe remained passive when the United States, with a naval force 
insufficient to blockade effectively the coast of a single State, pro- 
claimed a paper blockade of thousands of miles of coast, extending 
from the capes of the Chesapeake to those of Florida, and encircling 
the Gulf of Mexico from Key West to the mouth of the Rio Grande. 
Compared with this monstrous pretension of the United States, the 
blockades known in history under the names of the Berlin and Milan 
decrees and the British orders in council, in the years 1806 and 1807, 
sink into insignificance. Yet those blockades were justified by the 
powers that declared them on the sole ground that they were retalia- 
tory; yet those blockades have since been condemned by the pub- 
licists of those very powers as violations of international law; yet 
those blockades evoked angry remonstrances from neutral powers, 
among which the United States were the most conspicuous; yet those 
blockades became the chief cause of the war between Great Britain 


342 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and the United States in 1812; yet those blockades were one of the 
principal motives that led to the declaration of the Congress of Paris, 
in 1856, in the fond hope of imposing an enduring check on the very 
abuse of maritime power which is now renewed by the United States 
in 1861 and 1862, under circumstances and with features of aggravated 
wrong without precedent in history. 

The records of our State Department contain the evidence of the 
repeated and formal remonstrances made by this Government to 
neutral powers against the recognition of this blockade. It has been - 
shown by evidence not capable of contradiction, and which has been 
furnished in part by the officials of neutral nations, that the few ports 
of this Confederacy, before which any naval forces at all have been - 
stationed, have been invested so inefficiently that hundreds of entries 
have been effected into them since the declaration of the blockade; 
that our enemies have themselves admitted the inefficiency of their 
blockade in the most forcible manner by repeated official complaints 
of the sale to us of goods contraband of war, a sale which could not 
possibly affect their interests if their pretended blockade was suffi- 
cient ‘‘ really to prevent access to our coast;” that they have gone 
farther and have alleged their inability to render their paper block- 
ade effective as the excuse for the odious barbarity of destroying the 
entrance to one of our harbors by sinking vessels loaded with stone 
in the channel; that our commerce with foreign nations has been 
intercepted, not by effective investment of our ports, nor by the 
seizure of ships in the attempt to enter them, but by the capture on 
the high seas of neutral vessels by the cruisers of our enemies when- 
ever supposed to be bound to any point on our extensive coast, with- 
out inquiry whether a single blockading vessel was to be found at such 
point; that blockading vessels have left the ports at which they were 
stationed for distant expeditions, have been absent for many days, 
and have returned without notice either of the cessation or renewal 
of the blockade; in a word, that every prescription of maritime law 
and every right of neutral nations to trade with a belligerent, under 
the sanction of principles heretofore universally respected, have been 
systematically and persistently violated by the United States. Neu- 
tral Europe has received our remonstrances and has submitted in 
almost unbroken silence to all the wrongs that the United States have 
chosen to inflict on its commerce. The Cabinet of Great Britain, how- 
ever, has not confined itself to such implied acquiescence in these 
breaches of international law as results from simple inaction, but has, 
in a published dispatch of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
assumed to make a change in the principle enunciated by the Congress 
of Paris, to which the faith of the British Government was considered 
to be pledged; a change too important and too prejudicial to the 
interests of the Confederacy to be overlooked, and against which I 
have directed solemn protest to be made, after a vain attempt to 
obtain satisfactory explanations from the British Government. Ina 
published dispatch from Her Majesty’s Foreign Office to her minister 
at Washington under the date of 11th February, 1862, occurs the fol- 
lowing passage: 

Her Majesty’s Government, however, are of opinion that, assuming that the 
blockade was duly notified, and also that a number of ships are stationed and 
remain at the entrance of a port sufficient really to prevent access to it, or to cre- 
ate an evident danger of entering it or leaving it, and that these ships do not vol- 
untarily permit ingress or egress, the fact that various ships may have successfully 
escaped through it (asin the particular instance here referred to) will not of itself 
prevent the blockade from being an effectual one by international law. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 343 


The words which I have italicized are an addition made by the Brit- 
ish Government of its own authority to a principle the exact terms of 
which were settled with deliberation by the common consent of civil- 
ized nations and by implied convention with this Government, as 
already explained, and their effect is clearly to reopen to the preju- 
dice of the Confederacy one of the very disputed questions on the law 
of blockade which the Congress of Paris professed to settle. The 
importance of this change is readily illustrated by taking one of our 
ports as an example. There is ‘‘ evident danger” in entering the port 
of Wilmington from the presence of a blockading force, and by this 
test the blockade is effective. ‘‘Access is not really prevented” by 
the blockading fleet to the same port, for steamers are continually 
arriving and departing, so that tried by this test the blockade is ineffect- 
ive and invalid. The justice of our complaint on this point is so 
manifest as to leave little room for doubt that further reflection will 
induce the British Government to give us such assurances as will efface 
the painful impressions that would result from its language if left 
unexplained. 

From the foregoing remarks you will perceive that during nearly 
two years of struggle, in which every energy of our country has been 
evoked for maintaining its very existence, the neutral nations of 
Europe have pursued a policy which, nominally impartial, has been 
practically most favorable to our enemies and most detrimental to us. 
The exercise of the neutral right of refusing entry into their ports to 
prizes taken by both belligerents was eminently hurtful to the Con- 
federacy. It was sternly asserted and maintained. The exercise of 
the neutral right of commerce with a belligerent whose ports are not 
blockaded by fleets sufficient really to prevent access to them would 
have been eminently hurtful to the United States. It was complacently 
abandoned. ‘The duty of neutral states to receive with cordiality and 
recognize with respect any new confederation that independent states 
may think proper to form was too clear to admit of denial, but its 
postponement was eminently beneficial to the United States and detri- 
mental to the Confederacy. It was postponed. 

In this.review of our relations with the neutral nations of Europe it 
has been my purpose to point out distinctly that this Government has 
no complaint to make that those nations declared their neutrality. It 
could neither expect nor desire more. The complaint is that the 
neutrality has been rather nominal than real, and that recognized 
neutral rights have been alternately asserted and waived in such man- 
ner as to bear with great severity on us, and to confer signal advan- 
tages on our enemy. 

I have hitherto refrained from calling to your attention this condi- 
tion of our relations with foreign powers for various reasons. The 
chief of these was the fear that a statement of our just grounds of 
complaint against a course of policy so injurious to our interests 
might be misconstrued into an appeal for aid. Unequal as we weré 
in mere numbers and available resources to our enemies, we were 
conscious of powers of resistance, in relation to which Europe was 
incredulous, and our remonstrances were therefore peculiarly liable 
to be misunderstood. Proudly self-reliant, the Confederacy know- 
ing full well the character of the contest into which it was forced, 
with full trust in the superior qualities of its population, the superior 
valor of its soldiers, the superior skill of its generals, and above 
all in the justice of its cause, felt no need to appeal for the main- 
tenance of its rights to other earthly aids, and it began and has ¢on- 
tinued this struggle with the calm confidence ever inspired in those 


344 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


who, with consciousness of right, can invoke the Divine blessing on 
their cause. This confidence has been so assured that we have never , 
yielded to despondency under defeat, nor do we feel undue elation at 
the present brighter prospect of successful issue to our contest. It is, 
therefore, because our just grounds of complaint can no longer be 
misinterpreted that I lay them clearly before you. It seems to me 
now proper to give you the information, and, although no immediate 
results may be attained, it is well that truth should be preserved and 
recorded. It is well that those who are to follow us should under- 
stand the full nature and character of the tremendous conflict in 
which the blood of our people has been poured out like water, and in 
which they have resisted, unaided, the shock of hosts which would 
have sufficed to overthrow many of the powers which, by their hesita- 
tion in according our rights as an independent nation, imply doubt 
of our ability to maintain our national existence. It may be, too, 
that if in future times unfriendly discussions not now anticipated 
shall unfortunately arise between this Confederacy and some European 
power, the recollection of our forbearance under the grievances which 
I have enumerated may be evoked with happy influence in prevent- 
ing any serious disturbance of peaceful relations. 

It would not be proper to close my remarks on the subject of our 
foreign relations without adverting to the fact that the correspond- 
ence between the Cabinets of France, Great Britain, and Russia, 
recently published, indicate a gratifying advance in the appreciation 
by those Governments of the true interests of mankind as involved 
in the war on this continent. It is to the enlightened ruler of the 
French nation that the public feeling of Europe is indebted for the 
first official exhibition of its sympathy for the sufferings endured by 
this people with so much heroism, of its horror at the awful carnage 
with which the progress of the war has been marked, and of its desire 
for a speedy peace. The clear and direct intimation contained in 
the language of the French note, that our ability to maintain our 
independence has been fully established, was not controverted by the 
answer of either of the Cabinets to which it was addressed. It is 
indeed difficult to conceive a just ground for a longer delay on this 
subject after reading the following statement of facts contained in 
the letter emanating from the minister of His Imperial Majesty: 

There has been established, from the very beginning of this war, an equilib- 
rium of forces between the belligerents, which has since been almost constantly 
maintained, and after the spilling of so much blood they are to-day in this 
respect in a situation which has not sensibly changed. Nothing authorizes the 
prevision that more decisive military operations will shortly occur. According 
to the last advices received in Europe, the two armies were, on the contrary, in a 
condition which permitted neither to hope within a short delay advantages suffi- 


ciently marked to turn the balance definitely and to accelerate the conclusion of 
peace. 


As this Government has never professed the intention of conquer- 
‘ing the United States, but has simply asserted its ability to defend 
itself against being conquered by that power, we may safely conclude 
that the claims of this Confederacy to its just place in the family of 
nations cannot long be withheld, after so frank and formal an admis- 
sion of its capacity to cope on equal terms with its aggressive foes, 
and to maintain itself against their attempts to obtain decisive results 
by arms. 

It is my painful duty again to inform you of the renewed examples 
of every conceivable atrocity committed by the armed forces of the 
United States at different points within the Confederacy, and which 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 345 


must stamp indelible infamy not only on the perpetrators but on 
their superiors, who, having the power to check these outrages on 
humanity, numerous and well authenticated as they have been, have 
not yet in a single instance of which I am aware inflicted punishment 
on the wrong-doers. Since my last communication to you one General 
MeNeil murdered seven prisoners of war in cold blood, and the 
demand for his punishment has remained unsatisfied. The Govern- 
ment of the United States, after promising examination and explana- 
tion in relation to the charges made against General Benjamin F. 
Butler, has by its subsequent silence, after repeated efforts on my part 
to obtain some answer on the subject, not only admitted his guilt but 
sanctioned it by acquiescence, and I have accordingly branded this 
criminal as an outlaw, and directed his execution in expiation of his 
crimes if he should fall into the hands of any of our forces. Recently 
I have received apparently authentic intelligence of another general 
by the name of Milroy, who has issued orders in Western Virginia for 
the payment of money to him by the inhabitants, accompanied by the 
most savage threats of shooting every recusant, besides burning his 
house, and threatening similar atrocities against any of our citizens 
who shall fail to betray their country by giving him prompt notice of 
the approach of any of our forces, and this subject has also been 
submitted to the superior military authorities of the United States 
with but faint hope that they will evince any disapprobation of the 
act. Humanity shudders at the appalling atrocities which are being 
daily multiplied under the sanction of those who have obtained tem- 
porary possession of power in the United States, and who are fast mak- 
ing its once fair name a byword of reproach among civilized men. 
Not even the natural indignation inspired by this conduct should make 
us, however, so unjust as to attribute to the whole mass of the people 
who are subjected to the despotism that now reigns with unbridled 
license in the city of Washington a willing acquiescence in its con- 
duct of the war. There must necessarily exist among our enemies 
very many, perhaps a majority, whose humanity recoils from all par- 
ticipation in such atrocities, but who cannot be held wholly guiltless 
while permitting their continuance without an effort at repression. 

The public journals of the North have been received, containing a 
proclamation, dated on the 1st day of the present month, signed by the 
President of the United States, in which he orders and declares all 
Slaves within ten of the States of the Confederacy to be free, except 
such as are found within certain districts now occupied in part by the 
armed forces of the enemy. We may well leave it to the instincts of 
that common humanity which a benéficent Creator has implanted in 
the breasts of our fellow men of all countries to pass judgment on a 
measure by which several millions of human beings of an inferior 
race, peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere, are doomed to 
extermination, while at the same time they are encouraged to a gen- 
eral assassination of their masters by the insidious recommendation 
“to abstain from violence unless in necessary self-defense.” Our 
own detestation of those who have attempted the most execrable 
measure recorded in the history of guilty man is tempered by pro- 
found contempt for the impotent rage which it discloses. So far as 
regards the action of this Government on such criminals as may 
attempt its execution, I confine myself to informing you that I shall, 
unless in your wisdom you deem some other course more expedient, 
deliver to the several State authorities all commissioned officers of 
the United States that may hereafter be captured by our forces in 


346 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


any of the States embraced in the proclamation, that they may be 
dealt with in accordance with the laws of those States providing for 
the punishment of criminals engaged in exciting servile insurrection. 
The enlisted soldiers I shall continue to treat as unwilling instru- 
ments in the commission of these crimes, and shall direct their dis- 
charge and return to their homes on the proper and usual parole. 

In its political aspect this measure possesses great significance, and 
to it in this light I invite your attention. It affords to our whole 
people the complete and crowning proof of the true nature of the 
designs of the party which elevated to power the present occupant of 
the Presidential chair at Washington and which sought to conceal its 
purposes by every variety of artful device and by the perfidious use 
of the most solemn and repeated pledges on every possible occasion. 
I extract in this connection as a single example the following 
declaration, made by President Lincoln under the solemnity of his 
oath as Chief Magistrate of the United States, on the 4th of March, 
1861: 


Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by 
the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and 
personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable 
cause for such apprehensions. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary 
has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly 
all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from 
one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, 
to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe 
I have no lawful right to do so; and I have no inclination to doso. Those who 
nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and 
many similar declarations and have never recanted them. And more than this, 
they placed in the platform for my acceptance and as a law to themselves and 
to me the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: 

“‘ Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institu- 
tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; and 
we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or 
Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest crimes.” 


Nor was this declaration of the want of power or disposition to 
interfere with our social system confined to a state of peace. Both 
before and after the actual commencement of hostilities the President 
of the United States repeated in formal official communication to the 
Cabinets of Great Britain and France that he was utterly without con- 
stitutional power to do the act which he has just committed, and that 
in no possible event, whether the secession of these States resulted in 
the establishment of a separate Confederacy or in the restoration of 
the Union, was there any authority by virtue of which he could either 
restore a disaffected State to the Union by force of arms or make any 
change in any of its institutions. I refer especially for verification of 
this assertion to the dispatches addressed by the Secretary of State of 
the United States, under direction of the President, to the ministers 
of the United States at London and Paris, under date of 10th and 22d 
of April, 1861. 

The people of this Confederacy, then, cannot fail to receive this 
proclamation as the fullest vindication of their own sagacity in fore- 
seeing the uses to which the dominant party in the United States 
intended from the beginning to apply their power, nor can they cease 
to remember with devout thankfulness that it is to their own vigi- 
lance in resisting the first stealthy progress of approaching despotism 
that they owe their escape from consequences now apparent to the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 347 


most skeptical. This proclamation will have another salutary effect 
in calming the fears of those who have constantly evinced the appre- 
hension that this war might end by some reconstruction of the old 
Union or some renewal of close political relations with the United 
States. These fears have never been shared by me, nor have I ever 
been able to perceive on what basis they could rest. But the procla- 
mation affords the fullest guarantee of the impossibility of such a 
result; it has established a state of things which can lead to but one 
of three possible consequences—the extermination of the slaves, the 
exile of the whole white population from the Confederacy, or absolute 
and total separation of these States from the United States. 

This proclamation is also an authentic statement by the Govern- 
ment of the United States of its inability to subjugate the South by 
force of arms, and as such must be accepted by neutral nations, which 
ean no longer find any justification in withholding our just claims to 
formal recognition. It is also in effect an intimation to the people of 
the North that they must prepare to submit to a separation, now 
become inevitable, for that people are too acute not to understand 
that a restoration of the Union has been rendered forever impossible 
by the adoption of a measure which from its very nature neither 
admits of retraction nor can coexist with union. 

Among the subjects to which your attention will be specially devoted 
during the present session you will no doubt deem the adoption of 
some comprehensive system of finance as being of paramount impor- 
tance. The increasing public debt, the great augmentation in the 
volume of the currency, with its necessary concomitant of extrava- 
gant prices-for all articles of consumption, the want of revenue from 
a taxation adequate to support the public credit, all unite in admon- 
ishing us that energetic and wise legislation alone can prevent serious 
embarrassment in our monetary affairs. It is my conviction that the 
people of the Confederacy will freely meet taxation on a scale ade- 
quate to the maintenance of the public credit and the support of their 
Government. When each family is sending forth its most precious 
ones to meet exposure in camp and death in battle, what ground can 
there be to doubt the disposition to devote a tithe of its income, and 
more, if more be necessary, to provide the Government with means for 
insuring the comfort of its defenders? If our enemies submit to an 
excise on every commodity they produce and to the daily presence of 
the tax-gatherer, with no higher motive than the hope of success in 
their wicked designs against us, the suggestion of an unwillingness on 
the part of this people to submit to the taxation necessary for the 
success of their defense is an imputation on their patriotism that few 
will be disposed to make and that none can justify. 

The legislation of your last session, intended to hasten the funding 
of outstanding Treasury notes, has proved beneficial, as shown by 
the returns annexed to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
But it was neither sufficiently prompt nor far-reaching to meet the 
full extent of the evil. The passage of some enactment carrying 
still further the policy of that law by fixing a limitation not later than 
the Ist of July next to the delay allowed for funding the notes issued 
prior to the 1st of December, 1862, will, in the opinion of the Secre- 
tary, have the effect to withdraw from circulation nearly the entire 
sum issued previous to the last-named date. If to this be added a 
revenue from adequate taxation, and a negotiation of bonds guaran- 
teed proportionately by the several States, as has already been gener- 
ously proposed by some of them in enactments spontaneously adopted, 
ri 


348 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


there is little doubt that we shall see our finances restored to a sound 
and satisfactory condition, our circulation relieved of the redundancy 
now productive of so many mischiefs, and our credit placed on such 
a basis as to relieve us from further anxiety relative to our resources 
for the prosecution of the war. 

It is true that at its close our debt will be large; but it will be due 
to our own people, and neither the interest nor the capital will be 
exported to distant countries, impoverishing ours for their benefit. 
On the return of peace the untold wealth which will spring from our 
soil will render the burden of taxation far less onerous than is now 
supposed, especially if we take into consideration that we shall then 
be free from the large and steady drain of our substance to which we 
were subjected in the late Union through the instrumentality of sec- 
tional legislation and protective tariffs. 

I recommend to your earnest attention the whole report* of the 
Secretary of the Treasury on this important subject, and trust that 
your legislation on it will be delayed no longer than may be required 
to enable your wisdom to devise the proper measures for insuring the 
accomplishment of the objects proposed. 

The operations of the War Department have been in the main sat- 
isfactory. In the report of the Secretary, herewith submitted,+ will 
be found a summary of many memorable successes. They are with 
justice ascribed in large measure to the reorganization and re-enforce- 
ment of our armies under the operation of the enactments for con- 
scription. The wisdom and efficacy of these acts have been approved 
by results, and the like spirit of unity, endurance, and self-devotion 
in the people, which has hitherto sustained their action, must be 
relied on to assure their enforcement under the continuing necessi- 
ties of our situation. The recommendations of the Secretary to this 
effect are tempered by suggestions for their amelioration, and the 
subject deserves the consideration of Congress. For the perfection of 
our military organization no appropriate means should be rejected, and 
on this subject the opinions of the Secretary merit early attention. It 
is gratifying to perceive that under all the efforts and sacrifices of war 
the power, means, and resources of the Confederacy for its suecessful 
prosecution are increasing. Dependence on foreign supplies is to be 
deplored, and should, as far as practicable, be obviated by the devel- 
opment and employment of internal resources. The peculiar circum- 
stances of the country, however, render this difficult and require 
extraordinary encouragements and facilities to be granted by the Goy- 
ernment. The embarrassments resulting from the limited capacity of 
the railroads to afford transportation and the impossibility of other- 
wise commanding and distributing the necessary supplies for the 
armies render the control of the roads under some general supervi- 
sion and resort to the power of impressment military exigencies. 
While such powers have to be exercised, they should be guarded by 
judicious provisions against perversion or abuse and be, as recom- 
mended by the Secretary, under due regulation of law. 

I specially recommend in this connection some revision of the 
exemption law of last session. Serious complaints have reached me 
of the inequality of its operation from eminent and patriotic citizens, 
whose opinions merit great consideration, and I trust that some 
means will be devised for leaving at home a sufficient local police 
without making discriminations, always to be deprecated, between 
different classes of our citizens. 


* See January 10, p. 309. +See January 3, p. 279. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 349 


Our relations with the Indians generally continue to be friendly. 
A portion of the Cherokee people have assumed an attitude hostile to 
the Confederate Government, but it is gratifying to be able to state 
that the mass of intelligence and worth in that nation have remained 
true and loyal to their treaty engagements. With this exception 
there have been no important instances of disaffection among any of 
the friendly nations and tribes. Dissatisfaction recently manifested 
itself among certain portions of them, but this resulted from a mis- 
apprehension of the intentions of the Government in their behalf. 
This has been removed and no further difficulty is anticipated. 

The report of the Secretary of the Navy, herewith transmitted, 
exhibits the progress made in this branch of the public service since 
your adjournment as well as its present condition. The details 
embraced in it are of such a nature as to render it, in my opinion, 
incompatible with the public interests that they should be published 
with this message. I therefore confine myself to inviting your atten- 
tion to the information therein contained. 

The report of the Postmaster-General shows that during the first 
postal year under our Government, terminating on the 30th of June 
last, our revenues were in excess of those received by the former Gov- 
ernment in its last postal year, while the expenses were greatly 
decreased. There is still, however, a considerable deficit in the rev- 
enues of the Department as compared with its expenses, and although 
the grants already made from the general Treasury will suffice to 
cover all liabilities to the close of the fiscal year ending on the 30th 
of June next, [recommend some legislation, if any can be constitu- 
tionally devised, for aiding the revenues of that Department during 
the ensuing fiscal year, in order to avoid too great a reduction of 
postal facilities. Your attention is also invited to numerous other 
improvements in the service recommended in the report, and for 
which legislation is required. 

I recommend to the Congress to devise a proper mode of relief to 
those of our citizens whose property has been destroyed by order of 
the Government, in pursuance of a policy adopted as a means of 
national defense. It is true that full indemnity cannot now be made, 
but some measure of relief is due to those patriotic citizens who have 
borne private loss for the public good, whose property in effect has 
been taken for public use, though not directly appropriated. 

Our Government, born of the spirit of freedom and of the equality 
and independence of the States, could not have survived a selfish or 
jealous disposition, making each only careful of its own interest or 
safety. The fate of the Confederacy, under the blessing of Divine © 
Providence, depends upon the harmony, energy, and unity of the 
States. It especially devolves on you, their representatives, as far 
as practicable, to reform abuses, to correct errors, to cultivate frater- 
nity, and to sustain in the people a just confidence in the Government 
of their choice. To that confidence and to the unity and self-sacri- 
ficing patriotism hitherto displayed is due the success which has 
marked the unequal contest, and has brought our country into a con- 
dition at the present time such as the most sanguine would not have 
ventured to predict at the commencement of our struggle. Our 
armies are larger, better disciplined, and more thoroughly armed and 
equipped than at any previous period of the war. The energies of a 
whole nation devoted to the single object of success in this war have 
accomplished marvels, and many of our trials have, by a beneficent 
Providence, been converted into blessings. The magnitude of the 


350 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


perils which we encountered have developed the true qualities and 
illustrated the heroic character of our people, thus gaining for the 
Confederacy from its birth a just appreciation from the other nations 
of the earth. The injuries resulting from the interruption of foreign 
commerce have received compensation by the development of our 
internal resources. Cannon crown our fortresses that were cast from 
the products of mines opened and furnaces built during the war. 
Our mountain caves yield much of the niter for the manufacture of 
powder, and promise increase of product. From our own foundries 
and laboratories, from our own armories and workshops, we derive 
in a great measure the warlike material, the ordnance and ordnance 
stores which are expended so profusely in the numerous and des- 
perate engagements that rapidly succeed each other. Cotton and 
woolen fabrics, shoes and harness, wagons and gun carriages are pro- 
duced in daily increasing quantities by the factories springing into 
existence. Our fields, no longer whitened by cotton that cannot be 
exported, are devoted to the production of cereals and the growth 
of stock formerly purchased with the proceeds of cotton. In the 
homes of our noble and devoted women, without whose sublime sac- 
rifices our success would have been impossible, the noise of the loom 
and of the spinning wheel may be heard throughout the land. With 
hearts swelling with gratitude let us, then, join in returning thanks to 
God, and in beseeching the continuance of His protecting care over 
our cause and the restoration of peace with its manifold blessings to 


our beloved country. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 4. Richmond, January 12, 1868. 


I. A camp of instruction for conscripts will be forthwith established 
at Petersburg, Va. All persons liable to conscription within the fol- 
lowing counties will repair to this camp for enrollment, and all 
enrolling officers within said counties will hasten forward conscripts 
to the same point. The following are the counties referred to, to wit: 
Greenesville, Dinwiddie, Brunswick, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Hali- 
fax, Charlotte, Pittsylvania, Henry, Patrick, Franklin, Nottoway, 
Prince Edward, and Campbell. 

IJ. Major-General French will appoint an officer of his command to 
receive and muster into service the troops called out by the Governor 
of Virginia in special orders of the adjutant-general of the State of 
January 9, 1863, as they arrive at Petersburg, and cause them to 
be furnished with subsistence and other supplies needed for their 
efficiency. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SUBSISTENCE DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 12, 1868. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR, 
Richmond, Va.: 
Str: For many months past the attention of the War Department 
has been called to the scarcity of meats within the country held by 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 351 


our armies, and to the fact that the most productive districts have 
been overrun by the enemy. It has been shown that our resources 
for the support of our Army, now larger than we had in the field in 
the winter of 1861—62 and the following spring, are not half of the 
resources available for feeding that Army. 

The present meat resources lie in Virginia to a small extent, in 
North Carolina to about an equal extent, but mainly in the supplies 
accumulated and unaccumulated in Tennessee, a large part of them — 
having been transferred to Georgia for safe-keeping. 

Before General Bragg’s army moved into Kentucky, Major Cum- 
mings was appointed and ordered to collect supplies in Tennessee as 
a resource for general use. All the hogs that could be collected were 
to be converted into bacon, and old bacon to be bought. Major Cum- 
mings, who is without doubt a man of extraordinary efficiency, and 
was most capable of estimating the existing resources of Tennessee, 
reported that, excluding the hogs and the bacon which he had bought, 
there was still unappropriated by him cattle and old bacon enough 
left to subsist General Bragg’s army in Middle Tennessee. 

The stpplies obtained by him up to December 2, 1862, as detailed 
by him in letter of that date, recite, among other things, 100,000 hogs, 
15,000 beeves, and over 2,000,000 pounds of bacon. Of those sup- 
plies a large quantity, probably all the old bacon, most of the beeves, 
and a large number of hogs, have been used by General Bragg’s army, 
so much being thus abstracted from the accumulations of this Bureau. 
By telegram from Major Cummings I am informed that no more of 
his hogs will be allowed to be shipped to him out of Tennessee; 
hence the comparatively small number secured for baconing will be 
still further reduced. General Bragg having fallen back, Middle 
Tennessee is lost. The annual high water of the Tennessee and Cum- 
berland Rivers being at hand, there is but small chance of driving 
the enemy back; consequently want of meat rations seems certainly 
impending over General Bragg’s army and the Army of Virginia. 

Texas is. the only point where meat is yet available, but beeves can- 
not be driven well at this season on the other side of the Mississippi, 
and if they could be and could cross the Mississippi in large numbers 
they could not be brought to either Virginia or Tennessee. It was 
arranged to make the attempt last winter on the opening of spring, 
and it failed of success on account of deficient grass on the route. 

The comparatively small district of East “Tennessee now affords a 
greater relative amount of subsistence for General Bragg’s army than 
do Virginia and North Carolina for the armies that are in those States, 
respectively. I therefore earnestly recommend that General Bragg 
be instructed to subsist his army from the resources of the country 
he defends, and be forbidden to stop the passage of hogs to Major 
Cummings, who has made arrangements for converting them into 
bacon; and, second, that this Bureau have authority to make arrange- 
ments for obtaining supplies of meat from without the limits of the 
Southern Confederacy, and especially to enter into contract with 
parties who have already proposed to furnish large amounts of bacon 
to the Bureau in exchange for cotton. 

This latter point has been elaborately argued by this Bureau on 
prior occasions, and nothing can be added to what was then said 
except that renewed inquiries have strengthened the conviction then 
expressed that without such an arrangement the armies cannot be fed. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary- General. 


352 } CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 
ftachmond, January 12, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor most respectfully to submit for your consid- 
eration the following report in regard to the operations of this office, 
and the condition of the Indians west of Arkansas: 

On the 3d day of April, 1862, at the first session of the First Con- 
gress, commencing on the 18th day of the previous February, the 
sum of $389,725.42 was appropriated to carry into effect treaty stipu- 
lations made with these Indians, and to meet current and contingent 
expenses of the superintendency of Indian Affairs and the different 
agencies to November 30, 1862. The amount expended for the pur- 
poses intended has been $213,597.73, leaving of said appropriation, 
unexpended and unrequired, $176,127.69. 

The appropriation under consideration was based upon estimates 
prepared and submitted by this office, and, as will be perceived by 
the figures above given, largely exceeded the amount required. This 
was owing to the failure of agents to supply this office as is provided 
for by law with quarterly estimates of the sums necessary for distri- 
bution within the limits of their respective districts, and to meet the 
expenses of their several agencies. Reference is made to this fact 
simply to account for the large overplus in the appropriation, and is 
not intended as a complaint against those officers—the difficulty of 
communication between the seat of government and the Indian coun- 
try and other circumstances incident to the present war being suffi- 
cient grounds of justification for non-compliance with this branch of 
their official duty. The same causes, too, it is proper to state in this 
connection, have no doubt operated to prevent them from promptly 
settling their accounts and keeping this office fully informed of the 
condition and sentiments of the Indians confided to their care. — 

In the month of August of the year that has just closed, informa- 
tion from sources entitled to credit was communicated to the Confed- 
erate Government of a nature calculated to excite some apprehen- 
sion on its part with regard to the permanency of its relations with 
certain of the Indian nations and tribes. In view of this fact it was 
deemed advisable for me to proceed at once to the Indian country, 
and orders to that effect were issued from the War Department early 
in the ensuing month. Iwas instructed to carry with me for dis- 
bursement the Indian moneys appropriated by Congress April 3, 
1862, to which allusion has hereinbefore been made; to acquaint 
myself as far as practicable during my stay in the Indian country 
with the wants and conditions of its people, and to use all proper and 
legitimate means to satisfy them of the determination of this Govern- 
ment to fulfill all of its promises and obligations to them; to pay 
them as regularly as possible their annuities, &c., and to protect them 
and their homes from the encroachments of all enemies. 

In obedience to these orders, on the morning of the 13th of Septem- 
ber, I left Richmond, but owing to misconnection of trains upon 
certain railroads and the difficulty at times of procuring suitable 
transportation, I did not enter the Indian country until the middle 
of October. I left it upon my return to this place about the 1st of 
December, having remained within its limits about a month and a 
half. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 353 


During the time I had repeated interviews with Samuel Garland, 
principal chief of the Choctaws; Winchester Colbert, Governer of 
the Chickasaws; Stand Watie, principal chief of the Cherokees; 
Motey Kinnaird and Icho Hacho, chiefs of the Upper and Lower 
Creeks; John Jumper, chief of the Seminoles, and other men of 
authority in these nations. 

From conversations had with them and from information derived 
through other reliable channels, it was evident that a spirit of dissat- 
isfaction had manifested itself prior to my arrival among portions of 
their people. It had resulted from the delay of this Government— 
unavoidably, it is true, but of the facts of which they had not been 
fully advised or did not comprehend—in complying with certain of 
its engagements to them. This dissatisfaction did not amount to real 
distrust of the good faith of the Confederate States. It was, how- 
ever, a beginning in that direction, and had it been permitted to con- 
tinue for any length of time, the most disastrous consequences might 
have ensued. 

The task of removing it I found to be one of no great, difficulty. 
Indeed the mere fact of the Government having sent an officer from 
the Capital to their country, charged with the special duty of con- 
ferring with them, and ascertaining by this means and through per- 
sonal observation their wants and condition, was to them such a 
signal and conclusive mark of its favor and good will that but little 
was left for me to doin the premises. A simple and brief explanation 
of the past action of the Government in their behalf, coupled with the 
assurance of its unalterable determination to watch over and protect 
them, was all-sufficient to banish every trace of discontent from their 
minds. ‘The substance of my official remarks to the authorities of the 
different nations is contained in an address issued to them from this 
office a few days ago, and the manner in which they were received is 
shown by extracts from a series of resolutions of the Choctaw Coun- 
cil and a written communication from the Creek chiefs, after my 
interviews with them—all of which are herewith respectfully sub- 
mitted.* 

It must not be supposed, in the reference here made to the Choctaw, 
Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole nations, the idea is sought 
to be conveyed that all these Indians have proven loyal to their treaty 
engagements with the Confederate States. Such is by no means the 
fact. Indeed, it is true only with regard to one of them. 

The Choctaws alone, of all the Indian nations, have remained per- 
fectly united in their loyalty to this Government. It was said to me 
by more than one influential and reliable Choctaw during my sojourn 
in their country that not only had no member of that nation ever gone 
over to the enemy, but that no Indian had ever done so in whose veins 
coursed Choctaw blood. 

The Chickasaws have been less, but scarcely less, fortunate in this 
regard than their brothers, the Choctaws. About forty families in a 
body were induced to desert their country about the time of the alli- 
ance of their nation with the Confederate States. With this exception 
no instances of disaffection have been known amongst them. 

Of the Seminoles at least one-half have proved disloyal and have 
deserted their country. Their chief, John J umper, however, has ever 
exhibited unshaken fidelity to the Confederate cause, and those of his 
ee eave SS Os ee 


* Omitted. 
23 R R—SERIES IV, VOL I 


oD4 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


people who have remained with him are composed of the same staunch 
material with himself. | 

The Creeks have lost about a thousand or fifteen hundred of their 
people. Hopoeithleyohola’s defection carried off almost all of these, 
as well as the forty families of Chickasaws before alluded to, and the 
major part of the Seminoles. 

Of the Cherokees not less than one-half followed Ross when he 
deserted his country. Almost the whole of the worth and talent of 
the nation, however, was left behind him, and is now clustered about 
Stand Watie, its present gallant and patriotic principal chief. 

In reference to the condition and feelings of the small tribes located 
in the northeastern corner of the Indian country—the Osages, Qua- 
paws, Senecas, and Senecas and Shawnees—but littleis known. Their 
country, exposed as it is to invasion by Kansas desperadoes, has been 
completely under the control of the North almost from the day of their 
having entered into treaties with this Government. On this account 
150 families of the Great Osage tribe left their homes long ago, and 
took refuge with the Creeks. Three of the leading men among these 
refugees—a chief, Black Dog, and two others—visited me at Fort 
Smith, on the line of Arkansas and the Indian country. Theyseemed 
to believe that a majority of their brother Osages, which is the only 
one of these bands of any strength or importance, were still true and 
loyal, although fear had kept them from making a decided manifesta- 
tion of it. At any rate, according to their statement, no acts of hos- 
tility had ever been perpetrated by them against the Confederate 
States. The other bands, they thought, had sided with the enemy. 

The Indians settled upon the district lying between the 98th and 
100th parallels of west longitude and the Red and Canadian Rivers, 
and known as the reserve Indians, have not of late been doing very 
well. At the time these Indians were taken under the guardianship 
of the Confederate States they numbered, including men, women, and 
children, about 2,000 souls, and consisted of Comanches, Wichitas, 
Caddos, A-na-dagh-cos, Ton-ca-wes, T'a-hua-ca-ros, Hue-cos, Ki-chais, 
and Ai-o-nais. Provision was made for feeding them at the expense 
of the Government, and placing with them white men to give them 
instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts. 

Anterior to my visit to the Indian country, false representations 
were made to these Indians by mischievous persons of a threatened 
inroad into the reserve district of a band of Texans with hostile inten- 
tions, and all or nearly all of the Wichitas, Caddos, Ta-hua-ca-ros, 
Hue-cos, Ai-o-nais, and Ki-chais ran away. These desertions reduced 
_the number of Indians upon the reserve at least one-half. 

Information in regard to this untoward event did not reach me until 
my arrival at Fort Washita, in the Chickasaw country, where, at the 
same time, I was also met by news from the reserve of a still more 
unpleasant character. 

Letters from the quartermaster of the Chickasaw battalion stationed 
at Arbuckle had just been received at Washita, giving an account of 
a serious attack upon the reserve by a band of marauding Indians. 
At the former post, to which I immediately proceeded, in the company 
of General Pike, I learned the particulars of the affair from Doctor 
Sturm, the issuing commissary for the reserve, and Doctor Shirley, 
a merchant at the agency, both of whom were in the neighborhood at 
the time of its occurrence. 

The marauding party scarcely exceeded one hundred in number, 
and were composed of Shawnees, who had deserted from John Jumper’s 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 355 


battalion, Delawares, Kickapoos, and a few disloyal Seminoles and 
Cherokees. They made their appearance at the agency between 9 
and 10 o’clock on the night of the 23d of October. Whether any of the 
reserve Indians had a “knowledge of their coming is not certainly 
known. They, however, took no part in the outrage. 

Four of the white employés at the agency were surprised and mur- 
dered. Their names were Bickel, Harrison, Outzen, and Turman. 

During the night the murderers, after having plunder ed the agency 
building, burned it to the ground. No other house was destroyed. 

The following morning they attacked the Ton-ca-wes, one of the 
bands of reserve Indians, killing their chief, Placido, a good man, 
twenty-three of their warriors, and about an hundred of their women 
and children. The Ton-ca-wes, although armed with only bows and 
arrows, while their assailants had weapons of the latest and best pat- 
tern furnished them by the North, inflicted upon the latter, it was 
said, a loss of twenty-seven men in killed and wounded. 

The ground of their assault upon the Ton-ca-wes is to be found, I 
suspect, in the fact of this band having sided with the whites against 
the Indians some time ago in Texas. Feuds among this singular race 
of people never die. 

The remnant of the ill-fated Ton-ca-we tribe, about forty men and 
less than a hundred women and children, made their way to Arbuckle 
a few days after the fight. They were in a most miserable and desti- 
tute condition. 

Before leaving the Chickasaw country I wrote to the Governor of 
that nation, asking permission to place them temporarily on Rocky 
Creek, about eighteen miles east of Arbuckle, where there was excel- 
lent grazing for the few horses owned by them, plenty of wood, and 
good water. His consent was readily obtained. A copy of his letter 
on the subject is hereto appended. * 

Doctor Sturm, the commissary before referred to, was instructed by 
me to remain with the Ton-ea-wes during the winter, and attend to 
the issuing of provisions to them, which would be supplied under the 
contract for feeding the reserve Indians. 

I did not visit the reserve. It was unnecessary, as all the friendly 
Indians, from fear, were known to have abandoned it soon after the 
commission of the outrages to which I have directed attention, and 
had fied to the Wichita Mountains. A message, however, inviting the 
fugitives back to their homes and couched in such terms as were cal- 
culated to allay their apprehensions, was transmitted to them through 
Doctor Shirley, who accompanied a scouting party sent to the reserve 
by General Pike. Of the result of this undertaking the office has not 
yet been informed, although but little doubt is entertained of its suc- 
cess as the Comanche chiefs, whose encampment was visited by certain 
white men immediately subsequent to the attack upon the agency, 
and by whom they were assisted to escape, expressed the determina- 
tion of returning when all excitement had subsided and they were 
assured of protection. 

Doctor Shirley, it should likewise be stated, was also requested by 
‘me, while he temained upon the reserve, to take charge of all Govern- 
ment property there and adopt the necessary measures to preserve it 
from waste. 

Before dismissing the subject of the reserve agency, a few remarks 
in reference to the wild Indians will not be out of place. 


* Omitted. 


356 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


It is gratifying to be able to state that they have recently evinced 
no great disposition to wage war upon the Confederate States. Indeed, 
with the exception of the Cai-a-was, they have never done so. ‘This 
band, one of the most powerful and warlike of all the tribes leading a 
nomadic life upon the prairies and Staked Plain, refused all proposi- 
tions of peace made to them in July, 1861, by the commissioner sent 
from this Government to treat with the Indians west of Arkansas, and 
endeavored to prevail upon the Comanches to pursue a similar course. 
They were induced to act thus by Northern emissaries, who at the 
same time provided them with rifles, six-shooters, and knives to be 
used in murdering and scalping defenseless women and children. - In 
their wicked and bloody designs they failed to obtain the co-operation 
of the Comanches, several of the bands of which made a treaty with 
the commissioner. Latterly, however, even this fierce tribe has mani- 
fested some desire to cultivate friendly relations with the Confederate 
States. 

On the 4th of July last some of the Cai-a-wa chiefs accompanied 
the Comanches in their visit to the reserve agency to sign the treaty 
which had heretofore been made with a part of them, and while there 
they also entered into a convention with the Confederate Government. 
That they really wished to be at peace and intended to abide by the 
obligations of this convention is strongly indicated by the fact of 
Tes-toth-cha, their principal chief, having come to the reserve some 
time before to select a home for his band and pointing out Elk Creek, 
in the vicinity of the Wichita Mountains, as the place desired by him 
for the purpose. 

The recent breaking up of the reserve has interfered with all these 
arrangements—arrangements looking to the establishment of friendly 
relations with all the wild Indians, their permanent settlement, and 
cultivation of the arts of peace; but it is hoped that this may be 
speedily remedied by the return of the reserve Indians to their homes 
and the wise management henceforth of the ‘affairs of the agency. 

The importance of this reserve agency to the Confederate States is 
scarcely to be overestimated. The labor and expense necessary to 
keep it up, at least for some years, will be great; but it may well be 
urged that peace on our extensive western frontier—which would, no 
doubt, result from its maintenance on a sound and healthful basis— 
the preservation of the lives and property of thousands of our citizens, 
and withal the gradual civilization of the roving pagans of the prai- 
ries, offer the most ample remuneration for all the labor and all the 
expense to which the Government may be subjected, should each be 
doubly as heavy as there is any likelihood of its being. 

Permit me to remark in this connection that a white and Indian 
force adequate to the protection of the reserve should be constantly 
kept there, and that the necessary steps should at once be taken to 
rebuild the agent’s house, which was destroyed as hereinbefore stated. 

In portions of the Indian country excessive drought has prevailed 
during the last two seasons. ‘The crops were cut short and some of 
the friendly Indians are therefore suffering. Corn, however, has been 
and is still being supplied as far as practicable to the most needy 
among them by the generals in command. These facts are mentioned 
that Congress may adopt such action on the subject as in its judgment 
shall seem best. 

I had intended to suggest for your consideration certain modifica- 
tions of the law regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians, 
but have upon reflection deemed it inexpedient to do so. It contains 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 357 


features of somewhat doubtful propriety, yet, having only recently 
been enacted and therefore but imperfectly tested, I do not now feel 
altogether authorized to dispute its efficiency. 

No effort of this office, in its operations heretofore, has been spared 
to guard the interests of the Confederate States, as well as those of 
the Indians, and it is sufficient to state in conclusion that for the 
future the same ends shall be had constantly in view. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
; 8S. 8. SCOTT, 
Commissioner, Ke. 


——<—_____.. 


[JANUARY 13, 1863.—For orders of the Governor of Louisiana, 
directing the enrollment of all white males between the ages of seven- 
teen and fifty years, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 843. ] 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 11. Richmond, Va., January 14, 1868. 
* % *" * * 


* * 


XJ. Authority is hereby granted R. 8. Williams to raise a light 
artillery company, to be equipped with Williams’ breech-loading guns, 
to consist of Kentuckians, under the call of the President and exist- 
ing law. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[JANUARY 14, 1863.—For Shorter to Seddon, in relation to suspen- 
sion of enrollment in certain counties in Alabama, &c., see Series I, 
Vol. XV, p. 946. ] 


STATE OF GEORGIA, 
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Milledgeville, January 14, 1868. 


RESOLUTIONS. 


Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Georgia 
in General Assembly met, First. That the officers and soldiers from this State, 
upon whatsoever fields they have met our enemies, have, by their distinguished 
bravery and unflinching valor, conferred immortal honor upon themselves and 
eens renown upon their State, and have truly illustrated the character of 

eorgia. 

Second. That the thanks of the people of this State and the General Assembly 
are due, and are hereby tendered, to them for the promptitude with which they 
repaired to the defense of our Confederacy, for the unyielding fortitude with 
which they have borne the privations, toils, and fatigues incident to their service, 
ee the unsurpassed gallantry and courage displayed by them on every battle- 

eld. 

Third. That we deeply and sincerely lament the death of so many of our brave 
officers and men who yielded their lives in defense of their country on the field of 
battle, and this General Assembly does not hesitaté to declare that when the 
proper time shall arrive the State should spare no expense to erect a suitable 
monument to perpetuate their names and gallant deeds. 


° 


358 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Fourth. That as our gallant soldiery are standing as sentinels over the honor, 
the liberty, the property, and lives of our people, resisting most valiantly the 
aggressions of a most unscrupulous and fanatical foe, justice and gratitude alike 
demand that Georgia should do its utmost to prevent suffering among her troops 
abroad, or their needy families at home, and to these ends the present General 
Assembly stands pledged to make appropriations, with liberal and unstinting 
hands, confident that, should the emergency require it, future Legislatures will 
follow a precedent so commendable and patriotic. 

Fifth. That the adjutant-general shall have prepared in his office a registry 
containing, in alphabetical order, the names of all officers and privates who have 
entered, or may hereafter enter, the service from this State during the existing 
war, designating their residences, and the companies, battalions, or regiments of 
which they were members, which registry shall contain, so far as can be ascer- 
tained, a list of those wounded in battle but who survive. In a separate volume 
shall be preserved a list of the gallant and lamented dead who fall by the hand of 
disease or from wounds in battle, which registry, when completed at the end of 
the war, shall be deposited in the archives of the State, there to remain a sacred 
memorial of gallant names and glorious deeds. 

Sixth. That His Excellency the Governor is hereby requested to forward a copy 
of these resolutions to the commanding officer of each Georgia regiment, to be 
read at the head of his command. 

WARREN AKIN, 


Speaker of House of Representatives. 


L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk of House of Representatives. 


JOHN BILLUPS, 
President of the Senate. 


JAMES M. MOBLEY, 
Secretary of the Senate. 


JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 
Forwarded in compliance with the resolution of the General As- 
sembly. 
By order of commander-in-chief: 


Approved November 26, 1862. 


HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, January 15, 1868. 
The SENATE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


I hereby nominate James A. Seddon to be Secretary of War, in place 
of George W. Randolph, resigned. 
: JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 6. fichmond, January 15, 1868. 

I. The attention of officers charged with the custody of public prop- 
erty is called to paragraphs 923, 924, and 925, Army Regulations, 
which provide the mode of accounting for that which is lost or 
destroyed, and disposing of such as become unsuitable for the service. 
No departure will be allowed from the requirements therein contained, 
and all officers having public property in their possession will beheld 
to a strict accountability. 

II. Theappointmentof agents to purchase wool by any officer except 
the Quartermaster-General, and such officers as may act under his 
authority and sanction, is hereby prohibited; and all agencies for that 
purpose heretofore authorized by other officers is revoked. 

By order: 

: S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 859 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 12. Richmond, Va., January 15, 1868. 
* * * * * * * 

VI. Authority is hereby granted V. B. O’Neil to raise a company of 
partisan rangers, to be composed of Kentuckians, under the call of 
the President and existing law. 

VII. Authority is hereby granted Capt. S. A. Doran to raise a com- 
pany, to be composed of Kentuckians, under the call of the President 
and the existing law. 

* * *k * * *f * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


MILITARY COMMITTEE ROOM, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
January 16, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


SiR: I have been instructed by the Committee on Military Affairs 
to request you to furnish them with a tabular statement of the num- 
ber of troops of all arms now in the service; the number from the 
several States, respectively; the number of troops prior to the pas- 
sage of the first conscription law; the number prior to the passage of 
the second conscription law; the number of conscripts received into the 
Army by the operation of each of these laws; the number of volun- 
teers received since the passage of each of these laws; the number of 
soldiers lost in battle, disabled, discharged, died in hospitals, &e., 
and such other information of a statistical character with reference 
to the Army as may seem to you judicious and proper. 

Iam, with high respect, your obedient servant, 
W. PORCHER MILES. 
[Indorsement. | 
J ANUARY 17, 1863. 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 


Please furnish the statements requested as early as possible. 
a 


Secretary 0 yf War. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 13. Richmond, Va., January 16, 1868. 
* * + * *k *% * 
X. Authority is hereby granted Maj. M. J. Wicks to raise an inde- 
pendent battalion of partisan rangers, to be composed of men drawn 
from within the enemy’s lines, for special service on and near the 
Mississippi River, under the call of the President and the existing 
law. : 
: * *k *K * * * 6 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[JANUARY 16, 1863.—For Bragg’s order appointing Genéral Pillow 
to organize a volunteer and conscript recruiting bureau in the Army 
of ‘Tennessee, sée Series I, Vol. XX, Part II, p. 498. ] 


360 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
A PROCLAMATION BY JOSEPH E. BROWN, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA. 


Reliable information having been received by me that there is at 
present a very considerable number of deserters and stragglers from 
the military service of the Confederate States within the limits of this 
State, who, after having volunteered and entered the service, have 
ingloriously abandoned their country’s flag and their brave comrades 
in arms; and it being represented that numbers of these deserters, 
encouraged by disloyal citizens in the mountains of Northeastern 
Georgia, have associated themselves together with arms in their hands 
and are now in rebellion against the authority of this State and the 
Confederate States, robbing loyal citizens of their property and threat- 
ening to burn their dwellings and do other acts of violence; and it 
being my determination, while I do all in my power as the Executive 
of the State to maintain her rights and her sovereignty in the Con- 
federacy as well in times of revolution as in times of peace, to exercise 
all the power and authority vested in me to cause the government 
and people of the State to do their whole duty to the Confederacy, 
and to the people of the sovereign States of which it is composed, and 
not only to respond in future, as I have in every instance promptly 
done in the past, to every call made upon this State for even more 
than her just quota of men and means to carry on the war till our 
independence is fully established, but to compel all who have deserted 
and sought refuge within this State, whether they be Georgians or not, 
to return to the discharge of duty: 

I therefore issue this, 7 my proclamation, commanding all persons, as 
well officers as privates, within the limits of this State, who have 
been actually engaged in the military service of the Confederate 
States, and who have deserted or are otherwise absent from the 
respective commands to which they belong without legal furlough 
or order from the officers having the right to command them, or who 
have overstayed the time allowed them, without providential hin- 
drance, to return to their respective commands immediately after the 
publication of this notice; and I invoke the pardon of the Confederate 
authorities for all such who return to their duty within twenty days, 
but ask that the penalties of the law be vigorously inflicted upon all 
who refuse so to do; and I call upon the good people of this State to 
bring to bear the powerful influence of a just public opinion in 
condemnation of all deserters and stragglers, no matter what may be 
their position, wealth, or influence. And I also hereby command and 
require all militia officers of this State, with the forces under their 
command if necessary, and all sheriffs and constables, with all persons 
subject to their commands, to be vigilant and active in arresting all 
persons who may be found within their respective jurisdictions who 
belong to any military organization in the service of the Confederate 
States, who cannot show that they have the legal authority or order 
of their commanding officers to justify such absence; and to deliver 
such persons when arrested to any officer commanding any company 
or regiment in the military service of this State. And I also direct 
each and every officer in command of either of the two regiments now 
being formed for State service, or of any company of which they are 
comprised, to arrest all such persons, using all the force necessary for 
that purpose; and to receive into their custody all such when tendered 
by any militia officer or sheriff or constable of this State, and to send 
all such deserters or stragglers under a sufficient guard to General 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 361 


Mercer, at Savannah, or to Col. G. W. Lee, commanding the post at 
Atlanta, as the one or the other place may be nearest and most con- 
venient, to be disposed of as the Secretary of War may direct. 

I also direct all loyal citizens of this State to report to the officers 
above mentioned or to the State troops in service the names of all 
persons, as well officers as privates, suspected to be deserters or to 
have overstayed the time allowed by their furloughs, and to render 
to the State officers all the assistance in their power in executing the 
instructions herein contained and in ridding the State of all deserters 
or stragglers who disgrace her soil. And I also warn all disloyal citi- 
zens to cease to harbor deserters or encourage desertion or to commit 
further acts of disloyalty or hostility to this State or the Confederate 
States, as the law against treason will be strictly enforced against all 
who subject themselves to its penalties. Any person who shall com- 
mit any overt act of treason, by taking up arms against this State or 
the Confederate States, or by adhering to their enemies or giving 
them aid or comfort, will be arrested and confined in the common 
jail of the county where the crime is committed, or if the jail is insuf- 
ficient or there is danger of rescue, in such other jail of this State as 
the presiding judge of the circuit shall direct. And all persons here- 
after encouraging desertion or harboring deserters, or committing 
other acts of disloyalty, will be arrested and delivered to General 
Mercer, at Savannah, or Colonel Lee, at Atlanta, to be dealt with as 
the Confederate authorities may direct under the laws of force; and 
the Rules and Articles of War. 

Given under my hand and the great seal of this State, at the Capi- 
tol, in Milledgeville, this 17th day of January, in the year of our 
Lord 1863. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 

By the Governor: 

N. C. BARNETT, 
Secretary of State. 


HbD@Rs. BUREAU OF VOLUNTEERS AND CONSCRIPTS, 
Fayetteville, January 17, 1868. 
Col. G. W. BRENT, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 

COLONEL BRENT: I reached here this afternoon and immediately 
entered upon the duty preparatory to the organization. 

I expected to get everything ready for a forward movement by 
Wednesday morning. My purpose was first to rake Bedford County, 
in which there are 1,500 men liable to duty under the conscript law. 
I was anxious to clean out that county by one movement, and doing 
it at once to avoid giving alarm. 

A partial movement over one portion of the county will give the 
alarm, and cause the conscripts to scatter and hide out. 

I find Colonel Avery has only about 40 armed men with guns, and 
only about 180 sabers and 100 saddles. 

There [are] sixty saddles here belonging to Colonel Malone’s reg- 
iment of cavalry, which I will have turned over to Colonel Avery’s 
command. I find a number of Colonel Morgan’s men without horses 
in camp in the neighborhood of Mulberry, eight miles from this place. 

I will use such portions of Morgan’s men as have horses suitable 
for present service, turn over the extra arms in possession of his dis- 
mounted men to arm as many of Avery’s men as have saddles, and 


* 


362 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


may, out of the two commands, make up 400 or 500 men for the first 
forward movement into Bedford County. 

‘This is an inadequate force for energetic action and success. Col- 
onel Avery says his requisition for arms and equipments has been 
forwarded some time since, but none have come. 

I cannot meet General Bragg’s expectations without a good force 


_of cavalry. With 1,000 cavalry I can add 5,000 to his army in a short 


time. I will rapidly sweep Middle Tennessee to the enemy’s lines if 
the cavalry is furnished. I suppose General Bragg did not know the 
condition of Avery’s command. Advise me if my action is approved 
in regard to the measures explained above, and say if I can have a 
support of the force of cavalry indicated as needed. 

I shall, with such force as can be armed and fitted for the field, 
leave on Wednesday morning for the movement on Bedford. 

There is no paper or books of any sort to be had in this place. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Chief of Bureau of Volunteers and Conscripts. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
Fayetteville, January 18, 1868. 


To the PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE AND THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


Having been directed by General Bragg to organize a volunteer 
and conscript bureau for the purpose of recruiting and strengthening 
his army and making it self-sustaining, I appeal to you to come 
promptly to its support. 

Upon that army depends the safety of your homes and all that you 
hold dear. We are no longer in doubt as to the character of the 
Lincoln despotism. The ruin and desolation which is everywhere left 
in the track of its armies attest its vandalism. 

The late proclamation of the tyrant and usurper, proposing to free 
all our slaves and taking them into his Army, and inciting the slaves 
to insurrection and massacre of their owners and their families, places 
him and his Government without the pale of civilization. Men who 
will not resist such a despotism do not deserve to be freemen. I will 
receive all who come to me as volunteers and allow them to select 
the company and regiment which they will join; and they will be 
entitled to the bounty and all the privileges of volunteers. Those 
who will not join as volunteers will have to come as conscripts. 

Report yourselves to Colonel Campbell, Fayetteville; Major Nich- 
olson, Shelbyville, or to the commanders of existing regiments, and 
you will be received and enrolled as volunteers. 

Recruiting officers will be sent to all the States having troops in 
the Army. Those tendering themselves as volunteers will be so 
received. 

I will also receive organized companies of volunteers from within 
the enemy’s lines, or behind his positions. Such companies will be 
organized into regiments by the order of the President. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and 
Chief of Volunteer and Conscript Bureau. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 3638 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 19, 1863. 
Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance: 

The act (No. 21) of the first session of the Provisional Congress, 
entitled ‘‘An act to provide munitions of war,” &¢., authorizes the 
Secretary of War, under the direction of the President, ‘‘to make 
contracts for the purchase and manufacture of heavy ordnance and 
small-arms” in such manner and on such terms as in his judgment 
the public exigencies may require. The question you present is 
whether the President exhausts all his authority in making the con- 
tract, or can he authorize a modification when he supposes that the 
modification proposed will better accomplish his object. And upon 
this question there can be little room for doubt when we consider the 
expansive language of the authority conferred upon him. His 
authority is only restricted by his views of the exigencies of the 
public. It has been suggested that the tenth article of the ninth 
section of the Constitution may contain a restriction upon this power. 
That article prohibits Congress from granting extra compensation to 
any public contractor, officer, or agent after such contract shall have 
been made or such service rendered. This prohibition is special as 
to Congress and does not embrace in its terms the President. The 
settlement of contracts and the adjustment of compensation are, in ~ 
general, administrative duties committed to the Executive Depart- 
ment under legal regulations. A large discretion must be committed 
to the officers of that Department in such cases, or the efficiency of 
the service would be enervated. On the other hand, these are not 
properly subjects of legislative management. Much abuse originated 
in the control that the Congress of the United States exerted over 
such subjects. The members were exposed to solicitation from greedy 
contractors and dishonest claim agents, and much corruption was 
introduced into the Federal Legislature in the effort to secure extra 
allowances to such persons. There is no rule of construction that 


_ authorizes the extension of the prohibition beyond the plain language 


of the Constitution. 
For Secretary of War. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 7. Richmond, January 19, 1868. 


I. The exemption from military service of route agents of the Post- 
Office Department having been claimed by the Postmaster-General as 
executive officers of the Confederate States, under the act of October 
11, 1862, is recognized. Such persons, if within conscript ages, will be 
enrolled and furnished with certificates exempting them during the 
continuance of their appointments. In all cases where the appoint- 
ment fails or the term thereof expires the party is required to report 
himself to the officer by whom he was enrolled, or if he cannot be 
found to the Adjutant and Inspector General at Richmond. 

II. Hereafter all field artillery belonging to any separate army will 
be parked together under the direction of the general or other chief 


364 - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


officer of artillery having control of the same, to be distributed, when 
required, according to the judgment of the commanding general of | 
such army. 

III. Cavalry companies will, as far as practicable, be kept with their 
respective regiments. The practice of detailing such companies or 
parts of them. as couriers and guides for the headquar ters of general 
officers will be discontinued. “Their places can be supplied by such 
infantry soldiers as may be able to furnish themselves with horses 
and ean be detailed for this duty by the general from their respective 
commands, the number not to exceed six for the commander of an 
army corps, four for commander of division, and two for commander 
of brigade. 

IV. Medical officers, in furnishing certificates of disability to dis- 
abled and invalid officers, will confine themselves to the established 
forms of the service provided for such certificates and will hereafter 
abstain from recommending them for light duty. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, January 19, 1868. 
Hon. W. T. DORTCH: 


DEAR SIR: You are aware that this State, in clothing her troops, 
furnishing cavalry horses, &c., has a claim against the Confederate 
Government amounting to some $6,000,000. Within a few days past 
an agent sent by the State, Captain Gulick, has had claims audited 
and “allowed and filed in the War Department to the amount of 
$1,289,495.28, which was not paid for want of an appropriation, as 
Captain Gulick informs me. The treasury of the State cannot meet 
the requisitions on it if this money be not received very promptly. «I 
beg you to press this appropriation through with all possible dispatch. 
See some of our delegation in the House and acquaint them with these 
facts, and much oblige, 

Yours, very respectfully, 
JONA. WORTH, 
Public Treasurer. 


[Indorsement. | 


SENATE CHAMBER, January 29, 1863. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER: 
Allow me to call your attention to the within. I do not know 
whether the amount due the State is embraced in your estimates. If 
not, please attend to it. 


Yours, &e¢., 
W. T. DORTCH. 
GENERAL BERD, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 8 Richmond, January 20, 1868. 


I. oplinaticns for staff appointments to fill vacancies, whether 
occurring in divisions, brigades, regiments, or battalions, must, in all 
cases, besides being sent through the proper channels, be accompanied 
by a statement showing how such vacancies have occurred; and until 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 365 


the previous incumbent shall have been properly disposed of, and his 
absence accounted for to the satisfaction of this Department, no other 
appointment will be made. 

II. No transfers of bonded officers from the positions to which they 
have been originally assigned shall be recognized until ratified by this 
Department. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[JANUARY 20, 1863.—For Seddon to Cobb and Cobb’s reply (29th), 
in relation to raising troops in Georgia and Florida, see Series I, Vol. 
Hee Pp. 2/0, 277. | » 


GENERAL ORDERS, | WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 9. \ Richmond, January 22, 1868. 


I. Pursuant to section 8 of an “act to provide for the publie 
defense,” approved April 16, 1862, men who are mustered into service 
bringing with them their own arms are entitled to $1 per month 
for the use of the same from the date of mustering into service. 
Should they prefer to receive the full value of the arms, the same will 
be fixed by the mustering officer at any muster according to the value 
of arms fixed by General Orders, No. 78. In either case the fact will 
be noted on the muster-roll by the mustering officer, with a statement 
of the value of the arm, or of the amount due per month as compensa- 
tion for the use thereof. The sums so due for arms or use of arms 
will be paid by the brigade, division, or other ordnance officer, and 
such payment noted on the muster-roll. ) 

Payment for the use of arms will not be made oftener than once in 
six months. 

II. In like manner cavalry equipments brought into service will be 
valued by the mustering officer, and the value entered upon the muster- 
roll, and paid for at the following rates: 

For a good, serviceable saddle, $15 to $20; good saddle blanket, $3 
to $4; good bridle, $3 to $5; good halter, $2 to $3; and minor articles 
at the discretion of the mustering officer. 

II. General Orders, No. 101, last series from this office, are amended 
so as to allow that the two surgeons to be employed to examine con- 
scripts in each Congressional district may-be selected from the districts 
in which they are to act, when surgeons cannot be obtained from other 
Congressional districts. ; 


By order: 
att 5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 18. kichmond, Va., January 22, 1863. 
* * * * * * * 


V. Iron for the completion of public vessels being indispensable, 
and not within the reach of the Government through the ordinary 
sources, Col. W. M. Wadley, assistant adjutant-general, and Maj. 
I. M. St. John, chief of the Niter and Mining Bureau, are appointed 


366 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to act, with an officer to be designated by the Navy Department, as a 
commission to examine and advise on what railroads in the Confed- 
erate States the iron on their tracks can best be dispensed with. In 
making this inquiry the commission will be governed by the public 
interest, and will leave out of consideration all roads and portions of 
roads required for military operations and defenses, and also such as 
are indispensable in conveying supplies for the public use. They will 
also, remembering that the iron rails which can be advantageously 
removed as far as suitable may be needed for the maintenance of the 
roads indispensable to military operations, inquire and report the best 
means of ascertaining the iron suitable for such roads and apportion- 
ing the same, and the rails removed may be exchanged for equivalents 
in value of more defective rails to be rolled and used for naval pur- 
poses. 
*k * * *k *k * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., January 22, 1868. 
Maj. Gen. J. B. MAGRUDER, 
Commanding Department of Texas: 


GENERAL: A letter of the consul of France, in this city, has been 
referred by the Secretary of State to this Department, in order that 
instructions may be given to the Confederate authorities in Texas to 
repair the existing evils and to prevent them in future. This letter 
brings to the notice of the Department instances of injustice and 
oppression committed upon the subjects of the Emperor of France 
residing at San Antonio, Victoria, and Clinton. The precise com- 
plaint is that these persons were enrolled under the conscription act 
illegally, and to enforce obedience were imprisoned or otherwise 
harshly dealt with by the military authorities. The persons subject to 
damages who have been named in this letter are Dennis Burger, Her- 
bert Burger, L. P. Hanser, Charles Florentin, of San Antonio; Mare 
Wilhelm, of Clinton; Sebastin Myer, Auguste Luder, and Stephen 
Weitz, of Victoria, and the French consul himself, at San Antonio. 
The cases that fall under your cognizance are those of Mare Wilhelm, 
of Clinton, who is said to be a member of Company D, in Shelby’s 
battalion, at Corpus Christi, and such others as may fall under your 
military command. The Confederate Government fully recognizes 
the principle of the law of nations, that mere sojourners or residents 
in this country, who retain their domicile of nativity, do not owe mili- 
tary service to the Confederate States. Instructions have been given 
to the commanders of conscripts not to subject persons of that class 
to enrollment and conscription. 

As a general thing the French population of this country retain the 
domicile of their nativity and rarely mingle in the public concerns of 
the country of their residence. They generally retain a purpose to 
return to the land of their birth, and are seldom willing to forego their 
relations with the empire, which is an object both of affection and 
pride. It would be an act of injustice to coerce men of this descrip- 
tion to fight our battles. They come to this country upon a faith in 
treaty stipulations, and reposing upon the principles of international 
law to protect them from such oppression. The probability is that 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 367 


many of the persons named in the list furnished by the consul have 
been ordered into service. It is desired of the Department that you 
ascertain if this be the case, and that you direct inquiries as to the 
fact of the enlistments and the liability of the parties to render service. 
Wherever you find that the principles upon which the Department 
proceeds in reference to this class have been violated, you are author- 
ized to relieve the sufferer from the military service. 

The case of Charles Florentin, as represented by the letter of the 
consul, is more than usually mingled with cireumstances of violence. 
He was enrolled, and upon his refusal to submit to the military rule 
was imprisoned, and finally ordered to leave the Confederate States. 
The representation of the consul is wanting in names, and it is diffi- 
cult to learn from it whether any of the Confederate authorities were 
concerned in this wrong; but as the Confederate States are required 
to explain it, the Department desires you to make a report as to what 
was done in this as well as in the other cases specified. It is not 
necessary, general, to inform you that the Department desires that 
the conduct of the military authorities should be characterized by a 
scrupulous regard for the rights of every class of the population, and 
that no act of theirs should be made the subject of just complaint. 
Especially is it important that the anomalous relations of the popula- 
tion of foreign birth should not be the subject of jealousy or ill-will, 
nor expose individuals belonging to that population to any imposi- 
tion or injury; but, on the contrary, it is the wish of the Department 
that their claims, under the law of nations, should be diligently 
guarded. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


SPECIAL at ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 19. hichmond, Va., January 23, 1868. 
* * * *k * * * 
XXIX. Authority (not a commission) is hereby granted to Col. 
James F’. Brewer to muster into the service and organize into a regi- 
ment as many of the men enlisted by him for twelve months as will 
consent to engage for the war, and any other Kentuckians willing to 
join him on the same terms. 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[JANUARY 23, 1863.—For Campbell to Shorter, in relation to the 
disposition of conscripts in certain counties in Alabama, see Series I, 
Vol. LH, Part II, p. 414.] 


NEAR RUSSELLVILLE, EAST TENN., 
January 28, 1868. 
Hon. BEN. HIL1, 
C. S. Senate: . 
DEAR SIR: As you were on your return home from Congress last 
September I was so fortunate as to fall in with you and have a hasty 
conversation upon the state of affairs in East Tennessee, and the 


368 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


proper course to be pursued in this department. On that occasion I 
was pleased to find your mind open to the truth and capable of com- 
prehending our peculiar political and social condition. As I was tak- 
ing leave of you (as the train neared New Market, where I stopped) 
you told me that you would address the President directly upon the 
subject, which I have no doubt you did. I then hoped much from 
your action in the premises; but other counsels prevailed. Effects. 
have followed causes, and developments have established the correct- 
ness of what I then told you was the condition of Kast Tennessee. I 
would not now trouble you with the affairs of Kast Tennessee if I did 
not feel constrained so to do by a sense of duty. It is to the calm, 
conservative patriots that the country must look, in this her darkest 
hour of trial, for deliverance. As such I have ever looked upon and 
now address you. That I may the more clearly present and enforee 
my present views, I beg to recall to your remembrance the substance 
of the views expressed in the conversation referred to. On that oceca- 
sion you will remember that I predicted disaster from the proposed 
conscription of Kast Tennessee. I told you that the people of Kast 
Tennessee were misrepresented and misunderstood, that there was 
but one single legitimate argument in favor of conscription, and that 
was that the men of East Tennessee were as much bound to fight for 
our independence as our own volunteers or the men from any other - 
section, and that in view of moral obligation they were entitled to no 
peculiar exemption, and in that view the soldiers in the service had 
the right to feel that all should fare alike; but that being said, all 
was said. The end and object of the war are to preserve American 
institutions in their purity, defend the principles of the American 
Constitution, and as the only means of doing that, establish the inde- 
pendence of the Confederacy—whip Lincoln and his followers. Todo 
this we must husband all our resources and bring out all our avail- 
able strength; that if we found within our borders a section where 
the peaple were not politically with us, yet not our open, active 
enemies, it was the duty of our rulers to rise to the exigencies and 
importance of the occasion, take men as they were, and not as they 
should have been, and use them for the furtherance of the great end 
to be attained—the gaining of our independence—in such spheres as 
they could be made useful, and not with any narrow, contracted policy 
of political proscription decapitate or convert. I told you that East 
Tennesseeans, as you and I, had to be devoted to our Government, 
created by our State and Federal Constitutions. In the opening of 
the political struggle preceding the Revolution they with all consery- 
ative men rallied around their institutions of Government, adapting 
the one word Union as the comprehensive indices by which was orig- 
inally meant our constitutional Government as composed of our State 
sovereignties and Federal sovereignties as created by our constitu- 
tions, and under the ruling cry of Union formed a party, and as 
such party prepared to resist all political encroachments upon our 
institutions. 

After Mr. Lincoln’s first proclamation many of our best men, believ- 
ing that the call for troops was only to defend the Capital against 
attack as threatened in the imprudent speech of Mr. Secretary Walker, 
again rallied to the ery of Union. And then began the separation of 
friends in East Tennessee. At the time the separation was slight; on 
the stump the discussion became bitter. The breach was widened 
and culminated in the proposition to dismember our State. That 
passed away, and the great wrong to the people by the Union leaders 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 369 


was here committed of again rallying as a party under the ery of 
Union for the purpose of preventing men who had advocated the 
separation of the State from the Federal Union from being elected to 
office. Step by step (many steps taken in consequence of the rash- 
ness, not to say wickedness, of the men who claimed to control South- 
ern counsels in East Tennessee) the people were led on until as a 
whole they took what they felt they had the right to take, the ground 
of neutrality, so far as active hostilities were concerned. This I tell 
you was the actual condition of East Tennessee when it was proposed 
to enforce the conscript law. I told you that they would turn their 
strength against whichever Government attempted to force them from 
their position; that if the effort was made to enforce the conscript it 
would ruin us and greatly damage the Confederacy; that we would 
get no soldiers; that it would cause a stampede to Kentucky in part 
and a hiding out in the caves and mountains, and in the end the 
destruction of our section; that where we would get one man as a 
recruit we would send three to Kentucky and require the withdrawal 
of two soldiers from the army to protect East Tennessee; that we 
would send 10,000 men to Kentucky to the Federal lines clamoring 
for assistance to recover for them their homes, from which they claim 
to have been driven; and that in all probability another effort would 
be made to invade Hast Tennessee. What I then predicted is now in 
part the history of this unhappy country. If you will require a 
report from, the enrolling officer at Knoxville you will find that he 
has not added to the strength of the Army. He has not mustered 
into service as many men as have been taken from the ranks to hunt 
up conscripts and guard exposed points, the guarding of which has 
been rendered necessary by the excitement incident to this false move. 

In addition to this a raid has been made upon our railroad, and 
every day the enemy receives full information of the state of our 
forces, and unless you can get the President to interpose and arrest 
the evil every man of the old Union party will leave. The expenses 
of the department are very heavy, an officer for every district in each 
county, any number of braided and brass-buttoned gentlemen who 
ought to be with their commands taking their ease as recruiting offi- 
cers, besides the soldiers that are detailed to police the county and 
hunt up conscripts. It is now apparent to all (except a special few 
whose notions of a cleansing of the political sanctuary urge to seize 
upon the opportunity to drive from the country all who are not active 
political friends) that the effort to conscript Kast Tennessee is not only 
a failure, but a disastrous calamity to our cause. East Tennessee has 
been regarded as one of the most important sections of the Confed- 
eracy, not only on account of her geographical position and her con- 
necting railroads, but on account of her stock and grain. Our Union 
men of Hast Tennessee did more to further our cause in 1861 by the 
supplies furnished than they could have done had they been zealous 
secessionists and in the Army, and so in 1862, though greatly inter- 
fered with by the State draft. And so now we need the labor of the 
farmers of East Tennessee upon their farms more than we need their 
unwilling service in the field, could we even get them into the Army. 
They are willing to work, and under the influence of General Smith’s 
proclamation of last spring were beginning to become interested in 
the success of our cause, as it gave to them so advantageous a market 
freed from the hitherto almost overpowering competition of Kentucky 
and the Northwestern States. When Governor Harris attempted to 


24 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


370 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


enforce his draft in East Tennessee last spring a fearful stampede 
commenced and was in steady progress. General Smith by his procla- 
mation stopped the execution of the law and invited the people to 
return. They did so by the thousands, not only those who had crossed 
the lines as citizens, but some who had entered the Federal service, 
some of whom are now in our Army as willing volunteers. Although 
the evil is in part beyond our reach, much can yet be done. If the 
President will under the act of Congress suspend the enforcement of 
the conscript law in East Tennessee and by his proclamation invite 
all East Tennesseeans to. return to their homes, restoring them to 
citizenship and assuring them that during the present struggle they 
should [not] be required to enter the Army against their will, upon 
condition that they devote themselves industriously to the cultivation 
of their farms, all who have not yet left home will remain, all who are 
out in the caves, mountains, &c. (and their name is legion), will at 
onee return, and so will every man in Kentucky who is not in the 
Federal Army, and allinthe Army who can get a good chance to desert. 

Nine-tenths of the producing labor of East Tennessee is white labor, 
hence, when by conscription or stampeding the men subject to mil- 
itary duty leave, the labor of East Tennessee is gone. There are 
within our borders at this time thousands of families left without 
any male members capable of labor. These helpless women and 
children are to become a charge upon the public, for whatever may 
be the sins of their husbands and fathers the Southern people cannot 
deal cruelly with them. Acts of vengeance to our women and chil- 
dren we must leave to our enemies with which to blacken the pages of 
history. | 

I commend to your consideration the views here so hastily and 
imperfectly expressed, and beg of you to interest yourself in behalf 
of East Tennessee. I of course do not expect my plan to be literally 
pursued. If any of my suggestions are adopted, all I desire is, all I 
seek to do is, to get before the President the true state of things in 
East Tennessee, relying upon his superior judgment to devise the 
mode of relief. Please excuse my intrusion and the length of my 
letter. I am not in the habit of inflicting such penance upon pub- 
lic men. 

I am, sir, yours, 
ROBT. M. BARTON. 


[ First indorsement. ] 


FEBRUARY 14, 1863. 
Respectfully submitted to the President. 
For Secretary of War: 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. | 
FEBRUARY 28, 1863. 


For more than a year the general views expressed have been acted 
on. Often warned that the clemency shown was unjustified, the hope 
was still entertained that it would avail. Even now it is not proposed 
to mete to them a harder measure than is elsewhere provided, but if 
we are to have the hostility of the class called in East Tennessee 
Union men, it were better they should be in the ranks of the enemy 
than living as spies among us and waiting for opportunity to strike. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 371 


The commanding general of the department will, I am sure, be as 
lenient as is proper, and mindful of the need we have that the fields 
be cultivated. 

5 aR SF 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 10. Richmond, January 24, 1868. 


The following orders are published for the information of all 
concerned: 

I. The duties of signal officers are confined to those bearing com- 
missions as such, appointed under the acts of Congress approved 
April 19, 1862, and September 27, 1862. 

II. To any general officer requiring a signal officer and entitled 
thereto, one will be assigned by the Adjutant and Inspector General. 

Ill. All signal officers are required to make their reports, returns, 
&e., through the senior signal officer on duty at the seat of govern- 
ment, and paragraph IX, General Orders, No. 40, must be more 
strictly observed. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
Shelbyville, January 25, 1868. 
Colonel BRENT, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 


To-day I have worked through six brigades; will continue the work 
to-morrow. Colonel Biffle’s regiment has moved north in the field 
work, and will to-morrow rake this county from near the enemy’s 
lines south. I have made provisions with General Wharton to cover 
the movement and protect the command. General Forrest is present 
and informs me that Dibrell’s regiment is on the way through Mar- 
shall County to Fayetteville. I have sent a courier for him and will 
order him directly to the starting-ground to sweep the four corners of 
the counties referred to in my dispatch yesterday. I will then sweep 
over Williamson and Maury. I applied to General Cheatham for an 
officer to carry forward my instructions to Tullahoma and place the 
details from that corps under working orders, but he declines allow- 
ing even for that temporary service any officer that I think equal to 
the work. I cannot put that duty on one in whom I have not full 
confidence. I see no alternative but to come forward myself, but it 
would have greatly advanced my work if he would have allowed me 
the use of a satisfactory officer. If I had the corps of Lieutenant- 
General Hardee under working orders I could see my work going on 
satisfactorily. The general may rely on my doing all that it is pos- 
sible to accomplish. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. 8. Army, and Chief of Bureau. 


372 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, January 26, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


SiR: In connection with my communications of December 9 and 
January 8, replies to which have not been received, I deem it my duty 
to submit the following additional statements upon the subject of the 
transfer of the control and supervision of railroad transportation from 
the Quartermaster’s Department to Col. W. M. Wadley, assistant 
adjutant-general: 

Nearly two months have elapsed since that transfer was made, 
during which time both the country and the Army have continued 
to look to this department to regulate the transportation of mili- 
tary supplies by railroads, and to fill with promptness not only the 
ordinary requisitions of the service, but to meet also the extraordi- 
nary demands resulting from unexpected emergencies. An instance 
of recent occurrence furnishes an example in point. On the evening 
of the 23d instant I read letters from General Lee to the President of 
the gravest importance. They contained strong representations of 
the scarcity of provisions in his command, and of great delay in the 
transportation of stores of every description which were essential to 
the Army of Northern Virginia, menaced, as it was, with the advance 
of the enemy. Regarding the case as of urgent necessity, I devolved 
upon officers of this department the duty of sending forward these 
supplies with the utmost dispatch. The character of the service ren- 
dered will appear from the report of Captain Carrington, herewith 
inclosed.* 

I respectfully submit that although the responsibility, and to no 
small extent the duties, of regulating the transportation by railroads 
are still devolved upon me, I am entirely uninformed what measures 
have been adopted by Colonel Wadley to secure the prompt trans- 
portation of army supplies. Notwithstanding the inseparable con- 
nection of the department with this subject, it is unadvised of the 
instructions given by him to the railroad authorities, and of the condi- 
tions and terms of such arrangements as he has made since he assumed 
the control of railroad transportation. I have, however, deemed it 
my duty to adopt such measures as were indispensably necessary to 
the public interests, and have therefore immediately provided by my 
orders for a continuance of transportation over the East Tennessee 
and Virginia road, interrupted by the destruction of the Holston and 
Watauga bridges. Thirty car-loads of much-needed supplies of sub- 
sistence stores and cloth were reported to me as detained at Charlotte, 
N. C., and I have also been advised of serious detention in the trans- 
portation of guns, ordnance stores, ammunition, &c. I brought these 
and other cases to the attention of Colonel Wadley, but I have not 
been informed by him whether the delay has been remedied, and am 
therefore unable to give satisfactory assurances on the subject when 
applied to by the officers to whom the information is important. 

I beg to repeat, therefore, my earnest conviction that it is essential 
to the public service that the control of this important branch of mili- 
tary transportation should not be transferred from this department, 
and that at least the ofhcer to whom its supervision is intrusted should — 
be required to report with sufficient regularity to this office to enable 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 3%3 


me to know the precise arrangements existing between the Govern- 
ment and the railroads, and their capacity to meet all demands for 
transportation of troops and military stores. Without such informa- 
tion I cannot reasonably expect that the duties of my department can 
be performed without constant difficulty and perplexity. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


RALEIGH, N. C., January 26, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: When [received the appointment of assistant adjutant-generai 
for the purpose of superintending Government transportation by 
railroads, I hoped to induce the officers of all roads in the country to 
co-operate with each other and with me to meet the wants of the Gov- 
ernment for transportation, but my experience thus far has convinced 
me that in this I shall be disappointed, and that some additional 
authority will be necessary to enforce the requirements of the Govy- 
ernment in this branch of the service. There are many roads the 
officers of which evince a desire to co-operate and conduct transporta- 
tion in such a manner as to meet fully the wants of the country, 
while there are others, I am constrained tosay, that have not by their 
works shown a disposition to meet the necessities of the Government 
in this particular. 

In no case have I met with any that openly avow an unwillingness 
to do all that is required, but there is a degree of demoralization 
extant which induces some to make all manner of excuses rather than 
take hold honestly to do the work. I therefore have recently had my 
attention directed to some measure that will tend to cure this evil, 
and have concluded that the best and probably the only remedy 
capable of reaching the difficulty will be an act of Congress providing 
for Government to take possession of any railroad that fails to per- 
form promptly Government transportation. 

The necessity for such authority is greatly to be deprecated, but 
while it exists the exigency of the public service demands that the 
most effectual remedy should be at hand. 

The constitutionality of such an act I presume would not be ques- 
tioned; the only difficulty would be to settle upon a reasonable com- 
pensation. 

This should be moderate, for the purpose of inducing companies to 
mmake every exertion to prevent their roads from being taken posses- 
sion of. 'To those meeting the requirements of the Government this 
law would have no terror, while to laggards it would act as a spur and 
might render its use unnecessary. 

It a measure of this character is entertained, I should think it ought 
to provide for taking possession of any road failing to perform Gov- 
ernment transportation promptly, upon the following terms: 

First. Fifteen days’ notice to be given to the president and directors 
of any railroad failing to perform promptly Government transporta- 
tion of the intention of the President of the Confederate States to 
cause possession of the road to be taken unless the cause of complaint 
be removed, or a good and sufficient reason for such complaint be 
given within that time. 


374 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Second. In the event that a road is taken, three commissioners to 
be appointed to make an inventory of the property and its condition, 
one to be appointed by the President of the Confederate States, one 
by the Board of Directors of the road to be taken, and one by the Gov- 
ernor of the State in which the road to be taken may have its domicile. 

Third. The road and property taken to be returned at the end of the 
war in like good order and condition as when taken, and 4 per cent. 
per annum to be paid semi-annually upon the cost of the work taken 
as it stands upon the books of the company. 

Fourth. Roads taken to be under the management of the officer 
having charge of Government transportation by railroad, whose duty 
it shall be to cause to be kept an exact account with each road, 
crediting each with its earnings, which shall include all Government 
transportation, as though worked by the company owning it, and 
debited with all its expenses, including the 4 per cent. provided to be 
paid the company. The officer having charge of this branch of serv- 
ice to give such bond and be governed by such rules as may be pre- 
scribed by the Secretary of War. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
. Shelbyville, January 26, 1863. 

Colonel CAMPBELL, 

Principal Assistant for Middle Tennessee: 

Colonel Avery has instructions to sweep the county of Lincoln, 
arresting stragglers, absentees, deserters, and all men liable to the 
operations of the conscript law and bring them in to you. Having 
performed that duty, you will hold him in hand and use his command 
as actively as possible in gathering up stragglers and conscripts in the 
counties of Franklin, Lincoln, Giles, Lawrence, and in that portion of 
North Alabama laying along the Tennessee line within the counties 
above indicated. I will put a working force in the other counties 
myself. I inclose you a copy of General Orders, No. ——.* You will 
furnish copies of it to your surgeons. You will find also a copy of the 
instructions under which this working force is placed in the field on 
this duty.+ You will give like instructions to Colonel Avery on the 
duty to which you may assign him. For the present leave that com- 
mand under your orders for the service in the counties indicated 
above. You will exercise your own judgment as to the best plan of 
operations, but accomplish the work in the shortest possible time con- 
sistent with its proper execution. In very bad weather it will be 
proper to suspend the work and avoid exposing Avery’s command too 
much. The roads will soon become so very bad that small commands, 
barely enough to perform the duty assigned, should be sent out. 

I have applied to General Bragg to provide you a surgeon. I shall 
proceed to Columbia to-morrow to organize subdepartments below and 
direct the operations of two other regiments of cavalry I have in hand. 
From there I will proceed to Huntsville. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Chief of Bureau. 


* Not found as an inclosure and not otherwise identified. 
+See Series I, Vol. XX, Part IT, p. 498. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 375 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, January 26, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I had the honor to complain to His Excellency the President 
and your immediate predecessor, Mr. Randolph, in regard to the 
manner of enforcing the conscript act in this State and of disposing 
of the men in regiments during the month of October last. I am 
compelled again, greatly to my regret, to complain of the appoint- 
ment of Colonel August as commandant of conscripts for North Caro- 
lina, who has recently assumed command here. Merely alluding to 
the obvious impropriety and bad policy of wounding the sensibilities 
of our people by the appointment of a citizen of another State to exe- 
eute a law both harsh and odious, I wish to say, sir, in all candor, that 
it smacks of discourtesy toward our people, to say the least of it. 
Having furnished as many (if not more) troops for the service of the 
Confederacy as any other State, and being, as I was assured by the 
President, far ahead of all others in the number raised under the con- 
script law, the people of this State have justly felt mortified in seeing 
those troops commanded by citizens of other States, to the exclusion 
of the claims of their own. ‘This feeling is increased and strength- 
ened into a very general indignation when it is thus officially 
announced that North Carolina has no man in her borders fit to com- 
mand her own conscripts, though scores of her noblest sons and _ best 
officers are now at home with mutilated limbs and shattered constitu- 
tions. Without the slightest prejudice against either Colonel August 
or the State from which he comes, I protest against his appointment 
as both unjust and impolitic. Having submitted in silence to the 
many—very many—acts of the Administration heretofore so well eal- 
culated to wound that pride which North Carolina is so pardonable 
for entertaining, it is my duty to inform you that if persisted in the 
appointment of strangers to all the positions in this State and over 
her troops will cause a feeling throughout her whole borders which it 
is my great desire to avoid. 

Trusting, sir, that you can appreciate the feelings of our people and 
will pardon the frankness with which I have spoken, 

I have the honor to remain, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Z. B. VANCE. 
[Indorsement. ] 
To CONSORIPT BUREAU: 

When and why was Colonel August sent to North Carolina? Have 
you at command any equally competent North Carolina officer for the 
position ?* 

en 


Secretary. 


[| JANUARY 26, 1863.—For proclamation of Governor Vance in rela- 
tion to the return of deserters from North Carolina organizations, see 
Series I, Vol. XVIII, p. 860. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
NOL Richmond, January 27, 1863. 
The military courts appointed and organized under the act approved 
October 9, 1862, will be governed and controlled, as other courts-mar- 


*See Rains to Seddon, January 30, p. 378. 


3716 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


tial, by the Articles of War and Regulations of the Army, in connec- 
tion with the aforesaid act of October 9, 1862. 

Their proceedings will therefore be subject to review by the com- 
manding general of the army corps to which they are attached, who, 
by the decision of the President, is the proper reviewing officer of all 
such proceedings, under the provisions of the law and the Articles of 
War. ‘The original proceedings of these courts, after final action is 
had on them, will be transmitted to the office of the Adjutant and 
Inspector General, agreeably to the ninetieth article of war. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., January 27, 1868. 


His Excellency JOHN GILL SHORTER, 
Montgomery, Ala.: 


Sir: Your letter forwarding a copy of the joint resolution of the 
Legislature of Alabama, expressing readiness to unite with other 
States in guaranteeing the debt of the Confederate Government pro- 
portionally to representation in Congress, has been received. Iregard 
this as a most important step and feel grateful for its initiation. That 
the Government may be enabled to conduct the war to a speedy and 
honorable peace, it must have ample means and credit, and our finan- 
cial system cannot fail to acquire the liberty |[szc] from the policy you 
have inaugurated. Alabama has thus given another proof of the zeal 
and determination which have characterized her in the prosecution of 
the war for independence; and it is to be hoped that the other States 
will pursue the same course in reference to the public debt. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. ~ 


RICHMOND, VA., January 27, 1863. 


His Excellency JOSEPH EK. BROWN, 
Milledgeville, Ga.: 

Sir: I have received and read with interest your letter indorsing a 
copy of an act and joint resolution of the Legislature of Georgia, par- 
tially prohibiting the cultivation of cotton in the State during the 
continuance of the war, and urging upon planters the necessity for 
increased attention to the production of provisions. The inaugura- 
tion of this policy affords me great gratification. This prompt and 
emphatic expression by the Legislature of the sentiment of the people 
of Georgia, it is to be hoped, will be met by the concurrent action of 
the other States upon the subject; and from the general adoption of 
the scheme we may anticipate the best results. The possibility of a 
short supply of provisions pi esents the greatest danger to a successful 
prosecution of the war. If \.e shall be able to furnish adequate sub- 
sistence to the Army during the coming season we may set at defiance 
the worst efforts of ourenemy. A general compliance by the farmers 
and planters, therefore, with the suggestions of this joint resolution 
will be the guaranty of our independence. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
. JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. BCE 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 12. Richmond, January 28, 1868. 


I. Candidates for appointments of artillery officers for ordnance 
duty, who have passed their examinations at the headquarters of any 
army, army corps, or department, may be placed on ordnance duty as 
acting ordnance officers. The number so placed on duty shall not 
exceed one-half of the whole number passed there, and shall be taken 
from the head of the list, without reference to the grade for which 
they are recommended. 

Acting ordnance officers, so placed on duty, shall be entitled to pay 
as first lieutenants, if recommended for that or higher grade, and as 
second lieutenants, if not reeommended for higher grade. 

Commissions will be issued as soon as the examinations are com- 
pleted in all the armies, and will be for grades and of dates to correspond 
with the general roll of merit established by the examiners. 

Il. The Quartermaster’s Department will issue to officers of the 
Army, on duty enrolling conscripts, such fuel and stationery, within 
the limits prescribed by existing regulations for allowances to public 
offices, as shall be certified by those officers to be indispensable for 
the proper discharge of their duties. 

The legitimate expenses of the performance of such duty will be 
paid, in the case of enrolling officers not commissioned, upon accounts 
approved by the commandant of conscripts for the State, or commander 
of camp of instruction. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, January 30, 1863. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Governor of North Carolina: 


sir: I am surprised to learn from one of your late letters that you 
consider the Department to have interfered irregularly with the 
appointment of officers to some State regiments from North Carolina 
for the war. I am unconscious to what regiments or appointments 
you refer, and certainly have had no intention of trenching on your 
prerogatives. One appointment alone, that of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Moore, to a regiment to be composed, as at the time was directed, of 
a North Carolina battalion and of some conscripts then at Raleigh, 

was made by me, as from subsequent information, I fear, without 
sufficient care, but it was done in supposed deference to your own 
wish, on the representation you had desired the regiment to be so 
formed and the particular officer appointed. If in this a mistake has 
been committed it will be cheerfully corrected; but I should be pleased 
to learn first that you had not desired the appointment. You will 
also gratify me by informing me what regiments you regard as State 
regiments to which your power of appointment extends, and on what 
ground the claim rests. Ido not find in the Adjutant-General’s Office 
any distinction of the kind made, nor can I learn that a claim of 
appointment has been asserted by you to any. 

I have the honor to be, with high consideration and esteem, respect- 
fully, yours, 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


318 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Resolutions vindicating the loyalty of the State of North Carolina 
and ws General Assembly. 


ghey various slanderous reports have been circulated, both in 
the State and out of it, reflecting upon the loyalty of the members of 
this Legislature and the people of this State, and ascribing to them 
hostility to the Confederate Government and a desire to reconstruct 
the Union: Therefore, 

Be aw unanimously resolved, That as the representatives of the peo- 
ple, and in our own behalf as individual citizens of the State, we pro- 
test against and denounce these accusations as utterly false in letter 
and in spirit, as calculated to misrepresent the sentiments of those 
who have never faltered in the support of all constitutional measures 
for the prosecution of the war, and as tending to produce jealousies 
and heartburnings among a people who have sealed their devotion 
to the cause of Southern independence with their blood upon the proud- 
est battle-fields of the revolution; that the charge of a desire on a part 
of this Legislature, or any portion of it, to conflict with the Confeder- 
ate Government or to embarrass the President in the prosecution of 
the war, is grossly untrue, illiberal, and slanderous; that we hereby 
pledge ourselves most heartily and emphatically to the most vigorous 
Constitutional war policy, promising in the name of North Carolina 
the most liberal contribution of men and money to the support of it, 
and protesting against any settlement of the struggle which does not 
secure the entire independence of the Confederate States of America. 

Resolved, That the Governor be requested to communicate a copy of 
these resolutions tothe Governors of the several States of the Confed- 
eracy, and also to our own Senators and Representatives in Congress, 
to be laid before their respective bodies. 

Read and ratified in General Assembly this 30th day of January, 
A. D. 1863. 

R. 8. DONNELL, 
Secretary House of Commons. 
R. W. LASSITER, 
Secretary of Senate pro tem. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., January 30, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I have the honor to state for the information of the War 
Department as follows: 

Colonel August fell under the orders of this Bureau as an officer 
disabled for field duty by wounds received in battle, and one of a 
class which the Bureau was directed to make available where oppor- 
tunity presented, in the business of conscription and the like. His 
rank (full colonel) was too high for him to. be assigned to any post 
less than that of commandant of conscripts for a State, and as we 
could not avail ourselves of his services here without disadvantage 
to the public service, it became necessary to send him to some other 
State. The conscription business in North Carolina was under the 
charge of a captain only, his two heretofore senior officers having 
gone from camp into action in another part of the State (under what 
circumstances it is not known), and being, according to their own 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 379 


report, unexchanged prisoners. Colonel Mallett, the senior, was 
known to be so wounded that it would probably be long before he 
could return to duty, yet his so returning was to be ultimately looked 
for. It was believed that the services of an active officer were very 
necessary in North Carolina for a time, and Colonel August’s disa- 
bility not unfitting him, he was ordered there, that this Bureau and 
this service might have the immediate benefit of the inspection and 
activity expected from him. His order bears date the 12th instant, but 
he was not actually sent until the 20th instant. - It has been my impres- 
sion from what took place in the case of Colonel Lee, late of the Forty- 
fourth [Thirty-third] Virginia Regiment, that the War Department 
saw no objection in principle to assigning an officer from one State to 
the command of conscripts in another. That officer was referred here 
from the Department to see if a place could be provided for him, and 
it was expressly suggested by the Secretary on the papers that he 
should be sent to some duty in a more southern State. His former 
rank forbade him to be thought of for any post less than that of 
State commandant, and it was suggested by me that he should be 
commissioned a lieutenant-colonel and sent to Alabama as com- 
mandant of conscripts for that State. This suggestion was under- 
stood to be approved, and intended to be carried out until some 
question arose as to the law in regard to appointments for duty with 
conscripts. As the Governor appears to have taken exception to this 
temporary appointment, I will change it, but I have no knowledge of 
any officer from North Carolina of the rank and qualifications neces- 
sary to fit him for this position, having received no application, and 
I will be very thankful for being enlightened and to have the assist- 
ance of the Governor in this particular, assuring him that my interest 
in the well-being of my native State would not allow my doing any- 
thing detrimental to her welfare or honor. Finally, the business of this 
Bureau, connected with the Army generally, and the standing orders 
from the Department particularly to avail ourselves of wounded and 
disabled officers for such services, entirely divest it of a sectional 
policy, which, if carried out, might throw upon our hands unem- 
ployed officers who might otherwise benefit the country. 
Ihave the honor to be, very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 
G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


No. 13. Richmond, January $1, 1868. 


I. The following arsenals, armories, depots, &c., are immediately 
under charge of the War Department, and its orders will be given 
directly through the Ordnance Bureau, viz: : 

Richmond Arsenal, Richmond, Va.; Richmond Armory, Richmond, 
Va.; Fayetteville Arsenal and Armory, Fayetteville, N. C.; Charles- 
ton Arsenal, Charleston, S. C.; Augusta Arsenal and Powder-Works, 
Augusta, Ga.; Macon Arsenal, Macon, Ga.; Macon Armory, Macon, 
Ga.; Macon Laboratory, Macon, Ga.; Columbus Arsenal, Columbus, 
Ga.; Atlanta Arsenal, Atlanta, Ga.; Mount Vernon Arsenal, Mount 
Vernon, Ala.; Montgomery Arsenal, Montgomery, Ala.; Selma Ar- 
senal, Selma, Ala.; Jackson Arsenal, Jackson, Miss.; Greensborough 
Depot, Greensborough, N. C.; Danville Depot, Danville, Va.; Lynch- 
burg Depot, Lynchburg, Va.; Little Rock Arsenal, Little Rock, Ark. ; 
Texas Arsenal, San Antonio, Tex. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


380 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


II. The stores fabricated and deposited at. these posts are to be 
drawn out on requisitions, as designated in section V, Ordnance 
Regulations. 

Ill. Officers stationed at the arsenals and depots will, on their first 
arrival, report in person or by letter to the commanding general of 
the department, and will obtain leave of absence from him; but while 
liable to requisitions made upon the arsenal or armory, as provided 
above, are subject to orders only from the War Department, through 
the Ordnance Bureau. 

IV. The quartermasters’ depots at Augusta, Atlanta, and Colum- 
bus, Ga., and at Montgomery and Huntsville, Ala., having been estab- 
lished by the direction of the War Department to supply the neces- 
sities of the Army at large, are placed under the special control of the 
Quartermaster-General, though subject to the inspection of the com- 
manding officers of the departments in which they are located. Issues 
from these depots will be made by order of the Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral, upon requisitions of chief quartermasters, approved by com- 
manding generals. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


Consolidated report of the Army of the Confederate States of America, January, 
1868. 


[Found with papers of the Quartermaster-General C. §. Army. ] 


Department. Commander. Effective. | Aggregate. 
Northern arcing sccees saeco one aar General KR. EB. ees --c- sc: oer ee 88, 884 153, 958 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. ..-. General G. T. Beauregard. .-..---. 21, 353 32, 212 
ee ers of the James and North | Major-General Smith -........-...- 18, 200 21,170 
arolina. 
Department North of the James ......... Major-General Elzey..----.-.-..---- 6, 225 10, 033 
Department of Tennessee ..........--.--- General B. Drarg ...2.--g4s<e0eee 51, 030 88, 484 
Department of the Gulf.-....-/2........: General S. B. Buckner ...-....---- 7,345 10, 395 
Southwestern Virginia....-...........-.- Maj. Gen. S. Jones ...-.----------- 4, 000 6, 700 
District:o1 Louvistan waece ea ace eee ee Maj.Genn Re Lavlonc..co tes eres 6, 882 7, 233 
Trans- Mississippi Department..--..-.--- GeneralT Hi. Holmes -23-5 i224 50, 000 50, 000 
Department of the Mississippi. .-......---. General Pemberton .....--..-..--- 56, 600 70, 240 
Wailing bonis tric Gir emter some cleiniete steerer General Whitin 2 os.scs-e oes see 6, 000 7, 160 
Department of East Tennessee .........- General E. K. Smith nicereieticc ae ee ae 8, 600 15, 419 
Grand total and aggregate 2 03 6i6 os) cece ee nase se apices swage eons aoe ie Oe 325, 119 473, 004 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 14. Richmond, February 3, 1863. 


I. The second clause, paragraph IV, of General Orders, No. 72, of 
1862, is hereby revoked. 

The fourth clause of same paragraph is amended as follows: 

_ On a certificate of disability, with recommendation for furlough or 
discharge, signed in due form by examining board and approved by 
the senior surgeon of the post, the commander of the post may grant 
the soldier a furlough not to exceed thirty days and submit the 
application for a longer period to the general to whose command the 
soldier may belong, or he may refer, without granting the furlough, 
to the discretion of said commanding general. 

II. The superintendent of the Niter and Mining Bureau is author- 
ized and directed to enforce existing contracts of the Government in 
iron, lead, and other munitions. When iron and other articles thus 
contracted for and needed for the service are ascertained to have been 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 381 


sold at private sale, or are not promptly delivered according to the 
terms and spirit of the contract, they may be taken wherever found, 
and upon requisition assistance shall be afforded by the commandant 
of the nearest post or camp of instruction to the officer or agent of 
the Mining Bureau specially charged with the enforcement of the 
contract. 

When a contract shall have been persistently violated, after ten 
days’ notice all detailed or conscripted men will be withdrawn and 
assigned to other works. 


By order: 
. S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 28. Richmond, February 3, 1863. 
* * * * * * nit 


XI. Maj. Thomas D. Armesy is authorized to raise a battalion of 
cavalry or infantry within the enemy’s lines in Northwestern Vir- 
ginia, and Capt. William F. Gordon is authorized to raise a company 
in conjunction with Major Armesy. 

XII. Authority (not a commission) is hereby granted B. F. Parks 
to raise a company in Kentucky or Kentuckians coming out of the 
State for service. 

* * * * * *% BS 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
February 3, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SiR: Inclosed please find the letter of Mr. Walter Goodman, 
president of the Mississippi Central Railroad Company, setting out 
the present dilapidated condition of that road, the importance of 
which in a military point of view cannot well be exaggerated. The 
proposition of Mr. G. is to obtain permission of the Government to 
export cotton for the purpose of procuring those supplies without 
which, he says, the road must be abandoned. The president has a 
perfect knowledge of the importance of the road referred to, and has 
recently had the opportunity of seeing something of its present con- 
dition. As to the proposition to export cotton, it is one which has 
been so frequently made to you, and under so many different phases, 
that I presume your views on the subject are well matured, and I 
shall therefore offer no suggestions. As I expect to visit Mississippi 
in a few days and to meet with Mr. Goodman, you will oblige me if 
you can at an early day put me in possession of your response to the 
application. Permit me, also, to request that you will direct an early 
reply to be made to my letter inclosing one from General Henry, of 
Mississippi, relative to the pay of the troops lately commanded by 

Col. W. C. Falkner. 
Very respectfully, 

J. W. CLAPP, 
Member of Congress, First District of Mississippr. 


382 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure.] 


OFFICE MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, | 
Grenada, January 28, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


DEAR Sir: I find it almost impossible, and it will soon be quite so, 
to keep our road and its equipments in repair and running order. 
We are in great need of all materials used in repairs and construc- 
tion. One-half of our engines are now useless for the want of 
materials to repair them; our cars are in a dilapidated condition and 
cannot be repaired from the same cause; a considerable quantity of 
the rails on our road have been permanently injured by our own army 
and that of the enemy. All of our workshops and many of our pas- 
senger and freight houses have been burned by direction of our mili- 
tary authorities. Unless we can procure articles necessary for the 
repairs of our road and equipments, I do not see how our road is to 
be kept*in running order for more than six months longer. I desire to 
import articles of immediate necessity, and would make the attempt 
if I could command the means of payment. I cannot procure gold or 
sterling exchange. I desire permission to be granted to this company 
to export cotton, an article I can procure to the amount necessary to 
pay for the articles that it is necessary for me to procure, and that 
such cotton shall have safe conduct through the Confederate lines. 
It will require an expenditure of $500,000 to put our road and its 
equipments in as good repair as it was one year ago. 

Iam, with respect, your obedient servant, © 
W. GOODMAN, 
President. 


Abstract of summary statement showing quantity and value of army 
supplies purchased and shipped by Maj. C. Huse on account Con- 
federate States Government. 


One hundred and thirty-one thousand one hundred and twenty- 
nine stand of arms, as follows: Seventy thousand nine hundred and 
eighty long Enfield rifles, 9,715 short Enfield rifles, 354 carbine Enfield 
rifles, 27,000 Austrian rifles, 21,040 British muskets, 20 small-bore 
Enfield, 2,020 Brunswick rifles, at a cost, including eases, molds, 
kegs, screw-drivers, &c., of £417,263 9s. 11d. 

One hundred and twenty-nine cannon, as follows: Fifty-four 6- 
pounder bronze guns, smooth; 18 howitzer bronze guns, smooth; 6 
12-pounder iron guns, rifled; 2 howitzers, iron; carriages and cais- 
sons for same; 6 rifled Blakely cannon; 6 3.10-inch carriages for 
Same; 18,000 shells for same; 2,000 fuses; 3 rifled cannon, 8-inch 
Blakely; 680 shells for same; 12 rifled steel guns, 12-pounders; shot, 
shell, &c., for same; 32 bronze guns, rifled (Austrian), with caissons, 
&¢., complete; 10,000 shrapnel shells and fuses for same ; 2 bronze 
guns, rifled; 200 shells and fuses; 756 shrapnel shell, round; 9,820 
wooden fuses; 4 steel cannon, rifled, 9-pounders; 1,008 shells and 
fuses for same; 220 sets harness; spare parts artillery harness, KC. 5 
all costing £96,746 1s. 8d. 

One thousand two hundred and twenty-six cavalry equipments, 
16,178 cavalry sabers, 5,392 cavalry saber-belts, 5,392 cavalry saber- 
knots, 1,360 cavalry Humnals [sic], 1,386 cavalry surcingles and pads; 
total expended for cavalry, £20,321 12s. 3d. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 383 


Fifty sets Webb harness (104, 3, 18, leather weight), 456 leather 
butts, 198 leather packages; all costing £9,717 11s. 

Thirty-four thousand seven hundred and thirty-one sets accouter- 
ments; 40,240 gun slings; 34,655 knapsacks, complete; 4,000 canteen 
straps; 81,406 bayonet scabbards; 650 sergeant’s accouterments; all 
eosting £54,873 16s. 3d. 

Three hundred and fifty-seven thousand pounds cannon powder, 
94,600 pounds musket powder, 32,000 pounds rifle powder, 900 
pounds bursting powder, 4,137,000 cartridges for small-arms, 2,800 
chlorate potassa (pounds), 1,024 hundredweight saltpeter, 89,900 
friction-tubes (not all the details to hand as to cartridges), 10,100,000 
percussion-caps; all costing £47,010 10s. 3d. 

Quartermaster’s Department.—Seventy-four thousand and six pairs 
boots, costing £28,422 16s. 4d.; 62,025 blankets, £23,903 2s. 11d.; 78,520 
yards cloth, £24,660 15s. 5d.; 8,675 greatcoats, £13,294 17s. 8d.; 8,250 
pair trousers, £5,144 11s. 3d.; 170,724 pair socks, £9,292 18s. 7d.; 
6,703 shirts, £738 9s. 8d.; 17,894 yards flannel, £1,632 d5d.; 97 packages 
trimmings, £3,435 11s. 6d.; total expended in clothing, &c., £110,525 
3s. 9d. Forty-six sets armorer’s tools, 36 sets saddler’s tools, 10 sets 
farrier’s tools, 3,336 pieces serge for cartridge bags, 2,000 cartridge 
bags, 1,013 hundredweight lead, 100 hundredweight sheet copper, 16 
flags, £13,432 10s. 7d. worth medical supplies, 87 tarpaulins, 10 hun- 
dredweight shellac, 1,192 boxes tin plate, 75 packages steel, 64 hun- 
dredweight steel; total for medical and other supplies as above, 
£33,049 6s.; freight, railway carriage, &c., £49,683 19s. dd. 


Supplies that have been shipped. 


& 82d 

OS a ge a ES 0 eet ee Pe eee ee ee a eee ALT 262)' 9°11 
A GS ee ey eS Ee ee ee ee 96,746 1 8 
EER SET IEP OU ON tee Meer ho ag) tN kas ot dient 5 54,873 16 3 
RmPUraRee Ti Payrieeer eei  Pe  a e  s  se eet Se aah 47,010 10 8 
Doe hats Se taeda dal ae Id 2a Ms Se ee ne ee eee Pn 9; is LE 0 
ol US TNS Se BE peepee ae na ee empoeeimx tet Geelies Wea. |b 2 e212 get is 110,525 3 9 
LTS Se Ne gis ge A ae a hens 13,482 10 7 
EMER CVE Co A ee i A eh oe iw KER 19,616 15 5 
Semeeeae Poway CAITIAGO, OCC. a 8 se be ~-e e  eee Aun loo te 
ECM CRE ce Phe oT Arete Be lise Shee SCSI. A 29,951 11 9 
ear meerr et F exc teleriiri 2 tise ees Yeats es Ste eS Waele 818,869 18 3 

Supplies now in London ready for shipment. 

23,000 rifles to be delivered at Nassau (value at Nassam) ------ 87,950 0 0 
DRONE RRS elect > a PS i fi ee Bee le hide 1,500 0 0 
morcaars Sandler s Material _o).. - ee we ne en en ye eee 631. 5 0 
[ENS TAY SERGE Gk 0 5s a lie i eg ae Aap PE ce A a 38 4 8 
ET iG ao) eS 2 eg ee oe Re ig 5,533 0 0 
Rmeennemercussi0ln-caps 22.) 22.5 26 L2 Alas ld. Le 681 0 0 
10,000 pouch tins, prepared for accouterments, order [illegible] 200 0 0 
USS Sale Sg ES al, a a eee pT AES, oe 628 2 6 
Do SETS 5 iG 0 ills Ss Sea ei I Em Pe, eG Rage a 1,252 17 9 

= cases thread, 6c 4: 2... - - ia od api Pik nih pus en. valent 240 17 3 
Remsen te ets St ote 1 Se eee Se 60 19 6 

13,750 pair trousers, Quartermaster’s Department--.----.------ 8,565 2 1 
14,250 greatcoats, Quartermaster’s Department ---------.----- 23,835 13 17 
1,804 pair boots, Quartermaster’s Department-_--.-. -. ..----- 887 11 6 

4 chests tea, Medical Department -- - - - - - Bes Fat pelo! Se ea 48 7 6 


ANovd Ae Te) TS ia a ee ace | oy seat fu ole 249,853 1 0 


384 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In Vienna awaiting payment. 
£ so 


30,000 rifles Lao. Seay) te glen sae eine ee 115,500 0 0 
50,000 scabbards__ 2222. cls Soe” Boe eee 2,200 0 0 
Total expended and under orders 32) ee, <2. 1S ee 117,750 0 0 
shipped 1p to, dates ()-2. 8 a ee Se 818,869 18 3 
Ready for shipment in London, to be shipped by December 15... 249,853 1 0 
In Vienna waiting paymenti: (2.00 > See ee 117,750 0 0 
1,186,472 19 3 

Received by l'raser,Trenholin & Co... yee ee 613,589 0 0 
Total required. 7-445. El OP re 572,883 19 3 


[Indorsement. ] 
FEBRUARY 3, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to the Secretary of War for information as to 
purchases made by Major Huse. 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel, Chief of Ordnance. . 


BUREAU OF SUBSISTENCE, 
hichmond, February 4, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: A practice has prevailed for some time of sending special 
messengers with supplies sent from the south this way. This prac- 
tice has been adopted in the hope that it would tend to obviate much 
of the delay continually consequent in transportation, and also pre- 
vent the very heavy loss of supplies on the different railroads in their 
transit. 

From full information and reflection I have concluded that this 
practice accomplishes no good whatever, and at the same time entails 
a very heavy and unnecessary expense on the Government, and 
therefore I shall give orders that in the future it be discontinued. 

The only effectual system to improve the evils above mentioned, 
which are daily becoming greater, is to require the quartermasters 
stationed at the various points where different railroads unite, and 
bulk has to be broken and changed, to superintend such transship- 
ment and change, and to keep an accurate account of the quantity 
and condition of the supplies delivered by one road and reshipped on 
the other, noting any deficiency between amount of supplies delivered 
and the bill [of] lading and waybill sent with them, and immediately 
informing the quartermaster who settles the charges of transportation 
of any deficiency which may have occurred, and the railroad on which 
the loss or damage was incurred and also the commissary for whom 
the supplies are destined. | 

This will enable the Government to fix the railroad upon which the 
responsibility for such loss or damage properly belongs, and to recover 
from such railroad the payment of all loss and damage which they 
may have occasioned, which cannot be done now. 

The existence and enforcement of this responsibility will beget 
and insure carefulness and diligence on the part of all railroad 
agents. 

This plan does not propose to do anything more than require the 
quartermasters to discharge the duties enjoined on them by the Army 
Regulations. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 385 


From the time that supplies belonging to the Subsistence or any 
other bureau are required to be transported from one point to another, 
they from that moment, by the Regulations, and must of necessity, 
become solely under the control of the Quartermaster’s Department 
(which is alone charged with transportation), and so remain until 
they arrive at their point of destination, and are delivered to the 
commissary or other officer to whom they were consigned. No other 
system will answer, and it is of vital importance that the enforce- 
ment of these duties should commence at once. 

In giving the orders directing the discontinuance of special mes- 
sengers I shall further direct that the commissary making the ship- 
ment shall immediately notify all the superintendents of railroads 
over which the supplies are to pass that such supplies have been 
shipped, and asking them to expedite the transportation of the sup- 
plies over their respective roads. 

This plan seems to be only a half measure, but Colonel Wadley 
requests me to do so, and I shall omit upon no occasion to do and to 
order to be done anything that I can to assist him in the discharge of 
his duties. 

In conclusion I beg to urge upon your consideration the system 
first herein proposed as absolutely essential. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
ESB NORTHROP? * 
Commissary-General C. S. Army. 


[First indorsement. | 
Referred by Secretary of War to Quartermaster-General. 
{Second indorsement. ] 


(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
February 11, 1868. 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 

Plans are now being matured which it is believed will secure the 
discovery of all losses on railroads, and ascertain the company which 
is responsible. It cannot go into operation immediately. In the 
meantime Colonel Northrop’s suggestions may be advantageously 
adopted, and [an] order to that effect will be issued. 

I concur in his further suggestions that the system of sending with 
freight special messengers should be abandoned. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
fichmond, Va., February 4, 1868. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE: 


SIR: Some six or eight weeks since I invited your attention to the 
importance of the railroad connection to be made by the Confederate 
Government, under act of Congress, between Danville, Va., and 
Greensborough, N. C., and invoked your aid to command the slave 
labor requisite for its early completion. You then declined any inter- 
position in this respect, under the conviction that with adequate 
energy on the part of the contractors a sufficient number of slaves 
might readily be obtained at not unreasonable rates. Will you excuse 


25 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


386 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


my again asking your attention to this subject and soliciting a recon- 
sideration of your decision? Iam assured that every effort has been 
made and that rates exceeding in liberality current prices for hire 
have been freely offered without success in obtaining the required 
labor. Some impression has prevailed that slaves employed in this 
locality had peculiar facilities of escaping, and hence the unwilling- 
ness of their owners in the eastern counties to hire them to the con- 
tractors; besides, there is a general disinclination to hire servants, 
_ to be employed on works of this character, where large numbers are 
assembled. 

Serious delay must therefore occur unless the authority of your 
State can be exercised to provide an adequate number of slave labor- 
ers for the work. In consequence, it is respectfully submitted to you 
to determine whether the importance of this work does not justify, if 
it does not require, such exercise of your authority. Full hires shall 
be paid, and every care possible shall be taken to provide for the 
comfort and safety of the slaves. 

In connection with the same subject allow me to ask your attention 
to a petition which I understand has been presented to your Legisla- 
ture, seeking such change in the charter of incorporation for the con- 
necting road as will allow conformity of gauge throughout and pre- 
vent the necessity of a break at Danville. The importance of this, in 
view of the usefulness of the road for military operations, needs no 
comment; but, in reference to the future advartages of the road to 
your State interests, [may be permitted to suggest that a break at 
Danville could only operate injuriously, as it would tend to make that 
place more decidedly a depot and a place of transfer. All considera- 
tions seem to recommend the proposed change of charter, and it would 
be gratifying to this Department if you could concur in this view and 
lend your potent influence to induce the amendment. 

With great esteem, very respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, VA., Mebruary 5, 1863. 
Col. A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: The inclosed slip, cut from a morning paper, is sent ta you for 
your attention. If the abuse described exists, it should be promptly 
corrected and the offender held to a due responsibility. If the state- 
ment be incorrect, it is due to yourself and the service that the mis- 
statement should be exposed. 

Very respectfully, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[Inclosure. ] 
[Slip from Examiner. | 
Plenty of clothing for the troops. 


It will be seen from the report of the Quartermaster-General, sent 
to the Confederate Senate by the President in reply to certain resolu- 
tions recently adopted by that body, that officers of the Army are 
allowed fabrics from the Government Clothing Bureau when the stock 
is in excess of the wants of the private soldier in the field. We take 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 387 


it that the stock of clothing material now on hand is very abundant, 
as the officers of the Army may be seen daily at the merchant tailor 
establishment on Main street selling at an advance of from 100 to 200 
per cent. the cloth obtained by them from the Clothing Bureau. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
Columbia, February 5, 1868. 
Col. GEORGE W. BRENT, . 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 


I will hold this place unless driven off by an overwhelming force. 
I am sending to the army men. I am taking measures to procure the 
negro teamsters. I hope to succeed, without offense to the country 
or violence to its rights, by a proper appeal to its patriotism. I have 
dispatched a courier to-day to General Wheeler apprising him of the 
position and strength of the enemy. I had previously sent two 
couriers. I have information to-day that our cavalry force was at 
Palmyra, on the Cumberland River, about twelve miles below Clarks- 
ville, on Tuesday; also, that my first dispatch, apprising them of the 
position of the enemy, was received. This intelligence was not 
received until since I had sent off my last courier. 

The general order requiring [that] the cavalry who [have] not effi- 
cient horses shall be conscripted and placed in the infantry service 
can be carried out when I shall have completed the organization 
of this bureau and placed the whole field of labor under efficient 
government. 

The only way of carrying out the order will be for the general to 
order a strict inspection of each regiment, and requiring a report 
to be made to me of the names of the men who are not properly 
mounted. This being done, I can then proceed with that branch of 
the service. 

I thought, however, I had better put the whole corps of officers 
intended for this duty to work, and to sweep the country near the 
enemy’s lines by cavalry before I undertook work which could wait 
without prejudice. 

When this inspection is going on it will be necessary for the regi- 
ments to be ordered to the rear of the army one at a time. This 
inspection ought to be made by the staff officers, acting under the 
immediate orders of the general commanding. The whole country to 
the rear of the army is swarming with these men on lame, sore-backed, 
and broken-down horses, who are a great annoyance to the population 
and are eating up the subsistence and forage, which ought to be hus- 
banded for the efficient of the army. The cavalry arm of the service 
would be greatly more efficient if it was relieved of these hangers-on. 

It will require a good while to go through with these inspections 
and get up the reports, and if that service is ordered and the work 
done now it would greatly facilitate my work hereafter in this branch 
of my duties. 

On Monday next I expect to leave for Pulaski, where I shall only 
remain two or three days, and proceed from that place to Huntsville. 
There are a large number of disaffected men in the mountainous 
regions of Alabama, south of Tennessee River, and in Jackson County, 
which will require more cavalry force there. The Georgia battalion 
ordered to report to me has not done so. 


388 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I inclose you herewith a copy of dispatch* received to-day from 
Colonel Lea, from which the general will perceive the inadequacy of 
the cavalry force at that place. As the general’s time is much occu- 
pied by the important duties of the command, I fear some of my 
wants and suggestions may be overlooked. I desire, colonel, that you 
will give special attention to this matter, and keep them in mind until 
action is taken. I applied for a field officer from General Hardee’s 
corps five days ago, but none has reported, and my work is delayed 
for want of one. 

I transmit herewith bonds for Colonel Biffle’s quartermaster and 
commissary, also bond for an assistant quartermaster, with rank of 
captain, whom I am obliged to have for the rendezvous in the lower 
sub-department. Thomas J. Brown is my son-in-law and will make 
an efficient officer, and [I] ask the appointment of the general. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW; 
Brig. Gen., C. S. Army, Chief of Vol. and Conscript Bureau. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, 
No. 15. Richmond, February 6, 1868. 


I. All commissioned officers of the Army in the service of the Con- 
federate States who are absent from their respective commands with- 
out sufficient authority, and from whom satisfactory reports have not 
been received, will be considered as no longer in service thirty days 
after the publication of this order, when their names will be erased 
from the returns of regiments and corps. All quartermasters of the 
Army charged with the payment of troops are hereby prohibited from 
making payments to officers who do not exhibit sufficient authority for 
absence from their proper commands; and where any doubt exists in 
the mind of the paying officer for want of such authority, he will sus- 
pend payment and report the case to this office, with the name and 
residence of the officer so absent and the regiment or corps to which 
he belongs. 

Il. Where occasions may arise in military commands for charges 
against a disbursing officer of the Army, arrest will be stayed until a 
report of the facts in the case is duly made to the War Department, 
through the office of the Adjutant and Inspector General, and the offi- 
cer will continue to discharge his duties until the Department shall 
take proper measures for his relief from duty. 

III. In Congressional districts where surgeons cannot be ‘*‘ employed” 
to complete the examining boards for conscripts, directed in previous 
orders, the commandants of conscripts may constitute such boards, 
temporarily, by medical officers under their authority. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, February 6, 1868. 
Hon. J. W. CLAPP, 
House of Representatwes: | 
Sir: I have received your letter, inclosing a communication from th 
president of the Mississippi Central Railroad. In reply I have the 


' *Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 389 


honor to say that no objection is entertained to the shipment of cotton 
(on payment of the export duty) to neutral ports, and the introduction 
of such materials, &c., as may be required by the railroad indicated. 
A permit is not needed under the law, but if required is hereby given. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Richmond, February 7, 1868. 


The HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 
I have this day received the following resolution: 


Resolved, That the President be requested to inform this House whether pri- 
vate property of citizens not in the Army has been seized and confiscated by his 
order or not; andif it has been, for what offense and under what law such seizure 
and confiscation have been ordered, 


And reply that no private property of citizens, either in or not in the 
Army, has been seized and confiscated by my order. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 16. Richmond, February 7, 1868. 


I. The special measures instituted in the circular from this offite - 
of the 8th of January, ultimo, were intended to aid, and in nowise to 
supersede the operation and rules of the regularly established system 
of conscription. Reports have been received that officers thus sent 
from the Army have been practically setting aside the system, decis- 
ions, and exemptions established under the authority of the com- 
mandants of conscripts in the respective States, and are neglecting 
to make to those officers any returns of the conscripts gathered by 
them. . 

It is hereby ordered that all officers acting under the authority of 
the circular in question shall refrain from interference with any con- 
scripts already in the custody of the officers regularly on conscription 
duty, and shall assert no claim over them, otherwise than by estimates 
on the commandants for the quota to which their regiments shall be 
entitled, under the principle of pro rata distribution; also, that they 
shall respect certificates of exemptions issued by regular enrolling 
officers, reporting for decision of the commandants any case in which 
the exemption may appear to them to have been improperly granted; 
that in no case shall they themselves grant certificates of exemption 
or detail; that in all doubtful cases or cases of appeal from their 
decision, they shall refer to the regular enrolling officers or the com- 
mandants, and that they shall furnish to the local enrolling officers, 
or the commandants of conscripts for the State, descriptive lists of all 
persons within conscript ages recruited or gathered by them. 

If. The commandants of conscripts, in making their reports to the 
Bureau of Conscription, will return separately the conscripts gathered 
and reported to them under the system irstituted by the circular 
above referred to. 

By order: | 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


390 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[FEBRUARY 8, 1863.—For Bonham to Seddon, transmitting copy of 
act of the South Carolina General Assembly amending the negro labor 
law of December 18, 1862, &c., see Series I, Vol. LIL, p. 280. | 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., February 9, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: . : 
Str: I have been painfully impressed with the convictior, from 
what has fallen under my observation and experience, that in confin- 
ing, by regulation of the War Department, the ages of conscripts 
between eighteen and forty years we shall fall far short in filling 
up the ranks of the Army to the maximum organization prescribed 
by existing laws. The conscription acts contemplate a reserve of 
conscripts to be kept on hand, to be drawn upon from time to time, to 
replace casualties, &c., in the regiments as they occur. This, taken 
in connection with the large number of exemptions authorized by 
those acts, renders it the more important, in my judgment, to extend 
enrollment to the full age authorized by law, in order to keep the 
Army up to its establishment. I therefore recommend that conserip- 
tion between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years be at once 
required. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
- Richmond, February 9, 1863. 
Hon. W. P. MILES, 
Chairman, &c., House of Representatiwes: 

Str: I have the honor to inelose a report from the Adjutant- 
General, in response to your letter of the 16th ultimo requesting me 
to furnish the Military Committee with certain information in refer- 
ence to the number of troops in the service, &c. I regret the want 
of proper returns renders it impossible to supply the information 
sought. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
; JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure. | 


RICHMOND, February 7, 1863. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR: 


Str: In reply to the inclosed request* from the Committee on Mili- 
tary Affairs, through Hon. W. P. Miles, I beg to state that every 
effort has been made to obtain the desired information; but, for 
want of proper statistical returns from the different commands, I find 
it impossible to furnish any statement that could approximate the 
information sought, 

I am, very respectfully, &e., 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


*See January 16, p. 359. 


‘CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 391 


| CHARLESTON, 8. C., February 9, 18638. 
Hon. C. J. VILLERE, Richmond, Va.: 


My DEAR CHARLES: Your favor of the 2d instant has been 
received. I agree with you that our country is getting rapidly 
exhausted and that few conscripts have joined our worn-out stand- 
ards, but I still hope for success. The people and the States have a 
latent power and energy which make up, when the hour of trial arrives, 
for the total inefficiency, or inertness, if you prefer, of the Confed- 
erate Government. The latter instead of being an aid to the former, 
is more a dead weight. Look at the condition of our troops in the 
field, at the number of conscripts still at home. Would not, could 
not, a proper and vigorous system have prevented the evils com- 
plained of? Assuredly they would. Why is it that after a war of 
two years we still have but one foundry in the country, and that one 
near the enemy, where the largest pieces of artillery can be cast? 
What would have become of us if Richmond had been taken last 
summer? Where would we have obtained 10-inch columbiads and 
7-inch rifled guns if that misfortune had befallen us? Why have 
we not more iron gun-boats afloat? At this moment there are five 
here on the stocks unfinished for the want, some of engines and 
some of iron plating. Why have you not committees investigating 
all these things and making faithful reports of them without fear or 
favor, but not like the one which investigated, or rather pretended 
to investigate, the shortcomings of the Commissary Department 
last December a year ago at Manassas, where neither papers nor 
persons were sent for, but the sponge passed blandly over the absurd- 
ities and gross neglects of that poorest of all apologies for a chief 
commissary of so many large armies in the field as we have, and ina 
country so poorly supplied as ours. The best and most successful 
grocer in the country ought to have been selected for that difficult posi- 
tion; but who is he that was appointed? Ask any of the members 
of Congress or of the Army from this State and they will tell you, if 
they fear not to express their opinions. 

You refer to an armistice. Nothing of the kind must be thought 
of. Action, action, and action is what we want. An armistice would 
entirely demoralize our troops, who would think the war over, and 
every soldier and officer would wish to go home to see their wives, 
children, and negroes, horses, hogs, and chickens, &¢c.; whereas the 
enemy, having nothing of the kind to look to, would at. any time be 
prepared to take the offensive. Only pass strong resolutions offering 
peace to the Northwestern States, with a treaty of alliance, offensive 
and defensive, whenever they shall separate from the rest of the 
United States. They may not accept it at first, but they will think 
about it and discuss it. It will be a beacon for those who are tired 
of the war to steer by, and finally, after one or more severe battles, will 
make up their minds that we are their best friends, and they will act 
as we desire. What in the world is the policy of the Government? © 
Why can’t we have a Cavour to shape it and steer the ship of state 
through the breakers? Why have we not ministers at the courts of 
Spain and Brazil, our two natural allies? Mr. James B. Clay has 
just passed here, an exile to Cuba. Why is he not sent on account 
of his name to one of those two countries, &c.? I am glad to see by 
the telegraph you have stopped flogging in the Army. I had done 
so long ago. That system will not do with volunteers. The serv- 
ice must be elevated in their eyes and not degraded. But adieu. 

Yours, truly, 
G. T. BEAUREGARD. 


392 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


AN ACT making appropriations for the support of. the Government, for the 
period from February first to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 
inclusive, and to supply deficiencies arising prior thereto. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
there be appropriated and paid out of any money in the Treasury, not 
otherwise appropriated, the following sums of money, and for the fol- 
lowing purposes, viz: ; 

* * * * *k ES KAS 

War Depariment.—For compensation of the Secretary of War, 
Assistant Secretary, Chief of Bureau, clerks, messengers, &¢., in said 
Department, ninety-six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. 

For incidental and contingent expenses of the War Department, 
fifty-four thousand dollars. 

Quartermaster’s Department.—For the pay of the Army, one hun- 
dred and nineteen million two hundred and seventy thousand seven 
hundred and seventy-one dollars. 

Yor the transportation of troops and their baggage, of quartermas- 
ter’s stores, subsistence, ordnance, and ordnance stores from place of 
purchase to troops in the field; purchase of horses, mules, wagons, 
and harness; purchase of lumber, nails, iron, and steel for erecting 
store-houses, quarters for troops, and other repairs; hire of teamsters, 
laborers, &e., forty-seven million seven hundred and eight thousand 
three hundred and eight dollars. 

For pay for horses of non-commissioned officers and privates killed 
in battle, under act No. 48, section 7, and for which provision is to be 
made, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. 

For pay for property pressed into the service of the Confederate 
States, under appraisement, said property having been either lost or 
applied to the public service, one hundred and eighty-seven thousand 
five hundred dollars. 

For the sustenance of prisoners of war, under act No. 181, section 
1, and the hire of the necessary prisons, guard-houses, &¢., for the 
safe-keeping of the same, or so much thereof as may be necessary, 
one million dollars. 

For the bounty of fifty dollars to each non-commissioned officer, 
musician, and private now in the service for three years or for the 
war; to be paid at the expiration of the first year’s service, on the basis 
that sixty thousand men will have to be paid, three million dollars. 

For pay of the officers on duty in the offices of Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Department, the Quartermaster-General’s Depart- 
ment, Medical, Engineer, Ordnance, and Subsistence Departments, 
three hundred and twenty-thr ee thousand three hundred and fifty 
dollars. 

Commissary Department.—For the purchase of subsistence stores 
and commissary property, forty-eight million six hundred and fifty- 
six thousand five hundred dollars. | 

Ordnance Department.—For the ordnance service in all its branches, 
twelve million five hundred thousand dollars. 

For the purchase of pig and rolled iron, three million dollars. 

For the purchase and manufacture of niter, four hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Engineer Depariment.—For the engineer service, three million 
dollars. 

Medical Department.—¥or pay of private physicians employed by 
contract, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 393 


For pay of nurses and cooks, not enlisted or volunteers, two hun- 
dred and forty thousand dollars. 

For pay of hospital stewards, sixty thousand dollars. 

For pay of matrons, assistant matrons, and ward matrons, two hun- 
dred and forty thousand dollars. 

For pay of ward-masters, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

For pay of hospital laundresses, fifty thousand dollars. 

For medical and hospital supplies, two million five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. 

For the establishment and support of military hospitals, one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. 

* * * 


* * * * 
Approved February 10, 1863. 
SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 36. © Richmond, Va., February 12, 18638. 
* 7% ** * os *k ae 


IX. Paragraph V, Special Orders, No. 18, current series, is hereby 
revoked, and the following is substituted instead: For the completion 
of public vessels, as also for the construction of certain railroad con- 
nections which, as necessary for military operations, Congress has 
authorized, and for the repair of other roads essential to the Govern- 
ment and the public for transportation, iron being indispensable 
and not within the reach of the Government through the ordinary 
sources, Col. J. F. Gilmer, chief of the Engineer Bureau, and Maj. I. 
M. St. John, chief of the Niter and Mining Bureau, are appointed to 
act, with an officer to be designated by the Navy Department, as a 
commission to examine and advise on what railroads in the Confed- 
erate States the iron on their tracks can best be dispensed with. In 
making this inquiry the commission will be governed by the public 
interest, and will leave out of consideration all roads and portions of 
roads required for military operations and defenses, and also such as 
are indispensable in carrying supplies for the public use. They will 
also inquire and report the best means of obtaining the iron suitable 
for such roads and apportioning the same, and how the rails removed 
may be exchanged for equivalents in value of more defective rails, 
to be rolled and used for naval purposes. 

* *% oS k *k * bs 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., February 12, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your letter of 
the 4th instant, invoking the aid of the authorities of the State to pro- 
eure labor for the completion of the Danville railroad, and also asking 
my influence with the Legislature in securing the gauge of that road 
to correspond with that of the Virginia road. The object is a most 
important one and commends itself strongly to my favor; but under 


394 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


all the circumstances I feel compelled to decline impressing slaves to 
aid in its completion. For many months past the eastern part of this 
State has been furnishing labor upon all the public works from Wil- 
mington to Petersburg, and no less than twenty counties are now so 
employing their slaves. In the region through which this road runs 
there are very few slaves, and the very existence of the people requires 
them to labor on their farms. In addition to the fact that this road 
is viewed with almost universal disfavor in the State as entirely ruin- 
ous to many east of it, and that the charter never could have been 
obtained but as a pressing war necessity, I feel it due to candor that 
I should add there exists a very general impression here that upon the 
completion of the Danville connection, as it is termed, the eastern 
lines of our roads would be abandoned to the enemy. How far this 
opinion does injustice to the purpose of the War Department I am 
not able to say; I merely state the fact. For these reasons, with the 
additional one that this road is constructed by private contractors, I 
do not feel that I could be justified in forcing the labor of citizens 
upon it. J assure you I regret this exceedingly, not only on account 
of the importance of the work itself to our military operations, but 
also because it is exceedingly unpleasant for me to refuse to do any- 
thing whatsoever which is requested by the Confederate authorities 
and regarded as important to the general cause. I would suggest, 
however, that a large number of free negroes might be obtained in 
the adjoining counties of Virginia and North Carolina, and if this. 
species of labor could be made available, my assistance in gathering 
it up shall be promptly rendered. In regard to the gauge of the road 
I have to say that the proposition to make it conform with the Vir- 
ginia road had been disposed of in the negative before yours was 
received. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG AND POTOMAC 
RAILROAD COMPANY, PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, 
: Richmond, February 12, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: I understand the result of your conversation yesterday with 
Capt. John M. Robinson to be this: That the War Department of the 
Government of the Confederate States, in order to secure the importa- 
tions of munitions of war, is now engaged, through its agent in 
Great Britain, in purchasing steamships in which those munitions 
will be imported into a port or ports of the Confederate States, and 
considering these supplies, which are necessary to the maintenance of 
the railroads in these States which propose to import them, as scarcely 
less essential to the success of our arms than these munitions of war 
(if not in some sense entitled to be considered themselves munitions 
of war), the War Department agrees that a certain portion of the 
cargoes of these steamships, to be determined by the War Depart- 
ment or its agent in Great Britain, may consist of these supplies for 
these railroads upon the payment by the companies owning those 
railroads of the tolls or freight charges prevailing among shipowners 
for similar freights and voyages at the dates of such shipments, or at 
the option of these railroad companies, upon their assuming and pay- 
ing for such a portion of the steamship, her equipment, and outfit 
complete, and of all the other expenses of the voyage, including (if 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 395 


paid by the War Department also) the wages of her commander and 
crew, as the tonnage of freights shipped in that ship and on that voy- 
age Shall be of the whole tonnage of the whole cargo BnteEd in that 
ship and on that voyage. 

As it will be necessary to have upon this subject the definite decis- 
ion and action this afternoon of the directory of this company, and 
to-morrow at noonof a convention of the railroad companies interested, 
may I ask of you the favor to indorse on this letter (of which a copy 
can be retained in the Department) your written statement confirm- 
ing, or if necessary modifying, the understanding herein expressed, 
so that these meetings of the directory and of the convention may 
_ have, respectively, a written definite proposition to act upon. 

Your prompt reply will greatly oblige, 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
Pe Vo DANIEL.JRy 
President. 
[First indorsement. ] 
FEBRUARY 26, 1863. 

The Department can make no contract with the railroad companies 
for the shipment from abroad of such needed supplies for their roads 
as they may buy, for its own arrangement for the procurement and 
employment of suitable vessels for running the blockade and making 
such shipment are as yet too contingent and uncertain to justify its 
coming under any positive engagements. The Department, however, 
fully appreciates the importance to the public service that these rail- 
road supplies should be obtained as early and with as little risk as 
possible, and gives its assurance of willingness, in case its expected 
arrangements are completed, and it can command the requisite ves- 
sels, to allow the supplies of the road to be shipped on its vessels, the 
road either taking a share in the venture of ship and cargo for the 
voyage proportionate to the value of their lading or paying freight at 
the existing rates on vessels proposing to run the blockade. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


The railroad companies referred to in the above indorsement are 
authorized to send that indorsement with their instructions to Cap- 
tain Robinson, of the Con[federate| service, who is expected to act 
as their agent in procuring abroad necessary supplies, and he will be 
at liberty to exhibit the same to Major Huse or Mr. William G. Cren- 
shaw, or any other agent of this Department who may, under its 
instructions, have shipping at command for transportation of supplies 
to satisfy them of the views of this Department. 

J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Noet?, Richmond, February 18, 1863. 


I. The following additional appointments under the act of October 9, 
1862, providing for the establishment of military courts, are announced 
for the information of all concerned: 

Lieut. Gen. J. C. Pemberton’s corps: George B. Wilkinson, presid- 
ing judge, Mississippi; John J. Good, Texas; Henry W. Allen, Loui- 
siana; John P. MeMillan, judge-advoeate, Missouri. 


396 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Lieut. Gen. W. J. Hardee’s corps: John C. Moore, presiding judge, 
Alabama; Samuel J. Gholson, Mississippi; Taylor Beatty, Louisiana; 
Benton Randolph, judge-advocate, Texas. 

II. The above-named members will report without delay to the com- 
manding officers of the respective army corps to which they belong, to 
whom their letters of appointment will be forwarded, except where 
they may be called for at this office at an early day. 

III. In all cases where the sentence of a court-martial directs a for- 
feiture of pay, the just dues of the laundress are to be understood as 
always excepted from such forfeiture. This exception will embrace 
sums which have accrued as well as those which become due during 
the term of the sentence. 

By order: 

i S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
(QQUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, February 14, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the reference to this office of 
the resolutions passed by the Legislature of Georgia in regard to the 
official conduct of quartermasters, commissaries, surgeons, &¢.,* with 
your instruction to institute inquiries to ascertain if the alleged 
abuses exist. 

I respectfully state that at my instance General Johnston detailed 
an officer of rank to make strict investigations of all abuses in the 
quartermaster’s and transportation departments within the limits of 
his command. Every suggestion and all information calculated to 
facilitate the discharge of his duties have been furnished to that 
officer so far as in my possession, and it is expected that his examina- 
tion and investigations will be thorough and efficient. 

I have also detailed an officer of this department to make similar 
investigations in another quarter, and so soon as an additional proper 
officer can be spared from other duties I propose to enlarge the field 
of investigation. . 

By these means your instructions in regard to the State of Georgia 
can be carried out, and the department will be enabled, it is hoped, 
to ascertain what abuses exist in its administration in that portion of 
the Confederacy. — 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[Inclosure. ] 


A RESOLUTION. 


Whereas, there is complaint against the quartermasters, commis- 
saries, surgeons, agents, and other officials connected with the War 
Department of the Confederate States in regard to the performance 
of the various duties connected with their respective positions, and 


* Filed as an inclosure to this paper, with the indorsements thereon. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 397 


much loss to the Government and injury to the hungry, half-clothed, 
sick, and wounded soldiers has been and will be occasioned by their 
improper conduct, much of which has failed to come to the knowledge 
of the head of the department: Therefore, 

Resolved (1) by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
Georgia, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, earnestly 
requested to institute investigation into the conduct of all the afore- 
said officers and agents, and especially as to the conduct of the sur- 
geons in the different regiments and at the hospitals, and their 
assistants and nurses and ward-masters, and especially as to the con- 
duct, contracts, &c., of quartermasters, commissaries, and agents in 
their own localities and elsewhere, and whether or not they may have 
been interested, directly or indirectly, as silent partners or otherwise, 
in Government contracts, and what speculations they have engaged 
in on their own account, while they were in the pay and employment 
of the Government, and the manner in which they have performed 
their duties in furnishing our soldiers with the necessaries of life, and 
in all cases where the investigation discloses any want of: ability or 
fidelity or neglect of duty, to remove such officer or agent after seeing 
that he is punished for the same, and appoint such only in his place 
as can produce full and satisfactory evidence of his competency and 
good moral character. 

Resolved (2), That His Excellency the Governor be requested to 
present this subject, with a copy of these resolutions, tothe Secretary 
of War, with such suggestions as to the remedy for these grievances 
as he may think proper. 

Resolved (3), That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to 
each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, with a request 
that they use their influence for the passage of such laws as will most 
likely remedy the evils complained of. 

JOHN BILLUPS, 
President of the Senate. 
JAMES M. MOBLEY, 
Secretary of the Senate. 
PETER E. LOVE, 
Speaker of House of Representatwes, pro tem. 
. LL. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk House of Representatives. 

Assented to December 13, 1862. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 


[First indorsement. | 


FEBRUARY 3, 1863. 

I do not know what other disposition to make of this resolution 
than to lay it before you and respectfully call your attention to its 
contents. 

AUGUSTUS R. WRIGHT. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Submitted to the Surgeon-General and the heads of other bureaus 
referred to, who will institute all inquiries in their power to ascertain 
if the alleged abuses exist and what remedies should be adopted. 

CAS, 
Secretary. 


398 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Third indorsement. ] 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
February 14, 1868. 


Under existing circumstances and laws, the Commissary-General of 
Subsistence has ‘found it almost impr acticable to obtain the removal 
of an officer when the facts obviously indicate it. 

‘Rd a NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


[Fourth indorsement. ] 


COMMISSARY-GENERAL: 


Specify the cases referred to and the laws and circumstances that 
preclude removals when necessary. 
J. A. S., 
Secretary. 


[Fifth indorsement. ] 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
February 19, 1863. 


In response to the requirement of the Secretary of War, I refer to 
the case of J. B. Magruder and the great difficulty of getting a gen- 
eral rule, sound in principle, enforced. In the case of Capt. J. 5S. 
Ryan, a full report of which last case will be found in a communica- 
tion to the Secretary of War dated December 30, 1862. 

In respect to the final case, see papers presented to the Adjutant 
and Inspector General in August last, which, from what the Honora- 
ble Secretary of War stated a short time since, seem about being laid 
aside. . 

L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | Hpgrs. LA. ARMY, ADJT. GEN.’S OFFICE, 
No. 8 Alexandria, February 14, 1863. 

I. Persons liable to military duty in State service have the privilege 
of volunteering until the militia is called out on the 1st day of March 
next, and no longer. The privilege cannot be granted after the 
militia is called out, unless it is availed of immediately at the time of 
such call. 

II. Volunteers will receive $50 bounty on being mustered in, $16 a 
month, and eighty acres of land at the close of the war. In the event 
of death in the service, the land to go to the heirs of the deceased 
volunteer. (See section 12, Volunteer Act. ) 

III. Militiamen will receive neither bounty nor land, and but $11 a 
-month, and in the event of their not reporting within ten days after 
notice “of a call by the enrolling officer, which call shall be made on 
the 1st of March, they shall be considered deserters and liable upon 
conviction to the death penalty. (See section 25, Militia Law, 
approved January 3, 1863.) 

IV. No male free white person between the ages of seventeen and 
fifty, capable of bearing arms and not actually in the civil or mili- 
tary service of the Confederate States, can be exempt for any cause 
whatever except those mentioned in the second section of the act 
approved January 3, 1863. (See section 2, Militia Law.) 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 399 


V. Exemptions from Confederate service do not exempt from militia 
service, and the exemptions by law as quoted above are exclusive 
of all others. 

VI. A person manifestly incapable of bearing arms, as one having 
lost an armor a leg, or being paralyzed or bedridden, is exempt by law, 
but when the incapacity is such as can only be taken notice of by a 
surgeon, the certificate of a surgeon in the service of the State must 
be obtained. Post surgeons will be qualified to give such certificates 
in future orders. 

VII. Enrolling officers will enroll no men detailed from Confeder- 
ate service, but will be careful not to confound details with exemp- 
tions. Persons are not detailed from Confederate service to remain 
on plantations, and such persons are therefore liable to militia duty. 
General officers will detail men for such service to act as a police 
force. (See section 23, Militia Law. ) 

VIII. Persons liable to militia duty and neglecting to report as 
provided by law are subject to the penalty prescribed above (see 
Paragraph III) whether they have been enrolled or not. 

IX. Enrolling officers will be held strictly to the discharge of their 
duties under the law, and the penalties attached will be enforced. 
(See section 19, Militia Law. ) 

They will proceed as soon as practicable to the organization of 
companies, and when companies for any cause neglect or refuse to 
elect their officers, the privates will be assigned to other companies 
at the discretion of the commander-in-chief. 

By command of Thos. O. Moore, Governor and commander-in-chief. 

C. LE D. ELGEE, 
Adjutant-General of Lowsiana. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., February 14, 1868. 
DEXTER H. HITCHCOCK, Esq., 
Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: Your personal application for a license to carry a train of 
wagons into Mexico, loaded with cotton and other produce, with a 
_ view to return with supplies and merchandise, and the testimonials 
to your fidelity as a citizen of the Confederate States, have been con- 
sidered. The latter.are satisfactory. The Department does not claim 
itself, nor has it authorized any military commander, to interpose any 
obstacle to a trade with Mexico; but, on the contrary, has directed 
the commanding general of the Department of Arkansas and Texas 
(General Holmes) to countermand orders on the subject, and copies 
of that letter have been sent to Generals Magruder and Bee, to Gal- 
veston and San Antonio. 

The act of Congress of May 21, 1861, which prohibits ‘‘ the expor- 
tation of cotton from the Confederate States, except through the 
Sea-ports of said States, and to punish persons offending therein,” 
does not profess to interfere with the exportation of cotton along 
the western border of Texas. On the contrary, the act declares ‘‘ that 
nothing in this shall be so construed as to prohibit exportation of 
cotton to Mexico through its coterminous frontier.” Therefore, upon 
complying with the revenue laws, in reference to the exportation of 
cotton, you will have entitled yourself to export your property of that 
kind, and as the export duty on cotton is the only duty that has been 


AQQ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


laid on exports, other articles may be exported.. The Department, so 
far from discouraging adventures of this kind, will be pleased to see 
them undertaken and successful. 

Straitened as the Confederate States have been by the rigor of 
the blockade and the number of cruisers of the enemy, anything that 
will serve to supply the wants of the Army and the necessities of the 
people, so far from being an object of disfavor with the Department, 
is quite the reverse. 

The Department has explained its opinions and action, so that there ~ 
need be no mistake. It does not grant a license, for the reason that 
it might be interpreted as the assumption of a control over the sub- 
ject on the part of the Department, which it disavows any power to 
regulate or to control, and which has been left free to the citizen by 
the act of Congress. 

By order of the Secretary of War. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 18. Richmond, February 16, 18638. 


I. With the exceptions hereinafter named, all outstanding authori- 
ties issued from the War Department to recruit persons of conseript 
age into regiments, battalions, or companies not in service on the 
16th day of April, 1862, will be held as terminated from and after the 
10th day of March next. 

Any new organization that shall meantime have been completed up 
to the legal standard of a regiment, battalion, or company, aS may 
have been specified in the original authority issued, will be reported 
before the 10th of March to the Adjutant and Inspector General’s 
Office for muster and reception into service. 

The organization itself failing of completion, the material within 
conscript ages (including officers) of such parts as shall have been _ 
enrolled for the special service, will be reported to the local com- 
mandants of conscripts, respectively, for enrollment and conscription. 
These commandants will, however, cause to be allowed to the persons 
thus transferred, previous to enrollment, the privilege of volunteering 
in companies that were in service on the 16th of April, 1862. 

II. From the operation of this order are excepted new companies or 
corps in process of organization under authority issuing from the War 
Department, of a date later than the 10th of December, 1862, and all 
such as may have been authorized to be recruited from material found 
within districts possessed by the enemy, or in which the conscript 
law has been suspended by the President, or in which the regular 
execution of the conscript law is, from the vicinity of the enemy, 
unattainable. 

IJ. All officers and persons acting under authority, now and here- 
after, to recruit new organizations, will report to the commandants of 
conscripts in their respective States the names of those persons who 
are employed by them in enlisting recruits. In the absence of such 
official evidence the enrolling officers will not recognize the authority 
claimed. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 401 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Wo. 19- Richmond, February 17, 1868. 


With a view to determine the military state of certain persons in 
the Army who have left their regular commands and joined others, 
under the impression that they had a right so to do, but are claimed 
as deserters under existing laws, the following orders are published: 

I. Persons who joined new companies at the expiration of their first 
term of service, under the act authorizing re-enlistments for the war, 
will be continued in their present companies, provided the facts do 
not show an intention to desert their former commands; also all 
paroled prisoners whose term of service had expired, and who enlisted 
in new companies under the provisions of General Orders, No. 44, 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, Richmond, of June 17, 1862, 
will be continued in their present companies. 

If. All persons who have really deserted and have joined other 
companies will be returned to their original commands, and the bene- 
fit of this order is to be strictly limited to cases arising from a mis- 
conception of rights and duties under the re-enlistment and conscript 
laws. 7 

Ilf. The privilege heretofore exercised by troops on the battle-field 
of exchanging their small-arms and field pieces for those captured 
from the enemy is hereafter forbidden, and the prohibition will be 
strictly enforced by commanders. Disasters may easily result from 
a disregard of this necessary order. All such exchanges must be 
made by proper authority and with a due regard to the efficiency of 
the troops. Captured arms and artillery will be turned over to the 
chief ordnance officer and be assigned, whenever practicable, to the 
troops to whom the general shall, on testimony, award their capture. 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, Fla., February 17, 1863. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, . 
President Confederate States of America, Richmond, Va.: 

Str: The maintenance of our armies in the field, of the families of 
those in military service of the civil government of the Confederate 
States, and the States separately—in a word, not only the liberty, but 
the lives of the people of the State, depend upon agricultural labor. 
The advocates of slavery, in our national councils and throughout the 
various forms of arguments to sustain it, have contended forcibly and 
truthfully that negroes have not the inclination or ability to labor 
successfully without the superior skill of the white man to direct and 
enforce their labor. 

Upon slave labor the agriculture of the Southern States is mainly 
dependent, and consequently overseers for the management and 
direction of the slaves should be exempt from military service. I say 
overseers, not owners of slaves, because as a general rule slaves have 
been managed by overseers, and but few owners have manifested the 
industry, skill, and energy necessary to successful agriculture. 

The safety of the Confederate States demands the exemption of 
overseers for two important reasons: First, because without them 


26 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


402 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


slaves will not labor in a manner to secure subsistence for the armies 
in the field, the support of families at home, and to insure the reve- 
nue necessary to the Confederate and State governments. Secondly, 
if left without the control of overseers, to whom they have been accus- 
tomed to yield obedience, the result will probably be insubordination 
and insurrection. 

A more effectual auxiliary to the emancipation scheme of Lincoln 
and for the subjugation of the South could not, in my humble judg- 
ment, be devised than an act of Congress, if it shall be respected by 
the States, which would intrust the agriculture and the lives of fami- 
lies to the slaves, unrestrained by the presence, authority, and skill 
of overseers. 

As a matter of policy, owners and overseers on plantations where 
cotton shall be planted might be subjected to military service, but 
on plantations where labor is exclusively directed to the raising of 
grain, meat, &c., for subsistence, overseers should be exempt from 
military service. 

In a time of profound peace, when not the slightest anticipation of 
war could have reasonably existed, the General Assembly of this 
State in its wisdom—the result of experience—enacted a law requiring 
a white person, either the owner or an overseer, to reside on the 
plantation where slaves lived, for their proper control and manage- 
ment. A copy of the last act on the subject is herewith inelosed. If 
the slaves are left without proper management they will not only fail 
to make the crops, but will destroy the stock necessary to the very 
existence of the country. 

Convineed of the truth of the allegations herein made, as the Goy- 
ernor of the State, and in the maintenance of its laws and for the 
general welfare of the Confederate States, I feel it my duty to protest 
against the enforcement of the conscript act in its application to 
overseers, where necessary to the management and direction of 
slaves; and more especially on plantations where the labor is devoted 
to securing the means of subsistence necessary to maintain our 
armies and protect our people from starvation. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


[Indorsement. ] 


Secretary of War for attention. 
A faa? 


{Inclosure. ] 


CHAPTER 888 (No. 77).—AN ACT amendatory to acts in reference to militia and 
patrol duties and crimes and misdemeanors. 


SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the State of Florida in General Assembly convened, That from and 
after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful for the owner or pro- 
prietor of any farm or plantation upon which slaves are or shall be 
employed to leave the same without any white person residing thereon, 
under a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be recovered 
by indictment, one-half to the informer and the other half to the use 
of the county in which the offense or offenses shall be committed. 

Smc. 2. Be wt further enacted, That when the owner or proprietor of 
a farm or plantation, whether for agricultural or turpentine purposes, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 403 


upon which a slave or slaves may or shall be employed, shall not be 
liable to the penalty herein prescribed: Provided, The owner or pro- 
prietor manages his own affairs without the aid of an overseer. 

SEC. 3. Be uw further enacted, That any and all laws or parts of 
laws inconsistent or conflicting with the provisions of this act be, and 
the same are hereby, repealed. 

Passed the House of Representatives January 9, 1851. Passed the 
Senate January 17, 1851. Approved by the Governor January 22, 
1851. 

I certify that the above is a true copy of the act passed and 
approved as above stated, on file in the office of secretary of state. 

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand and caused the 
great seal of the State to be affixed at the Capitol this the 16th day of 
February, A. D. 1863. 

By the Governor. Attest: 

[ SEAL. | B. F. ALLEN, 

Secretary of State. 


CIRCULAR. | Hpq@rs. DEPT. OF MISS. AND EAST LOUISIANA, 
: Jackson, February 17, 1863. 


The following is the indorsement of General 8. Cooper, Adjutant 
and Inspector General, upon certain inquiries as to the liability of 
Kentuckians to conscription, and is published for the information of 
all concerned: 

The twelve-months’ volunteers from Kentucky are embraced in the conscrip- 
tion acts, and are, therefore, liable to conscription at the expiration of their 
twelve monthy’ service. 

Kentucky is considered as a member of the Southern Confederacy, having its 
representation in the Congress of that Confederacy. 

By the order of Lieutenant-General Pemberton. 

R. W. MEMMINGER, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


Hpa@rs. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 
Huntsville, Ala., February 17, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, | 
Secretary of War: 


Your telegram of the 15th instant directing me to order Captain 
Cobb back from the rendezvous at Fayettéville to this post is obeyed. 
I deem it proper in explanation to state the facts and the sense of 
duty under which I acted. With extreme reluctance I undertook to 
organize a bureau for the purpose of strengthening the Army of Ten- 
nessee and make it self-sustaining. The service was most distasteful 
and repugnant to my feelings. But being most urgently pressed by 
General Bragg to do so, and informed by him that unless his army 
was strengthened he could not hold Tennessee, I finally entered upon 
the work from a sense of duty to the country. 

I have been engaged just one month and have added to the army, 
as I am informed by an officer direct from it, over 12,000 men. In this 
field organization I have met with many difficulties and embarrass- 
ments, not the least of which is the want of officers of the quarter- 
master and commissary staff to provide for the wants of the conscripts 


A404 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and volunteers and the cavalry force of the different rendezvous which 
are necessary. In organizing a rendezvous at Fayetteville I applied 
to General Bragg to supply this want, and he replied that he had no 
officer who could be spared and that I must make some other shift. 
I was reluctant to have money placed in the hands of an officer who 
was not bonded. I saw Major Jones, assistant quartermaster at this 
post, explained the matter to him, got his consent to perform the 
duties of post quartermaster; saw Captain Cobb, explained the want 
to him, and he consented to go to Fayetteville until some other pro- 
vision could be made. I then gave the order for him to proceed on 
that duty, directing him to return to this post as soon as that place 
could be provided for. These are the facts. If I have done wrong in 
temporarily using an officer you had placed on duty here, I certainly 
thought that I was advancing the best interests of the service and did 
not doubt but that you would approve the act. I acted with like 
motives, though with the approval of General Bragg, given me by tele- 
gram, in the order to Colonel Blake, at Knoxville, to forward to his 
army the conscripts at Knoxville. That was the order Colonel Blake 
telegraphed you, militated with his instructions. 

Having established Colonel Lea, a most efficient officer of the Army, 
at this place in this bureau, and Major Matthews giving me the infor- 
mation that in the counties contiguous to Fayetteville, in this State, 
there were 3,000 men lable to conscript duty around in that neigh- 
borhood, and having applied to me for orders to be placed at that 
place, saying he could be much more useful there, I placed him in 
command at that rendezvous. I fear I have done wrong in that, too. 
I had supposed the object of the Government was to get the men who 
are liable as conscripts into the army as rapidly as possible; and 
having been put on this duty by General Bragg from the supposition 
on his part that I could render efficient service, and being in the field 
actively on duty, I cannot but feel mortified that my orders should 
have given occasion for your displeasure. 

I am persuaded that if you could be here yourself and see how little 
is being done by conscript officers, and how much there is need of an 
efficient head to that bureau in the field, you would feel less disposed 
to [find] fault [with] my orders. I will in the future carefully avoid 
doing anything that can give you cause of reprimand. I will await 
your orders in regard to ordering Major Matthews back. I make no pre- 
tension to the right to interfere with your officers or orders. In my 
overzeal to be useful and to accomplish much in the pressing wants 
of General Bragg’s army, I presumed too much upon your appreciation 
of my services and your approval of what I thought was evidently 
right under the circumstances. | 

Respectfully, . 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and Chief of Bureau. 


MILLEDGEVILLE, February 18, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


Owing to the drought last summer a large part of Cherokee, 
Ga., did not make a support. Corn now worth $3 a bushel, and sol- 
diers’ families suffering. In this exigency the little supplies of pro- 
visions in the hands of a few is being seized by Confederate officers, 
leaving none to distribute to relieve those likely to starve. If this 
continues the rebellion in that section will grow, and soldiers in sery- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A0O5 


ice will desert to go to the relief of their suffering families. This con- 
duet of your officers is worthy of your immediate attention, and I 
beg you to stop it without delay. Plenty of corn can be bought in 
Southwestern Georgia, and the railroads are at the command of the 
Confederate officers. Please order them to get supplies for the Army 
from that section. 
I beg an immediate reply. 
JOS. E. BROWN, 
Governor of Georgia. 


[| FEBRUARY 18, 1863.—For proclamation of Governor Bonham call- 
ing into active service all or such portion of South Carolina militia as 
may be necessary to repel invasion, see Series I, Vol. XIV, p. 784. | 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
February 19, 1863. 
To His Excellency the PRESIDENT: 

Sir: I learn from soldiers just arrived in the city that there is a 
scarcity of meat in the Army, and they think that if their parents and 
sisters were appealed to and transportation be furnished a suffi- 
ciency of food could be in this way obtained to prevent any suffering. 

From my experience when registering ‘‘ patriotic contributions” in 
the passport office, I fully coneur in the opinion expressed by the 
soldiers, and I would be glad with the sanction of the Government 
to try the experiment again. I would use the press, but would not 
permit regular files of the papers to leave the Confederacy. 

The estimated value of voluntary contributions registered in 
186162 amounted to more than $1,500,000 at the then current 
prices. I know many of the principal contributors personally and 
cannot doubt that they would again respond to the call upon them. 

Knowing that you will appreciate my motive, even if it should be 
deemed necessary to reject my plan, 

I remain, honored sir, your obedient servant, 
J. B. JONES. 
[First indorsement. | 
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
February 19, 1863. 


Respectfully referred by direction of the President to the Commis- 
sary-General. : 
J./C. IVES, 
Colonel and Arde-de-Camp. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


The Commissary-General has no experience as to this mode of rais- 
ing supplies and does not think it a promising one, and respectfully 
refers it to the Secretary of War, if he wishes to direct it. 

7 L..B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary- General of Subsistence. 


[ Third indorsement. } 


Reply: It is not deemed judicious unless in the last extremity to 
resort to the means of supply suggested. The patriotic motives that 
dictate the suggestion are, however, appreciated and acknowledged. 

Hees thee 
Secretary of War. 


A06 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 20. Richmond, February 19, 1868. 


I. General or other officers commanding army corps or departments 
will cause full returns of-artillery, ammunition, and other ordnance 
stores at the various forts and batteries within their commands to be 
prepared without delay. 

The chief of ordnance of each army corps or department will be 
held responsible that these returns are forwarded to the chief of the 
Bureau of Ordnance at Richmond within twenty days after the 
receipt of this order, and will thereafter see that the returns required 
by paragraph 1348, Army Regulations, are regularly forwarded. 

II. All ordnance and ordnance stores, including cavalry equip- 
ments captured from the enemy by partisan rangers, shall be assessed 
by competent officers under orders of the commanding general, 
entered upon the rolls, and paid for by any ordnance officer upon 
receipt for the money from the men entitled to the property, and a 
property certificate signed by the officer commanding the company, 
squadron, battalion, or regiment of rangers, as the case may be. The 
rolls must state distinctly the company, battalion, or regiment to which 
the arms are assigned, in order that the commanding officer of the 
same may be charged with the property on the books of the Treasury. 

Ill. Paragraphs 117, 118, and 119, Army Regulations (being con- 
trary to law), are hereby revoked; and no enlisted man in the serv- 
ice of the Confederate States will be employed as a servant by any 
officer of the Army. 

IV. When a non-commissioned officer, musician, or private entitled 
to a furlough under the acts of Congress approved December 11, — 
1861, and April 16, 1862, shall elect to receive the commutation value 
in money in lieu of transportation to his home and back, the quar- 
termaster of his regiment will promptly pay his account therefor, 
upon his certificate, approved by his company and regimental com- 
manders, that commutation is justly due him in lieu of a furlough. 

V. In making such payments quartermasters will estimate the 
amount due in each case at 24 cents per mile for the distance the 
soldier would, if upon furlough, be compelled to travel to and from 
his home. 

VI. Company commanders will be required to state, upon their 
muster and pay rolls, payments made under these orders, opposite 
the name of the soldier so paid. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., February 19, 1868. 
Governor J. E. BROWN, | 
Milledgeville, Ga. : 
Your dispatch of the 18th received. Secretary of War will give 
instructions and will write to you on the subject. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


AN ACT to authorize the issue of bonds for funding Treasury notes. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to issue 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AQT 


coupon bonds and certificates of stock, with interest, payable semi- 
annually, at the yearly rate of eight per cent., for such amount as 
may be required in exchange for all Treasury notes which are now 
fundable in eight per cent. bonds, and also to pay for any subscrip- 
tion to the produce loan which may remain unpaid after exhausting 
the one hundred million loan. 

Sec. 2. That the said Secretary is also authorized to issue coupon 
bonds, and certificates of stock, with interest at the yearly rate of 
seven per cent., payable semi-annually, for such amount as may be 
required, in exchange for all Treasury notes which are now fundable 
in seven per cent. bonds. 

SEc. 3. That all bonds issued under this act shall be made redeem- 
able at the pleasure of the Government, after the expiration of five 
years from their respective dates, but the faith of the Government 
shall be pledged to redeem the same at the expiration of thirty years 
from such dates. 

Sic. 4. That until the bonds authorized by this act can be prepared, 
the Secretary may issue in their stead certificates showing the right 
of the holders to demand bonds of like date and amount, as soon as 
the same can be prepared. 

Approved February 20, 1863. 


AN ACT to provide for refunding to the State of Alabama the amount overpaid 
by said State on account of the war tax, of eighteen hundred and sixty-two. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to adjust and ascer- 
tain the true amount of tax due from the State of Alabama, under 
the ‘‘Act to authorize the issue of Treasury notes, and to provide a 
war tax for their redemption,” and the acts supplementary thereto; 
and upon such accounting said Secretary of the Treasury shall 
refund to the said State whatever sum may have been overpaid by the 
authorities thereof, under said act. 

Approved February 20, 1863. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 21. Richmond, February 20, 1868. 


I. When the exigency of the service requires it, ordnance stores 
reported unserviceable by the officer who is responsible for them 
shall be inspected by the brigade inspector, under the direction of 
the Inspector-General of the Army; or in case of the absence of the 
brigade inspector, then by any other officer designated by the In- 
spector-General, except the officer accountable for the property in 
question. 

The inspecting officer shall make a report in accordance with para- 
graphs 925 and 926, Army Regulations; and whatever stores he con- 
siders worn out or unserviceable he shall order, under the direction 
of the Inspector-General, to be dropped. 

Il. When requisitions for ordnance stores are made to supply defi- 
ciencies, a copy of the report of the inspector shall be appended, to 
show the necessity of the issue. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


408 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 22. Richmond, February 28, 1868. 


The following additional instructions are published for the guid- 
ance of the medical officers and surgeons composing the boards of 
examination for conscripts: 

I. In their examination of conscripts they must exercise a sound 
and firm discretion and not yield their judgment in favor of every 
complaint of trivial disability, by attaching too much importance to 
which they indirectly favor evasions of the required military service. 

IJ. As a general rule it may be received that where a conscript is 
equal to all the active duties of the various occupations of civil life 
he is able to discharge the duties of a soldier. ~ 

III. Temporary exemption is so liable to abuse and to be resorted 
to aS a means of evasion that the examining surgeon must fix the 
period for which it is granted (which, with the reasons therefor, will 
be stated in the monthly report), at the expiration of which period 
the conscript must present himself for examination or be considered 
absent without leave. 

IV. The following are some of the grounds not deemed sufficient 
and satisfactory for exemption: 

1. General debility.—The grades of this condition are numerous, 
and on receiving them all as grounds for exemption the examining 
surgeon cannot be considered as discharging his duty to the service. 
In arriving at a correct judgment upon this point he will be aided by 
the consideration that observation has by no means established that a 
so-called high standard of health is best adapted to encounter the expo- 
sures of military life, such physical condition being especially liable to 
disease, while health of a lower grade, without any coexisting posi- 
tive disease, is frequently strengthened and improved by the exposures 
incident to the life of a soldier. | 

2. In case of slight deformity, natural, or the result of accident and 
irregular union of fractures, unless material impairment of power 
and motion results from such deformity, the conscript must be held 
liable for military service. 

3. Deafness.—This is not a valid reason for exemption, unless so 
excessive (which must be stated in the monthly report) as to ineapaci- 
tate a man for the duties of a sentinel. The fact of its existence 
must also be established by the affidavit of a respectable physician 
who has known the conscript to be the subject of the infirmity. 

4. Impediment of speech, unless of a very aggravated character, is 
not a valid reason for exemption. | 

5. Heart disease (organic).—Organic disease of the heart being 
comparatively infrequent, the physical and rational signs should be 
scrutinized with great care, and the subject of examination should 
not be excused unless the case is satisfactorily established. 

6. Functional disturbance of heart’s action.—This is very common, 
not a valid ground for exemption, and will generally be relieved by 
change to the life of the camp. 

7. Rheumatism.—The kind should be designated, whether acute or 
chronic, articular or muscular. It is a complaint liable to be used as 
a means of evasion. Where it is simply muscular, without swelling 
or contraction of the joints, and the general health of the conscript is 
otherwise sound, he should be held liable to military duty. | 

8. Hpilepsy.—This disease being frequently simulated so as to 
impose upon a careless observer, nothing less than the observation of 
an actual paroxysm, or the affidavit of a responsible physician 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AOY 


acquainted with the conscript, should be deemed satisfactory by the 
examining surgeon. 

9. Varicocele.—Not a ground for exemption, unless excessive, which 
must be stated in the monthly report. 

10. Myopia.—Not a ground for exemption. Many myopic subjects 
distinguish distant objects with accuracy sufficient for all practical 
purposes. 

11. Hemorrhoids.—As many invalids in civil life, subjects of this 
disorder, are engaged in active occupations, they should not, unless 
excessive (which must be stated in the monthly reports), be consid- 
ered satisfactory grounds for exemption. 

12. Opacity of one cornea, or the loss of one eye.—Not valid grounds 
for exemption. 

13. The loss of one or two fingers.—Not sufficient cause for exemp- 
tion. 

14. Single reducible hernia.—Not a valid cause for exemption. 

By order: 

| S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, February 23, 1868, 
Hon. T. S. ASHE and OTHERS, 
Representatives from North Carolina: 


GENTLEMEN: I have received your remonstrance against the assign- 
ment of any other than a North Carolinian as commandant of con- 
scripts in that State. In reply I have the honor to say that your 
letter has been referred to the Conscript Bureau, with instructions if 
a competent but disabled officer from North Carolina can be com- 
manded to assign him to that place. Regret is, however, felt that 
such susceptibility prevails in North Carolina, when it has not been 
displayed in other States where similar appointments have been made 
of officers not native. Indeed, some motives of policy would seem 
to recommend for such positions officers not liable to be affected by 
local associations or feelings. In this case, too, an officer of acknowl- 
edged gallantry and merit, appointed without a thought of exciting 
such feelings of dissatisfaction, will lose a situation desirable to him 
till complete restoration can be had from the wounds received in fight- 
ing for the common cause. Still, the change will be made to avoid the 
grave consequences of general dissatisfaction which, in the estima- 
tion of honorable Representatives so competent to judge, are likely to 
result in their State. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., February 24, 1868. 
Capt. J. M. RoBINSoN: 
CAPTAIN: You are instructed to proceed to England on the special 
duty of selecting, purchasing, and forwarding certain supplies deemed 
essential by the Engineer Bureau for the engineer service. You have 


410 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


been furnished by that Bureau with a schedule exhibiting the nature 
_and quantities of the articles needed, and in purchasing and arranging 
for the payment of them. You are desired to consult and be guided 
by the advice of Maj. Caleb Huse, who has been for some time in 
England acting as the agent, first of the Ordnance Bureau, and more 
recently of the Department generally in its purchases and payments. 
You are likewise expected and desired while abroad to perform other 
duties less directly connected with the service of this Department, 
suffering under the exigencies of the times for many articles essential 
to their efficiency. Several of the leading railroad companies of the 
Confederacy have combined in an effort to procure the needed supply 
by purchase and importation from Europe. Their success is searcely 
less important to this Department than to the public and themselves, 
and consequently I have consented to afford them such reasonable 
facilities in effecting their object as the Department can conveniently 
command. They repose great confidence in the experience, knowl- 
edge, and judgment which your past connection with railroad oper- 
ations and your professional acquirements will afford, and believe that 
you can most efficiently, as an agent for them, manage the selection, 
purchase, and shipment of the supplies they require. With your 
own concurrence, you are therefore authorized and desired while in 
Europe to act as such agent, and to render to these companies all the 
assistance in your power in the accomplishment of their enterprise. 
You will in such capacity receive full instructions from them as to 
the articles needed and their proposed mode of effecting their pur- 
chases, payments, and shipments. You will be provided with funds 
and such other aids as in their power to render, and in these respects 
you will be responsible to them, and be careful not to engage the 
responsibility of this Department for their transactions. Should 
any additional facilities appear to you as within the power of the 
Department to render these railroad companies you will report them, 
and take the instructions of the Department before engaging to afford 
them. You will employ such dispatch as may be consistent with the 
full accomplishment of both the objects of your mission, and then 
return to your valuable services in the field, from which you have 
been reluctantly spared and without application on your part. 
Very respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 28. Richmond, February 25, 1863. 


I. The senior surgeons of commands entitled to medical directors 
will be detailed as medical directors for such commands. When- 
ever, however, the interest of the service shall require a departure 
from this rule, medical directors for commands will be recom. 
mended by the Surgeon-General and announced in orders from this 
office. 

II. Paragraph VI, Special Orders, No. 79, and paragraph II, Spe- 
cial Orders, No. 80, of last series from this office, directing medical 
purveyors to obey all instructions relative to the transfer of medical 
supplies and reports of supplies on hand emanating from Surgeon 
EK. W. Johns, medical purveyor, are hereby revoked; and hereafter 
all reports will be made direct to the Surgeon-General, and all instrue- 
tions to medical purveyors will emanate from his office. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 411 


Surgeon Johns will send to the Surgeon-General’s Office without 
delay all records, books, and papers connected with the duties 
assigned him under the above-named orders. 

By order: . 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Rachmond, Va., February 25, 1868. 
Hon. W. LANDER and OTHERS, 
Congressional Delegation of North Carolina: 


GENTLEMEN: Your remonstrance of the 18th instant against any 
other than a North Carolinian being put in command of the camps of 
instruction in your State has been referred to this Bureau by the Sec- 
retary of War, with the following indorsement: 


Let answer be made that this has been referred to the Conscription Barca 
with instructions if a competent but disabled officer from North Carolina can be 
commanded to assign him to the place. Regret is, however, felt that such sus- 
ceptibility prevails in North Carolina, when it has not been displayed in other 
States where similar appointments have been made of officers not native. Indeed, 
some motives of policy would seem to recommend for such positions officers not 
liable to be affected by local associations or feelings. In this case, too, an officer 
of acknowledged gallantry and merit, appointed without a thought of exciting 
such feelings of dissatisfaction, will lose a situation desirable to him till complete 
restoration can be had from the wounds received in fighting for the common 
cause. Still, the change will be made to avoid the grave consequences of general 
dissatisfaction which, in the estimation of honorable Representatives so com- 
petent to judge, are likely to result in their State. : 

oy: Volts 6 


In reply I beg to observe that I have on the 30th of January ultimo 
already expressed my willingness to put a North Carolina officer in 
this post when one could be found, as will be seen by the following 
extract from my letter of that date to the Secretary of War: 

As the Governor appears to have taken exception to this temporary appoint- 
ment, I will change it; but I have no knowledge of any officer from North Carolina 
of the rank and qualifications necessary to fit him for the position, having 
received no application, and I will be very thankful for being enlightened and 
to have the assistance of the Governor in this particular, assuring him that my 
interest in the well-being of my native State would not allow my doing anything 
detrimental to her welfare or honor. Finally, the business of this Bureau, con- 
nected with the Army generally, and the standing orders from the Department 
particularly to avail ourselves of wounded and disabled officers for such services, 
entirely divest it of any sectional policy, which, if carried out, might throw upon 
our hands unemployed officers who might otherwise benefit the country. 


Not one name of a North Carolinian to relieve Colonel August has 
yet been suggested to me, nor do I know howto find one. It is neces- 
sary to have an officer of higher rank than captain, one in sufficient 
health and competent for the duty, and yet disabled for field duty. 
I have no authority to order any officers from the field, nor would the 
generals commanding listen to any application for such detachment. 
I myself am a North Carolinian, in daily supervision of the acts of 
Colonel August, whom I sent there by reason of his high qualifications, 
he being the only suitable officer at my disposal, to detect, correct, 
and report the multifarious errors and apparently willful abuses 


‘ 


412 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


extensively prevailing on the part of some subordinate enrolling offi- 
cers in the State; and Ihave felt the honor of the State as well as the. 
public interest to be concerned in this correction. 

Earnestly inviting the assistance and suggestions of the honorable 
Representatives from North Carolina in this matter, and repeating 
that I am ready to act at once on any suggestion compatible with the 
orders I have received, but not at liberty in the meantime to abandon 
the practical control of the conscription in that State, which it is essen- 
tial should be supervised by a commandant for the State at large of 
sufficient rank to exercise command, 

Iam, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, February 27, 1868. 
J. B. JONES, Esq., 
Conscript Bureau: 


Sir: The President has referred your letter of the 19th instant to 
this Department. In reply you are respectfully informed that it is 
not deemed judicious, unless in the last extremity, to resort to the 
means of supply suggested. The patriotic motives that dictated the 
suggestion are, however, appreciated and acknowledged. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., February 27, 18638. 


2 * x * * * x 


It is the decision and instruction of the War Department that 
where the Government has or has had, until his death or honorable 
discharge, the services of a substitute not otherwise liable to military 
service, the enrolling officers cannot go behind these facts to refuse 
the exemption of the principal on the ground of mere irregularity 
in the original acceptance of the substitute. In cases, however, pre- 
senting indications that the irregularity was purposed and had its 
origin in motives of fraud or collusion to evade the requirements of 
law or orders in reference to the character of the substitute offered, 
they will grant only a temporary exemption of the principal and 
report all the facts through the commandant of conscripts of the 
State for the final decision of the War Department through this 
Bureau. 

In all cases, whether the exemption be recognized or not, irregular- 
ities in the acceptance of substitutes will be reported by the enroll- 
ing officers in order that the names of officers committing them may 
be laid before the War Department from this Bureau. 

There is another class of cases in which the party claiming exemp- 
tion produces the signature of the company commander only as 
accepting a substitution, which, in all cases of companies forming 


¢ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. Als 


parts of battalions or regiments, is required, since November 21, 1862, 
by standing orders to be also accepted by the battalion or regimental 
commander, and to be so certified by his signature. In such cases 
the genuineness of the transaction is to be doubted, and the claim of 
the principal for exemption will be denied. It may, however, be 
admitted on the production of full and satisfactory evidence from the 
regimental commander that there was a genuine substitution and 
actual service rendered by the substitute, and that the absence of the 
signature of the regimental commander is to be attributed only to 
omission or accident. 

Where substitutions have been effected in due form and without 
fraud, the lability of the principal is not revived by the desertion of 
the substitute. Should it appear, however, that the substitute him- 
self, if remaining with his colors, would have become liable at a given 
period to service on his account, then the liability of the principal 
will revive at that point of time. 

G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, February 28, 1563. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SIR: Yours per Major Carrington was duly received and, with 
inclosure, has been carefully considered. The matter has given me 
much embarrassment. In the interior of the State there is much suf- 
fering for bread already, and will be more on account of the failure 
of the crops from drought, and the Legislature made a large appropria- 
tion of money to enable me to purchase corn and transport it west 
to feed wives and children of soldiers. I had only secured about 
50,000 bushels, very little of which has been removed for want of 
transportation. To surrender the whole of this and cease buying 
more would so effectually close up the chances of the people for 
bread that I feel great reluctance in doing so, even for so vital an 
object as the feeding of the Army. I, however, agreed with Major 
Carrington to exchange corn, taking bushel for bushel, at Charlotte, 
to turn over a part of my transportation, and in consideration of the 
fact that, with my agents and teams now in the field, I could’ possibly 
secure much that he could not reach, I agreed to continue purchas- 
ing and to turn over to him as the necessities of the service might 
require. This arrangement was the very best that I could conscien- 
tiously make, for I do assure you, sir, that the suffering of my people 
will be very great, indeed, if the State should afford them no relief. 
I feel that I ought not to entirely abandon them, and that in prevent- 
ing suffering in the soldiers’ families I am also greatly promoting the 
efficiency of the Army itself. 

I am now organizing a corps of provision agents throughout the 
interior to see what can be bought, and how much is hoarded that 
may be seized, and trust that the result may be such as to enable me 
to surrender to the Army the whole crop of the east. 


Very respectfully, Fe 
Z. B, VANCE. 


414 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[FEBRUARY 28, 1863.—For act of the General Assembly of Virginia, 
transferring the State troops and rangers to the Confederate Govern- 
ment, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 686. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SUBSISTENCE DEPT., 
Richmond, Va., March 2, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: The intervention of commanding officers with the ration is 
unauthorized and unadvisable for many reasons; but under existing 
circumstances it is mischievous. 

The subsistence of the different divisions of the Army should be, if 
possible, from the productions of the districts wherein they respect- 
ively operate; more especially is this necessary in the present condi- 
tion of transportation. Such directions were given from the War 
Department on the 28th April, 1862. 

The condition of the country requires that the ration must neces- 
sarily vary in different localities. It is not to be expected, and it is 
not the fact that commanding generals are most competent judges of 
the subsistence resources of the country, and should not be permitted 
to issue any order respecting rations whatever. If they think the 
best is not done, let them say so to the Secretary of War, who can 
inform himself and act; but any further action by commanding 
officers only tends to render the Army dissatisfied or cause a too 
rapid consumption of supplhes. 

Privation is to be looked for, and encouragement is all that the 
generals can beneficially do, beyond calling the attention of the Sec- 
retary of War to existing things. | 

There are other difficulties attending the settlement of officers’ 
accounts, which the Auditor will settle according to regulations of 

the Secretary of War. 
Reference is again made to the indorsement of this Bureau on a 
paper submitting ration orders of the Army of the West. 
Iam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


[Inclosure. } 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SUBSISTENCE DEPT., 
Richmond, Va., Apru 28, 1862. 
Henceforth the ration will be a pound of beef or half a pound of 
bacon or pork, and the ration of flour or meal will not exceed a pound 
and a half of either. | tS 
Commissaries are again instructed to save all the tallow they can, 
to be used in place of lard. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
: Commissary-General of Subsistence. 
Approved. 
G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 415 


SPECIAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 51. Richmond, Va., March 2, 1868. 
* *k * *k *k *k % 
XVIII. Authority is hereby granted Lieut. W. S. Hanrahan, of 
Company H, First Regiment North Carolina Cavalry, to recruit a com- 
pany within the lines of the enemy and at such other places in North 
Carolina where the conscript law cannot be enforced. 
* * * ** * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
. fiachmond, Va., March 2, 1868. 
General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, 
Commanding, &c.: 

GENERAL: The operations of Brigadier-General Pillow in executing 
the acts of conscription have been brought to the notice of the Depart- 
ment, and have formed the subject of several communications by tel- 
egram, which have probably been brought to your notice. There has 
been no little difficulty in organizing the arrangements for the execu- 
tion of the conscription acts, and the plans adopted have been the 
result of much deliberation and after a consultation with those who 
were immediately concerned in the management of the Army. The 
Adjutant and’ Inspector General insisted that these arrangements 
should not be connected in any manner with the business of his office, 
inasmuch as conscripts did not belong to the Army proper until after 
muster into service. The fundamental proposition adopted by the 
Department in reference to the acts of exemption rendered this 
conclusion a proper one. 

Hundreds of applications come to the Department for discharges 
from the Army, resting for their support upon the provisions of the 
act of exemption, and were sustained in many instances by Con- 
gressional recommendations. Many of the members of Congress 
seemed to believe that the exemption acts did apply to the Army. 
To separate the Army proper from conscription was therefore a meas- 
ure of policy. There are, too, political considerations connected with 
the enforcement of the acts of conscription that were not to be over- 
looked, and justified the establishment of an independent organiza- 
tion. The Department in Orders No. 82 provided that ‘‘the com- 
mandant of conscripts will be charged with the supervision of the 
enrollment and disposition of conscripts.” ‘‘The commandants of 
conscripts east of the Mississippi River will receive orders only from 
the War Department, and will not be interfered with by generals 
commanding departments or armies in the field.” 

On February 7 this Department published in Orders No. 16: ‘‘Re- 
ports have been received that officers thus sent from the Army have 
been practically setting aside the system, decisions, and exemptions 
established under the authority of the commandants of conscripts in 
the respective States, and are neglecting to make to those officers any 
returns of the conscripts gathered by them,” and thereupon renewed 
its command that those officers should act in subordination to the 
commanders of conscripts. 


416 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In two telegrams addressed to General Bragg relative to the oper- 
ations of General Pillow the disapproval of the Bureau of Conscrip- 
tion established by him has been communicated in specific language 
as incompatible with the system established and having no authority 
whatever under the orders of the Department. This letter is written 
to explain to you the system in operation, to refer you to the orders of 
the Department, and to exact through you obedience from the officers in 
your department to the orders heretofore given, especially the officers 
to whom these telegrams referred to have been addressed. Paragraph 
III, Article IV, of Orders 82, and the circular of January 8, limited 
in Orders 16 of the present year, explain all the relations that the 
generals in the field have or which the Department desires them to 
have with the camps of conscription. Even these relations, limited 
and defined as they have been, have been productive of confusion 
and irritation, for the commanding generals of different departments 
have sent into the same field officers to recruit their armies and have 
partially superseded the regular operations of the officers of the 
Bureau. 

The Department continues in force at the Bureau of Conscription 
the orders to supply the army of General Bragg from Alabama and 
Mississippi, and he may send recruiting officers from battalions and 
regiments to co-operate with the enrolling officers; but further than 
this no interference in the conscription service can be permitted. 
Nothing in this letter is intended to apply to any arrangements for the 
collection of absentees or deserters. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 52. Richmond, Va., March 3, 1868. 
* * * * * *k * 
XXIV. Col. E. Waggaman, Tenth Regiment Louisiana Volunteers, 
is assigned to duty as commandant of conscripts for the State of 
Louisiana, and will report by letter to the chief of the Bureau of Con- 
scription in this city for further instructions. 
* * k * * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JOHN WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, March 3, 1863. 
Maj. R. M. CUYLER, 
Commanding C. S. Arsenal, Macon, Ga. : 


Magsor: It is desirable to secure a supply of cotton for the purpose 
of shipping it abroad for account of this Bureau. You are authorized 
to lay out ordnance funds for such cotton as you can secure without 
interference with the purchases of the Treasury Department. Con- 
sult with the agents of the Treasury Department as to prices, and in 
no case exceed the prices paid by them. ‘ 

Purchase about 2,000 bales and report prices, &c. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel, Chief of Ordnance. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A17 


RICHMOND, March 4, 1868. 
His Excellency President DAvis: 

Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the reference by you to this 
office of a communication from Mr. A. G. Haley, proposing to intro- 
duce horses and mules from Mexico, California, and Europe, and beg 
leave to return the letter with the following remarks: 

Between 600 and 700 mules have already been purchased in Texas 
for the cis-Mississippi department, and are being wintered at Alexan- 
dria, La., for the convenience and cheapness of forage, while awaiting 
a Safe opportunity to cross the river. 

So soon as these animals are tried we can tell how far they are 
adapted to the service, which may admit of some doubt, as they are 
generally small. 

If suitable, it will be advisable to increase the number from Mexico, 
and possibly California. The horses of Mexico, Texas, California, 
and New Mexico I consider, if very judiciously selected, adapted to 
our cavalry service, provided that none are purchased under ten years 
of age. Unbroken Mexican horses I consider entirely useless. The 
proposal to obtain horses from Europe is certainly impracticable. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


ear ee 


ATHENS, TENN., March 4; 1868. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


DEAR SiR: I duly received your circular letter addressed to the 
Governors of the Confederate States of America on Friday last. 
Upon its reception I was prostrated with a severe indisposition from 
which I am partially recovered, which is my apology for failing in an 
immediate answer. Your circular letter gives a faithful representa- 
tion of the gigantic preparations of the Government of the United 
States to subjugate the Confederate States, not only by the accus- 
tomed means of belligerents, but by the cruelties and devastations 
unauthorized by Christian or civilized warfare and culminating in the 
atrocious project now openly announced as well by their legislative 
as the executive powers of adding the horrors of servile to that of civil 
war. With a view to inform the Governors of the Confederate States 
of the dangers which environ them, you invite the co-operation of the 
State authorities in the increase of our military force by the faithful 
enforcement of the law of conscription, by aiding in having the officers 
and soldiers already enlisted and absent from their commands returned 
to their posts of duty and service, and by every effort to subsist our 
brave armies now in the field. I deeply deplore the untoward condi- 
tion of the State of Kentucky, of which I am the humble Provisional 
Governor, and it has grieved my soul that a State so replete with 
nilitary resources has not seemed to respond to the expectations of 
her sister States in the vindication of States’ rights and the assertion 
of our dearest personal and political liberties. I have never doubted 
that it is the will of a large majority of the people of my State to east 
their lot in an alliance with the Confederate States, but you are aware 
of many of the difficulties that have surrounded them, encompassed 
as they have been by bribery and intimidation and by the military 
occupation of her principal towns and cities. Notwithstanding, from 
all my information from Kentucky I cannot fail to believe our cause 


27 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


418 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


is steadily on the increase, and that during the present spring and 
summer the military powers and resources of our State will be largely 
and liberally devoted to the cause of the Confederate States. You are 
apprised that in the present posture of Kentucky I am almost power- 
less in the enforcement of the conscript law or in the means of return- 
ing our officers and soldiers to their commands, and little can be 
effected in drawing from my State the quartermaster’s and commissary 
stores in which she so largely abounds. I can, however, assure you 
that no effort will be spared and no opportunity neglected to animate 
and urge our people to the fullest co-operation in the prosecution of 
the cause of our liberties and independence. I am now engaged in 
setting on foot a communication with our firm friends in Kentucky 
from which I hope such organizations as will materially increase our 
political and military forces, and which will, as I hope to a valuable 
extent, aid in supporting the commissary and quartermaster’s service 
of the country. 
Very respectfully, yours, 
R. HAWES, 
Provisional Governor of Kentucky. 


An estimate of funds required for the subsistence of 475,000 men from Ist of Jan- 
uary to 30th of June, 1863 (one hundred and eighty-one days) , making 85,975,000 
rations. 


85,975,000 rations, at $1.12 per ration.-...--.-..--.--. ete tine dE, dg ca $96, 292, 000 
1,000,000 gallons molasses, at $1 per gallon ...---..--..------------- 1,000, 000 
1,000,000 gallons whisky, at $2.50 per gallon_-_-.....--.------------ = 2,500, 000 
Purchase of weights, scales, and measures--------.----------- ines 200, 000 
Provisions for Quartermaster’s employés and laborers under charge 
of Engineer and Niter Bureaus... ..2.-.--2------- ene ence e nee ee= 11, 666, 660 
111, 658, 660 
Add 10 per cent: for wastage.2-!. 2225. 2 S25 SSL bi eee ee ee 11, 165, 866 
122, 824, 526 
Deduct amount already appropriated ..--<.-: 2 eee 48, 656, 500 
Total now required 2 bs Les Seer nose: el ee ad ce nee eee 74, 168, 026 


The foregoing estimate is supplemental to the one submitted by 
this Bureau on the 12th of December, 1862, and is necessary in con- 
sequence of the greatly increased cost of all articles constituting the 
ration. 

* * * * * * * 


It is impossible to determine to what extent prices will advance and 
the Commissary-General can only approximately conjecture. 
Respectfully submitted. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General. of Subsistence. 
MARCH 5, 1863. 


GENERAL et ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 24. Richmond, March 4, 1868. 
I. Paragraph IV of General Orders, No. 47, of 1862, was designed 
to apply solely to the cases of officers whose commands had reorgan- 
ized for the war, agreeably to the acts of Congress, No. 306, of Decem- 
ber 11, 1861, and No. 397, of February 15, 1862, where the officers of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 419 


such reorganized commands had been re-elected to the same grade of 
rank they held in those commands prior to their reorganization, and 
before the passage of the act of April 16, 1862, commonly known as 
the ‘‘ conscription act.” 

In all reorganizations of commands under this last-named act (April 
16, 1862) the officers will take rank from the date of the act, and their 
relative rank with each other in the same grade will be regulated by 
the date of their former commissions in the service. 

II. Officers of the Army who are dropped from the rolls, cashiered 
by courts-martial, or whose resignations are accepted, and who may 
thus become liable to military duty under the conscription acts, will, 
when present with their commands, be at once enrolled by their 
respective brigade commanders. When not so present their names 
will be furnished by their commanding officers to the proper enrolling 
officer of the district to which they belong, or in which they reside: 
Provided, That any officer so liable to enrollment may select in his 
former command any company from his own State in which to be 
enrolled. 

_ By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., March 5, 1868. 
Non. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


SiR: I am informed credibly that there is a class of men scattered 
over the State liable to conscription who are hiding out and dodging 
the enrolling officers, but who would join Colonel Clanton’s command 
if allowed to do so. The conscript officers, I am told, reeommend 
that they be allowed to do so. The order from the War Department * 
allowing conscripts in the counties of Barbour, Pike, Henry, Dale, 
Coffee, and Covington to join Colonel Clanton’s organization has had 
a most happy effect in silencing all clamors against the conscript act 
in those counties, and in inducing many who were hiding to come 
into the service. Colonel Clanton is a very popular officer in Ala- 
bama, and men in other counties who will avoid the conscript officers 
would readily join him if permitted to do so, and will thus be speedily 
brought into the camps. I am confident that such a course will be 
advantageous to the Army. The sooner these stragglers are gathered 
in the better, and by the plan recommended I think a number may be 
obtained whom it will be troublesome to get at in any other way. 
The discretion as to this matter may very properly be left with Col- 
onel Clanton, who will properly discriminate as to the class of men he 
will muster into his command under the order of the War Depart- 
ment, if the order shall be allowed. There is no danger of his gath- 
ering more men than needed, and if he should be successful enough 
to raise a larger force than might be found necessary for his field of 
operations it will put it in the power of the Department to re-enforee 
Mobile by a transfer of a portion of the troops now in the vicinity of 
Pollard. Still, I have no idea that any supernumerary troops will be 
gathered by Colonel Clanton. ' They will all be required, most proba- 
bly, in West Florida. 


*See Series I, Vol. LIT, Part II, p. 415. 


420 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Colonel Clanton visits Richmond in person and will deliver you 
this letter, and I commend him to your polite attention and confi- 
dence. | 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
, No. 25. Richmond, March 6, 1863. 


I. The following act of Congress and regulations to enforce the 
same are published for the information of all persons concerned: 


Cuapr. LXII.—AN ACT to protect the rights of owners of slaves taken by or employed in the Army. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That every person 
connected with the Army or Navy of the Confederate States arresting or coming 
into possession of any slave, by capture from the enemy or otherwise than by 
lawful authority, shall immediately report the same to the commanding officer of 
the post, or brigade or station to which he may be attached. The said command- 
ing officer shall, with as little delay as practicable, send the slaves so reported to 
the nearest depot described in the next section, with a register of the place and 
date of their arrest: Provided, however, That the said slaves or any of them may 
at once be delivered to their respective owners, if claim is made and established 
on satisfactory evidence. ; 

Src. 2. The Secretary of War shall establish depots for recaptured slaves at 
convenient places, not more than five in number, in each State, and all slaves 
captured in such State shall be kept in such depots. Public notice shall be given 
of the places so selected. Py, 

Src. 3. Lists of the slaves in each of such depots showing the name and color 
of such slaves, the place and time of their arrest, and the names of their owners, 
as given by themselves, or otherwise ascertained, shall be regularly advertised in 
each State, in one or more newspapers of general circulation. 
| Sec. 4. While such slaves are in depot, they may be employed, under proper 
guard, on public works; but no slave shall be removed from the depot to which . 
he is first carried for at least one month after the first advertisement of his being 
there, nor then, unless an exact register is made of the removal and due advertise- 
ment made in the newspapers as aforesaid. 

Src. 5. Free access shall be permitted to all persons desiring to inspect the said 
slaves for the purpose of identifying them and establishing ownership, and upon 
due proof they shall be immediately restored to the persons claiming them. 

Sec. 6. It shall further be the duty of the Secretary of War to require the 
names of all slaves in the employment of an officer or soldier of the Confederate 
Army or Navy, with the names and residence of their owners, and of the person 
by whom hired out, and of the officer or soldier hiring, to be reported to his 
Department, and a full register thereof to be kept for public inspection. 

Sec. 7. The President shall prescribe regulations for carrying this act into 
effect, and provide for the subsistence of said slaves while in such depots. 

Approved October 138, 1862. 


Il. Depots for recaptured slaves are hereby established at the fol- 
lowing places, viz: At the camps of instruction at Richmond, Peters- 
burg, and Dublin Station, Va.; Raleigh, N. C.; Columbia, 8. C.; 
Macon and Decatur, Ga.; Notasulga and Talladega, Ala.; Tallahas- 
see, Fla.; Brookhaven and Enterprise, Miss.; Monroe, Camp Moore, 
and New Iberia, La.; Houston, Texas; Knoxville and McMinnville, 
Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark. 

III. The commandants of the several camps of instruction will pro- — 
vide necessary quarters for all negroes sent to the depots; will detail’ 
sufficient guards for their safe-keeping; provide for their custody, 
employment, and subsistence; require full and accurate registers to 
be kept, and advertisements as prescribed by the act of Congress 
to be regularly made, and afford all facilities to claimants to establish 


GONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 424 


their ownership, and on due proof surrender the slaves to their 
owners. 2 

IV. Commanding generals will require all persons connected witli 
the Army to make immediate report of all slaves arrested or coming 
into their possession, and if claim is not promptly made and estab- 
lished by the owner, will send such slaves, with a register of the place 
and date of their arrest, with as little delay as practicable, to the nearest 
depot in the State wherein the capture is made. They will also 
require all officers and soldiers now employing slaves forthwith to 
report the same, and those hereafter employing them, within ten days 
thereafter, with the names and residence of their owners, and of the 
person by whom they were hired out, and of the officer or soldier hir- 
ing, and return such reports as soon as received to this office; and 
will in all other respects enforce from the officers and men under 
their command a strict and prompt observance of the requirements of 
the above-recited act of Congress. 

By order: | 

: S. COOPER, 

Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HDQRS. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 
Huntsville, March 6, 1863. 


The PLANTERS OF LAUDERDALE, LAWRENCE, AND FRANKLIN 

COUNTIES: 

Your position is much endangered by the raids of the enemy’s cav- 
alry. Wherever they go they seize all the negroes they ean find. 
Our army has 2,000 veteran soldiers driving teams. We want to 
hire negro teamsters to relieve these soldiers and restore them to the 
ranks, thus greatly strengthening the army. All the negroes you 
hire to the army will be thus saved to their owners, while at the same 
time the army is more able to defend and protect the country. I 
have made a like requirement of the slave owners of Maury, Giles, 
and Lincoln Counties, Tenn., and of Madison, Limestone, and Mor- 
gan Counties, Ala., and I now eall upon you. The above counties 
have responded with patriotic promptitude. In meeting this want 
of the army and Government you are performing a patriotic duty, 
and advancing your own interest by preserving your property and 
aiding the army to protect the homes and property of the owner. If 
owners Shall fail or refuse to comply with this request, they need not 
complain of the Government if they should be robbed of their negro 
property. I send Captain McIver, assistant quartermaster, with con- 
tracts signed and complete to carry out this order. His official acts 
will be binding upon the Government. The terms of the contract, 
you will see, are liberal, and in everything protect your rights. 

| GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, O. 8. Army, and Chief of Bureau. 


The purveying department, as according to the present organiza- 
tion of the Army, forms a part of the Medical Department, or rather 
what has, from the necessities of the service, grown into the purvey- 
ing department, is composed of a varying number of medical officers 


422 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


detailed as purveyors to provide supplies appertaining to the care of 
the sick. The necessities of the service rendering it impossible for 
the Surgeon-General to divert his attention from the administration of 
the professional duties of Medical Department, a sort of sub-depart- 
ment for provision of supplies was extemporized by directing the 
purveyors throughout the Confederacy to obey the instructions of the 
purveyor at Richmond (where is the principal depot), who was 
appointed to this undefined control of the movement of supplies under 
the direction of the Surgeon-General. This organization is not suffi- 
cient to meet the vast demands of what is in itself a large and, con- 
sidering its object, a most important department, because— 

1. The duties of the purveying department have practically and 
really no relation to those of the Medical Department. The first 
relates to the administrative duty of supply entirely similar to those 
of the Quartermaster’s and Commissary or other administrative 
departments of supply. The second is concerned with the profes- 
sional care of the sick and wounded. It needs only a glance to see 
how different are the objects to be accomplished by the two depart- 
ments. The organization of the Medical Department was simply 
adopted from that of the old U. 8S. Army without any relation to the 
very different circumstances and demands of this Army. In the 
old Army it was possible to get along with this organization for 
an army not greatly larger than one of our divisions; though even 
then advantage would have been derived from a department provid- 
ing all supplies relating to the soldier considered as hors de combat 
from wounds or sickness. In the Confederate Army the necessities of 
the service have vindicated themselves by an improvised arrangement | 
growing out of its exigencies, yet necessarily imperfect, and coming 
short of the duty to be done from want of sufficient power and unity 
of plan and action. The Medical Department, composed of surgeons 
and assistant surgeons, should properly be concerned only with the 
professional care of the sick and wounded in hospitals, quarters, or 
in the field, and the energies of the Medical Department should be 
directed and confined solely to the proper professional care of the 
sick. In civil life, with regard to physicians, it would not be reason- 
able or judicious to look to other business than the profession as a 
means of promoting the good of their patients; much more is this true 
of medical men in the Army. Nor does the professional education 
and habits of life. of medical men tend toward the development of 
mental characteristics desirable for conducting the administrative 
duty of collecting and furnishing supplies and developing resources, 
unless there exists the natural adaptation of the individual mind to 
this kind of business. So that as the objects of the purveying depart- 
ment differ entirely from the professional care of the sick, and as 
there is no necessity for or even advantage to be derived from placing 
surgeons (except in the few cases where they may have natural adap- 
tation and experience) in positions entirely foreign to the duties of 
their profession and habits, it is very desirable that the purveying 
department should be separated from the medical. | 

2. But there are other reasons why this separation is demanded. 
There is a want of unity of plan and action. The Surgeon-General 
does not and cannot know, if he attends properly to the administra- 
tion of the Medical Department proper, the circumstances of supply; 
yet, theoretically, the whole matter of duty of supply is supposed to 
be done under his direction. The purveyor, who is charged with what 
relates to the movement of supplies, has all the responsibility and 
but little real power to carry forward the duty systematically, as the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 423 


Surgeon-General, without the intimate acquaintance with the details 
of the administration, may at any time interfere and alter any plan, 
no matter however advisable, and the proper understanding of which 
necessarily rests with those who are immediately engaged upon the 
duty of providing supplies. 

3. The purveyor at the principal depot, who has charge with what 

relates to movement of supplies, has but limited control of the other 
purveyors, and the superior right of interference of a third person 
cannot but lead to confusion and the want of that energetic action 
proceeding from the employment of one will and mind acquainted 
with and immediately employed upon the requirements of the partic- 
ular service to be done. 
__ The great and increasing scarcity of supplies of all kinds demands 
that the utmost facilities to be derived from efficient organization be 
accorded to those whose especial duty it is to provide these supplies. 
The fullest extent of power and consideration derived from military 
position is necessary to carry forward the great object of making ade- 
quate provision for the sick and wounded of the Army, and should be 
devolved upon those upon whom is imposed the perilous responsibility 
of such duty. It is not for a matter of mere distinction that rank and 
position should be accorded. These clothe the officer with power to do 
his duty, and any one conversant with military organization well knows 
a department not protected with these defenses is not respected, but set 
aside on all occasions by those who are clothed with prestige of power 
and rank. 

A department which must disburse millions for the proper care of the 
sick and wounded fathers, sons, and brothers of the land should not 
be put in a position rendering it liable to be thus thrust aside. The 
duties of the purveying department being precisely of the same 
nature as those done by the Quartermaster’s, Commissary, or other 
administrative departments of supply, the organization, rank, power, 
and position should be the same. The procuring of medicines forms 
only a portion—by no means the largest portion—of the general sup- 
plies. The purveying department should have charge of providing, 
first, the building and fitting up of hospitals; second, hospital and 
field bedding; third, hospital clothing; fourth, ambulances for trans- 
portation of the sick; fifth, wagons for transportation of supplies; 
‘sixth, hospital tents; seventh, the establishment and control of large 
chemical works so as to render us independent of foreign sources of 
_ Supplies of chemicals, as no one can foresee how long the present war 
Inay last, as even after a peace unsettled questions may remain and 
others arise which from the animus of the two nations will probably 
result in wars; and as we have not now and cannot for many years 
hope to have a navy sufficiently powerful to keep the sea open to us, 
large chemical works and laboratories should be established on a scale 
to make us independent by developing the resources of the country; 
eighth, the purchasing of medical and surgical appliances; ninth, the 
providing all other supplies relating to the care of the sick while in 
service, considered as hors de combat from sickness, wounds, or 
disability. 

In view of the benefits to be derived to the service and to have 
charge of the above duties it is believed that there should be added 
to the general staff of the Army of the Confederate States a Purveyor- 
General’s Department, to consist of one Purveyor-General, with the 
rank of colonel, and one assistant purveyor, with the rank of lieuten- 
ant-colonel. Purveyors with the rank of major and purveyors with 
the rank of captain to be permanently attached to the regular service, 


424 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


‘and as many additional purveyors as the service may require to be 
appointed, when necessary, by the President, with the advice and 
consent of Congress; such additional purveyors to continue in service 
only so long as their services may be required in connection with the 
Provisional Army or militia. 


[Indorsemen 5. ] 


MARCH 7, 1865. 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


This project of a bill, though not exactly what I have contemplated, 
is found to contain many striking suggestions and is referred for your | 
consideration. The paper was sent to me some time since, and my 
immediate attention was directed to it by a recent order abolishing 
the purveyor’s office. I fear unfortunate consequences, and ask for 
your reconsideration of that order. 

JEFF’N DAVIS. 


ee 


GENERAL ORDERS, Abst. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 26. Richmond, March 7, 1863. 


The following order of General Robert E. Lee is adopted by the War 
Department, and is republished for the information and government 
of all concerned: | 


To avoid the danger, if not the certainty, of frequent collisions, and the conse- 
quent destruction of life and property, as well as obstruction to all transportation, 
it is absolutely necessary that the movements of railroad trains should be under 
one undivided control. 

These considerations make it imperative that all trains should be regulated in 
their movements and speed, only by their conductors and engineers, in accordance 
with the regulations and time-tables of the company. 

All the operations of a road should be controlled by its superintendent, or other 
authorized officer; and all orders for transportation of every kind, and the move- 
ment of every train, will be directed through him, when the exigencies of the 
service demand a variation from the regular schedule. 

Disregard of this rule will inevitably be attended with disastrous consequences. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 28. Richmond, March 12, 1863. 


I. No regiment, battalion, squadron, or company will be disbanded 
from the Army prior to expiration of service without express author- 
ity obtained from the War Department. 

II. Brigadier-generals will not be detached from their brigades, nor 
colonels from their regiments, except on ordinary temporary duty, 
without the special authority of the War Department. 

III. The appointment of officers of the Army being vested by the 
Constitution in the President, by and with the advice and consent of 
Senate, commanding and other officers are hereby cautioned against 
assumption of this authority. All payments madeto persons appointed 
as officers by military commanders will be charged against the dis- 
bursing officers making such payments. 

IV. The impositions attempted to be practiced on officers of the 
Quartermaster’s Department charged with paying troops call for the 
following regulation in respect to the payment of officers absent from 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 425 


their proper commands, viz: Regimental quartermasters will furnish 
to officers of their regiments about to leave their commands on detached 
duty certificates of last payment made by them to such officers, which 
certificates will be deposited with the pay officer making the next pay- 
ment, who will, on such further payment, give the officers a like cer- 
tificate. Payments to officers absent from their appropriate commands, 
except those placed on detached duty by competent authority, and 
sick and wounded officers absent by like authority, are expressly 
prohibited. 

V. General hospitals will be under the supervision and control of 
medical directors specially selected for the purpose, and announced 
as such in orders from this office. Medicai directors of armies, army 
corps, and departments will not interfere with this arrangement in 
respect to the general hospitals. 

VI. Doubts having arisen in respect to the mode of addressing com- 
munications, and in passing them through the channel provided in the 
thirty-fourth article of General Regulations, it is hereby directed that 
the party making the communication will address himself to the staff 
officer of the general or other commanding officer who may have the 
right finally to decide on the question or application presented; and 
if the subject-matter of the communication be such as to require the 
action of the War Department, it will be addressed to the Adjutant 
and Inspector General through the usual channel. <All communica- 
tions in the ascending line will be passed through the several inter- 
mediate commanders until they reach the officer having the final 
control. Forexample: Communications from the members of a com- 
pany will pass through the commander of the company; thence to 
the commander of the battalion or regiment; thence to the com- 
mander of the brigade; thence to the division commander; next to 
the commander of the army corps, and finally to the general com- 
manding in chief, for their several remarks; and if further reference 
be required, to the Adjutant and Inspector General. 

VII. All recommendations from officers of the Army for military 
appointments to be conferred will, besides giving the character and 
qualifications of the person recommended, name the State in which he 
was born, and of which he claims to be a citizen. 

VIII. Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 97, December 1, 1862, may 
be so modified as to read: ‘‘Officers and agents of the Quartermaster’s 
Department are hereby ordered not to interfere with leather purchased 
or contracted for by officers or agents of or contractors with the Ord- 
nance Department.” 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
| Richmond, March 13, 1868. 
Hon. F. 8. Lyon, 
House of Representatives : 

SiR: To reconcile the various difficulties that arose in the execu- 
tion of the two conscript acts, the repeal of the first exemption act, - 
and the enactment of the second, the Department settled— 

First. That neither of the exemptions applied to persons who were 
already in the Army, the first conscription act having. recited the 


426 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


‘* absolute necessity of keeping in the service our gallant Army and 
of placing in the field a large additional force to meet the advancing 
columns of the enemy now ‘invading our soil” as the motive for the 
passage of the law, and its provisions being consonant to this motion. 

Second. That all persons enrolled previous to the passage of the 
act of exemption in October were thus called out and placed in the 
Army, so that the provisions of the act of oD of that date did 
not apply to them. 

Third. That as to all unenrolled persons who were between the ages 
of eighteen and forty years of age at the date of the last act of exemp- 
tion, ‘that act became operative upon its passage, and the act of exemp- 
tion of April, repealed in that last act, ceased to have any effect. 

Upon these conclusions the Conseript Bureau is now administering 
the conseript ote 

* * * * * * 


Very. Fe eee your obedient servant, 
a CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., March 14, 1863. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


Having been instructed by the General Assembly to communicate 
to Your Excellency a certified copy of ‘‘ An act to amend and re-enact 
‘An act further to provide for the public defense,’ passed October 3, 
1862,” I have the honor herewith to inclose it. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, — 
JOHN LETCHER. 


[Inclosure. ] 


AN ACT toamend and re-enact ‘‘An act further to provide for the public defense,” 
passed October 3, 1862. 


Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the act passed October 
3, 1862, entitled ‘‘An act further to provide for the public defense,” 
be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows: 

1. Be wt enacted by the General Assembly, That it shall be the duty 
of the Governor of this Commonwealth, and he is hereby authorized 
and required, whenever thereto requested by the President of the 
Confederate States, to call into the service of the Confederate States 
for labor on fortifications and other works for the public defense 
within the State, from time totime, for a period not exceeding sixty 
days, a number of male slaves between the ages of eighteen and fifty- 
five years, not exceeding 10,000 at any one time, and not exceeding in 
any county, city, or town one-fifth of the number of the male slaves 
therein between the-ages specified, to be apportioned by the Governor. 
Such requisition shall be apportioned ratably among all the slave- 
holders in the several counties, cities, and towns on which the requi- 
sition shall be made, so as to charge each slave-holder with the same 
proportion of his male slaves between the ages specified, capable of 
performing ordinary labor, to be judged of by the court, which may 
be demanded from his county, city, or town: Provided, however, 
That the Governor in his discretion may exempt wholly or partially ~ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 427 


from the operation of this act such counties as may have lost so large 
a portion of their slaves in consequence of their escape to the public 
enemy as will materially affect the agricultural products of the 
counties. And the Governor may exempt such other counties as from 
their geographical position or contiguity to the public enemy he may 
deem expedient. Andin any county, city, or town partially exempted 
under this statute, any person who may satisfy its county or corpo- 
ration court, or any person appointed by the Governor for that pur- 
pose, that he or she has lost one-third part of his or her slaves liable 
to work on the public works, by said slaves going over to the enemy, 
- shall be exempted from the operation of this act. The sum of $20 
per month for each slave shall be paid by the Confederate States to 
the person entitled to his services, and soldier’s rations, medicines, 
and medical attendance furnished; and the value of all such slaves 
as may die during their term of service, or thereafter, from injuries 
received, or diseases contracted in such service, or not be returned to 
their owners, shall be paid by the Confederate States to the owners 
of such slaves, and full compensation shall be made for all injuries’ 
to slaves arising from the act of the public enemy, and in like manner 
full compensation shall be made for any injury to slaves arising from 
a want of due diligence on the part of the authorities of the Confed- 
erate States: Provided, That the Confederate States shall not be liable 
for any slave not returned by reason of fraud or collusion on the 
part of the owner or his agent; or if his death should be caused by 
the act of God, or by disease of such slave existing when received 
by the Confederate authorities; and in all cases the burden of proof 
Shall be on the authorities of the Confederate States to discharge the 
latter from liability to the former. Hired slaves shall be regarded as 
the slaves of their temporary owners in apportioning for the purposes 
of this act; but when hired slaves shall be held by persons owning 
other slaves it shall not be lawful for the temporary owner to select 
one or more of the hired slaves to be sent to the public works; but in 
every such case the slave or slaves to be sent shall be ascertained by 
lot, in which each of said slaves shall be drawn for by the court. 

2. Be wt further enacted, That so soon as the Governor shall deter- 
mine to make a requisition for slaves under this act he shall give 
notice thereof to the several counties, cities, and towns on which the 
call may be made, by causing to be filed with the clerks of the several 
county and corporation courts copies of the requisition made on their 
respective counties, cities, and towns; and thereupon it shall be the 
duty of the said clerks forthwith to issue a summons to all the acting 
justices of their respective counties and corporations, requiring them 
to meet at the court-houses of their counties and corporations on a 
day to be named in the summons, not later than six days from the 
filing of the requisition, to carry the same into effect, which summons 
Shall be directed to and executed by the sheriff of the county or 
sergeant of the corporation, as the case may be. 

3. It shall be the duty of the several county and corporation courts, 
after being duly convened as aforesaid, and not less than five justices 
being present, to ascertain by the assistance of the commissioners of 
the revenue of their respective counties and corporations, or other- 
wise, the entire number of male slaves therein between the ages 
specified, subject to requisition under this act; and after ascer- 
taining the same, to apportion the requisition aforesaid without 
delay among all the holders of such slaves, so as to charge each slave- 
holder as near as may be with the same proportion of his male slaves 


428 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, capable of performing 
ordinary labor, as may be demanded from his county, city, or town, 
throwing into classes when necessary the holders of but one or a few 
slaves, and of fractions of slaves, and ascertaining by lot, or agree- 
ment between the parties, or otherwise, the slave or slaves to be sent 
to the public works from such classes, and giving as far as practicable 
relief to those upon whom the lot or draft may have fallen under 
any preceding requisition: Provided, That in no case of a soldier in 
service, or a widow having a son therein, or whose husband has died 
in such service, owning or hiring but one male slave, shall such slave - 
be subject to requisition under this act. But no slave-holder shall be - 
exempted by reason of having slaves in the employment of the State 
or Confederate Government. 

4. So soon as the apportionment aforesaid shall be made it shall be 
the duty of the courts of the several counties and corporations to 
require each slave-holder to deliver, on a day and at a place appointed 
by the court, his quota of slaves to the sheriff or sergeant, as the 
case may be, to be delivered by such sheriff or sergeant to an agent 
or officer of the Confederate States in the city of Richmond, at the 
expense of the Confederate States. All slaves delivered by the 
holders on the day and at the place designated as aforesaid to be 
returned at the expiration of sixty days. Slaves not delivered in 
accordance with the order of the court shall be seized by the sheriff 
or sergeant, as the case may be, and delivered at the expense of the 
owner to the agent or officer of the Confederate States authorized to 
receive them, and may be held on the terms and conditions aforesaid 
for a period not exceeding ninety days, unless sufficient cause for the 
failure shal. be shown to the court of the county or corporation in 
which such failure may occur, and there entered on record; in which 
event the expense of said delivery shall be paid by the Confederate 
States, and a certified copy of such order shall be conclusive evidence 
of such sufficient cause; and, moreover, the holder of such slaves 
shall be fined not less than $3 nor more than $10 for every day each 
slave shall be withheld; and it shall be the duty of the sheriff or 
sergeant to report to the court at its next succeeding monthly term 
all persons failing or refusing to deliver their slaves as aforesaid; 
and unless good cause be shown for such failure or refusal the court 
shall impose said fines, for which an execution shall be forthwith 
issued by the clerk of the court, which fines shall be repeated from. 
time to time until the order of the court is complied with. Any 
Sheriff failing to discharge the duties imposed by this act shall be 
fined not less than $50 nor more than $200. 

5. It shall be lawful for the proper authorities of the Confederate - 
States, whenever in their opinion the public interest may require it, to 
detail for labor in the business and at the place from which they have 
been taken any slaves drafted under the provisions of the act hereby 
amended, or of this act; but in no case shall the deficiency in labor on 
the public works caused by such detail be supplied by a new draft on 
the other slave-holders of the county, city, or town in which the detail 
may be made; and any slaves which shall be exempted from impress- 
ment or draft by any law of the Confederate States shall be regarded 
as detailed under the provisions of this act. 

6. The clerk and sheriff or sergeant shall attend the sessions of the . 
court as in other cases, and the court may adjourn from time to time 
until the business shall be completed. | 

7. Should any county or corporation court fail or refuse to discharge 
the duties hereby imposed on them, wholly or in part, it shall be the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. — 429 


duty of the clerk of such court immediately to notify the Governor 
thereof; and thereupon it shall be the duty of the latter, unless good 
and sufficient reasons be stated by the court for such failure or refusal 
by officers and agents of his own selection, with the aid of the com- 
missioners of the revenue of such county or corporation, who are 
hereby required to render such aid when required, to impress from 
said county or corporation such proportion of the slaves demanded 
by him therefrom as may not have been furnished under the provis- 
ions of this act. The slaves thus impressed, together with such as 
may have been furnished by such county or corporation under this 
act, shall not exceed one-fifth of the number of male slaves therein 
between the ages specified capable of performing ordinary labor; 
shall be apportioned among the slave-holders, as herein above set 
forth, and shall be turned over to an authorized officer or agent of the 
Confederate States, to be held not longer than sixty days, for the uses 
and upon the terms and conditions set forth in the first section of this 
act. Separate receipts shall in all cases be executed to the owners by 
the sheriff or other person seizing or taking possession of slaves under 
this act; and receipts shall in like manner be taken by the sheriff or 
other person holding them when slaves may be turned over to the 
agent or officer of the Confederate States. Slaves coming into the 
possession of the sheriffs, sergeants, or agents of the Governor under 
this act shall be regarded as in the possession and service of the Con- 
federate States, and at their expense until redelivered to their owners. 
For every seizure of a slave by a sheriff or sergeant under this act he 
shall be entitled to a fee of $5, to be paid by the person failing to 
deliver such slave. 

8. In making the requisition authorized by this act the Governor is 
required to equalize the burden as near as may be among the several 
counties, cities, and towns of the Commonwealth, and among the 
citizens thereof, having, when practicable, due regard to the number 
of slaves theretofore furnished by any counties or corporations or the 
citizens thereof, under the provisions of the act of October 3, 1862, 
and of this act, and under any call heretofore made by the President 
or Secretary of War, or any officer of the Confederate Army; and for 
this purpose it shall be the duty of the county and corporation courts 
as soon as may be to forward the Governor the number and time of 
service of any slaves heretofore furnished under any ¢all as aforesaid, 
so that the equalization intended by this section may be made to apply 
to any future call for labor by the Confederate Government. 

9. Under any requisition made upon any county, city, or town, it 
shall be lawful for any number of persons who may be required to 
furnish not less than thirty nor more than forty slaves to place such 
slaves in charge of an agent or overseer selected by such owners, who 

shall deliver them to the Confederate authorities at the place where 
the labor is to be performed at the expense of the Confederate States; 
and such agent or overseer, if a fit and proper person, shall be 
employed by the Confederate Government as the agent or overseer in 
charge of the slaves during their service of sixty days; and such 
overseer or agent shall not be discharged by any officer of the Con- 
federate Government, except for good cause, to be approved by the 
Secretary of War: Provided, That if the requisition on any county, 
city, or town shall amount to only twenty slaves and less than thirty, 
in such case an overseer or manager may be selected as aforesaid. 

10. The owners of slaves may furnish them subsistence and pro- 
visions, and in such event shall be allowed commutation in money in 
lieu of rations equal to the commutation allowed soldiers in the service. 


430 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


11. All slaves sent voluntarily by their owners to the Confederate 
authorities and accepted by them shall stand on the same footing as 
if sent under the proceedings required by this act. 

12. This act shall be forthwith communicated by the Governor to 
the President of the Confederate States. Any request for slaves 
hereafter made by the President on the Governor shall be regarded as 
assent to and acceptance of all the provisions of this act by the Con- 
federate States. 

13. This act shall be in force from its passage. 

Passed March 13, 1863. 

A copy from the rolls. Teste. 

WILLIAM F. GORDON, JR., 
Clerk House of Delegates and Keeper of Records. 


[MARCH 16,17, 18, and 20, 1863.—For correspondence between Davis 
and Brown, in relation to the seizure of the Georgia State Railroad by 
Bragg, see Series I, Vol. LII, Part II, pp. 434-437. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 30. Richmond, March 18, 1863. 

I. Any employé of a Government establishment who shall leave 
such employment shall not be received at any other Government 
establishment or by any contractor under the Government unless he 
exhibits a proper discharge from the employment which he leaves. 

II. Any contractor under the Government who shall employ any 
workman leaving without proper discharge a Government establish- 
ment or the employment of another contractor under the Government 
shall be notified at once that the detailed men and conscripts in his 
employment be returned to their proper officers upon report of the 
facts to the Chief of Ordnance. 

Ill. The orders heretofore given are repeated, that conscripts or 
detailed men leaving their employment without written permission 
shall be reported to the nearest enrolling officer, to be tried and pun- 
ished as deserters. 

By order: S. COOPER, 

Adjutant and Inspector General. 


| RICHMOND, VA., March 18, 1863. 
His Excellency JOHN LETCHER, 
Governor of Virguua: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
the 14th instant inclosing a certified copy of an act of the Legislature 
of Virginia, entitled ‘‘An act to amend and re-enact ‘An act further 
to provide for the public defense,’ passed October 3, 1862.” 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


' CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., March 19, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 
Sir: About the time of the establishment of this Bureau the regu- 
lar working of the system of conscription appeared somewhat lable 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES, A31 


to disturbance from possible misapprehension on the part of individ- 
ual officers growing out of the extraordinary though, in my opinion, 
well-conceived measures instituted in the circular from the Adjutant 
and Inspector General’s Office, January 8, 1863, to expedite the recruit- 
ing of the armies in the field. Accordingly, at my suggestion, Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 16, current series, from the Adjutant and Inspector- 
General’s Office, February 7, 1863, were issued, clearly defining the 
boundaries between the duties of officers regularly on conscription and 
those detached from the Army for recruiting. 

Here it was hoped all difficulty would cease. The officers of con- 
seription were informed of their own duties, and, as occasion required, 
were instructed to facilitate the special business of recruiting by 
others, within the limits marked. 

Unfortunately about the 13th day of February, ultimo, it began to 
appear that Brigadier-General Pillow, claiming, under the orders of 
General Bragg, to be chief of a ‘‘ Volunteer and Conscript Bureau of 
Army of Tennessee,” and officers under him were exercising, on a 
large scale, a general authority to make conscripts, decide questions 
of exemption, and overrule the officers regularly on conscription duty 
-in four or more States. The character of this interference will appear 
from papers inclosed. It was promptly met by the War Department 
in telegraphic instructions bearing date the 13th day of February, 
ultimo, to Generals Bragg and Pillow, not only stating the general 
doctrine that the War Department exercises through this Bureau 
exclusive control of the whole subject of conscription, but affirming 
that ‘“‘if any officer otherwise appointed is styling himself an officer 
of conscription, or acting as such, the confusion thus created should 
be immediately ended.” This telegram was replied to, I am informed 
from the War Department, within a few days by the two generals, 
and a further telegram was sent from the Department February 18 
to General Bragg, through General Johnston, in effect reiterating and 
enforcing the doctrine of that first cited. 

Brigadier-General Pillow’s printed circular, herewith inclosed, of 
February 16, of ‘‘Instructions for the government of officers of this 
(his) bureau,” states that ‘‘officers of this bureau will not interfere 
with camps of instructions established by State or Confederate 
authority, nor attempt the exercise of authority over officers on duty 
under either, nor with recruits or volunteers already sworn in and 
enrolled by them.” 

Before that date, however, his officers were abroad, and, so far as I 
can learn, with very different ideas as to the extent of their powers. 
But the same circular contains the following instruction: 

Exemptions which have been allowed by enrolling officers and others are liable 
to re-examination, and if found to have been granted in violation of the law will 
be set aside and the parties placed in the army. 

This latter instruction is not only in violation of General Orders, No. 
82, of 1862, No. 16, of February 7, 1863, and others, but of the law 
which makes the decision of the medical examining boards (created 
for the purpose by law) final on all questions of physical capacity for 
military service. It substitutes as interpreters of the law in other 
matters officers fresh from the Army and unversed in the business for 
those who have acquired experience and undergone training and sys- 
tematic instruction in correspondence with higher authority. 

My object in this communication is simply to ask the enforcement 
by the War Department of its orders, that recruiting officers of what- 
ever rank detached from armies in the field shall not only keep within 


1s Ya CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


their prescribed limits, but shall end confusion by divesting them- 
selves of the titles on which they have assumed a nominal connection 
with the subject of conscription proper. The use of the heading 
‘“Conscript Bureau” in the orders of General Pillow and those acting 
under him throws the regular enrolling officers into difficulties which 
they would not have to encounter if fully aware that the authority 
thus claimed is wholly assumed. The high rank of the officer claim- 
ing such jurisdiction nullifies to a great extent the value of instruc- 
tions sent them to the contrary from this Bureau. 

Some of the first reports, brief and general, from commandants of 
conscripts have been already laid before the War Department. I 
’ respectfully refer you to others herewith inclosed. 

March 13, one month after the War Department had sent its special 
instructions by telegram to General Pillow, the commandant of con- 
scripts for Alabama sends a message, evidently rendered with some ~ 
inaccuracy by the telegraph, which I quote as a sample,* other reports 
of the same character having reached me from other sources, orally 
and in writing. 

It has not escaped me that these extreme measures may receive a 
sort of justification from their apparent immediate good effects in’ 
recruiting the Army more rapidly; but I see no reason to judge, from 
the various reports I receive, that all the substantial good attained 
might not have been reached with calmness, system, and an apparent 
as well as real respect for law, without unsettling whole communities 
and engendering a spirit of hatred and resistance to the very nameof 
conscription. But for these irregularities we might have hoped to 
bring our people torealize that after all conscription has nothing in it 
dishonoring, but is the most equal and justly discriminating mode in 
which a country can summon to the field its proper defenders. 

Under a system of indiscriminating force how many may be use- 
lessly converted into inmates of hospitals; how many may suffer for | 
want of the protection of duly administered law; what essential indus- 
tries may be dislocated; what inconvenience the army supplies may 
suffer by subordinate and individual overruling of deliberately made 
details, and how much more the military force may hereafter have to 
be drawn on to hunt up evaders of conscription and deserters from 
service, are all questions which conjecture can only approximate to 
solving. The tendencies appear to me unmistakable, and as to the 
discharge of duty by this Bureau, I am satisfied that my officers 
throughout the country will lose all heart, authority, and energy if 
they cannot sustain themselves in their position as responsible and 
accredited agents in the eyes of the community. 

The return of the accompanying papers is respectfully requested, 
as some of them contain matter other than that herein alluded to, and 
all of them are important to the records of this Bureau. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


BROOKHAVEN, February —, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. RAINS: 


General Pillow has sent officers into this State to recruit, under cir- 
cular of 8th of January from Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office. 


*See inclosure No. 10, p. 440. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 433 


They do not report to me for’ instructions, nor do they regard dis- 

charges on surgeons’ certificates from the camp, saying they are not 

good. 

i M. R. CLARK, 
Major, &c. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
; : Richmond, Va., February 13, 1863. 
General BRAGG, 
Tullahoma, Tenn.: 


Lieutenant-Colonel Blake, commandant of conscripts for Tennes- 
see, telegraphs that he has received special orders, militating against 
his regular instructions, from General Pillow, calling himself chief of 
a conscript bureau. The War Department exercises through the 
Bureau created for the purpose exclusive control of the whole subject 
of conscription. Its officers are not liable to orders, and no inter- 
ference can be exerted from any other source without its special sane- 
tion in the particular case. If any officer otherwise appointed is 
styling himself an officer of conscription, or acting as such, the con- 
fusion thus created should be immediately ended. The only author- 
ity that is or can be delegated for recruiting is to regimental officers 
for accepting volunteers or gathering conscripts not Le in custody of 
regular enrolling officers. 

By order of the Secretary of War: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


(Same sent to General Pillow (care of General Joseph E. Johnston), 
Tullahoma, Tenn.; General Colston, commanding, Petersburg; Col- 
onels Shields, Blake, Preston, August, and Majors Swanson and 
Clark. ) 


[Inclosure No. 3.] 


Instructions for the government of officers of this bureau. 


ARMY OF TENNESSEE, 
No. 96. Huntsville, February 16, 1868. 


This bureau is organized to enforce the law. Its officers and agents 
have no power to suspend or to enlarge its provisions. Their duty is 
to enforce it, and this must be done. 

Between the ages of thirty-five and forty there are many exemptions. 
These must be allowed where the parties in good faith are entitled to 
the exemptions. There are, however, many cases of fraudulent efforts 
to get the benefit of the law by parties trying to put themselves within 
its provisions who are not entitled to them. In all such cases the 
parties so acting must be put into the service. 

Mechanics and manufacturers must have been such and carrying on 
their trade or occupation when the law was passed, viz, on the 11th of 
October, 1862, and must keep on hand a supply of material necessary 
to keep up their shops and business and must not exceed in their 
charges 75 per cent. profit on the cost of manufacture. If they do 
they forfeit their exemptions, and all such must be put into the Army. 

Such is the case with every trade and occupation exempted by law 
for the good of the service or the country. 


28 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


GENERAL ORDERS, HDQRS. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 


434 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


If the owners of cotton mills, tanneries, shoemakers, blacksmiths, 
and other manufacturers refuse to receive Confederate money for their 
products, you will report the parties’ names to these headquarters, 
and unless there are urgent public reasons for a contrary course they 
themselves (if within conscript age) and their operatives will no 
longer be exempted. 

Exemptions which have been allowed by enrolling officers and others 
are liable to re-examination, and if found to have been granted in 
violation of the law will be set aside and the parties placed in the 
Army. 

All officers acting under the authority of this bureau when they 
receive a conscript or volunteer will swear them into the service, cause 
to be made out a descriptive roll, and where they have any doubt as 
to the parties reporting to the command they may elect to join will 
send them to the Army under a proper escort. 

The wants of the infantry arm of the service require that all of the 
earliest conscripts obtained who are fit for it shall join the infantry. 
No cavalry officer engaged in enforcing the law under orders of this 
bureau will be allowed to accept conscripts for his command without- 
permission from the chief of this bureau until the infantry arm shall | 
be made strong enough to allow of a relaxation of this order. 

Notice is hereby given the cavalry arm that all cavalrymen who are 
not mounted on efficient horses, as the law requires, will be required 
to be mounted on good horses in thirty days; otherwise they will be 
placed in the infantry; and that all stragglers and absentees from 
their commands after that date without proper authority will be con- 
scripted and placed in that arm of the service. Citizens of one State 
found within the limits of another State and officers dropped in the 
reorganization of the Army and those who have resigned are liable, 
and where they fail to join as volunteers must be conscripted and 
placed in the service. - 

Officers of this bureau will not interfere with camps of instruction 
established by State or Confederate authority, nor attempt the exer- 
cise of authority over officers on duty under either, nor with recruits 
or volunteers already sworn in and enrolled by them. 

We must all work in the same field of labor, relying upon superior 
energy and industry for success in strengthening the Army of Ten- 
nessee. 

By order of Brigadier-General Pillow, C. 8. Army, and chief of Vol- 
unteer and Conscription Bureau, Army of Tennessee: 

H. C. LOCKHART, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


Notr.—As a means of information to the army and the country the ~ 
press is respectfully requested to give the above as wide a circulation 
as possible. 

H. C. LOCKHART, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


{Inclosure No. 4.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., February 18, 1863. 
General BRAXTON BRAGG, 
Tullahoma, Tenn.: 
(Through General Joseph E. Johnston.) 
In consolidating, by General Orders, No. 112, of 1862, under one 
administration the matter of conscription, existing assignments of 


e 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. : 435 


officers from various sources to such duty were adopted. Thence- 
forward, however, all such officers became subordinate agents of the 
Bureau of Conscription, not elsewhere responsible, and any subse- 
quent appointments clashing with these are viewed asin their nature 
incompatible with the system. As has been heretofore indicated, the 
Department approves of recruiting | and | theapprehension of stragglers 
and unenrolled material by officers sent from the field, and the com- 
mandants of conscripts shall co-operate with all such efforts, but the 
general control as defined by orders must remain with them. 

The orders to send all conscripts from the camps in Alabama and 
Mississippi to the Army of Tennessee are still in force. 

By order of the Secretary of War: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 

Assistant Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure No. 5.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 

| Talladega, Ala., February 19, 1868. 

Lieut. Col. G. W. LAY, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 


COLONEL: Herewith I have the honor to inclose copies of two very 
remarkable orders recently received from General Bragg, and of my 
letter to Lieutenant Marchbanks, who was sent to put the latter of 
them in execution. 

I am very much embarrassed by not knowing exactly what share of 
_ the direct enrollment and conscription of Northern Alabama has been 

assigned to General Bragg. I am informed by enrolling officers in 
various quarters that large detachments of cavalry from the Army of 
Tennessee are scouring the country and taking the work out of their 
hands. I feel quite confident of being able to perform this duty with 
at least equal efficiency and at less expense to the Government, if 
definite limits were assigned me and a definite responsibility attached 
to the duty, but am now embarrassed by ignorance of the extent and 
limitations of concurrent authority and duty claimed by different 
officers. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. T. WALTHALL, 
Major, Commanding. 


{[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


SPECIAL ORDERS, } HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, 
No. 32. Tullahoma, Tenn., February 7, 1868. 

IV. Lieut. Col. John Weedon and Capt. J. D. Nott, Twenty-second 
Alabama Regiment, are hereby ordered to proceed to Talladega, Ala., 
for the purpose of bringing to this place conscripts that may be in 
camp there. One company of about fifty effective men will be allowed 
to remain in Talladega. 

The arms, equipments, &c., of the men will be brought with them. 
These officers will return as soon as practicable and report in person 
to these headquarters. 

By command of General Bragg: 

GEO. W. BRENT, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


436 ; CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


SPECIAL oan HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE, 
No. 37. Tullahoma, Tenn., February 12, 1868. 
* * * * 


*k * * 


V. Lieut. Col. W. K. Beard, assistant inspector-general, will send 
an inspection officer without delay to Talladega, with an order to bring 
at once to this place all troops, conscript companies, &¢c., at that 
place, except the two companies of partisan rangers, which may 
remain as a guard to that place and Coosa River. 

All deserters of this army will be brought, and the officer in com- 
mand, Major Walthall, will be directed to send all men in future 
when he has forty over the two guard companies. 

Any arms, &c., in the hands of these men will be brought. 

*k * *k *k * * * 

By command of General Bragg: 

KINLOCH FALCONER, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Indorsement.] 


INSPECTOR-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Tullahoma, February 13, 1863. 


Lieutenant Marchbanks, assistant inspector-general, will proceed to 
Talladega, Ala., and execute the within order. 
By command of General Bragg: 
W. K. BEARD, 
Inspector- General. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 3.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Talladega, Ala., February 17, 1863. 
Lieutenant MARCHBANKS, 
Assistant Inspector-General, Talladega, Ala.: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of paragraph V, 
Special Orders, No. 37, from headquarters Army of Tennessee, handed 
me by you yesterday. 

This is an order virtually abolishing this camp of instruction, if 
carried out. The camp was established in pursuance of direct orders 
from the War Department. Officers have been provided for it by the 
same authority. It has been in operation for more than five months, 
and in spite of innumerable difficulties has been the means of drilling, 
disciplining, and sending into the field about 1,200 men, suppressing 
a number of attempts at organized rebellion in the adjacent country, 
and returning to their proper corps a very great number of deserters 
from the various armies in the field. 

By reference to General Orders, No. 82, of 1862, from the office of 
the Adjutant and Inspector General, dated November 3, 1862, para- 
graph II, clause 4, modified by various subsequent orders from the 
same source, it will be observed that I am forbidden to recognize any 
order from ‘‘generals commanding departments or armies in the 
field.” The only sources from which I ean properly receive orders 
are the War Department, the Bureau of Conscription, and my senior 
in the same duty, Major Swanson, commandant of conscripts for this 
State. Unless the order presented by you should be approved by the 
one or the other of these authorities, it is impossible for me to obey it 
except. under the compulsion of force. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ASG 


IT am under direct orders from the Bureau of Conscription to turn 
over to the Army of Tennessee all available men as fast as they can 
be prepared for the field. A detachment of nearly 200 has recently 
been forwarded in pursuance of this order. The camp had been well 
drained just previous to the reception of that order, and the con- 
scripts are now coming in very slowly on account of the operations of 
recruiting officers recently sent out in pursuance of the circular of the 
Sth ultimo from the War Department. I am, therefore, able to fur- 
nish you at present with only thirty-three men, and even these are 
not properly ‘‘prepared for the field.” Deducting these, my morn- 
ing report shows 149 men present for duty, including the permanent 
guard retained by express authority of the Secretary of War; some 
half-clad men recently brought in, for whom I am endeavoring to pro- 
eure clothing, &ce. 

I have no arms or equipments except a few furnished by the Chief 
of Ordnance, with the approval of the War Department, for special 
use at this camp, and so far from being able to spare these, I have 
only received about one-third of the number ordered to be sent me. 

The two companies of partisan rangers alluded to in your orders 
are a portion of General Buckner’s command sent here temporarily 
on special duty in suppressing rebellion, enforcing the conscription 
laws, &c. I presume the error may have arisen from the camp of 
instruction being confounded with the adjacent military post of 'Tal- 
ladega, which is properly under the control of the department com- 
mander, though the camp is not. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. T. WALTHALL, 
° Major, Commanding. 


[Inclosure No. 6.] 


BROOKHAVEN, February 20, 1863. 
General G. J. RAINS: 

Lieut. James A. Lee, of the Seventh Mississippi Regiment, now on 
recruiting duty in this State, informs me that his orders from General 
Pillow are that he will have nothing to do with camp of instruction, 
and will enroll all men between the ages of eighteen and forty who 
are not legally exempt, whether discharged from the army or con- 
seript camps, if within his judgment they will make good soldiers. 
There are a great many officers from that army who are acting under 
same instructions from the complaints made against them. 

M. R. CLARK, 
Major, &e. 


[Inclosure No. 7.] 


CHAPPELL’S DEPOT, 8. C., March 6, 1868. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF W AR: 

Str: I have been detailed to ‘‘ proceed to that section of the State 
in which my regiment was raised for the purpose of recruiting volun- 
teers, enrolling conscripts, and conducting to my command,” and 
instructed to ‘‘be governed by the acts of conscription and exemp- 
tion and regulations in connection therewith, published in General 
Orders, No. 82, of 1862, dated Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
Richmond, January 8, 1863.” . 

In addition to the written (or printed) instructions from Brigadier- 
General Pillow, chief of Conscript Bureau, I also received some 


A438 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


verbal instructions which, according to my understanding of them, 
differ very materially from the course I find pursued by the enrolling 
officer of this district, especially as regards exemptions. Please to 
furnish me as early as ‘convenient a copy of said Order No. 82 of 1862; 
dated January 8, 1863, and also specify instructions with regard to 
exemptions to owners or overseers of slaves. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. 8. PETERSON, 
Captain Company D, Nineteenth Regiment S. C. Vols. 


My post-office is Chappell’s Depot, Greenville and Columbia Rail- 
road, South Carolina. 


[Indorsement.] 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, March 19, 1863. 


Respectfully returned to the War Department. The remarks called 
for by this paper are embodied in the general views of a communica- 
tion of this date from the superintendent to the Secretary of War. 

By order of the superintendent: 

G. W. LAY, 
Lieutenant-Oolonel, Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Inclosure No. 8.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Talladega, Ala., March 8, 1863. 
Lieut. Col. A. C. JONES, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 


CoLONEL: Herewith I inclose copies of a letter (marked* No. 6) 
sent yesterday to Major Swanson with accompanying papers No. 1 to 
No. 8, inclusive.* The urgency of the case will be my apology for 
deviating thus far—if indeed it be a deviation—from the prescribed 
channel of correspondence in case any accident should have occurred 
to retard the transmission of my dispatches sent to Major Swanson. 

Permit me also to add that I cannot doubt that there is some mis- 
understanding at the bottom of General Pillow’s order, for several 
reasons: 

First. In the first place Captain Lewis was sent to my assistance, 
not from the Army of Tennessee, but from the District of the Gulf, 
first by order of. General Forney, afterward recalled and again sent 
back by General Buckner. 

Second. Whatever offense may have been committed by Captain 
Lewis, I cannot suppose that it is intended by the War Department 
to visit it upon the officers and men of his command, by having them 
dismounted, disbanded, and conscribed as infantry, as directed by 
General Pillow. 

The above considerations, however, would of course not occasion 
me to hesitate a moment in obeying an order properly authenticated, 
as coming from the Secretary of War—but 

Third. I have received no order upon the subject. Two different 
orders have been exhibited to me, one sent by General Pillow, of the 
Army of Tennessee, to Major Chambliss, commanding a post in the 
District of the Gulf, and by him forwarded to me, who belongs to 
neither of those commands; the other sent by General Pillow to 
Lieutenant-Colonel Echols, an officer of the Army of Tennessee, on 


*Inclosures not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 439 


detached service, and by him intrusted to Captain Sawyer, another 
officer on detached service. Both of these orders direct the officers 
receiving them to arrest an officer and disband and conscribe a corps 
serving under my command, without any reference to me. 

Fourth. Finally, although the order given by General Pillow pur- 
ports to be given by direction of the Secretary of War, there is noth- 
ing whatever to authenticate it or to authorize me to regard it as 
official, as may be perceived by reference to the papers herewith sub- 
mitted. 

For these reasons I have not felt authorized either to execute the 
orders myself or to permit Captain Sawyer to attempt to do so 
(thereby risking an almost inevitable mutiny and demoralization of 
the whole of Captain Lewis’ command) without applying for further 
instructions upon the subject. In declining to do so I have been 
seriously desirous to avoid even the semblance of disrespect to Gen- 
eral Pillow or any other officer concerned, and hope that my course 
will meet with the approval of the Bureau and the War Department. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
: W. T. WALTHALL, 
Major, Commanding. 


[Inclosure No. 9.] 


KNOXVILLE, TENN., March 9, 1563. 
Lieut. Col. GEORGE W. LAY, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 

COLONEL: I have permitted Lieutenant Butler to visit Richmond, 
at his own expense, in order that he may furnish the Department 
with any information that may be required relating to the condition 
of this department. General Pillow still retains his position as chief 
of Conscript and Volunteer Bureau, and refuses to allow Lieutenant 
Butler to resume the system required in Orders No. 82. He has also 
extended his operations to this portion of the State and sent officers 
into towns to procure volunteers, without regard to their enrollment. 
As the men thus received are accepted as volunteers, I fear the result 
will be inextricable confusion. I beg leave to acknowledge the 
receipt of your communication requiring me to report the number 
enrolled in East Tennessee, but as this is contained in my last return 
I presume you referred to Middle Tennessee, and I shall therefore 
make every effort to obtain the required information, although I 
could find no record of the operation of the law there since the 15th 
of December, 1862, but what was contained in my last report. | 

I have inclosed the return of conscripts received in East Tennes- 
see during the last month.* The number transferred to regiments will 
exceed the number then reported. As soon as all the reports be 
received from recruiting officers I would respectfully recommend that 
the men collected by these officers be assembled at the camps of 
instruction, and be sent from them, under guard, to regiments at 
Mobile or Vicksburg. Under the present system the conscripts are 
easily induced to enter their names with the recruiting officers for 
regiments stationed near their homes, for no other reason than that 
[they] may have a better opportunity of deserting. All the con- 
scripts from East Tennessee should be sent out of this section of the 
country. They are generally an ignorant class, who are easily 
affected by surrounding influences. Stationed at Mobile or Vicks- 


* Not found. 


440 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


burg, they may render the country good service, but here they never 
will. Since the operation of the conscript law in East Tennessee the 
regiments stationed there are more nearly full than those of any other 
section of the country, notwithstanding the number of desertions, 
while those at Vicksburg are very much reduced. 

I would again-call your attention to the importance of requiring all 
discharges on account of having furnished a substitute to give the 
age of the substitute. In the event of another call, to the age of 
forty-five years, it would be found that many who have already 
furnished substitutes would themselves be liable. 

The number of details furnished for the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment will be sent you in a few days. Descriptive rolls of all persons 
detailed have been kept in this office, and such men can at any time 
be put into the ranks should it be required. A reduction of the num- 
ber could, in my opinion, be made with advantage to the service, but 
it should be judiciously reduced after a careful inspection of the 
various departments where detailed men are employed. The recruit- 
ing of companies for the enforcement of the Jaw, from non-conscripts, 
I regret to say, progresses but slowly. Could such persons be assured 
that they would be allowed some time to attend their farms I have 
no doubt that I could soon procure a force that would render good 
service. I propose, therefore, that one-third be allowed to farm while 
the two-thirds shall be engaged in enforcing the conscript law, which 
will probably offer the double advantage of producing provisions and 
men for our Army. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
K. D. BLAKE, 
Ineut. Col., C. S. Army, Commandant of Conseripts. 


[ Inclosure No. 10.] 


Notrasu.La@a, March 13, 1868. 
General G. J. RAINS: 

Lieut. Col. J. W. Echols, of the Thirty-fourth Alabama Regiment, has 
established his headquarters in Montgomery, Ala., and styles himself 
chief of Volunteer and Conscript Bureau, with orders from General 
G. J. Pillow which are in direct violation of General Orders, No. 82, 
of 1862, and the circular of the 8th of January, 1863. This officer 
with his constant disregard all details, exemptions, and discharges, 
though the discharge may be from the district examining board, and 
for permanent disability, they are producing much confusion and 


dissatisfaction. .[Sve. ] 
| W. G. SWANSON. 
{Inclosure No. 11.] 


KNOXVILLE, TENN., March 13, 1863. 


Lieut. Col. GEORGE W. LAY, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 
COLONEL: I have the honor herewith to inclose an order of Colonel 
Coltart published in the Knoxville papers, and to ask whether the 
order has been published by direction of the Superintendent of the 
Bureau of Conscription. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
K. D. BLAKE, 
Lieut. Col., C. S. Army, Commandant of Conscripts. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 441 


[ Sub-inclosure.] 


CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 
No. 1. Greeneville, Tenn., March 9, 1868. 

I. Col. J. G. Coltart being assigned to duty in this department 
hereby assumes command. 

If. For the information of all officers concerned, Special Orders, ~ 
No. 145, dated headquarters Volunteer and Conscript Bureau, Army 
of Tennessee, Huntsville, Ala., March 4, 1863, is published below, and 
it will be immediately complied with. 

By order of J. G. Coltart, colonel, commanding Sub-Department 
Volunteer and Conscript Bureau: 


GENERAL ORDERS, HpD@QrRs. SUB-DEPT. VOLUNTEER AND 


J. T. BRUCKNER, 
Adjutant. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, HpDqQrRs. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
No. 145. Hunisville, Ala., March 4, 1868. 


I. All the officers of this bureau on duty in East Tennessee and 
Western North Carolina will report by letter to Col. John G. Coltart, 
commanding sub-department, of which Greeneville is the rendezvous. 

They will be governed by his instructions, and he will give them 
active and energetic support in the discharge of their duties. 

By order of Brigadier-General Pillow, C. S. Army, and chief of 
bureau: 

H. C. LOCKHART, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 31. Rachmond, March 19, 1868. 


In consequence of numerous applications made by various persons 
to the War Department, it is obvious that some misconception in 
regard to the instructions of the Secretary of War in relation to the 
impressment of supplies must exist on the part of the people, or that 
the agents of the Government have violated their instructions. Now, 
therefore, for the purpose of removing such misconception, and to 
prevent any violation of those instructions, it is hereby ordered: 

I. That no officer of the Government shall, under any circumstances 
whatever, impress the supplies which a party has for his own consump- 
tion, or that of his family, employés, or slaves. 

II. That no officer shall at any time, unless specially ordered so to 
do by a general commanding in a case of exigency, impress supplies 
which are on their way to market for sale on arrival. 

III. These orders were included in the instructions originally issued 
in relation to impressment by the Secretary of War, and the offi- 
cers exercising such authority are again notified that ‘‘any one acting 
without or beyond” the authority given in those instructions will be 
held strictly responsible. 

IV. When non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates entitled 
to furloughs under the act of December 11, 1861, or that of April 16, 
1862, have died, or may hereafter die, before the receipt thereof, their 
personal representatives shall be allowed the commutation value of 


442 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


transportation from the point where such parties die to their homes 
and back. r 

V. When non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates entitled 
under either of the preceding acts to a furlough, shall have been, or 
may hereafter be, promoted to the rank of commissioned officers prior 
to the receipt thereof, they shall be allowed the same commutation as 
is provided in the previous paragraph, or when they go on leave the 
transportation in kind, at their option. 

VI. Claims arising under paragraph I will be settled by the Second 
Auditor; those under paragraph II by officers of the Quartermaster’s 
Department. In the latter class the facts must be attested by the 
certificate of the commanding officer of the regiment to which the 
claimant belonged at the date of his promotion. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
CIRCULAR. | SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


Richmond, Va., March 19, 1863. 


Medical purveyors will make endeavors, through cards published in 
newspapers, to induce the ladies throughout the South to interest 
themselves in the culture of the garden poppy. They may thus 
render the Confederacy essential service. Purveyors will furnish the 
ladies with the seeds of the poppy if on hand or procurable, and will 
instruct them that the juice exuding from the punctured capsules, 
when sufficiently hardened, should be carefully put up and forwarded 
to the nearest purveying depot. 

SAMUEL PRESTON MOORE, 
Surgeon-General, C. S. Army. 


Hp@rRs. VoL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 
Huntsville, Ala., March 19, 1863. 
Captain FALCONER, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


Str: I acknowledge the reception of the copy of the communication 
of the Secretary of War of the 2d instant to General Bragg* relating to 
the organization of this bureau and the conscript law, together with 
instructions of General Bragg directing ‘‘a prompt and rigid complh- 
ance with the instructions of this letter” of Secretary of War. This 
I will of course as promptly as possible do. These instructions will 
materially change the operations of this bureau by curtailing the 
extent of the organization as well as the population out of which I am 
allowed to draw support for General Bragg’s army. ‘The instructions 
as I understand them ‘‘cut up by the root” all power to enforce the 
conscript law through the agencies of this bureau. They only allow 
the recruiting service in Mississippi and that part of Alabama north 
of the Alabama and Tallapoosa Rivers. In Mississippi General 
Pemberton’s army absorbs nearly all from the conscript camps. In 


* See Seddon to Johnston, p. 415. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 443 


North Mississippi Governor Pettus’ cavalry (thirteen companies) is 
absorbing those liable to conscript duty. West Tennessee and a 
large portion of Middle Tennessee (from which the larger portion of 
your army comes) are closed against the recovery of even your 
stragglers. So of parts of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas by the 
occupation of the enemy. 

Acting under the instruction of the general in the original order 
organizing the bureau (based on the order of 8th of January from the 
War Department), I considered myself not only authorized but 
directed to embrace in the work of the bureau the enforcement of the 
eynscript law. But from this letter of the Secretary it would seem 
that the Government’s order of 8th of January was not understood by 
the general commanding the army or myself. My orders and instruc- 
tions to the officers of this bureau and the field organization of the 
bureau were all submitted to the general, and have been approved 
by him. I certainly supposed I was acting in strict compliance with 
my instructions and with the order of the War Department of Janu- 
ary 8. In all cases I have given special instructions to my officers 
not to come into conflict with nor to interfere in any way with the 
officers, orders, or organization of the Bureau organized by order at 
Richmond. And as far as I know this has not been done except in 
my special order by telegram to Lieutenant-Colonel Blake, at Knox- 
ville, directing him to send forward the conscripts at that camp (which 
order was given by General Bragg’s directions at a time when both 
he and myself thought Lieutenant-Colonel Blake was under his 
orders), and the order to Major Matthews placing him at Fayette- 
ville, Ala., under his own application, he having reported to me, and 
I supposing he was at the time acting under General Bragg’s orders. 
I have explained both of these cases to the War Department. A copy 
of my letter was read to the general. 

In my instructions to the officers at work in the field I have said that 
certificates of exemption were subject to re-examination, and if they 
were found to have been granted in violation of the law they would 
be set aside. This has, I have no doubt, been done in many cases. 
From my knowledge of the loose and careless manner in which these — 
exemptions were granted by State and Confederate officers, this 
became a necessity; else a very large number of able-bodied men 
would escape service altogether. In many cases these exemption 
papers were obtained by false representations of the parties exempted. 
In others by the natural sympathy of examining surgeons for 
friends of theirs, reluctant to go into the Army; while still 
another class were obtained by favoritism of enrolling officers. 
And in one ease I have reason to believe from information which I 
received, though personally I know nothing of the facts, an enrolling 
officer or commandant of conscripts granted exemption papers for 
a consideration. In other cases a system of furlough after enroll- 
ment left the enrolled at home and at liberty to go or not into the 
Army, at the election of the party. In some counties in Central Ala- 
bama the country was full of enrolled and furloughed men, while the 
conscript camps were empty or nearly so. In one case I found 
a citizen enrolling officer, appointed by a captain, enrolling offi- 
cer in the field, a drunken, worthless man. If my instructions to 
officers of this bureau, that these certificates of exemption were not 
conclusive, but were subject to re-examination, were wrong, then I 
see no end to the abuses and frauds upon the law, and I know not 
where the men are to come from to fill up our reduced armies, for the 


444 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


great mass of men capable of duty in the Army yet remain at home, 
' have exemption papers or are enrolled and going at large with fur- 
loughs from thirty to ninety days’ duration. In some cases my offi- 
cers report that furloughs have been granted till the crop was made, 
and in some others until the end of the war. 

It was in view of these abuses and frauds upon the law that I 
deemed it necessary to give instructions that certificates of exemp- 
tion were subject to re-examination. I have given no order at any 
time in conflict with the orders or instructions of the War Depart- 
ment, or in conflict with the orders and instructions of the officers 
acting under it, except in the cases above specified. In regard to the 
cases of furloughs granted after enrollment by enrolling officers and 
commandants of conscripts, General Bragg directed me not to pay 
any attention to furloughs of enrolled men found out of camps of 
instruction for a longer period than thirty days. Under the instruc- 
tions of the Department, as I now understand them, I am confined to 
the recruiting service. Of course this excludes the enforcement of 
the conscript law and all compulsory service, and I am limited in 
the field to part of Alabama, and with Mississippi overrun by the 
enemy in the northern range of counties, with State organization cay- 
alry service in all that part of North Mississippi, and with a large 
army occupying that State (a service which the people prefer as being 
nearer their homes)—under all these circumstances I feel that I can 
no longer be of service in my present position. I therefore most 
respectfully request that the general will relieve me from further duty 
in this bureau. There is no sacrifice I would not willingly make to 
advance the interest of the service and promote the strength of Gen- 
eral Brage’s army, but it is manifest that the order of the general for 
the organization of this bureau (as he understood the view of the 
Government from order of January 8) is not approved by the Govern- 
ment. I have in nothing transcended the powers conferred or violated 
the principles laid down by him for my government. I have in no 
instance interfered with the Richmond organization except in the 
cases above explained. If my bureau work has practically set aside 
that Bureau, as the Secretary intimates in his dispatch, it cannot be 
because of any conflict. There may be cases in which my officers 
have failed to make proper reports to enrolling officers of men brought 
by them into the army. I know of none, and none have been reported 
to me from any source. I gave all I put under instructions orders to 
so report. If this were the gravamen of the Honorable Secretary’s 
complaints against the bureau, it is a matter I would have promptly 
corrected if I had known such was the fact. 

This explanation of the organization, its work, and working order 
of the bureau [is] due alike to the general (whose confidence I am 
happy to believe I possess), to the Government (whose approval I had 
hoped my conduct would receive), and to my own reputation. 

In conclusion, I beg to repeat my request to be relieved from further 
labor in this bureau. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
and Chief of Bureau, Army of Tennessee. 


[First indorsement.] 


Forwarded for the information of the War Department. 
General Pillow has acted most zealously and efficiently in strict con- 
formity with the orders of the Department and his instructions from 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AAS 


these headquarters. In six weeks he has done ten times as much to 
strengthen this army as all the conscript officers. His reports and 
returns, of course, could not have reached them by the time they com- 
plained. He but feebly portrays the abuses known to exist in our 
conscript camps. As requested, he will be relieved and this army will 
again decrease. 
BRAXTON BRAGG, 
General, Commanding. 


[Second indorsement.] 


TULLAHOMA, March 27, 1868. 


The attention of the War Department is respectfully asked to the 
statement of the abuses prevailing in the conscript service, which is 
far from exaggeration. Unless the organization of that service is 
improved we shall receive few more recruits in this army. 

J. E. JOHNSTON, 


General. 
[Third indorsement. ] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 

April 1, 1863. 

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. 
Pty Baitoleacye 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[Fourth indorsement.] 
APRIL 3, 1863. 
Referred to Bureau of Conscription. 
By order of Secretary of War: 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[Fifth indorsement. | 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, April 14, 1863. 


Respectfully returned to the War Department. 

This paper is just received here to-day for the second time. Its 
second reference to this office is supposed to be the result of accident 
or mistake, as it was fully reported on and returned inclosed in a let- 
ter from the superintendent to the War Department April 7, 1863.* 

By order of the superintendent: | 

G. W. LAY, 
Ineutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


AN ACT to provide and organize engineer troops to serve during the war. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
there shall be selected, in such manner as the Secretary of War may 
direct, from each division of infantry in service, one company of engi- 
neer troops, to consist of one hundred men, chosen with a view to 
their mechanical skill and physical fitness, and that the men assigned 
to such company shall be required to serve in the same only during 
the balance of their term of service, respectively. 

SEC. 2. That each company shall consist of eight sergeants, seven 
corporals, forty artificers, and forty-five laborers, and that two musi- 
cians may be added. 


* See p; 473. 


AA6 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Sec. 3. That the commissioned officers of each company shall con- 
sist of one captain, one first lieutenant, and two second lieutenants; 
and that the original vacancies in these companies shall be filled by 
the transfer of officers of corresponding grade from the Engineer Corps, 
if practicable, and where not, then from the other corps, or from the 
line or staff of the Army, reference being always had to their qualifica- 
tion as engineers, or by selection; but no one shall be selected who is 
not now serving in or with the Army, unless he is a military or civil 
engineer. 

SEC. 4. That the companies shall be organized into regiments of 
ten companies each, and that the field and staff officers shall consist 
of one.colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major, one adjutant with 
the rank of first lieutenant, one quartermaster-sergeant, and one ser- 
geant-major; and that the original vacancies in the regiments shall 
be filled in the manner provided for filling the same in the companies, 
by the third section of this act; and that the sergeant-major and the 
quartermaster-sergeant shall be selected from the enlisted men of the 
Army. 

SEC. 5. Thatin each regiment two of the companies shall be assigned 
to duty as pontoniers, and each be furnished with a bridge train com- 
plete. 

SEC. 6. That the officer in charge of the Engineer Bureau, subject 
to the approval of the Secretary of War, shall prescribe the number, - 
form, and dimensions of the wagons, pontoons, trestles, tools, imple- 
ments, arms and other necessaries for all the troops organized by this 
act. : 

SEC. 7. That vacancies in the established regiments to, and includ- 
ing the rank of colonel, shall be filled by promotion, regimentally, 
according to seniority, except in case of disability or other incom- 
petency. 

SEC. 8. That the monthly pay of the engineer troops shall be as fol- 
lows: Of a colonel, two hundred and ten dollars; of a lieutenant- 
colonel, one hundred and eighty-five dolars; of a major, one hundred 
and sixty-two dollars; of a captain, one hundred and forty dollars; of 
a first lieutenant, one hundred dollars; of a second lieutenant, ninety 
dollars, and the adjutant shall receive ten dollars per month in addi- 
tion to his pay as lieutenant. 

SEC. 9. That the pay of the enlisted men, per month, shall be as 
follows: Thesergeant-major and quartermaster-sergeant, each, twenty- 
one dollars; sergeants, thirty-four dollars; corporals, twenty dollars; 
artificers, seventeen dollars; laborers and musicians, thirteen dollars. 

SEC. 10. That mounted engineer troops may be selected from the 
cavalry, and be organized according to the provisions of this act, for 
engineer troops, as hereinbefore specified. 

Approved March 20, 1863. 


os 


HEADQUARTERS, 
, Fredericksburg, Va., March 20, 18638. 
Hon. ED. SPARROW, 
Chairman Senate Committee Military Affairs: 


Sir: [regret that my absence and necessary attention to [pressing] 
matters since my return have prevented an earlier reply to your letter 
of the 11thinstant. Before expressing my views in relation to Senate 
bill No. 73, of which you have done me the honor to’ask my opinion, 
it may be proper for me to state that the more simple the organization 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 447 


of our Army the more suitable in my opinion will it. be to our service, 
and that every possible reduction in its expense should be made. 

First. I highly approve of the assignment of a general officer to 
duty as chief of staff to a general commanding a separate army. The 
grade of colonel I should think sufficient for the inspector-general, 
quartermaster-general, chief commissary, chief of ordnance, and 
medical director. Two, or at most three, aides-de-camp, one of 
the grade of lieutenant-colonel, the other of major of cavalry, I 
Should think sufficient. On the field all the members of the staff 
departments can perform the duties of aides. Off the field the aides 
have less duty than officers of the staff departments. If it is 
intended to dispense with all the assistant adjutants-general now 
allowed, there will have to be an assistant to the chief of staff and 
to the inspector-general of a grade lower to each to attend to the 
duties of the office, &e. 

Second. I would suggest that the assistant adjutant-general, 
inspector-general, chief quartermaster, chief commissary, and chief 
of ordnance to lieutenant-generals in the field be all placed on an 
equal footing and have the grade of lieutenant-colonels of cavalry. 
I think, too, that the adjutant-general and inspector-general should 
each have an assistant with the rank of major; otherwise they will be 
unable to perform the necessary office and outdoor work. He should 
also be allowed a surgeon of the grade of major and two aides-de- 
camp, one with the rank of major and one captain of cavalry. It is 
better, I think, to give more strength to the adjutant and inspector 
generals’ departments and to diminish the aides. 

Third. To a major-general commanding a division I would recom- 
mend that one assistant adjutant-general, one assistant inspector- 
general, one chief quartermaster, one chief commissary, and one 
chief of ordnance be allowed of the grade of major of cavalry; also 
one surgeon of the same grade and two aides-de-camp, one of the 
grade of captain and one of first lieutenant of cavalry. 

Fourth. To a brigadier-general commanding a brigade I would 
suggest that two assistant adjutant and inspectors general be allowed 
of the grade of captain of cavalry for the indoor and outdoor work, 
a surgeon of the grade of major, [and] one aide-de-camp of the grade 
of first lieutenant of cavalry. A regiment should have a regimental 
adjutant and quartermaster. I consider a regimental commissary 
unnecessary. 

Fifth. In the fifth and sixth sections of the bill I see no improve- 
ment to be made. 

, I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
R. E. LEE, 
General. 


CAMP NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, March 21, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DaAVIs, 
President of the Confederate States : 


MR. PRESIDENT: Upon an examination of the Senate bill presented 
by General Sparrow for the organization of the staff of the Army, I 
think some changes might be made to advantage. These will readily 
occur to you, and I will therefore allude to them generally. I think 
it important, and, indeed, necessary, to simplify the mechanism of our 
Army as much as possible, yet still to give it sufficient power to move 
and regulate the whole body. Our armies are necessarily very large 


4A8 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in comparison with those we have heretofore had to manage. Some 
of our divisions exceed the army General Scott entered the City of 
Mexico with, and our brigades are larger than his divisions. The 
greatest difficulty I find is in causing orders and regulations to be 
obeyed. This arises not from a spirit of disobedience, but from 
ignorance. We therefore have need of a corps of officers to teach 
others their duty, see to the observance of orders, and to the regu- 
larity and precision of all movements. This is accomplished in the 
French service by their staff corps, educated, instructed, and practiced 
for the purpose. The same circumstances that produced that corps 
exist in our own Army. Can you not shape the staff of our Army to 
produce equally good results? Although the staff of the French 
army is larger than that proposed by Senate bill, I am in favor of 
keeping ours down, as it is so much easier to build up than to deduce, 
if experience renders it necessary. I would therefore assign one gen- 
eral officer to a general commanding an army in the field, and give 
to his inspector-general, quartermaster-general, commissary-general, 
chief of ordnance, and medical director the provisional grade of colonel 
of cavalry. I would reduce his aides and give to his chief of staff 
and inspector-general assistants, or they will never be able to properly 
attend to their outdoor and indoor work, which from the condition of 
our Army, as before stated, is very heavy. I would apply the same 
principles to the division and brigade staff, placing their chiefs on 
an equal footing and giving each a complete organization in itself, so 
that it can maneuver independently of the corps or division to which 
it is habitually attached and be detached with promptness and facility 
when required. Each, therefore, in addition to its general staff, should 
have a surgeon, quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance officer. 
If you can then fill these positions with proper officers, not the rela- 
tives and social friends of the commanders, who, however agreeable 
their company, are not always the most useful, you might hope to 
have the finest army in the world. 

I beg you will excuse the liberty of my suggestion, and believe me, 
with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 


R. E. LEE, 
General. 
, 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
} No. 32. Richmond, March 21, 1863. 


_ I. Paragraph V, General Orders, No. 66, Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office, September 12, 1862, is so far amended as to read as 
follows: 

Enrolling or recruiting officers, in the discharge of their duties under 
the conseript or other acts, are enjoined not to remove or interfere 
with workmen or employés at the niter, lead, or copper works, or 
mines or furnaces worked by Government officers, or by contractors 
for the Ordnance Department, without first apprising and obtaining 
the consent of the superintendent or officer in charge, who will be 
held strictly responsible for any abuse or evasion of the law. 

II. The operation of paragraph 1253, Confederate States Army 
Regulations, is hereby suspended during the existing war. 

Ill. Paragraph IJ, General Orders, No. 30, current series, is 
amended to read as follows: 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AAI 


Any contractor under the Government who shall employ any work- 
man leaving, without proper discharge, a Government establishment, 
or the employment of another contractor under the Government, shall 
be notified at once that the detailed men and conscripts in his employ- 
ment be returned to their proper officers, upon report of the facts to 
the chief of the bureau or department for the service of which the 
details were made. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector. General. 


Lonpbon, March 21, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: : 

Str: Having just heard that there was an indirect way of sending a 
letter to the Confederacy to-day, I take the liberty of advising that I 
wrote you fully 13th and 14th instant on the subject of my business 
here, and have since received your valued favor of 7th of February. 
Immediately on receipt of it I called on Major Huse, or rather at his 
late address, and regret exceedingly to find that he is on the Continent. 
As soon as I can ascertain his address I will write him. In the mean- 
time, on conferring with Mr. Mason, I have determined not to lose 
any time in getting my scheme started, or rather in arranging to get 
it started, and as the cotton loan is being taken with avidity, it 
enables Mr. Mason to assure me of the necessary funds, and I think 
you may confidently rely upon my carrying out the arrangement at 
least as rapidly as suggested in the memorandum attached tomy letter 
of 14th instant. I think it prudent not to sa more, as I will next week 
have a safe conveyance, and will write you fully. 


Your most obedient, 
W. G. CRENSHAW. 


——_—__— 


[Marcn 21, 1863.—For J. E. Johnston to Seddon, in relation to the 
procurement of supplies in Middle Tennessee, see Series I, Vol. 
Pex tile Part Il, p. 718. | 


Hpers. Vou. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 

Huntsville, Ala., March 22, 1863. 

Colonel BRENT, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 

If the compulsory principle of enforcing the conscript law is aban- 
doned the law itself at once becomes a dead letter. There are but 
two modes of keeping up the strength of our armies, viz, the system 
of volunteer recruits and the compulsory system. In the early part 
of this war the first of these systems had exhausted itself. The con- 
viction of this fact induced the enactment of the conscript law, which 
rests upon the compulsory principle as its basis. The organization of 
the Richmond Bureau is based upon the supposition that the moral 
obligation created by the law will be sufficient to bring into the Army 
the great mass of men liable to duty under the law. In other words, 
that enrollment and orders will bring them into the Army. The prac- 
tical working of that Bureau has established, I think, conelusively the 


29 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


450 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


fallacy of this theory. Such, too, has been the case wherever the 
conscript law has been in force in the governments of Europe. — 

Wherever the governments have agencies in the field for compel- 
ling obedience to the law the men are brought into the Army. In the 
French service these conscripts are arrested, placed in schools of | 
instruction, are kept separate from the army, have their own uniform, 
and are constantly guarded and never allowed to leave their barracks 
except under guards who accompany them, until fit to enter the army. 
My knowledge of this service and of the measures necessary to give 
success to any system of conscripting those liable to law, has satisfied 
me that no organization will be successful which does not rest on the 
exercise of force where necessary. The great mass of men yet liable 
to duty under the law will have to see that the Government has the 
means at hand to enforce the law before they will enter the service. 
If properly sustained by the Government and relieved from the em- 
barrassment of having two organizations in the field, with the agen- 
sles now employed in this bureau and those of the Richmond Bureau 
united, I am certain that I could throw into the Army 100,000 men in 
u Short time. I am relieved from most unpleasant labor—most dis- 
asteful to my feelings—by the orders from the War Department. I 
1ad informed the general commanding that I should apply to him 
00n to be relieved from duty in this bureau, and I have no regrets 
it the action of the War Department, but I feel sure that in the end 
he Government will be forced to adopt means of compulsory service, 
ind I cannot but regret that so much time, now so important to the 
ountry, should be lost. 

[ have been led to the expression of these views from the conviction 
f the great importance of the subject and the necessity of placing 
efore the Government all the information necessary for its proper 
onsideration and adoption of a@ wise system of executing the con- 
cript law. With this view, I hand you another sworn statement* of 
most intelligent and efficient officer who has been on duty in con- 
ection with service for some time under General Bragg’s orders. I 
hink his opinions may be useful to the Gévernment and that the facts 
e states will be especially so. 

With great respect, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brig. Gen., C. 8S. Army, Chief of Bureau, Army of Tennessee. 


ee 


AN ACT to provide for the funding and further issue of Treasury notes. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
ll Treasury notes not bearing interest, issued previous to the first. 
ay of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, shall be fundable in 
ght per cent. bonds or stock, until the twenty-second day of April, 
ghteen -hundred and sixty-three; that from that date until the first 
ay of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, they shall be fund- 
ble in 7 per cent. bonds or stocks, and after the said first day of 
ugust they shall no longer be fundable at the pleasure of the holder, 
ut shall be receivable in payment of public dues, except the export . 
uty on cotton, and payable six months after the ratification of a 
eaty of peace, as specified on their face. All Treasury notes not 
saring interest, issued after the first day of December, eighteen 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 451 


hundred and sixty-two, and within ten days after the passage of this 
act, shall be fundable in seven per cent. bonds or stock until the first, 
day of August next; and after the said first day of August shall be 
fundable only in bonds bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. 
per annum, and payable at any time not exceeding thirty years from 
the date thereof; and all such notes not funded shall be receivable 
in payment of all public dues except the export duty on cotton, and 
Shall be payable six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace 
between the Confederate Government and the United States. All 
call certificates bearing eight per cent. interest shall, with the accrued 
interest, be fundable on or before the first day of July, eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-three, into bonds of the Confederate States, bearing 
interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, and payable at any 
time not exceeding thirty years after their date: Provided, That the 
accrued interest aforesaid may, at the option of the holder, be paid 
instead of being funded. All eall certificates of every description, 
outstanding on the first day of July, eighteén hundred and Sixty- 
three, shall, after that date, be deemed to be bonds bearing an annual 
interest of six per cent., and payable at a date not exceeding thirty 
years from the said first day of July, eighteen hundred and Sixty- 
three. | 

SEC. 2. In lieu of the power heretofore given by law to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to issue Treasury notes, he shall be authorized to 
issue monthly an amount of such notes, bearing no interest, not 
exceeding fifty millions of dollars, which shall be receivable in pay- 
ment of all public dues, except the export duty on cotton, and pay- 
able within two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace 
between the Confederate States and the United States, and fundable 
at the pleasure of the holder, during twelve months from the first day 
of the month of their issue, in bonds of the Confederate States, pay- 
able at any time not exceeding thirty years after date, and bearing 
rates of interest as follows: If funded within twelve months from the 
first day of the month of their issue, the bonds shall bear six per cent. 
interest per annum; if funded after that period they shall be fundable 
into bonds bearing four per cent. interest per annum. ‘These notes 
Shall bear upon their face the month and year of their issue, and if 
not funded shall be paid at the time specified on the face without 
interest. 

SEC. 3. After the passage of this act the authority heretofore given 
to issue call certificates shall cease, but the notes fundable into six 
per cent. bonds may be converted at the pleasure of the holder into 
call certificates, bearing interest at the rate of five per cent. per 
annum from the date of their issue. That every such certificate shall 
bear upon its face the monthly date of the oldest of the notes which 
it represents, and be convertible into like notes at any time within 
six months from the first day of the month of its monthly date afore- 
said. But every certificate not reconverted within six months from 
the first day of its monthly date shall be exchanged for a bond pay- 
able at any time not exceeding thirty years from the expiration of the 
said six months, and bearing interest at the rate of six per centum 
per annum. ‘Treasury notes which, by the operation of this act, 
become fundable into bonds, bearing a yearly interest of four per 
cent., may be converted, at the pleasure of the holder, into call cer- 
tificates, bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum from 
their date until reconverted or paid; the said certificates being recon- 
vertible at any time by the holder into notes fundable in four per 


452 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


cent. bonds, and payable and receivable as heretofore prescribed; 
but the said certificates may be redeemed by the Government after 
six months from the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Con- 
federate States and the United States. 

Sec. 4. That all bonds or registered stock authorized to be issued 
by this act shall be payable not less than thirty years after date; but 
shall be redeemable five years after date, at the pleasure of the Goy- 
ernment, and shall in other respects conform to existing laws. 

Sec. 5. The Secretary of the Treasury shall use any disposable 
means in the Treasury, which can be applied to that purpose without 
injury to the public service, to the purchase of Treasury notes bear- 
ing no interest, and issued after the passage of this act, until the 
whole amount of Treasury notes in circulation shall not exceed one 
hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars. 

Src. 6. The Treasury notes hereby allowed to be issued shall be of 
any denomination of not less than five dollars, which is now author- 
ized by law, that the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. The 
authority hereby given shall cease at the expiration of the first ses- 
sion of Congress, after the ratification of a treaty of peace, or at the 
end of two years, should the war continue so long. 

Sec. 7. Inaddition to the authority hereinbefore given to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury to issue Treasury notes, he shall be allowed to 
issue notes of the denominations of one dollar, and of two dollars, 
and of fifty cents, to such an amount as, in addition to the notes of 
the denomination of one dollar, heretofore issued, shall not exceed 
the sum of fifteen millions of dollars; and said notes shall be payable 
six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the 
Confederate States and the United States, and receivable in payment 
of all public dues except the export duty on cotton, but shall not be 
fundable. 

SEc. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to sell 
bonds bearing six per cent. interest per annum, and payable, as here- 
inbefore directed, at par for Treasury notes issued since the first of 
December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to such of the Confeder- 
ate States as may desire to purchase the same; or he may sell such 
bonds, when guaranteed by any of the States of the Confederacy, 
upon such plan as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
for Treasury notes, on such terms as he may deem advisable, to the 
highest bidder, and not below par: Provided, however, That the 
whole amount of such bonds shall not exceed two hundred millions 
of dollars: And provided further, That the Treasury notes thus pur- 
chased shall not be reissued, if the effect of such reissue would be to 
increase the whole amount of Treasury notes, bearing no interest, 
which are in circulation, to a sum greater than one hundred and 
seventy-five millions of dollars. And the Secretary of the Treasury 
is also authorized, at his option, after the first of July, eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-three, to issue and sell, at not less than par, as estimated 
in Treasury notes, coupon bonds of the Confederate States bearing 
six per cent: interest per annum, and payable as hereinbefore directed. 
The said coupons to be paid at the pleasure of the owner, either in 
the currency in which interest is paid on other bonds of the Con- 
federate States, or else in cotton certificates which pledge the Gov- 
ernment to pay the same in cotton of the quality of New Orleans 
middlings. The said cotton to be paid at the rate of eight pence 
sterling per pound, and to be delivered at any time within six months 
after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 453 


States and the United States, at any or all of the ports of New 
Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston or Wilmington, as the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury may direct: Provided, however, That the bonds 
hereby authorized shall not exceed one hundred millions of dollars, 
and shall be applied only to the absorption of Treasury notes, as 
prescribed in this act. 

Sec. 9. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
immediately after the passage of this act, to make publication of a 
copy thereof in each State, in at least two newspapers published in 
the State, and to have said publication continued until the first day 
of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. 

Approved March 23, 1863. 


ee 


CIRCULAR. | QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, March 24, 1863. 


To avoid conflict and competition between the officers of this 
department in the purchase of army supplies, and, as far as possible, 
between officers of this department and those of the Ordnance Bureau 
or Commissary Department, in the purchase of supplies common to 
both, quartermasters are especially directed to observe the following 
regulations: 

1. The following named States will constitute separate purchasing 
districts and the officers herein designated will have respectively in 
each the exclusive control, in person or through subordinates, of all 
purchases of supplies needed by this department: (1) Virginia, Lieut. 
Col. L. Smith, Richmond; (2) North Carolina, Maj. W. W. Peirce, 
Raleigh; (3) South Carolina, Maj. Hutson Lee, Charleston; (4) Geor- 
gia, Maj. I. T. Winnemore, Augusta; (5) Alabama, Maj. J. L. Calhoun, 
Montgomery; (6) Mississippi, Maj. L. Mims, Jackson; (7) Florida, 
Maj. H. R. Teasdale, Lake City; (8) Louisiana, Maj. G. W. Grice, 
Alexandria; (9) Texas, Maj. T. A. Washington, San Antonio; (10) 
Arkansas and Missouri, Maj. J. B. Burton, Little Rock; (11) Tennes- 
see and Kentucky, Maj. James Glover, Knoxville. 

2. Itshall be the duty of these principal purchasing officers to estab- 
lish and from time to time regulate the prices at which army supplies 
are to be bought, and to confer with each other so as to secure, as far 
as practicable, uniformity therein, making due allowance for differ- 
ences of locations and other circumstances. They will require from 
their subordinates monthly reports showing the quantity of supplies 
purchased or manufactured by them, what thereof has been issued, 
and the residue on hand. A summary of these, together with a simi- 
lar statement of his own operations, will be forwarded monthly by 
the chief officer to the Quartermaster-General, and the same will be 
accompanied by general remarks showing what supplies, either manu- 
factured or in the raw material, he may have an excess beyond his 
future wants, so that it may be transferred elsewhere when needed. 
The average cost of each article of supply will also be stated. 

3. Quartermasters stationed at the various posts within either of 
said purchasing districts will be the subordinate purchasing officers 
therein, and before buying supplies or contracting therefor they will 
confer with the principal officer and conform to such general or 
specific instructions as he may give respecting the price, quantity, or 
quality of the supplies bought. 

4. Main depots of supplies will be established at Richmond and 
Staunton, Va.; Raleigh, N. C.; Columbus and Atlanta, Ga.; Hunts- 


454 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ville and Montgomery, Ala.; Jackson, Miss. ; Alexandria, La.; Little 
Rock, Ark.; Knoxville, Tenn.; San Antonio, Tex., or elsewhere, as 
may hereafter be indicated. These will not be subject to the orders 
of commanding generals, but will be under the exclusive control of 
the Quartermaster-General, and issues therefrom will be made only on 
requisitions approved by him. | 

Minor depots may be established by the principal purchasing offi- 
cers at such other points within their districts as the necessities of 
the service may require, and their locations will be reported, from 
time to time, to this office. . 

5. The chief quartermaster of each separate army will draw supplies, 
as far as may be practicable, from the established depots of stores, 
and will make purchases thereof in the military department within 
which the army operates only when circumstances render that course 
absolutely necessary. He will then, whether acting in person or 
through subordinates, confer if possible with the principal purchas- 
ing officer of the district within which he may be, and use every pre- 
caution to avoid competition. 

6. Forage and fuel purchased in the vicinity of an army are ex- 
cepted from the above restriction. These ean be best provided on 
the spot, to the extent that the country affords them, and by the field 
quartermaster; and the chief quartermaster will be careful to see that 
the same are procured and paid for in accordance with the instrue- 
tions issued by the War Department. Forage should always be 
drawn, when circumstances permit, from regions in advance of our 
armies and those most exposed to the enemy. Field quartermasters 
may also purchase, under the direction of the commanding officer, 
supplies of any character issued by this department from a region of 
country occupied temporarily by the forces of the Confederate States 
and where no system of purchase is in operation. 2 7 

7. When special agents shall be sent out by the Quartermaster- 
General to obtain supplies, they will be instructed to report to the 
principal officer of any district into which they may go, and confer 
with him, to avoid competition. eek 

8. All officers of this department will endeavor to avoid competing 
in prices with commissaries in the purchase of corn, or with ordnance 
officers in the purchase of hides, leather, harness, &c. They will 
report also to this office all cases of unnecessary competition brought 
about by the action of any officer or agent of either of the bureaus 
referred to. 

J. No officer of this department will send an agent to a foreign 
country, nor will they visit or send to a sea-port town of this Confede- 
racy to buy supplies imported from abroad. The latter purchases 
will be made, always, by the post quartermasters on instructions 
received from this office, or from the principal purchasing officer of 
the district. When such supplies are removed for speculation, after 
being rejected by the post quartermaster on account of price, they 
will not be purchased elsewhere. | 

10. No purchasing officer will ever go into another district to buy 
supplies, but will procure the same, when it may be necessary, through 
the local officers therein. 

11. Any officer of this department who holds an executory contract 
for army supplies in another purchasing district than that in which 
he is stationed shall transfer the same, upon the receipt of this cir- 
cular, to the principal purchasing officer of the district where such 
contract is to be executed. Field quartermasters, regardless of their 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.. A455 


location, will make a similar transfer of all contracts, except such as 
come within section No. 6 of these instructions. 

12. The foregoing rules will not be taken to interfere with the oper- 
ations of Maj. F. W. Dillard, as heretofore charged with the receipt 
of hides from the Commissary Department and the manufacture of 
Shoes therefrom. He will continue to have the exclusive control 
thereof in the States of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and South 
Carolina, and all quartermasters within those States will dispose of 
hides received from commissaries as he may direct. Nor will they 
interfere with those of Maj. Charles S. Carrington, who will act inde- 
pendently as heretofore in providing forage for the armies of Virginia 
and North Carolina. 

13. Purchasing officers will employ agents only under authorities, 
general or special, derived from this office. The authorities heretofore 
given must be renewed immediately, and in submitting applications 
for the retention of old agents, their names, the date of the authority 
under which they were employed, and the rate of their compensation 
will be stated. When authority is asked and granted to employ new 
agents whose names have not been furnished in advance, a report 
thereof shall be made promptly, stating who are so engaged and at what 
compensation. In every case such facts will be set forth as go to show 
the necessity for the proposed services, and the application will be 
forwarded through the principal officer of the district for his approval 
orremark. All officers will furnish their agents with written evidence 
of the agency, showing the object and extent thereof, and when such 
agency is discontinued the evidence mentioned will be taken in and 
the fact reported to this office. Every officer will be careful to settle 
up the transactions of his own agents. 

The observance of the foregoing is important in restraining abuses, 
decreasing the number of employés from civil life, and leading to the 
detection of imposters speculating in the name of the Government. 

14, All quartermasters will be held to strict accountability for any 
departure from these instructions, and department commanders and 
other subordinate officers are prohibited from employing field quarter- 
masters or agents in making purchases in violation of the same. 


EMPLOYEES OF QUARTERMASTERS AND THEIR COMPENSATION. 


To limit the number of employés in this department and their 
compensation, all officers thereof will be careful to conform to the 
following rules: 3 

To troops in the field the allowance shall be: 

1. To each regimental or battalion quartermaster, in addition to the 
quartermaster-sergeant, one wagon-master and, when the same shall 
be necessary, one clerk, both to be detailed from the command. 

2. To each brigade quartermaster or quartermaster attached to a 
division, one wagon-master and, when the same shall be necessary, 
one clerk, both to be detailed from the command. 

3. To all commissary, ordnance, and quartermasters’ trains, one 
wagon-master for every ten teams, either hired or detailed, and if 
hired, wages not to exceed $50 a month. When these trains exceed 
in number fifty teams, a Superintending wagon-master for the whole 
will be allowed, at a compensation not exceeding $75 a month. 

Stations and depots: 

4. The number of employés at stations and depots will be regulated 
Specially by this office with reference to the necessities of each case. 


456 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Officers thereat will apply in all cases to the Quartermaster-General 
for authority to retain old employés or engage new ones. These appli- 
cations will be made in accordance with the provisions of preceding: 
section No. 12, in respect to the employment of agents by purchasing 
officers, and when forwarded by officers in the field will come through 
the chief quartermaster of the army to which they are attached. 

5. No quartermaster serving with troops, or at a depot in the field, 
will be allowed to employ agents, and all authorities heretofore granted 
are revoked. 

6. No application should embrace the name of a civilian as clerk, 
unless he was employed by a quartermaster, under the sanction of 
this office, prior to the act of Congress of February 16, 1862. In no 
case will the compensation of a clerk from civil life exceed the sum of 
$1,000 per annum. . 

7. All reports called for by this circular shall be distinct from the 
monthly returns of persons and articles hired. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 
Approved. | 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ee ee 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, March 24, 1868. 
Brigadier-General PILLOW, 
Huntsville, Ala.: 

The Department for the third time instructs you that all interfer- 
ence by you in the matter of conscription is without authority. The 
establishment by you of bureaus of conscription, the withdrawal of 
conscripts without a report to and allowance from the commanders of 
conscripts in the appropriate district, the interference with the deci- 
sions of enrolling officers, surgeons, boards, or decisions of the com- 
manders of conscripts are contrary to the orders of this Department. 

Telegrams have been sent to General Bragg on this subject, and a 
letter to General Johnston fully explaining the views of the Depart- 
ment on this subject, in addition to the communications to you, in the 
opinion of the Department, are enough to define the limits of your 
action. It hopes that it may not be required to do more in this matter 
after this time. | 

By order of the Secretary of War: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


CIRCULAR CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
ORDER. kichmond, March 24, 1863. 


The attention of officers having charge of conscripts is directed to 
section 2 of the act of Congress approved October 2, 1862, which is 
as follows: 


Sec. 2. That if any person who has been or is about to be enrolled for service 
in the Army shall, at any time before being assigned to any company, declare to 
the enrolling or commanding officer that he prefers being enrolled for service in 
the Navy or the Marine Corps, it shall be the duty of the said officer to enroll 
such person for the service which he may prefer, and to transmit to the Secre- 
tary of the Navy a list of the persons so enrolled, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ADT 


The superintendent directs that this provision of the law be ob- 
served, and that reports be made accordingly. 

Whenever any officer of the Navy designated by the Navy Depart- 
ment shall present himself for the purpose, any officer in charge of 
conscripts will cause them to be mustered in presence of such officer 
of the Navy, in order that they may be offered the alternative of 
entering the naval service. 

By order of Brig. Gen. G. J. Rains, superintendent: 

A. C. JONES, 
Ineutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, March 25, 1862. 


Col. WILLIAM M. WADLEY, 
In Charge of Railroad Transportation, Augusta, Ga.: 


Str: The dilatory and irregular transportation on the railroads is 
really matter of suspense as well as serious anxiety to me. It is 
essential that transportation of supplies, especially of meat for the 
armies in Virginia, should be more rapid and regular. I learn with 
astonishment from the Commissary-General that though since the 1st 
of January he has been urging the transportation of meat from his 
reserves at Atlanta to this city, he has not yet received in all more 
than some 400,000 pounds. Surely there must have been some gross 
inattention on the part of either the railroads in giving preference to 
Government freight or on the quatermasters in carrying the meat to 
the trains. Will you at once institute inquiries and correct the delays 
on this route? Some general plan, however, it seems to me, is neces- 
Sary to counteract the increasing delays and irregularities, and I 
would suggest that you arrange with the roads on all the leading lines 
schedules of continuous freight trains to run with like regularity and 
connection as the passenger trains. I had supposed this course had 
long been pursued, as it seems to me manifestly required to give full 
efficiency to the railroad facilities as well as to their own interest, but 
learn that, owing to the jealousies and conveniences of special roads, 
it has never been practiced. The least calculation will show that if 
the railroads will in good faith give preference to Government freight 
and will steadily and continually run their freight trains by through 
schedule more than all the supplies needed for the Government can 
be transported on the leading lines. Harmony, co-operation, and 
reasonable energy on their part only are required, and I trust you will 
at once lend all your energy and address to the accomplishment of a 
good understanding and the running of through lines on schedules to 
be arranged by yourself. It would be difficult for the roads to agree 
on such schedules, but they might, I think, be shown the necessity of 
the matter to the Government as well as their own interest as to come 
into schedules arranged by you. Do give your earnest attention to 
this or some other effective mode of enforcing transportation at once. 


Very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


458 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 

fiichmond, Va., March 25, 1863. 

His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh, N. C.: 


Sir: Your letter* to Colonel August of the 20th instant has been 
referred to this Bureau, and I regret that circumstances have arisen 
impairing that harmony necessary for a proper execution of the law 
of conscription. So far from opposition, we have calculated on your 
assistance in this matter, and I had already written to the comman- 
dant of conscripts for North Carolina “that whenever the wishes of 
His Excellency the Governor can be accorded with without clear 
infraction of law it is desirable to do so.” The law exempts judicial 
and executive officers of State governments, except those liable to 
militia duty. This, you will readily perceive, must be the rule of 
guidance for the agents of this Bureau, and there are no means short 
of supernatural power for them to know outside of the law of such 
employés Your Excellency wishes to be exempted. Hence, forbear- 
ance is respectfully asked until reference can be had with this Bureau, 
with which you are cordially invited to correspond, believing that 
between us of the same State no difference can occur in such matters, 
the legality of which is left to your judgment. Colonel Mallett has 
been ordered to relieve Colonel August in his duties as commandant 
of conscripts in North Carolina. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


[Marcu 25, 1863.—For Vance to Seddon, reporting enrollment and 
arrest of conscripts in Western North Carolina, by General Pillow, 
without authority of law, see Series II, Vol. V, p. 857 Se 


GENERAL ORDERS,) ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 33. kichmond, March 26, 1868. 


I. The corps of officers for ordnance duty will hereafter be composed 
exclusively as follows, viz: : 

1. Officers of the Regular Confederate Army, detailed by the War 
Department for ordnance duty. 

2. Officers of the provisional artillery, appointed under the act of 
Congress April 21, 1862. 

3. Officers of the provisional artillery for ordnance duty, appointed 
under act of 16th September, 1862 (including at present those on duty — 
under General Orders, No. 12, 1863). | 

4. Officers of artillery in the Provisional Army and volunteer corps, 
appointed under act of Congress approved J anuary 22, 1862, and 
detailed on ordnance duty by the War Department. 

5. Officers of the Niter and Mining Bureau, appointed under act of 
Congress. 

II. Officers heretofore assigned to ordnance duty, under provisions 
of General Orders, No. 24 and No. 46, of 1862, although not forming 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 459 


a part of the ordnance corps, will continue to be recognized in their 
positions until relieved by the assignment of officers of the ordnance 
corps regularly appointed or detailed. Officers of this class will be 
replaced by the regularly appointed officers assigned for ordnance 
duty, at the discretion of any general commanding an army or depart- 
ment, when the interest of the service requires it. 

All such changes will be communicated to the Chief of Ordnance at 
Richmond. 

III. All officers in charge of arsenals, armories, workshops, depots, 
or other posts where work is performed by detailed men who are paid 
by the department in which they are employed, and who relinquish 
claim for pay as soldiers, shall make monthly reports to the chiefs of 
their respective bureaus, containing full lists and descriptions of the 
men, with a correct statement of the pay they receive. These reports 
will be forwarded to the Quartermaster-General for the information 
and guidance of the Pay Department, to prevent the payment of 
fraudulent claims. 

IV. All generals or other officers commanding military departments 
or districts will require from provost-marshals and commandants of 
prisons monthly reports of all citizens and other persons not con- 
nected with the Confederate Army held in confinement, with specifi- 
cations of date and cause of arrest, and by whom arrested, accompa- - 
nied with such remarks as they may deem proper, and forward the 
Same without delay to this office. 

V. Paragraph VI, General Orders, No. 31, current Series, is so far 
amended as to read. as follows: 

Claims arising under paragraph IV will be settled by the Second 
Auditor; those under paragraph V by officers of the Quartermaster’s 
Department. In the latter class the facts must be attested by the cer- 
tificate of the commanding officer of the regiment to which the claim- 
ant belonged at the date of his promotion. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
hichmond, March 26, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, | 
Secretary of War: . 
Str: Inclosed I hand you a copy of a letter from Mr. F. H. Hatch, 
collector of New Orleans, now at Tangipahoa, in relation to the pro- 
curement of supplies, and respectfully request your co-operation in 
the measures proposed by him. 
Respectfully, , 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


[Inclosure.] 


COLLECTOR’S OFFICE, STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, 
Tangipahoa, March 17, 1868. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond, Va.: | 
Sir: I have the honor to report that notwithstanding the duties 
assigned to me in this department, and the discretion given me in 
relation to trade, that for some time past the military authorities 


A460 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have seized indiscriminately all merchandise brought into this dis- 
trict and proceeded to dispose of it without particular reference to 
the law or the claims of the Treasury Department. The consequence 
has been difficulties and embarrassments that only work to the public 
injury without any corresponding good. Goods thus seized and often 
inadequately protected are lost or depreciated, and a case of violation 
of law being proven the claimant applies to the court, bonds his 
goods, and thus the matter ends, with much bad feeling, the duties 
lost, and nobody benefited. 

This section of the country is in extreme want of articles of first 
necessity. On the lake shore corn is worth from $10 to $15 per 
bushel, sweet potatoes about the same, and other things in propor- 
tion. These exorbitant prices of course stimulate that questionable — 
class of traders that always flock to the confines of warring nations, 
who, I think, should be regulated accordingly as they may be useful 
in supplying the extreme wants of our Army and people, especially in 
cases where the courts are inaccessible and the proof of violation of 
law is doubtful and not likely to be made out. 

In other words, while I would not sanction or encourage trade with 
the enemy by an exchange of commodities, I would endeavor to regu- 
late these matters in a time of war rather by a policy which would 
work to the benefit of our cause and to the injury of the enemy than 
by a rigid application of the law. Now the enemy has clearly indi- 
cated his starvation policy by refusing to allow the smallest amount 
of supplies to come out of his lines, and inducing the shipment of the 
largest amount of cotton and other produce to his. I would meet 
this by a corresponding policy within the limits of the law. 

Should this view meet with your approbation the interests of your 
Department could be protected and some good accomplished if the 
Honorable Secretary of War would issue instructions to the com- 
manding general of this department that all merchandise seized 
should be turned over to this department, and such aid and support 
be given as I might require in the proper discharge of my duties. 

This order is necessary to accomplish the first object, and I respect- 
fully submit it for your consideration. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
F. H. HATGE 
Collector. 


—— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., March 26, 1863. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Governor of North Carolina: 


Str: The application recently made by General Edney, of your 
State, sustained by your indorsement, asking that effective measures 
be taken to repress and disperse the bands of marauding deserters and 
refugees represented to be collecting in the mountains of your west- 
ern counties, has been submitted to the President and received the 
attentive consideration of the Department. It is not deemed judi- 
cious to assent to the suggestion of the petition presented by General 
Edney that the conscript law be suspended in the counties west of the 
Blue Ridge in your State and that local organizations of the militia or 
State forces be formed to operate against these marauding bands. In 
addition to the objection that the conscripts of the districts where 
safely available might thus be withdrawn from the calls of the public 
service, where they are now so needed, it is feared that the use of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 461 


these men exclusively or mainly against the marauding and disaf- 
fected classes of their vicinity might engender the worst sort of civil 
strife and lead to inextinguishable feuds and mutual reprisals, to the 
grievous affliction and waste of the whole region. It has been thought 
a wiser course to order General Donelson, in whose eommand the dis- 
trict lies, to send an efficient officer with an adequate command to 
search through the mountains [in] disaffected localities, capture or 
disperse all outlying bands, and, seeking the aid of the enrolling offi- 
cer of the district, to conscribe and send to the remote armies all of 
conscript ages believed to be dangerous or disloyal. At the same time, 
partly to co-operate with him, but mainly afterward to report similar 
manifestations and preserve order, it is suggested that all the loyal 
citizens not liable to conscription should be organized into corps ‘‘ for 
local defense and special service,” to remain quietly at their homes 
when no danger existed, but to be liable to be called into service when- 
ever occasion demanded. These, if promptly formed, might act at 
once with General Donelson’s command, but in any event it is hoped 
may be constituted in time effectually to keep down any further upris- 
ings or collections of marauders. Should they prove inefficient or 
inadequate for such purpose, conscripts collected from the loyal por- 
tion of the neighboring people will be detailed to join and act under 
such organizations so long as their services may be necessary. In this 
mode the conscripts will be retained at command, nor will they be 
formed into separate organizations, from which, when once formed of 
conscripts, experience has shown they cannot be withdrawn without 
difficulty and seeming injustice, especially to the officers. Sincere 
solicitude is felt by the Department for the relief of the district 
referred to, and it has dictated the measures suggested. It is hoped 
they will prove effectual and at the same time meet the sanction and 
co-operation of Your Excellency. 
With high esteem, very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[MARCH 27, 1863.—For Lubbock to Davis, in relation to the trans- 
fer of the Texas frontier regiment to the Confederate service, see 
Series I, Vol, LIII, p. 852. ] 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., March 28, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Str: [herewith hand you copy of a letter written by direction of the 
executive committee of [the Committee of] Safety of Mobile to me in 
relation to the conversion of our bay and river steam-boats into steam- 
ers for running the blockade to Cuba. I also inclose copy of a letter 
addressed by me this day to Maj. Gen. S. B. Buckner, to both of 
which I beg to call your early attention. I will not enlarge upon 
the subject. It is one of importance, and the letter of P. Hamilton, 
esq., presents the objections to the policy in an unanswerable view. 

Hoping to hear from you soon, I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
your obedient servant, 

JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


462 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, 
Mobile, March 25, 18638. 
His Excellency JOHN GILL SHORTER: 


Sir: The committee have instructed me to call your attention to the 
fact that no less than six of our river or bay steam-boats are at this 
moment fitting out to run the blockade and carry cotton to Cuba. 
The committee are deeply impressed with the conviction that it would 
be unwise and dangerous to permit these vessels to go out. They 
form animportant part of the tonnage of this port and of these rivers; 
if lost, or they do not return, their places cannot be supplied. You 
know that our boats are running out. Several of them-have been 
lost or greatly injured this winter. We cannot build new engines 
and boilers, if we could build hulls, which last may possibly be done. 
These boats would furnish relief in case of accident or seizure of the 
line of railroad to Montgomery. They may be needed for the trans- 
portation of troops or provisions up and down the river. Their 
machinery may be needed for gun-boats or other vessels of defense. 
They may be needed to tow floating batteries into position and for 
many other such purposes. Again, being of light draft and built for 
these waters, if captured they would form no small beginning of a 
fleet of transports, such as would greatly aid the enemy in transport- 
ing troops and munitions of war along the coast and in the bays and 
bayous about the entrance of this bay. Again, the committee are 
decidedly of the opinion that it is bad policy to permit the exportation 
of cotton in this way and at this time. If foreign vessels can be 
tempted into the trade it may answer some good purposes, but we do 
not approve of it in this form. A good deal can be said pro and 
con in relation to the export of cotton at all. We respectfully call 
your attention to this subject and trust you will lend your aid to put 
a stop to these enterprises. We have not stopped to consider whether 
you have the power forcibly to interfere, but we know that your 
remonstrances with General Buckner and at Richmond will have their 
influence, We can but think that this matter will strike you in the 
same light it does us, and we venture to suggest that you will at once 
let your sentiments be known to those having authority in the prem- 
ises. We to-day present our remonstrances to General Buckner on 
this subject and hope your influence will soon follow to sustain us. 

Very respectfully, 
P. HAMILTON, 
Chairman Executive Committee. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., March 28, 1868. 
Maj. Gen. 8. B. BUCKNER, | 
Mobile: 


SIR: Iam in receipt of a letter from P. Hamilton, esq., chairman © 
of the executive committee of the Committee of Safety for Mobile, in 
which he says that ‘‘ No less than six of our river or bay steam-boats 
are at this moment fitting out to run the blockade and carry cotton 
0 Cuba,” and he officially advises me that ‘‘the committee are deeply 
impressed with the conviction that it would be unwise and dangerous 
to permit these vessels to go out.” The Committee of Safety are of 
opinion that we have no greater number of steam-boats in our waters 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 463 


than are or may be needed for general or special transportation, and 
if parties are allowed to withdraw them from their present Service, 
and engage them in running the blockade, there is great danger that 
more or less of them will be lost or captured. In this opinion I fully 
concur, and take this occasion to enter my official protest against the 
policy of permitting the limited number of steam-boats in our posses- 
sion to be reduced for this purpose. The propriety of exporting 
cotton and the conditions on which it should be tolerated or encour- 
aged, are questions for the decision of the Confederate authorities, 
and I presume their views have been communicated to the military 
commanders at our sea-ports. These questions, affecting as they do 
the general interests of the whole country, may be properly left to the 
control of the Confederate authorities at Richmond. We may also 
safely leave with them the various questions of the blockade, but the 
particular grievance herein brought to your attention is local in its 
character, and immediately concerns the interests of your command 
and of the State of Alabama. I hope, therefore, you will pardon me 
for invoking the military power under your control to prevent the 
departure of these steam-boats from Mobile, at least till the propriety 
of the act can be examined into and decided upon by the War Depart- 
ment at Richmond. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


_—_—___ 


JIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
| fiichmond, Va., March 30, 1868. 

The War Department has seen reason to remind all officers engaged 
n recruiting and conscription that the execution of the conscript act 
S a matter of responsibility and delicacy and the rights conferred by 
he acts of exemption important in a personal and publie view, and 
hat summary proceedings, in the spirit and style of the press gang, 
re in every way subversive of the true interests of recruiting as well 
S offensive to law and humanity. 

This Bureau has always inculcated these principles, and although 
here appear to have been some, yet the superintendent trusts there 
re very few of the officers acting under the Bureau who have ever 
1ade themselves liable to this admonition, other agencies having been 
t work, and having often overstepped their proper limits. 

Commandants of conscripts will make it a point to see that each 
nd every enrolling officer understands that he is not serving his coun- 
‘y by hasty action, practically nullifying the right of appeal from his 
ecision. -Men who present plausible grounds of exemption, as being 
yreigners, or over age, or claiming an examination by a full medical 
oard where they allege that a single medical officer has erroneously 
eld them to be physically capable of service, must not be assigned or 
ragged to the Army till their cases have had a fair hearing. 

On questions of domicile or age the party is entitled to the benefit 
his own affidavit if not rebutted by evidence or violent presumption 
the contrary, but in the final decision of the cases of foreigners 
ere must be cumulative testimony of facts, or neighbors to support 
e affidavit. 

By order of the superintendent: 

A. C. JONES, 
Lneutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant- General. 


464 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, N. C., March 31, 1863. 
His Excellency President DAVIS: 

Sir: I have this day addressed a letter to General Rains,* chief of 
Bureau of Conscription, in regard to the enrolling of certain State 
officers, but as the case is urgent and may assume important propor- 
tions, I have thought it best to address you directly and beg your 
attention thereon at as early a moment as your heavy duties may 
permit. The extreme rigor (and I am proud to be able to add good 
faith) with which the conscript law has been executed in North Caro- 
lina has stripped it so bare of its laboring and official population as to 
render its further operation a matter of anxiety in various respects. 
In addition to sweeping off a large class whose labor was, I fear, abso- 
lutely necessary to the existence of the women and children left behind, 
the hand of conscription has at length laid hold upon a class of officials 
without whose aid the order and well-being of society could not be 
preserved nor the execution of the laws enforced, and whose conscrip- 
tion is as insulting to the dignity as it is certainly violative of the 
rights and sovereignty of the State. Having heretofore exerted the 
utmost powers with which I am intrusted, and even exceeded them, 
according to a recent decision of the chief justice of the State, in the 
execution of this law, at this point I deem’ it my duty not only to 
pause, but to protest against its enforcement. In my letter to General 
Rains I assumed the position that the Confederate authorities should 
not conseribe any officers or agents of the State whose services were 
necessary to the due administration of her government, and that the 
State authorities (not the Confederate) must judge of this necessity. 
In this class I should certainly place justices of the peace, constables, 
and the police organizations of our towns and cities. There being no 
attempt made to enroll the officers of the militia, I shall not urge as 
to them, though I understand the right is claimed under the law to 
conscribe them. The exemption bill of October 11, 1862, provides 
that the executive and judicial officers of the State be exempted, 
except such as may by State laws be subject to militia duty. This 
would render every able-bodied man in the State liable to conscription, 
as our laws expressly provide that in case of invasion or insurrection 
no person shall be exempt whomsoever. If this construction prevails 
you will perceive that it is in the power of the War Department to 
abolish the State government by a very simple process; but, taking it 
for granted that such construction is not intended, I beg leave to say 
that the present proceedings of the Bureau go very far toward it. I 
need not inform you of the character and duties of the magistracy. 
You can but be aware of their importance. I will only say in brief 
that, in addition to their being conservators of the peace generally, 
they constitute our courts of pleas and quarter sessions and have 
jurisdiction over a far more extensive, and in many respects more 
important, range of subjects than the superior courts; in fact, the 
superior courts cannot be held without them. ‘They levy more than 
half the taxes of the State, assess all the property for taxation, pro- 
vide for the poor (now a doubly important function), and in many 
cases the law requires a certain number to be present to render their 
proceedings valid. The constable is the sheriff of the magistrate’s 
court, and as absolutely necessary to the community as the sheriff 
himself, since our sheriff can be compelled to execute no process 
except those addressed to him by a court of record. 


* Next, post. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AG5 


It is no answer to all this to say that we have more justices than are 
actually necessary, and that some might be dispensed with. The 
Legislature of the sovereign State of North Carolina recommended 
their appointment to the Executive according to the forms of the con- 
stitution, and it is to be presumed they deemed them all necessary, 
and no one has the right to say otherwise. The municipal officers 
present, if possible, a still stronger case. The mayor and police of 
this city have been enrolled and ordered into camp, which, of course, 
abolishes the government of the corporation at once and turns over 
the inhabitants to a state of lawlessness and anarchy. With the 
magistracy, the militia, and the municipal officers of our incorporated 
towns, constables, and such like officers of the State, swept into a 
camp of instruction, I am at a loss to know what would be left of the 
power or sovereignty of this State or any other. So obvious is the 
great damage and disparagement which this latitudinous construction 
of the law could work against the States that I cannot believe its 
framers so intended it, and with all due respect T doubt the wisdom 
and the policy of the War Department in urging it so far. Having 
made no question of its constitutionality and interposed no obstacle 
to its faithful execution, but on the contrary acquiesced in it as a 
great measure of necessity and assisted with zeal in its enforcement, 
T am content now to staté my opinion simply upon a fair construction 
of its terms, and I am quite confident that your sense of justice will 
not fail to perceive the weighty reasons of comity, policy, and respect 
for States’ rights, the great elementary doctrine of our revolution, 
which admonish you of the impropriety of alarming the jealousy of 
the States, exciting the murmurs of the people, and crippling the 
security of the government by seizing a few officers who could do 
little toward increasing the ranks or officering of the Army, but who 
as a part of the government are deemed necessary at home. 

Soliciting again your earliest convenient answer, and begging you 
to accept assurances of my highest consideration and esteem, 

I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


STraTE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPT., 
Raleigh, N. C., March 31, 1563. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. RAINS, 
Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 


GENERAL: Your letter of the 25th instant is to hand asking my for- 
bearance in reference to the conscription of certain officers and invit- 
ing my correspondence in reference thereto. I avail myself of that 
invitation to make myself understood in the matter. You say that 
you have calculated on my assistance, instead of opposition, in this 
matter. You may so calculate with perfect confidence. The fact that 
the conscript law has been more faithfully executed in North Caro- 
lina than any other State in the Confederacy, and that no other South- 
ern Executive (so far as J am aware) has used the whole power of the 
State militia to execute it, might be taken as an earnest of my inten- 
tion to sustain the Government so far as it may be rightfully done. But 
I cannot go beyond this. Though heretofore I have not belonged to 
that class of politicians who made the ‘‘night (and day) hideous” 
with cries for States’ rights and was rather accused of consolidationism, 
yet I am not quite willing to see the State of North Carolina in effect 


30 R R—SERIES IV, VOL U 


466 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


blotted from the map and her government abolished by the conserip- 
tion of her officers. The clause of the law quoted by you can easily 
be made to effect that, for the militia law of the State expressly pro- 
vides that in ‘‘case of invasion or insurrection nobody shall be 
exempted from duty.” Of course, then, everybody is liable to con- 
scription. The Governor, as commander-in-chief, and all officers of 
the militia are, of course, liable to militia duty, and therefore to con- 
scription also. You are already enrolling the magistrates who com- 
pose our courts of pleas and quarter sessions, lay our taxes, assess 
property for taxation, provide for the poor, and preserve the peace 
generally, and with them their executive officers, the constables; also, 
the police officers of our cities and corporations. Now, sir, after these 
and the militia officers have been taken by the Confederacy will you 
please to inform me what remains of the boasted sovereignty of the 
States? Do not reply by saying that you have not enrolled the 
militia officers; you claim the right to do it, and may undertake it at 
any time. God forbid that the rights, honor, and the existence itself 
of the States should rest only upon the grace and mercy of a bureau 
of conscription. The rights of the States certainly rest upon a more 
solid basis than this. You also say that there are no means short of 
Supernatural power by which you can know of the officers and 
employés of the State, to which my letter to Colonel August referred, 
outside of the law. That may be; in fact, I donot know that it is 
required of you to know what officers are necessary to the ordinary 
operations of the State government; but it is certainly the business of 
the chief magistrate of the State to know, and it is especially his duty 
under the constitution to see that they are not interfered with in the 
discharge of their appropriate functions. I cannot, therefore, recede 
from the position before assumed, that it is my duty to resist the con- 
scription of all State officers and agents whose services are necessary 
to the proper and due administration of the affairs of this State, and 
of which necessity her authorities must, of course, be the judge. 
Neither can this claim, plain and obvious as it is, be permitted to rest 
upon the grace of Congress as exemplified in the exemption bill, or 
the discretion and good will of those intrusted with the execution of 
the law, but upon those higher and inalienable rights which by the 
genius of our Government are deemed inherent in and inseparable 
from the sovereign character of the State. If it is the intention of 
the Confederate authorities to carry the execution of the lawof con- 
scription beyond this, I should be glad to beso informed at as early a 
day as possible. This city is to be stripped of its police officers 
to-morrow, and the magistrates of many of the counties are already 
ordered into camp, and I desire the question settled. 

Assuring you of my desire that harmony may continue to exist as 
heretofore, and of my great desire to assist in attaining our independ- 
ence by every possible means in the power of the State of North 
Carolina consistent with the preservation of liberty itself, 

I am, general, very sincerely and respectfully, yours, 


Z. B. VANCE. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 34. Richmond, April 1, 1868. 


I. The attention of commanding and other officers is called to the 
act of Congress of April 21, 1862, as published in General Orders, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A67 


No. 38, of that year. A more rigid enforcement of the requirements 
of that act on the part of commanding officers therein referred to is 
deemed important to the interest of the service. 

* * : * * * * *k 


III. The price of beef hides, transferred in accordance with para- 
graph III, General Orders, No. 64, of 1862, will be at the follow- 
ing rates: For green hides, 5 cents per pound, and dry hides, 10 cents 
per pound in the Trans-Mississippi Department; and for all beef 
hides east of the Mississippi River, 30 cents per pound. ‘These prices 
will be paid by the quartermasters and assistant quartermasters to the 
commissaries transferring them, and the latter will account for the 
fund thus received in their next accounts current. 

IV. By General Orders, No. 61, paragraph IJ, last series, from this 
office, quartermasters are directed to bear on their returns ambu- 
lances and wagons for the transportation of regimental hospita! sup- 
plies, the teams, and drivers. It is also their duty to keep them in 
good condition and ready for active service. Commanders will 
require the performance of this duty. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
CIRCULAR. ] SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


Richmond, Va., April 1, 1863. 

Medical directors will direct medical officers to make persevering 
and well-regulated efforts to have collected for the use of the sick in 
the field affected or threatened with scurvy daily supplies of the 
within-enumerated or other native edible plants and herbs growing 
in the vicinity of camp, viz: Wild mustard, water cresses, wild gar- 
lic or onion, sassafras, lamb’s-quarters, sorrel, shoots of the pokeweed 
(bleached preferred), artichoke, plume of the dandelion (bleached), 
garden parsley, peppergrass, wild yam. Company commanders 
should also be urged for the prevention of scurvy to procure in like 
manner by detail from their companies supplies of the same for the 
use of their companies. Those charged with collecting should be 
impressed with the vital importance of exercising a careful discretion 
in the recognition of the different articles to be collected. As an 
additional security in doubtful cases, inspection by a medical officer 
is recommended. He should also give instructions concerning the 
methods of preparing and using each article as best calculated to 
secure good effect. Medical officers in charge of hospitals will be 
instructed to furnish the sick with as liberal an allowance of succu- 
lent vegetables as their condition and the state of the hospital fund 
will allow. 

SAMUEL PRESTON MOORE, 
| Surgeon- General. 


——— 


[APRIL 1, 1863.—For authority granted to Col. Stand Watie to raise 
a aie in the Cherokee Nation, see Series I, Vol. XXII, Part II, 
p. 810. | 


A468 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


AN ACT to alter and amend an act entitled ‘‘An act for the sequestration of the 
estates, property, and effects of alien enemies and for indemnity of citizens of 
the Confederate States, and persons aiding the same in the existing war with the 
United States,” approved August 30, 1861, and an act altering and amending 
the same, approved on the 15th day of February, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
any district court of the Confederate States may, in its discretion, 
direct any of its receivers to lease out any sequestered land within his 
district on which are any mines or beds of copper, lead, iron, coal, 
saltpeter or other minerals, for a period not exceeding three years, 
and in such manner, and upon such terms as the court may pre- 
scribe, and such orders may be made, either by the court, or by the 
judge thereof, in vacation. 

Approved April 2, 1863. 


JOINT RESOLUTION relating to the production of provisions. 


Whereas, a strong impression prevails through the country that the 
war now being waged against; the people of the Confederate States 
may terminate during the present year; and whereas, this impression 
is leading many patriotic citizens to engage largely in the production 
of cotton and tobacco, which they would not otherwise do; and 
whereas, in the opinion of Congress, it is of the utmost importance, 
not only with a view to the proper subsistence of our armies, but for 
the interest and welfare of all the people that the agricultural labor 
of the country should be employed chiefly in the production of a 
supply of food to meet every contingency: Therefore, 

Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 'That 
it is the deliberate judgment of Congress that the people of these 
States, while hoping for peace, should look to prolonged war as the 
only condition proffered by the enemy short of subjugation; that 
every preparation necessary to encounter such a war should be per- 
sisted in; and that the amplest supply of provisions for armies and 
people should be the first object of all agriculturalists; wherefore, it 
is earnestly recommended that the people, instead of planting cotton 
and tobacco, shall direct their agricultural labor mainly to the pro- 
duction of such crops as will insure a sufficiency of food for all classes 
and for every emergency, thereby with true patriotism subordinat- 
ing the hope of gain to the certain good of the country. 

Src. 2. That the President is hereby requested to issue a procla- 
mation to the people of these States urging upon them the necessity 
of guarding against the great perils of a short crop of provisions and 
setting forth such reasons therefor as his judgment may dictate. 

Approved April 4, 1863. 


[APRIL 4, 1863.—For Davis to Pettus, suggesting the discharge of 
certain Mississippi militia to enable them to plant crops, see Series I, 
Vol. LI, Part II, p. 453. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 36. Richmond, April 6, 1863. 
The superintendent of the Niter and Mining Bureau is authorized 
to pay, from the appropriation for the purchase and manufacture of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 469 


niter, the actual traveling expenses of officers of the niter Corps on 
duty, under orders, in lieu of any commutation for the time of rations 


and forage. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 37. hichmond, April 6, 1868. 


I. The following act of Congress, concerning ‘‘impressments,” and 
the instructions of the War Department respecting it, are published 
for the information and direction of all concerned: 


AN ACT to regulate impressments. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever the 
exigencies of any army in the field are such as to make impressments of forage, 
articles of subsistence, or other property absolutely necessary, then such impress- 
ments may be made by the officer or officers whose duty it is to furnish such 
forage, articles of subsistence, or other property for such army. In cases where 
the owner of such property and the impressing officer cannot agree upon the 
value thereof, it shall be the duty of such impressing officer, upon an affidavit in 
writing of the owner of such property, or his agent, that such property was 
grown, raised, or produced by said owner, or is held or has been purchased by him, 
not for sale or speculation, but for his own use or consumption, to cause the same 
to be ascertained and determined by the judgment of two loyal and disinterested 
citizens of the city, county, or parish in which such impressments may be made, 
one to be selected by the owner, one by the impressing officer, and in the event 
of their disagreement these two shall choose an umpire of like qualifications, 
whose decision shall be final. The persons thus selected, after taking an oath 
to appraise the property impressed fairly and impartially (which oath, as well 
as the affidavit provided for in this section, the impressing officer is hereby author- 
ized to administer and certify), shall proceed to assess just compensation for the 
property so impressed, whether the absolute ownership, or the temporary use 
thereof, only is required. 

Sec. 2. That the officer or person impressing property, as aforesaid, shall, at the 
time of said taking, pay to the owner, his agent or attorney the compensation 
fixed by said appraisers; and shall also give to the owner, or person controlling 
said property, a certificate, over his official signature, specifying the battalion, 
regiment, brigade, division, or corps to which he belongs; that said property is 
essential for the use of the Army, could not be otherwise procured, and was taken 
through absolute necessity, setting forth the time and place, when and where 
taken, the amount of compensation fixed by said appraisers, and the sum,if any, © 
paid for the same. Said certificate shall be evidence for the owner, as well of the 
taking of said property for the public use, as the right of the owner to the amount 
of compensation fixed as aforesaid. And in case said officer or person taking said 
property shall have failed to pay the owner or his agent, said compensation as 
hereinbefore required, then said owner shall be entitled to the speedy payment of 
the same by the proper disbursing officer ; which, when so p1id, shall be in full 
satisfaction of all claim against the Government of the Confederate States. 

SEC. 38. Whenever the appraisement provided for in the first section of this act 
shall, for any reason, be impracticable at the time of said impressment, then and 
in that case the value of the property impressed shall be assessed as soon as possi- 
ble by two loyal and disinterested citizens of the city, county, or parish wherein 
the property was taken, chosen as follows: One by the owner and one by the 
Commissary or Quartermaster General, or his agent, who, in case of disagree- 
ment, shall choose a third citizen of like qualifications as an umpire to decide the 
matters in dispute, who shall be sworn as aforesaid, who shall hear the proofs 
adduced by the parties as to the value of said property, and assess a just compen- 
sation therefor, according to the testimony. 

Sec. 4. That whenever the Secretary of War shall be of opinion that it is nec- 
essary to take private property for public use, by reason of the impracticability 
of procuring the same by purchase, so as to accumulate necessary supplies for 


470 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Army, or the good of the service, in any locality, he may, by general order, 
through the proper subordinate officers, authorize such property to be taken for 
the public use; the compensation due the owner for the same to be determined, 
and the value fixed as provided for in the first and second sections of this act. 

Src. 5. That it shall be the duty of the President, as early as practicable after 
the passage of this act, to appoint a commissioner in each State where property 
shall be taken for the public use, and request the Governor of such of the States 
in which the President shall appoint said commissioner, to appoint another com- 
missioner, to act in conjunction with the commissioner appointed by the Presi- 
dent, who shall receive the compensation of eight dollars per day, and ten cents 
per mile as mileage, to be paid by the Confederate Government. Said commis- 
sioners shall constitute a board, whose duty it shall be to fix upon the prices to be 
paid by the Government, for all property impressed or taken for the public use 
as aforesaid, so as to afford just compensation to the owners thereof. Said com- 
missioners shall agree upon and publish a schedule of prices every two months, 
or oftener if they shall deem it proper; and in the event they shall not be able to 
agree in any matter confided to them in this act, they shall have power to appoint 
an umpire to decide the matter in dispute, whose decision shall be the decision of 
the board; and said umpire shall receive the same rate of compensation for 
the time he shall serve allowed to said commissioners respectively: Provided, 
That said commissioners shall be residents of the State for which they shall be 
appointed; and if the Governor of any State shall refuse or neglect to appoint 
said commissioner within ten days after a request to do so by the President, then 
the President shall appoint both commissioners, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate. 

Sec. 6. That all property impressed or taken for the public use, as aforesaid, in 
the hands of any person other than the persons who have raised, grown or pro- 
duced the same, or persons holding the same for their own use or consumption, 
and who shall make the affidavit as hereinbefore required, shall be paid for 
according to the schedule of prices fixed by the commissioners as aforesaid. But 
if the officer impressing or taking for the public use such property, and the 
owner shall differ as to the quality of the article or property impressed or taken, 
as aforesaid, thereby making it fall within a higher or lower price named in the 
schedule, then the owner or agent, and the officer impressing or taking, as afore- 
said, may select each a loyal and disinterested citizen, of the qualifications as 
aforesaid, to determine the quality of said article or property, who shall, in case 
of disagreement, appoint an umpire of like qualifications, and his decision, if 
approved by the officer impressing, shall be final; but if not approved, the 
impressing officer shall send the award to the commissioners of the State where 
the property is impressed, with his reasons for disapproving the same, and said 
commissioners may hear such proofs as the parties may respectively adduce, 
and their decision shall be final: Provided, That the owner may receive the price 
offered by the impressing officer, without prejudice to his claim to receive the 
higher compensation. 

Sec. 7. That the property necessary for the support of the owner and his 
family, and to carry on his ordinary agricultural and mechanical business, to be 
ascertained by the appraisers, to be appointed as provided in the first section of 
this act, under oath, shall not be taken or impressed for the public use; and 
when the impressing officer and the owner cannot agree as to the quantity of prop- 
erty necessary, as aforesaid, then the decision of the said appraisers shall be bind- 
ing on the officer and all other persons. 

SEC. 8. Where property has been impressed for temporary use, and is lost or 
destroyed without the default of the owner, the Government of the Confederate 
States shall pay a just compensation therefor; to be ascertained by appraisers 
appointed and qualified as provided in the first section of this act. If such prop- 
erty when returned has, in the opinion of the owner, been injured whilst in the 
public use, the amount.of damage thereby sustained shall be determined in the 
manner described in the third section of this act, the officer returning the prop- 
erty being authorized to act on behalf of the Government; and upon such inquiry, 
the certificate of the value of the property, when originally impressed, shall be 
received as prima facie evidence of the value thereof. 

SEC. 9. Where slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government to labor on 
fortifications or other public works, the impressment shall be made by said Govy- 
ernment according to the rules and regulations provided in the laws of the State 
wherein they are impressed; and in the absence of such law, in accordance with 
such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as the 
Secretary of War shall from time to time prescribe: Provided, That no impress- 
ment of slaves shall be made when they can be hired or procured by the consent 
of the owner or agent. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 471 


Sec. 10. That previous to the first day of December next, no slave laboring on a 
farm or plantation, exclusively devoted to the production of grain and provisions, 
shall be taken for the public use without the consent of the owner, except in case 
of urgent necessity. 

Sec. 11. That any commissioned or non-commissioned officer or private who 
shall violate the provisions of this act shall be tried before the military court of 
the corps to which he is attached, on complaint made by the owner or other per- 
son, and on conviction, if an officer, he shall be cashiered and put. into the ranks 
as a private; and if a non-commissioned officer or private, he shall suffer such 
punishment, not inconsistent with military law, as the court may direct. 

Approved March 26, 1863. 


IJ. 1. By the authority of the act of Congress aforesaid the Secre- 
tary of War hereby recognizes impressment as a legal and operative 
mode of securing necessary supplies of subsistence, medical and quar- 
termaster’s stores for the armies of the Confederate States in the field, 
and to accumulate them in magazines, posts, and depots, owing to the 
impracticability of procuring them by contract. 

2. Impressments may be made under orders from generals com- 
manding armies, departments, corps, divisions, brigades, and by com- 
manders of detached parties and posts, when a necessity arises, which 
orders may be executed by quartermasters, commissaries, or medical 
purveyors and their subordinates, for their respective departments. 

The Quartermaster-General, Commissary-General, and Surgeon- 
General may designate the officers and persons who shall be compe- 
tent to make impressments to accumulate supplies at posts and 
depots. 

3. No officer or agent shall impress the necessary supplies which 
any person may have for the consumption of himself, his family, 
employés, slaves, or to carry on his ordinary mechanical, manufac- 
turing, or agricultural employments. | 

4. Before any impressment of property shall take place the impress- 
ing officer or his agent shall make an offer, addressed to the owner, 
his bailee or other agent, to purchase the property, describing the 
property he wishes to purchase, the price to be paid, and the mode of 
payment, whether in money or by certificate, and stating that upon 
the refusal of the price offered that compensation for the property 
will be made according to the act of Congress aforesaid for the regu- 
lation of impressments; which notice shall bind the said property until 
the completion of the negotiation for the sale or appropriation thereof, 
So that there can be no removal or transfer of the same. 

d. In the event of the refusal of the price offered the impressing 
officer shall proceed to settle the compensation to be paid, according 
.to the first section of the act aforesaid, if the property belongs to a 
person who has grown, raised, or produced the same, or who holds or 
has purchased the same for his own use or consumption, but the said 
property shall be paid for according to the fifth section of the act 
aforesaid, if the property is held for sale or other purposes than those 
before mentioned. 

6. That the property shall remain in the possession of the owner, 
his bailee or agent, and at his risk, during the pendency of the pro- 
ceedings for the ascertainment of the compensation, unless it shall be 
otherwise agreed to, or unless some urgent necessity shall require the 
possession of the property to be changed. In case of a change of pos- 
session the Confederate States shall be regarded as the owner, and 
the property shall be held for their account and risk. 

7. The impressing officer shall, at the date of the impressment, pay 
to the owner, his agent or attorney in fact, the compensation agreed 


472 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


upon, if it be practicable; but if he cannot do so, he shall give a cer- 
tificate, according to the second section of the act aforesaid, which 
shall be paid upon presentation to the disbursing officers, who shall 
be designated for that purpose. 

8. Impressments, which shall be made before the appointment of 
the commissioners designated in the fifth section of the act aforesaid, 
shall notwithstanding be legal, and in the cases provided for by that 
section a portion of the property shall be retained as samples, so that 
the price may be settled and compensation adjusted according to the 
provisions of the same. 

By order: | 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. . 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 38. Richmond, April 7, 1863. 


I. The following provision of an act of the Legislature of Virginia, 
passed March 26, 1863, is, by direction of the President, published 
for the information and guidance of such officers and soldiers of the 
C. S. Army as it concerns: 


%. Beit further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth to issue his proclamation giving notice to the qualified voters of the 
State in the military service of the State or of the Confederate States, or who 
may be absent from the county or corporation of their residence, because of the 
presence of the public enemy, of their right to vote for members of the General 
Assembly, by virtue of the provisions of the first, second, and fourth sections of 
the ordinance passed by the convention of Virginia (No. 99) on the sixth day of 
December, 1861. And also to all whom it may concern, of the passage of this act, 
and of the rights and duties set forth in its provisions; and it shall further be his 
duty to request the President of the Confederate States to issue an order to all 
commandants of camps, posts, and detachments in command of Virginia troops, 
Anan them to give their aid in the due execution of the ordinance aforesaid 
and of this act. 


II. Cadets on attaining their majority will be examined, and if 
found competent will be promoted to the grade of second leutenant 
in the arm of the service to which they are attached. Commanders 
of armies in the field are charged with the assembling of the requi- 
site boards. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., Apri 7, 1863. 


His Excellency JOHN G. SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama, Montgomery, Ala.: 


Str: I have received your letter in reference to the conversion of 
steamers at Mobile into vessels for running the blockade. In reply I 
have the honor to say that the Department has not contemplated 
seizing or employing in exporting any of the mere river steamers. 
The Alabama, represented as a sea-going vessel peculiarly adapted 
to running the blockade, it is the purpose of the Department to buy 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 473 


or impress at her appraised value. Very strong considerations of 
military exigency demand this, and it is hoped Your Excellency will 
acquiesce in the measure. 

In relation to the exportation of cotton generally, it does not belong 
to the Department to determine its policy or propriety. Congress, by 
its legislation, has interposed no obstacles, but impliedly sanctioned 
it, and, of course, when strictly military reasons do not forbid, the 
Department acquiesces and allows the export. Nor can I deny or 
obstruct such legal use of the river steam-boats as the owners deem 
judicious, although inclined to concur with you in regard to: the 
impolicy of the risk of their loss, and the importance of retaining 
‘them on the inland waters. Such interposition would, as you will 
readily appreciate, more appropriately proceed from Your Excellency 
or other State authorities. 

With high regards, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, April 7, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 
(Through the Adjutant and Inspector General.) 

Str: The letter herewith of Brigadier-General Pillow is respect- 
fully returned to the War Department.* In so far as this paper and 
its indorsements indicate imperfections in the administration of the 
conscript law by the organizations which this Bureau was instituted 
to superintend, they will receive my respectful and earnest attention. 
It is already my purpose to send a capable officer of rank to inspect, 
with the aim of detecting, and, as far as possible; remedying the fail- 
ures, willful or ignorant, of our very numerous subordinate agents. 
Daily and minute correspondence to that end has been prosecuted by 
this Bureau since its establishment. 

It may be that a system of carrying on this business by officers 
selected from the armies might have been more effective. My prov- 
ince under my orders has been to carry on with due zeal on the one 
hand for the interests of the service, and due regard on the other for 
the rights secured by law and humanity to our citizens, a system long 
ago established by supreme authority; that authority and its discretion 
deemed proper not to draw upon the body of the Army or community 
for a corps of agents specially selected for individual qualification 
and with rank, but to intrust the business in its subordinate agen- 
cies to such material (militia officers or disabled or wounded men 
principally) as was most easily available without prejudice to num- 
bers in the field. The coincidence of such availability with high 
qualifications was not to be expected as a matter of course, or even 
in a majority of cases. The evidences of general painstaking by the 
_ superior officers, as evolved in correspondence, have been satisfac- 
tory to my judgment. . 

The numbers that have joined as volunteers upon the call of the 
recruiting officers afford an indication of energy on the part of offi- 
cers of conscription, for the motives in many cases are doubtless those 
to which the recruiting officers appeal in their handbills, viz, the 


* See Pillow to Falconer, March 19, p 442. 


ATA CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


supposed impossibility or improbability of escaping conscription, 
and the superior advantages offered to the recruit by a voluntary 
enlistment. | 

The results attained by the system of enrollment and assemblage 
at camps of conscription cannot be fairly appreciated without weigh- 
ing the immense influences of prejudice brought to bear against its 
operation in a country like ours, where the individual is peculiarly 
sensitive to public opinion; that adverse opinion unfortunately 
adopted by the country was originated and propagated by the Army. 
The recruiting officers sent out for a limited time to acquire a speci- 
fied addition of numbers each for his own organization generally took 
the shortest path to their object, and without reflection on the future 
bearing of their course preached the terrors of the law and the odious- 
ness of conscription; hence the name of conscript and the camp of 
conscription are hateful to many as the slave-ship or the pest-house. 
This Bureau has endeavored to alleviate this evil, as far as possible, 
by having the conscripts sent from all quarters without delay to the 
field, instead of gathering them in bodies, as heretofore, for some pre- 
liminary instruction. 

In self-defense, lest I should be misconstrued to have opposed the 
Army agencies of recruiting (and I will here state in parenthesis 
that in cheerfully accepting and seeking to facilitate the views of 
the recruiting circular of January 8, 1863, from the Adjutant and In- 
spector General’s Office), I acted in conflict with the apprehensions 
expressed by many, if not most, of my subordinate commandants, 
and lest a spirit of jealousy or exclusive control should be attributed 
to me I beg leave respectfully, though with regret, to point out some 
of the great inconsistencies of General Pillow’s general professions of 
regard for law and order in the matter, with the facts, and with his 
own statements: 

First. Cumulative testimony from several States has been con- 
stantly pouring into this office ever since that forwarded with my let- 
ter of March 19, 1863, to the War Department, not merely of practical 
disregard on a large scale of general orders by principal and subor- 
dinate officers acting under General Pillow, but of their assertion of 
specific orders from himself to that effect. 

Second. Even at this late date General Pillow argues for his own 
construction of the circular of January 8, 1863, and treats as if non- 
existent the explanatory order of the War Department, Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Office, General Orders, No. 16, February 7, 1863, 
which clearly defines the limits of jurisdiction and expressly forbids 
the supervisory action he claims and admits to have systematically 
exercised in ‘‘setting aside” (see General Orders, No. 16) the ‘‘decisions 
and exemptions established under the authority of the commandants 
of conscripts in the respective States.” Had any case of supposed 
error been reported it would have been reviewed by the proper 
authorities, but not one such specific case has ever been presented to 
me, nor, that I am aware of, to any of my subordinates. 

Third. He claims for and assigns to his officers the right to over- 
rule the medical decisions of the boards of surgeons, specially organ- 
ized by law for the sole purpose of dealing with questions of exemption 
for physical incapacity, and whose decisions are declared in General 
Orders, No. 82, of 1862, to be final. 

In conclusion, I declare that had these arbitrary proceedings been 
on a small scale I should have contented myself with endeavoring to 
procure remedial action in particular cases, and should not have 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AT5 


troubled the Department on the general point of conflicting jurisdic- 
tion. | 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


P. S.—In reference to General Pillow’s statement as to Mississippi 
conscripts, the War Department is respectfully reminded that since 
January 20, ultimo, under special instructions from the Secretary of 
War, all conscripts from that State have been requested to be sent to 
General Bragg’s army until further orders. 


ADDRESS. 


TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


In compliance with the request of Congress, contained in resolutions 
passed on the 4th day of the current month, I invoke your attention 
to the present condition and future prospects of our country and to 
the duties which patriotism imposes on us all during this great strug- 
gle for our homes and our liberties. These resolutions are in the 
following language :* 

Fully concurring in the views thus expressed by the Congress, I 
confidently appeal to your love of country for aid in carrying into 
effect the recommendations of your Senators and Representatives. 
We have reached the close of the second year of the war, and may 
point with just pride to the history of our young Confederacy. Alone, 
unaided, we have met and overthrown the most formidable combina- 
tion of naval and military armaments that the lust of conquest ever 
gathered together for the subjugation of a free people. We began 
this struggle without a single gun afloat, while the resources of our 
enemy enabled them to gather fleets which, according to their official 
list published in August last, consisted of 427 vessels, measuring 
340,036 tons and carrying 3,268 guns. Yet we have captured, sunk, 
or destroyed a number of these vessels, including two large frigates 
and one steam sloop of war, while four of their captured steam gun- 
boats are now in our possession, adding to the strength of our little 
Navy, which is rapidly gaining in numbers and efficiency. To oppose 
invading forces composed of levies which have already exceeded 
1,300,000 men, we had no resources but the unconquerable valor of a 
people determined to be free, and we were so destitute of military 
supplies that tens of thousands of our citizens were reluctantly refused 
admission into the service from our inability to provide them with 
arms, while for many months some of our important strongholds owed 
their safety chiefly to a careful concealment of the fact that we were 
without a supply of powder for our cannon. Your devotion and 
patriotism have triumphed over all these obstacles and called into 
existence the munitions of war, the clothing, and the subsistence 
which have enabled our soldiers to illustrate their valor on numerous 
battle-fields, and to inflict crushing defeats on successive armies, 
each of which an arrogant foe fondly imagined to be invincible. 

The contrast between our past and present condition is well caleu- 
lated to inspire full confidence in the triumph of our arms. At no 


*See ‘‘ Joint Resolution relating to the production of provisions,” p. 468. 


A476 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


previous period of the war have our forces been so numerous, so well 
organized, and so thoroughly disciplined, armed, and equipped as at 
present. The season of high water, on which our enemies relied to 
enable their fleets of gun-boats to penetrate into our country and 
devastate our homes, is fast passing away; yet our strongholds on 
the Mississippi still bid defiance to the foe, and months of costly prepa- 
rations for their reduction have been spent in vain. Disaster has 
been the result of their every effort to turn or to storm Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson, as well as of every attack on our batteries on the Red 
River, the Tallahatchie, and other navigable streams. Within a few 
weeks the falling waters and the increasing heats of summer will com- 
plete their discomfiture and compel their baffled and defeated forces 
to the abandonment of expeditions on which was based their chief 
hope of success in effecting our subjugation. We must not forget, 
however, that the war is not yet ended, and that we are still confronted 
by powerful armies and threatened by numerous fleets; and that the 
Government which controls these fleets and armies is driven to the 
most desperate efforts to effect the unholy purposes in which it has 
thus far been defeated. It will use its utmost energy to arrest the 
impending doom, so fully merited by the atrocities it has committed, 
the savage barbarities which it has encouraged, and the crowning 
infamy of its attempt to excite aservile population to the massacre of 
our wives, our daughters, and our helpless children. With such a 
contest before us there is but one danger which the Government of 
your choice regards with apprehension, and to avert this danger it 
appeals to the never-failing patriotism and spirit of self-sacrifice which 
you have exhibited since the beginning of the war. The very unfa- 
vorable season, the protracted droughts of last year, reduced the 
harvests on which we depended far below an average yield, and the 
deficiency was unfortunately still more marked in the northern por- 
tion of the Confederacy, where supplies were specially needed for the 
army. If through a confidence in early peace, which may prove delu- 
Sive, our fields should be now devoted to the production of cotton and 
tobacco instead of grain and live stock, and other articles necessary 
for the subsistence of the people and the Army, the consequences may 
prove serious, if not disastrous, especially should the present season 
prove as unfavorable as the last. 

Your country, therefore, appeals to you to lay aside all thought of 
gain, and to devote yourselves to securing your liberties, without 
which those gains would be valueless. It is true that the wheat har- 
vest in the more southern States, which will be gathered next month, 
promises an abundant yield; but even if this promise be fulfilled the 
difficulty of transportation, enhanced as it has been by an unusually 
rainy winter, will cause embarrassments in military operations and 
suffering among the people, should the crops in the middle and north- 
ern portions of the Confederacy prove deficient. But no uneasiness 
need be felt in regard to a mere supply of bread for man. Itis for the 
large amount of corn and forage required for the raising of live stock 
and for the supply of the animals used in military operations that 
your aid is specially required. These articles are too bulky for dis- 
tant transportation, and in them the deficiency in the last harvest 
was most felt. Let your fields be devoted exclusively to the produe- 
tion of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and — 
beast; let corn be sown broadcast for fodder in immediate proximity 
to railroads, rivers, and canals, and let all your efforts be directed to 
the prompt supply of these articles in the districts where our armies 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ATT 


are operating. You willthus add greatly totheir efficiency and furnish 
the means without which it is impracticable to make those prompt and 
active movements which have hitherto stricken terror into our enemies 
and secured our most brilliant triumphs. 

Having thus placed before you, my countrymen, the reasons for 
the call made on you for aid in supplying the wants of the coming 
year, I add a few words of appeal in behalf of the brave soldiers now 
confronting your enemies, and to whom your Government is unable 
to furnish all the comforts they so richly merit. The supply of meat 
for the Army is deficient. This deficiency is only temporary, for 
measures have been adopted which will, it is believed, soon enable us 
to restore the full ration. But that ration is now reduced at times to 
one-half the usual quantity in some of our armies. It is known that 
the supply of meat throughout the country is sufficient for the support 
of all, but the distances are so great, the condition of the roads has 
been so bad during the five months of winter weather through which 
we have just passed, and the attempt of groveling speculators to 
forestall the market and make money out of the lifeblood of our 
defenders have so much influenced the withdrawal from sale of the 
surplus in the hands of the producers, that the Government has been 
unable to gather full supplies. 

The Secretary of War has prepared a plan,* which is appended to 
this address, by the aid of which, or some similar means to be adopted 
by yourselves, you can assist the officers of the Government in the 
purchase of the bacon, the pork, and the beef known to exist in large 
quantities in different parts of the country. 

Even if the surplus be less than is believed, is it not a bitter and 
humiliating reflection that those who remain at home, secure from 
hardship and protected from danger, should be in the enjoyment of 
abundance, and that their slaves also should have a full supply of 
food, while their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers are stinted in 
the rations on which their health and efficiency depend ? 

Entertaining no fear that you will either misconstrue the motives 
of this address or fail to respond to the call of patriotism, I have 
placed the facts fully and frankly before you. Let us all unite in the 
performance of our duty, each in his sphere, and with concerted, per- 
sistent, and well-directed effort there seems little reason to doubt 
that under the blessing of Him to whom we look for guidance, and 
who has been to us our shield and our strength, we shall maintain the 
sovereignty and independence of these Confederate States, and trans- 
mit to our posterity the heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 

Richmond, April 10, 1868. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 39. Richmond, April 10, 1868. 


I. That in all cases of impressment heretofore made under the 
authority of any of the persons mentioned in paragraph II of section 
11 of General Orders, No. 37, in which the property impressed is 
either in the possession of the owner or of the impressing officer or 
his subordinates, and the compensation therefor shall not have been 


* Not found herewith, but see Northrop’s circular letter of April 15, 1863, Vol, 
III, this series, p. 290. 


478 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


adjusted, and it shall be necessary to determine the compensation 
to be made, it shall be lawful to employ the rules and agencies pro- 
vided in the act of Congress concerning impressment and the general 
orders aforesaid for that purpose, in the same manner and under the 
Same circumstances as if the impressment had been made since the 
date of the same. 

II. ‘‘Conscripts examined prior to the publication of General 
Orders, No. 22, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, February 23, 
1863, and excused from military service, for reasons announced in 
that order as insufficient cause for exemption, will be re-examined 
by the examining board of surgeons for the different Congressional 
districts, and if not deemed unfit for military duty under the instruc- 
tions issued, will be received into service.” 

‘“Temporary exemption” will not be given for a ‘‘ period beyond 
thirty days.” 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


LONDON, April 11, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I beg to inclose duplicate of my respects dated 30th of March, 
ultimo, and am since without any of your favors. I am happy now to 
have to advise that Major Huse has returned from the Continent, and 
that I had a conference with him on the 9th instant. In that conver- — 
sation he informed me that he had already bought for the Government 
three steamers to run between Bermuda and our ports, and further, 
that he feared there would be some difficulty in deciding which boats 
the goods he bought should goon. Ireminded him that as Mr. Mason 
had showed him your letter stating the basis upon which the business 
between the Government and myself should be conducted, that the 
steamers purchased by me would only carry the goods purchased by 
Collie and myself. This he expressed surprise at, and said that 
Isaac, Campbell & Co. were much better prepared to make such 
purchases, being more familiar with the business than A. Collie & 
Co., and that he preferred to think the matter over before arriving at 
any conclusion. To-day I have had another conference with him, 
the result of which I beg leave to inclose in the shape of a copy of a 
letter from him. The original I retain. I was extremely anxious 
that he should give his reasons for declining to fill the medical and 
ordnance orders through A. Collie & Co. in the same letter, but he 
insisted that he was very much pressed for time and must postpone 
it until he had more leisure. From what passed verbally I conclude 
that he is determined that his orders shall continue to be executed 
through his friends, Isaac, Campbell & Co.; but as he will doubtless 
write to the Department his reasons for this course, it is unnecessary 
for me to say more just here, except to add that from what I hear of 
the house I would not select to place my business in their hands. 
This much I would not say if I did not feel justified by good-evidence 
for saying it. 

I omitted in the beginning to say that before Major Huse’s arrival 
I purchased a very fine and fast side-wheel steamer for £26,000. The 
only objection to her is that she cost too much money. She is just 
finished, and will commence taking in cargo next week, as will also 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A479 


the first of the double screws. She could have been bought ten days 
ago for £24,000, but after the trial trip they put up the price to 
£27,000, and while by holding off we might have bought her for 
£25,000, yet as three other parties were talking of her and to decide 
next day, I feared I might lose her by delay. I think you will be 
pleased when you hear of her arrival in the Confederate States. 
These two vessels, to commence loading next week, will carry the goods 
already bought by Major Ferguson, which he estimates at 300 tons, 
and will be the half of each cargo to which your Department is 
entitled. One-fourth of this cargo I shall purchase for the Navy 
Department, under Mr. Mallory’s advice that he has arranged with 
you to take one-fourth interest in each vessel; the other fourth of 
each cargo will, of course, be on our own account. Inasmuch as 
these goods were bought by Major Ferguson before I entered into 
this arrangement, and have in many instances already paid a com- 
mission, we will not make any charge on them, but will in future 
always charge 23 per cent. commission on the Government portion of 
each cargo by these vessels. I hope you will agree with me that is 
strictly in accordance with our agreement, and it is not amiss, I 
think, to observe that the Government has rarely failed to pay a com- 
mission on its purchases here. In this connection pardon me for add- 
ing that I shall not regret a comparison of our invoices and the quality 
of the goods we send with what have heretofore gone forward, though 
it is generally understood here that many thousand dollars’ worth of 
goods have been sent to our Government without any invoices. You 
will know whether or not this is so, and the reasons for it. 

Mr. Mason furnished me to-day with £55,000, which will meet the 
Government’s three-fourths of the two steamers’ cargoes, but we will 
want more money very soon to send cargoes out to Nassau to meet 
them on their return. I hope I shall be able to obtain Major Huse’s 
aid in obtaining it for your Department, and Captain Bulloch’s for 
the Navy. 

Permit me, in conclusion, to say that I should be very sorry if the 
arrangement made by your Department with me should result to the 
prejudice of our Government, but that although it meets with some 
opposition here (I mean that although Major Huse seems to think ita 
bad one), yet I am more than ever satisfied that it will result in much 
good to our Government and people, in this, that the goods will be 
bought here at least as cheap and laid down in our ports at much less 
cost than ever before. In considering this question may I suggest that 
it might be well for you to inquire into the expense heretofore incurred 
on Government goods at the islands, as it is reported that a charge of 
® per cent. on invoice cost has been frequently charged there. I can- 
not believe that it is so, but it is worth inquiring into. 

Hoping soon to have the pleasure of writing you by the two new 
steamers, 

I remain, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


P. 8.—I find that I have omitted to say that of the three vessels I 
had under consideration when I last wrote only one would have suited 
in any way. She was at Hamburg, and I sent over to look at her, and 
before our messenger returned she was sold. I have already written 
you how heartily Mr. Mason approved of the arrangement the Gov- 
ernment has made with me. He took occasion to repeat his hearty 
indorsement. 

W. Gea C; 


480 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] | 


Lonpon, March 30, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I had this pleasure 13th, 14th, and 21st instant, duplicates* of 
which I beg now to inclose. Since the latter date I have received none 
of your favors. I regret to have to advise that Maj. C. Huse has not 
yet returned to this city. Ihave a letter from him dated 20th instant 
at Paris, saying that he has received a letter from the War Depart- 
ment containing extract of your letter to me of 8th February, and from 
what he can gather from this extract it will be desirable for us to con- 
fer with each other, and regrets that it is necessary for him to leave 
Paris for Vienna that evening; that immediately on his return he will 
communicate with me. I have not felt that I ought to lose a moment 
in making arrangements to carry my arrangements into effect on 
account of Major Huse’s absence from England, and after conferring 
with Mr. Mason and showing him your last dispatch we have signed 
the contract between him, Mr. Collie, and myself, a copy of which I 
beg leave to inclose herein.+ I believe and sincerely trust that in all 
respects it will meet your approval. If in this I err, please advise me 
in what particular, and I will try to have it altered to meet your views. 

The French loan being put through very easily (the particulars 
of which will doubtless reach you through Mr. Mason), he requested 
that I should inform him how fast I would require the money, and I 
beg to inclose copy of my letter to him of 20th instant.+ This is based 
on the contract which we have already closed for four iron steamers 
to be ready as follows, viz: Built by Dudgeon & Brother, London, 
first ready 6th of April, guaranteed fourteen and one-half knots per 
hour; second ready 6th of May, guaranteed thirteen and one-half 
knots per hour; third ready 30th of June, guaranteed fifteen knots 
per hour; fourth ready 15th of July, guaranteed fifteen knots per 
hour; all at £14,500 each, less 1 per cent. brokerage; and have now 
under consideration three steamers which are ready for sea. One of 
them, I think, we will close for this week and possibly for two of them. 
It is but justice to Mr. Collie to add that he had already before my 
arrival here contracted with Dudgeon for steamer marked first above, 
and to be ready 6th of April, and could have sold his contract for a 
very large profit; indeed, I would have paid it if she had belonged to 
any one else, as our offer of £17,500 for the Kate, built by Dudgeon, 
and just finished (at whose trial trip I was two weeks ago), was 
refused. She is to be at least one knot faster than the Flora, which 
was built by the same parties, and which is one knot faster than the 
Kate. I made the offer for the Kate because of my anxiety to get 
started, and especially after getting Major Ruffin’s order was more 
than ever anxious to secure her, but the parties bought the contract 
some time ago for £15,500, and on account of the recent successes 
through the blockade have concluded, I hear, to send her to the Con- 
federate States instead of to China, as originally intended. These 
four vessels are all double-screw and full sister of the Flora, of which 
you have probably heard, as she has successfully run the blockade 
twice up to our last dates from Nassau. I inclose the correspondencet 
with Mr. Collie in reference to the first vessel, and take occasion to 
add that I believe that he will carry out in good faith article No. 10 
of our contract, which, by the way, is a very important one, for you 
can scarcely form an idea of the extent to which commissions and 


* Letters of 18th and 14th not found. + Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A481 


drawbacks are allowed in this country. It is almost universal, but as 
you already see if it be once allowed there is no limit to which it 
might be carried. 

I trust in all next week to be able to commence loading this first 
vessel, and that it will not be long after this reaches you before she 
and probably one of those I am in treaty for reach one of our ports. 
In this connection it is proper to add that it is an absolute necessity 
for the proper conduct of this business on the scale it must be 
carried on that we should have a house in Charleston or some other 
of our Southern cities, and knowing no one who would be more com- 
petent to carry it on than my brother James, I have written him 
that he must go. Being in the commissary office, I fear that he will 
object, and I beg if he does that you will use your influence with him 
to go. I know that his desire in this contest is to take that position 
in which he can do our country the greatest service, and I am more 
than ever satisfied that the carrying out of this arrangement suc- 
cessfully will do more to aid our Government in controlling prices of 
goods and appreciating our currency than anything else would, and 
that therefore he ought to go without consulting his own wishes, and 
I know he will do so if he is convinced of these facts. 

I am very much pleased to see from your favor of February 4 that 
your opinions are identical with mine in thinking that the business 
can only be prosecuted successfully by having a depot at the islands, 
and that with very fast steamers between these and our ports the 
trips can be made with almost the regularity of packets. You will 
see by the contract that I provide for one or more depots, and already 
Mr. Collie has agents there to look after his interests, and they will 
also have charge of ours. I trust Mr. Mallory will find it convenient to 
let me have at least two or three first-rate naval officers to take charge 
of as many of our steamers, and I will let you know when I want them 
sentout. He promised me before I left that I should have them if I con- 
cluded to carry this arrangement out. I trust that you will not think 
that I commit an error and go in violation to your orders in continuing 
my arrangements without awaiting Major Huse’s return. I do not 
desire to do so, but in any event I look upon prompt action as impor- 
tant, and with Major Ruffin’s order for meat before me it seems that 
there is not a moment to be lost in preparing to carry out his order. Mr. 
Mason has seen Mr. Erlanger and informs me that the £05,000 wanted 
by me by 10th of April will be advanced promptly when wanted, and 
assures me that the balance of my wants will be met out of the regu- 
lar payments to the loan, unless in the meantime other orders for the 
money are sent forward by the Treasury Department. I beg, there- 
fore, to suggest that to insure my not being put to any inconvenience 
on this account that you send me such papers or drafts on the finan- 
cial agent or on the depositaries as will put it beyond any question. 
I find that while the purchases of goods, &c., and sale of cotton will 
be made through Mr. Collie’s several houses here and elsewhere, yet 
in order to retain control and keep well posted as to the condition of 
the accounts it will be necessary for me to open a separate set of 
books. This will be done in the name of Crenshaw & Hobson. This 
latter is Lieut. C. L. Hobson, who was sent out with me by Mr. Mal- 
lory. He being interested with me in these ventures, will remain here 
to aid me in carrying them out, and feels the same necessity of resign- 
ing his commission that I do, and I beg to inclose herein his resigna- 
tion * with duplicate * of my own. 


aa * Not found. 
dl R R—SERIES IV, VOL ILI 


482 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Please address me in future to the care of Alex. Collie & Co., No. 
929A Austin Friars, London, and I shall be much indebted for any 
suggestions that you may from time to time think proper to honor me 
with. Iam sure it is not necessary to reiterate to you my great desire 
to serve our country to the best of my ability, and that no exertion 
shall be spared on my part to discharge well all of the interests that 
they may intrust to me while here. 

I remain, very truly, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


299A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, April 11, 1863. 


WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, KEsq., 
London: 


DEAR Str: Referring to the conversation I have had with you on 
the subject of your mission to Europe, I have to say that in compli- 
ance with the instructions of the War Department I will keep you 
informed of the wants of the War Department as I may from time to 
time receive them. As regards the purchase of supplies for the Ord- 
nance and Medical Departments, I shall make the purchases without 
availing myself of the services of Messrs. Crenshaw & Collie, except- 
ing in such cases as I may feel satisfied their agency would be advan- 
tageous to the Confederate States Government. My reasons for com- 
ing to this determination I will communicate to you at a future time. 

I am, dear sir, in haste, yours, truly, 
CALEB HUSE. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, April 13, 1863. 
General BRAXTON BRAGG, 
Commanding, &c.: 

GENERAL: A letter of Brigadier-General Pillow, containing a num- 
ber of inclosures relative to the organization and procedure of a 
bureau of conscription established under his superintendence by your 
orders, with your indorsement, has been received. The Department, 
after an examination of all the orders and instructions that have been 
issued under its instruction, can have no other opinion than that the 
organization described was not sanctioned by them, nor could it adopt 
it as legitimate without superseding its own arrangements and trans- 
ferring its own functions to those to whom the law has not confided 
them. Having concluded as to this, its decision was twice sent to you 
and the reasons for it explained at much length in a letter directed to 
General Johnston. The Department has not thought it worth while 
to encumber its action by special criticisms upon the orders and pro- 
cedure of that bureau, nor by communicating the outcry and dissat- 
isfaction that the conduct of some of the officers created. The 
Department has found by experience that irregular and unauthor- 
ized proceedings of military officers are not likely to promote harmony 
or to prevent discontent or disorder, and that the good of the service 
requires of it to correct them when they are brought to its notice. 
This is the whole extent of its action in this instance. The letter of 
Brigadier-General Pillow to your adjutant-general was referred to the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 483 


Bureau of Conscription. The superintendent of the Bureau has made 
a report, a copy of which is inclosed.* 
For Secretary of War. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, April 14, 1863. 
Lieut. Col. L. SmM1rH, 
Assistant Quartermaster- General, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: I inclose you seventy-five copies of a circulart recently issued 
with the approval of the War Department and designed to restrain 
competition between quartermasters in the purchase of army supplies, 
and regulate other matters of importance to the service. You will see 
that you have been designated as the principal purchasing officer for 
that district, which embraces the State of Virginia, and you will do 
all in your power to inaugurate this new system and see that the pro- 
visions of the circular are strictly adhered to by all your subordinates: 
Any violation of the same that may be brought to your attention will 
be promptly reported to this office. These copies are intended for 
liberal distribution among the various post quartermasters stationed 
within your district, all quartermasters in the field being supplied 
with the same through the chief ofticer of the command to which 
they are attached. Before issuing these let certain verbal corrections 
be made as suggested by the within copy. 

A. C. MYERS, 


Quartermaster- General. 


(Same to the following officers, varied only as to the number of cir- 
culars inclosed: Maj. W. W. Peirce, Raleigh, N. C., for North Carolina; 
Maj. I. T. Winnemore, Augusta, Ga., for Georgia; Maj. J. L. Calhoun, 
Montgomery, Ala., for Alabama; Maj. H. R. Teasdale, Lake City, Fla., 
for Florida; Maj. G. W. Grice, Alexandria, La., for Louisiana; Maj. 
S. Hart, San Antonio, Tex., for Texas; Maj. J. B. Burton, Little Rock, 
Ark., for Arkansas and Mississippi; Maj. James Glover, Knoxville, for 
Tennessee and Kentucky.) 


RICHMOND, VA., April 14, 1868. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SiR: Since my conversation with you last evening I have concluded 
that I knew enough of the equipments of the various railroads mak- 
ing up the principal lines of the country to enable me to give you a 
sufficiently accurate estimate of their necessities in the way of engines 
and cars, in order that a determination be come to as to what shall 
be done to increase their efficiency, and, if possible, meet the wants 
of the country. Commencing at this city and looking south and west, 
we have a line reaching to Middle Tennessee through Lynchburg and 
Chattanooga and to Atlanta, Ga., by Dalton. 


*See Rains to Seddon, April 7, p. 473, 
+See March 24, p. 453, 


484 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The roads making up this line are as follows: 


Names of roads. Stock wanted. 
Richmond and Danville, South Side -__7| 2 engines and 50 cars. 
Virginia and: Tennessee” 5-2 -- =e 4 engines and 50 cars. 


East Tennessee and Virginia ----------- 


East Tennessee and Georgia-_-_-_--------- 4 or 5 engines and 7 vane 


Nashville and Chattanooga. ----..------ 50 cars. 
Western and Atlantic....-....-.---.--- Can do with present stock, but wants 
material. 


By the southern route we have a line to Weldon; thence via Wil- 
mington on one hand and via Raleigh on the other to Kingsville, 8. C.; 
thence to Augusta and Atlanta on one hand and to Macon and Colum- 
bus, Ga., on the other. From Florence there is a road leading to 
Charleston, and from thence to Savannah. There is also a connec- 
tion with Savannah through Augusta by Millen. The roads making 
up this line with the various branches are as follows: 


Names of roads. Stock wanted. 
Richmond and Petersburg ------------- 5 cars. 
Betershtire 22-8: ae ee eee 50 cars. 
Wilmington and Weldon-.--.---------- 4 engines and 100 cars.. 
Wilmington and Manchester ----------- 1 engine and 100 cars. 
RAleiPn and Gaston Soe ee ce ee Can get along with present stock. 
North Carolina Tre. 32. Push eats ten 2 a2 4 engines and 100 cars. 
Charlotte and South Carolina- --------- _| 2 engines and 50 cars. 
South Carolina. 2 ese. ae Seeker rey Can get along with present stock. 
Northeastern. eo ea aii 2 engines and 25 [cars]. 
(F60rCia ly. in ee ee ea eae Can get along with present stock. 
@eintravor Georgia. Meo eae aes Can get along with present stock. 
Southwestern io. 02s... 0 sees ee 50 cars. 
Mnscocee {9 Ee. Eh oA ase o ede mewes Can get along with present stock. 


The Macon and Western road forms a connection between Macon 
and Atlanta. This road ought to have fifty cars in addition to its 
present stock. 

From Atlanta and Columbus the Atlanta and La Grange and Mont- — 
gomery and West Point roads connect the two places. The latter road 
ought to have two engines and fiffy cars. The former road can get 
along with assistance that it receives from the Georgia road. - 

From Montgomery to Mobile the line is made up by the Alabama 
and Florida road of Alabama and the Mobile and Great Northern 
road. Each ought to have an engine and twenty-five cars. 

From Mobile to Vicksburg the Mobile and Ohio and Southern roads 
form the line. The former have an abundant equipment and the 
latter is at present supplied by the Memphis and Charleston road, 
now nearly out of use. 

In addition to this route to Vicksburg, we have the Alabama River 
from Montgomery to Selma; thence by rail to Demopolis, where there 
is a portage of four miles and half on the Tombigbee River; thence 
by rail to Meridian—eastern end of the Southern road to Vicksburg. 
This road, from Selma to Meridian is also supplied with equipments 
from the Memphis and Charleston road. The New Orleans, Jackson 
and Great Northern and the Mississippi Central roads form a line 
from Ponchatoula—forty-seven miles from New Orleans—to Water 
Valley, in North Mississippi. Each of these roads have an abundant 
equipment for present use. Much of it, however, is getting in very 
bad order, and extensive repairs will be necessary to render it equal 
to any great emergency. 

On our northern border we have the Virginia Central and Orange 
and Alexandria roads connecting this, city with Lynchburg. These 
roads, I think, ought to have one engine and twenty-five cars. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ? A85 


The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac road connects this city 
with Fredericksburg, and, I am informed by its president, ought to 
have two engines and twenty-five cars. 

By this estimate 31 engines and 930 cars are wanted. I have no 
doubt you will think it a very large estimate, but I beg to remind you 
that the deterioration of both is not much, if any, short of 25 per cent. ; 
and with the limited means of repairing and impossibility for renewal 
during the past two years I am only surprised that the roads of the 
country have been able to keep up to the present standard. } 

I have thus, I believe, given you a correct list of the roads making 
up the principal lines in the country, and I do not think I have exag- 
gerated their present necessities in the way of equipments to enable 
them to perform promptly the transportation which the country 
demands. That more [sic] accomplished than has been done I am 
free to admit, but that anything like the necessities of the country 
can be met without largely increasing their power is, in my judg- 
ment, out of the question. Practical results for a considerable time 
should guide us in our judgment as to what may be expected in the 
future; and for the last two years the railroads of the country have 
been unable to meet promptly the requirements of Government. Can 
we expect any better result in the future without some change in their 
condition? I think not, and therefore urge the necessity of prompt 
action looking to arestoration of the principal roads in the country to 
the best possible condition. 

Should you not consider this estimate sufficiently accurate, I will 
take early measures to obtain more precise information. 

Iam, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, Ga., April 14, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President, &e.: 


DEAR SiR: In conformity to the request of the General Assembly of 
this State, I have the honor herewith to transmit to you a copy of res- 
olutions just passed, recommending an increase of pay to the privates 
and non-commissioned officers in the service of the Confederate States. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure. ] 


Whereas, His Excellency the Governor has brought the question of 
the justice and propriety of increasing the monthly pay of privates 
and non-commissioned officers of the armies of the Confederate States 
before the General Assembly; and whereas, the General Assembly 
concurs in the justice and importance of this recommendation: There- 
fore, 
Resolved (1), That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be, 
and they are hereby, requested to bring the question before the Con- 
gress of the Confederate States, and to do all in their power, by their 
influence and their votes, to procure the passage of an act to raise the 
monthly pay of privates in the Army to twenty dollars per month, and 
non-commissioned officers in like proportion, and to procure the assess- 
ment of a tax sufficient to meet the increased expenditure, to be levied, 
as far as practicable, upon the income of speculators and extortioners, 
and upon the wealth of those who are not in the Army. 


A486 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Resolved (2), That the Governor be requested to forward a copy of 
these resolutions to the President of the Confederate States, and to 
the Governor of each State in the Confederacy, and to each of our 
Representatives in Congress. | 

Resolved (3), That the troops in the service of this State shall 
receive the same pay as the Confederate troops. 

JOHN BILLUPS, 
President of the Senate. 
JAS. M. MOBLEY, 
Secretary of Senate. 
WARREN AKIN, 
Speaker House of Representatives. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk House of Representatives. 


Cordially approved April se 1863. 
JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
(fovernor. 


RICHMOND, VA., Apri 15, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 
Str: In compliance with your request I beg leave to submit the fol- 
lowing estimated capacity of the railroads making up the leading lines 
in the country: 


Trains run daily each way. 


Name ofoad. Freight. Coal. 
Passen- 
ger. 
he Tons. he Tons 

Richmond and Danville.........---.---5.-.------+----2----- 13 1 
SOUTH DIM chs cede oqeteewte kw es ghee sate mmey eer eane case ae 1 1 
Virginia and Tennessee... -....- 5-52 eee es see cece es 1 2 
Hast Lennessee and Virginial. 2 ss5.2.2 0s. oe sce eens en 1 ib 
East ‘Tennessee and Georgia .-.-....-.--+-s---.25------+---- 1 13 
Nashville and Chattanooga. ...............-2--0+---0-------- 1 2 
Westerniand:A thantics-227- tenacaee eee sei bene see ee ae 2 3 
Richmond and ‘Peters Pulp eee ses ae eee eit eee ae 2 2 
Petersburg . =... 2.2. 2. Uasccaa ce ancg es soe o- stem patos RM isare ae 2 2 
Wilmington and: Weldon. 7222-7 5- 5-26 -- 224 ee 2 eee ole 2 4 60 | oan. see jeter 
Wilmington and Manchester...-.-..-----.--------------+---+ 2 1 100 |... Vaewent eeeoene 
Raleigh and Gaston ...0.0 2026-002. c--seees slut tebeleee..-- 2 1 130 |. coco cacao 
North Carolina aonact soem see ete ere ieee ei eiererele in teleraraete 2 4 5O | wjniiinmerells sete 
Charlotte and South Carolina.......---------------+++------ 2 1 130 | isi seeepeeewens 
South Carodlinalsccessess sonlesacaneees ins see oom ee ieee lsat 2 3 400 ||. 552 Sarsnl| emcees 
Northeastern. case Se. sees cece erect eeistes aetee aa eerie 1 1 100 ||. poste steeeeeeee 
Georsiak - <2 .chc tins dae see cota sped ae ehiae eine eee ate 2 3 400 jot sacoiatemeere 
Central of Georgintn 2. .ctc sees iseas a seeeeee alee at 2 3 400 | . 5. -relectoensteeetece 
Charleston and Savaniiale: 5-5 ese ae ss ca see eeiementa as 1 1 150 |}... Soca leaner. 
SOuth West@un jan 2325, G5 eee anata cyclen nia eee = rele ae ere eee oes 2 2 250 .| caylee nies 
MUBCOP U6 co. aos sods boca geeceme edemancave stn sigs ane ep eeee 2 1 125. | 2.8 sae erence 
Maconand Western 2%)... tec cs ae leer SE seem a elena eteele 1 2 250. || win 5s See eee 
Atilantaand La Grange 2s rots. ssa eel gee eee 2 1 150 ||\.n0 cae teers 
Montgomery and West Point ...-.....--..65.-00--0052-4-0-- 2 14 175 | seo an eee 
Alabamajand Florida.ot Alabaina 5-220 4-2-+-seieco sean 1 1 125. | <9 + 5eeeeeeen 
Mobile and Great Northern <i. < ssls-c0 ere stele ee eee eo 1 1 125 | 2. 22a 6] eee eee 
Mobile andOhio' 2255). 50 22a. Sia aa b eee eee ree ere omer 2 3 400 | Ai. 2020 oaeeeeee 
Sontheriiaces oss shieecc ve ce ke nw aime cicle pctae ae ae eee eee 1} 2 200) | cc mere eieee eee 
Alabama and Mississippi Riversa .......----..------------- 1 1 100 |. ste tor laseencee 
North Carolina, Jackson and Great Northern ......-.------- 2 2 QB: 2 See) eee ree 
MississippiiCentral. i222./s22-.2 he. cae See ened 2 2 225 ooo: coe aioe mane 
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac.......---.--.------ 2 1} 190 |... y. Seah oeeeens 
Virginia. Central... .cdejeck ss asim .sc ce b ciekegeeeap PRG ateeee-ten 13 12 140.)| .2 5 cme pees 

1 14) °° “160 |}. 2c Sa 


Orange and Alexandria... 2... 6.6.0 oc. cc Sas men ew awcaeb ecm 


a Selma to Meridian. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. A487 


The above roads are given in the same order as in my communica- 
tion of yesterday in reference to their necessities in the way of engines 
and cars. 

Any change in the position of our Army would to some extent 
modify the ability of one or two of the roads; as, for example, the 
Virginia Central can deliver more tons of freight at Hanover Junc- 
tion than it would be able to do at the upper end of the line. I would 
also remark that this estimate has been made in the absence of any 
data beyond my general knowledge of the ability of the roads in the 
country, except the roads terminating in this city, from the officers 
of which I have obtained the necessary information to enable me to 
approximate their actual capacity ; therefore you must not place 
implicit reliance on it. 

Trusting that this estimate will be satisfactory, I am, sir, very 
respectfully, your obedient servant, 

WM. M. WADLEY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


——_____ 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, April 15, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I did not convene the General Assembly of this State in extra 
session to enact a law or laws to regulate the planting of cotton crops, 
as was suggested by Governor Brown, of Georgia, although requested 
by respectable citizens in several counties. 

The General Assembly of this State had, at its last session, dis- 
cussed the policy of regulating labor by legislation, and, sustained 
by the Senate, it was repudiated by a very large majority in the 
House of Representatives. Even if [I could have presumed a change 
of opinion on the subject (our seasons here being much more favora- 
ble for early planting than in Georgia), many of our planters had 
commenced to plant, and the crops generally would have been planted 
before it was possible to secure legislation to prohibit or limit the 
right to plant cotton. Moreover, the intelligence and patriotism of 
the planters of Florida induced them last year to plant cereals to the 
exclusion of cotton. An immense amount of corn was made, and 
for the want of transportation hundreds of thousands of bushels of 
corn will be held by our planters when the crop of the present year 
will be gathered. By correspondence with intelligent citizens in dif- 
ferent parts of the State I was informed of the immense quantity of 
corn on hand, and that, nevertheless, there would not be searcely as 
much cotton planted this as there was last year, except in two or 
three counties in the State from which corn, &¢c., could not be con- 
veniently transported, and where the villainous traffic carried on by 
speculators who have “‘run the blockade” had excited, by high prices 
for cotton and the introduction of rum and gin (but no arms or muni- 
tions of war), a disposition to make cotton, Then regardless, perhaps, 
of ‘‘the general welfare.” 

The means for transportation are too limited to justify legislation 
on the subject. The Confederate Government has been appealed to 
in vain to make railroad connections necessary to the defense of the 
State, as well as to secure supplies from Florida for the armies of the 
Confederate States. 


488 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Under existing circumstances no law could be made to regulate 
planting which would be uniform in its operation, just to the consti- 
tutional rights of citizens, or beneficial to the Confederate Govern- 
ment. Hence, if the legislation proposed were constitutional, I have 
deemed it wisest and best to rely upon the intelligence and patriotism 
the exigencies of the war demand rather than legislation. 

But candor requires me to say that Iam not convineed that in a 
government like ours the legislative power rightly exists to preseribe 
what shall or shall not be planted. If it does exist it should be most 
discreetly exercised. If the General Assembly of a State has the 
power to enact a law prohibiting or restricting the planting of cotton 
in order to support the Army, &c., by raising cereals, why may not 
the same General Assembly enact a law to prohibit the plowing of 
horses because useful for cavalry, or mules because necessary for 
transportation, or oxen because necessary for beef? In a word, why 
may not they confiscate all rights of property in individuals for the 
benefit of the Confederate Government? I am opposed to all legisla- 
tion on the part of either the Confederate [or] State government 
which is not clearly constitutional. Infractions of the Constitution 
during the war are more dangerous than in peace. In war or peace 
the Constitution should be considered the anchor of our hopes for 
freedom and manly independence. Statesmen should studiously 
guard against the insidious influences of the occasional panies which 
excite the public mind and engender what is termed public sentiment. 
The vicissitudes of the war in which we are engaged, in view of its 
important and world-wide results, incline the best-informed and most 
patriotic men to lend a favorable ear to any pretense, however spe- 
cious, to sustain the noble cause in which we are engaged, and there- 
fore it is the imperative duty of statesmen—especially those who 
occupy high official position—not to permit their zeal to exceed their 
wisdom; not to yield even to public sentiment unless it should be 
compatible with constitutional liberty as secured by a fundamental 
law. ‘The avidity with which patriots embark in any enterprise to 
promote the public welfare during the afflictions of war afford to 
speculators, traitors, and demagogues excellent opportunities to ere- 
ate panics for their individual benefit or aggrandizement; hence what 
is termed ‘‘the outside pressure” upon legislative bodies. 

While it is contended that foreign nations cannot exist without the 
cotton produced by slave labor in the Southern States, I would most 
respectfully present to your serious consideration whether or not, if 
the legislative power of these States shall prohibit the cultivation of 
cotton by slave labor (of which foreign nations will be informed), their 
antipathies to slavery and their necessities for cotton may not be suc- 
cessfully appealed to by the United States Government for co-opera- 
tion to abolish slavery and to raise cotton without slave labor. 

The effort is now being made to form aid and emigration socities in 
Europe, as well as in the United States, to colonize Florida and thus 
abolish slavery in the State. If successful, what will be the condi- 
tion of the other cotton States? More than a year ago I expressed the 
opinion that as soon as it had been clearly ascertained that foreign 
governments recognized the blockade of Southern ports, knowing its 
inefficiency, wisdom required of our Government to make the block- 
ade complete. I know of no reason why, if England*and Franee 
were willing to engage in war with China to secure commerce in opium 
with the Chinese people against their will and the decrees of their 
Government, England and France and other nations would not raise 
a blockade for commerce in cotton, tobacco, &e., with the Southern 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 489 


States, while their people desired and their Government proposed the 
commercial intercourse, provided cotton, &c., could not be obtained 
by smuggling. 

I believe now the wisest and best course which existing cireum- 
stances suggest to prevent the planting of excessive crops, insure the 
culture of cereals, sustain the public credit, prevent speculation, ex- 
tortion, and riots for bread—a measure entirely consistent with con- 
stitutional liberty, conducive to the general welfare, and to the inde- 
pendence of the Confederate States—would be an act of Congress» 
prohibiting, under severe penalties, all commercial intercourse with 
foreign nations, except such as should be authorized by the Govern- 
ment through special agents, and exclusively for the purposes of Gov- 
ernment. If trade between our citizens and the speculators who 
succeed in running the blockade was prevented, all. inducements to 
make cotton except for the benefit of the Government in its negotia- 
tions and for domestic uses would be cut off; individual energy and 
enterprise and enlightened public sentiment would insure the neces- 
Sities and even the comforts of life to the people and to the armies; 
the Confederate currency would be independent in itself for all the 
purposes of commerce between the States, individuals, and the Con- 
federate Government, as there would be no demand for specie or for- 
eign exchange to sustain our domestic commerce. Thus inducements 
to speculation and extortion would be destroyed, our people would 
depend on themselves, and the Confederate Government would reflect 
the intelligence and probity of an independent and self-sustaining 
association of States. 

Experience may suggest the propriety, justice, and necessity of an 
additional act of Congress to remove from the Confederate States all 
persons who claim to be aliens and therefore exempt from and refuse 
to volunteer into the military service of the Confederate States. The 
number of persons who consume and speculate upon our labor would 
be greatly diminished and the States would be relieved of the most 
dangerous element which threatens public safety, a class of men who 
contribute nothing to our agricultural prosperity, but who live and 
speculate upon our agricultural products, and basely refuse to aid in 
the defense of that labor by which they not only subsist but aceumu- - 
late wealth. 

The opinions herein expressed are most respectfully submitted to 
your consideration. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


P. S.—Inclosed you will find a circular sent to me by mail. I have 
no idea who the author is; but that an effort is being made to organ- 
ize a political party which will prove troublesome if not dangerous to 
the permanency and prosperity of the Confederate States I have but 


little doubt. 
JOHN MILTON. 


[Inclosure. ] 
Annexation of the Northwest. 


“P. W. A.,” the popular army correspondent of the Savannah 
Republican, writes to that paper from Charleston under date of 
March 12, as follows: 

The opinion prevails in political circles that an effort will be made to bring out 


a ticket in opposition to the Confederate Administration in your approaching 
State elections. 


A490 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The reader will understand the allusion to be the approaching 
election for Governor of Georgia. Upon the above opinion, under- 
stood by ““P. W. A.” to “‘prevail in political circles,” he goes on to 
express his disapprobation in the following language: 

If it be true, however, that a party is about to be organized in opposition to the 
Administration, every real friend of the cause which engages our hearts and 
hands, and of the Army, must deplore it; and that, too, without reference to the 
merits or demerits of the Administration. Such a movement can have no other 
effect but to embarrass the Government and the Army and give most substantial 
aid to our enemies. The conscription acts are for the present the law of the land 
and constitute an important part of our military system, which cannot be changed 
without destroying the Army. Nor is there anything in the financial or foreign 
policy of the Administration to invite organized opposition, unless there is a 
scheme on foot, which Heaven forbid, to bring in the States of the Northwest as a 
part of the Confederacy. 


The italics are my own, and I have been particular in_ preserving 
the language of the Republican’s correspondent, because I would not 
knowingly misrepresent him. I desire the reader to have full confi- 
dence in his honesty, not because he is ‘‘P. W. A.,” or the popular 
correspondent of the Republican, but not having been a member of 
that political party which controlled the South at the time of the dis- 
solution of the Union, because he now in the honesty of his patriotism, 
which I do not question, takes upon him the defense of an Adminis- 
tration raised by that party. As he did not belong to that party, and 
we find him mildly advocating its administration of the Government, 
and defending it against the imputations of its opponents, there can 
be no justice in judging the Administration party by him, more espe- 
cially when we find him using their identical language. 

“Pp, W. A.” argues in defense of the Administration what all its 
friends argue and have argued from the beginning. He presents 
nothing new; nothing that cannot be heard on the streets of every 
village in the South. They all raise a hue and cry whenever mention 
is made of an opposing political organization, just as the old Demo- 
cratic party did against the Know Nothings, &c., as if to frighten 
away their opponents by the noise and thus secure their well-feathered 
nests without a contest. It is remarkable what emphasis they lay 

“upon the words “ real,” ‘‘ friends of the cause,” &¢., when they wish 
to direct public sentiment against their opponents; and attempting to 
work upon the credulity of the masses, they invariably declare all 
opposition to their own views unfriendly to the Administration, the 
Government, the Army, and ruinous to the cause in which their hearts 
and hands are all engaged. I say attempting to work upon the cre- 
dulity of the masses, because I mean it. What else can it be? Do 
the friends of the Administration presume to deny that there are 
numbers of men as patriotic, just, and upright as themselves, differ 
with them in sentiment? If they do not know it I can assure them 
that the Confederate States, whose guardians they have constituted 
themselves, nay, the Army itself, of which they seem so solicitous, is 
thronged with such men. There are men opposed to the Administra- 
tion whose purposes are as high as that of the loftiest patriots on the 
side of the Administration. But the clamor raised by the friends of 
the. Administration, at the mention of a new political organization, in 
its frantic energy, partakes of fear, and as the Catholic counts his 
beads to keep off the hobgoblin, so the friends of the Administration 
begin to recount its deeds whenever the goblin appears. One political 
sin only seems to sit heavily upon their souls, and this, like the “‘ Ghost 
of Banquo,” cannot be exorcised. They have tried in every way to 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 491 


make the conscript act lie upon the stomachs of the people, but all in 
vain. ‘They have explained it by all the laws of necessity and emer- 
gency, declared it constitutional and patriotic; but still it was a bitter 
pill to a free people and could not be swallowed. Nothing but the 
strong arm (the tyrant’s arm) of military power could enforce it, and 
well may the adherents of the Administration tremble when they look 
upon the picture. The Southern people are full of patriotism, and 
will continue in the armies of the Confederacy until their liberties are 
fully secured, but upon the restoration of peace they will turn their 
footsteps homeward, and like a wild deluge overwhelm all who have 
sought to increase their burden. It is indeed too late to ‘“‘change the 
conscript acts now,” but is this the apology of the Administration? 
Even the conscript, upon whom it bears with all its severity, will 
sanction this; but he will not forget to ask another question—he will 
not forget to demand, who forged these chains for freemen? 

Had Lincoln been armed with a conscript act when at the com- 
mencement of this war he called upon the States of Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri for their quotas of troops to subdue the South, 
he would not have been compelled to suffer the chagrin of disappoint- 
ment upon the patriotic refusal of the Governors of those States; but 
he would have done then as President Davis can do now, in gross 
violation of every principle of State sovereignty, send foreign officers 
into the States, enroll, and transport’ beyond their jurisdiction every 
able-bodied man in them, thus totally disarming the States, at once 
destroying their constitutionally-established military departments, 
and depriving them of all means of self-defense. Can such an act 
be “‘constitutional?” What is a State government worth when the 
very power which sustains it is pulled from under it and held at the 
discretion of a foreign Executive? Are the Governors of these States 
and their cabinets mere puppets suspended upon the stage to amuse 
the women and children and the few non-combatant diseased men 
left by the operation of the conscript act? Let one of them deny it 
if he can—they have the name of Governor, but the President only 
can chuckle over the power. There is but one alternative for those 
who justify and declare the conscript act constitutional—they must 
also declare the States devoid of sovereignty. It is idle to call a State 
Sovereign and yet acknowledge the constitutional right of a foreign 
Executive to divest it at any moment of the power to execute its sov- 
ereign authority. If what I have written is true, the conscript act 
was an egregious blunder, and even admitting the Administration to 
have been honest in its passage, it was still a blunder, and proved 
this, that the Administration party were sadly in want of statesman- 
ship, or their sagacity would never have permitted the emergency to 
come upon the country, which they claim as having necessitated the 
act. Had they prepared the people for a long war instead of perpetu- 
ally sounding in their ears that the war would end in three, six, and 
finally twelve months (thus preparing them for peace instead of war), 
the Army would have been enlisted for the war, and the end of the 
first twelve months would not have found the Confederacy without 
an army, or compelled to resort to the violation of a Constitution but 
a year old to sustain it by conscription. The old system of drafting 
(which was not objectionable to the people) was amply sufficient to 
send out able-bodied men to the defense of the country, and the 
Executives of States possessed ample authority under the military 
establishments of the several States to fill promptly every requisition 
made for troops by the President. But this was no infringement of 


492 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. | 


the Constitution or violation of State sovereignty. It left no ground 
for long-continued Congressional debate, and established no prece- 
dent for future aggressions upon the rights of the States. The party 
had dissolved the Union (a mighty deed, I grant), and must not only 
show its power but must signalize and distinguish its reign. 

The fears of the friends of the Administration that an opposing 
political organization is about to spring into existence are well founded, 
not that the writer is in the secret, if it be such, or knows anything 
- about it, but he presumes that there are thousands who feel as he 
does, that, judging the present Administration by its deeds and 
sentiments, it is unequal to the great future now dawning upon 
the Confederacy. Its policy is too circumscribed and illiberal to 
admit of an early conclusion of peace or to afford the widest 
extension of Southern influence and power when peace is restored. 
Already they begin to inveigh against the Northwestern States of 
the old Union and prepare the minds of the people to resist their 
contemplated application for admission into the Southern Confed- 
eracy. The admission of these States is supposed by the Adminis- 
tration party to be a part of the supposed new political organization 
about to spring up, and already it is characterized as a ‘‘ scheme 
on foot; &c.” This is the same old ery of ‘‘wolf”—a part of the 
same work upon the credulity of the masses, to mislead them and 
possess their minds with a half-defined fear of some great danger from 
the machinations of a powerful political organization. But it will not 
do. Speech and the press are still unfettered in the South, and I pray 
God that they may remain so to the end of time. But suppose the 
friends of the Administration are correct, and that the admission of 
those States is a part of the programme of the new organization, does 
it follow that the proposition to admit those States is a ‘‘scheme?” 
Was it ‘‘schemes” that admitted Missouri, Texas, California into 
the Union? With greater justice the Democratic party may be 
charged with having inaugurated a ‘‘scheme” to dissolve the Union. 
Texas could not be admitted into the Union until the Administration 
then in power was overthrown. The sentiments of the people pre- 
vailed and it was accordingly overthrown. Let the present Adminis- 
tration take warning. If its policy is not sufficiently comprehensive to 
embrace the utmost extension of Southern influence and power, it must 
give room to a wiser and more liberal Administration, whose views 
will not be confined to the narrow limits of the present bounds of the 
Confederacy, nor tremble for its political power at the bare mention 
of territorial acquisition. What does the present Administration 
fear? That the acquisition of territory will endanger the institution 
of slavery! To them slavery seems a precious jewel ornamented 
with cotton and set in the bosom of partisan power, for the admira- 
tion and worship of allfuture generations. J am as warm a supporter 
of slavery as any man in the Confederate States, but mankind at 
large will never be brought to worship at this shrine, and its tolera- 
tion in these States by the rest of mankind is now, and will be, 
favored only by a conviction of necessity in view of the presence of 
the race in the Confederate States. The Abolitionists, upon the dis- 
solution of the Union, charged the Secessionists with the intention of 
erecting a “‘Slaveocracy,” and ridiculed the idea of establishing a 
permanent government whose chief basis was the institution of 
slavery. Had the South attempted this absurdity it would have 
merited the contempt and ridicule even of Abolitionists; but our 
present wise Constitution gives the lie to the charge and disappoints 
the cherished expectations of the Abolition calumniators. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 493 


It behooves the South, therefore, not to seem to make use of slavery | 
as a perpetual inheritance springing from a natural right, which can- 
not but give offense to and embitter against them all civilized non- 
slaveholding nations, but with humanity, firmness, and dignity wield 
it as a valuable institution given by an Allwise Providence for the 
special development of the peculiar locality in which it is found. 
Constitutions, governments, and empires have their rise and fall. 
Human institutions are all unstable. They flourish with the vigor of 
their projectors, but fade as these totter to their fall. In the midst 
of revolution and great trial, embittered by rancor and hate engen- 
dered by the discussions on this subject, the Southern people have 
neither time nor inclination to look into the future; but the time will 
surely come when slavery will exist, if at all, only nominally even in 
the cotton States. Every generation hereafter, as heretofore, will 
rise upon the stage of action imbued with new ideas, new determina- 
tion, the arbiter of its own destiny. The living may establish wise 
precedents, but they cannot bind the coming generations. Constitu- 
tions, laws, and customs will all be broken through if they stand in 
the way of future tyrants or are found inadequate to the demands of 
the advanced state of society. The great increase in population in 
the South which will surely follow the restoration of peace will begin 
the encroachment upon the vast cotton fields of the Confederacy. 
The planters finding it profitable to sell their lands, these will be 
portioned out to proprietors of less wealth and fewer slaves until all 
the large cotton plantations will gradually disappear. Slaves will 
also gradually decrease in value by this influx of white population, 
until in the course of three or four generations they will be of little 
value except as house servants, and thousands of the owners will 
dispose of them to invest the capital they had been accumulating for 
generations in manufactories and other more profitable employments. 

‘Shall we close our eyes to these things because we fondly cherish the 
institution of slavery? It would be folly. Our forefathers endeav- 
ored to look into the future even in the midst of a devastating revo- 
lution, and in the Constitution they gave us the model of our own 
attests the wisdom with which they laid the foundation of the empire 
of liberty in America. 

Let us follow their example. Let us not shut ourselves up in the 
narrow compass of slaves and cotton—ourselves slaves to the mer- 
chants of Manchester, and dependent upon those we affect to despise. 
Let us make broad our boundaries, and if empire has departed from 
the old Constitution under Puritan rule, let it revive and find greater 
glory under the new—purified, reinvigorated, and defended by the 
descendants of the Cavaliers. Let the Northwestern States, then, if 
they make application, be admitted as members of the Confederacy; 
and why should they not? Is there anything incompatible in their 
manners, customs, or institutions? Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, like 
Kentucky, were settled mostly by Virginians, and the ruling popula- 
tion of those States at this day are descendants of the Old Dominion. 
They were deceived and misled into this war, as they now acknowl- 
edge, by the fanatics of New England, who assured them that the 
rebellion in the South was only the scheme of a few secessionists to 
subvert the Government and destroy the Union. From the very 
beginning they repelled the charge that they were fighting for the 
freedom of the slaves, and vowed as bitter hostility to abolitionists 
as the slave-holders. Was their love for the Union a crime? Then 
‘what American does not plead guilty? We all loved the Union once. 
Shall they be punished because their integrity proved greater than 


A494. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ours? It must be remembered that it was our rights the abolitionists 
violated, not those of the Northwest. If they loved the Union longer 
than we did it was because they did not have our reasons to fall out 
with it. They were told and believed that we brougkt on the war, 
and they must defend the Government. What patriot could refuse, _ 
himself having no cause of quarrel with the Government? If they 
are guilty of a crime against the South for this, all peoples on the face 
of the earth are guilty of the same crime. The English have had 
many civil wars, and for centuries carried on war against Scotland, 
Ireland, and Wales, and yet to-day they are all harmonious under 
one government. It was more than 100 years that the numerous 
provinces of France warred against each other before they were 
finally united under the present empire; and the same may be said of 
every nation in Europe. What, then, can be objected to the North- 
west? Is it feared that those States being free will plunge the Con- 
federacy again into war on the subject of slavery? I answer that 
every revolution settles the question upon which it is fought, and the 
present war will determine for the Northwest, and all the rest of the 
world, whether or not slavery is to continue unmolested in the Con- 
federate States. If it survives the shock of this war, all the Puritanic 
fanaticism of Christendom will not be able to shake it again, and the 
Northwest, even if ever so inclined, will have too much sad experience 
to reopen a dangerous wound. Their admission into the Confederacy 
would not only break the backbone of the North, and render that 
Nation forever impotent to harm the Confederacy, but our own 
strength and influence would be doubled, while their geographical 
position would forever debar the North from further territorial acqui- 
sition. 

The Northwestern States are the very heart and center of the bacon 
and grain-growing region of North America, and the South needs 
those States to complete her power. The Southern States grow cotton, 
sugar, and rice, but where are they to obtain flour and bacon? Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky produce both these, but these States engage 
chiefly in raising stock, which the Atlantic and Gulf States can no 
better dispense with than flour and bacon. Shall we refuse the appli- 
cation of those States and import flour and bacon from foreign states, 
upon which duties must then be paid, or shall we admit them and 
thus secure their vast resources within our own dominions? With 
the acquisition of the Northwest the power of the Confederacy to 
make war at home or abroad would be unlimited, while all the West- 
ern Territories now claimed by the old Union would fall into our 
hands without a struggle. Another consideration entitles this subject 
to the serious reflection of the Southern people. All are anxious to 
secure Kentucky to the Confederacy; and yet so intimately is Ken- 
tucky connected with the three States forming her northern bound- 
ary, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, that it is matter of serious debate among 
her citizens whether she will dissolve her connection with those States 
even to avail herself of greater benefits to be derived from member- 
ship in the Confederacy. It is this alone which has kept her back 
from co-operating with the South. Ido not know what questions the 
Confederate Administration and its Congress debate in their numer- 
ous ‘‘secret” sessions; but if they are wise they will give serious con- 
sideration to these topics and not suffer anything to pass unnoticed 
that is calculated to promote the welfare of the Nation and add to the 
glory of its Constitution. 

CONFEDERATE. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 495 


[Indorsement. | 


Your Excellency may find some things in this circular worthy of 


your consideration. 
THE AUTHOR. 


RICHMOND, VA., April 16, 1863. 
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 

Having approved and signed a bill which originated in your body 
entitled ‘‘An act to allow minors to hold commissions in the Army,” * I 
deem it due to many meritorious officers in the service to make a short 
explanation. 

The bill, in my opinion, is only declaratory of the pre-existing law. 
No prohibition existed, prior to its passage, against the issue of com- 
missions either in the permanent or Provisional Army to persons under 
twenty-one years of age. Many of the commissioned officers of the 
Provisional Army have attained high rank by election and promotion 
before attaining the age of twenty-one years. 

The only objection, therefore, that I could entertain to signing the 
bill in question was based on the apprehension that the approval of 
an act allowing commissions to be issued to minors ‘‘from and after 
the passage of the act” might imply that the commissions heretofore 
issued to juniors are invalid. 

It seemed, however, more proper to sign the act, which in itself was 
unobjectionable, and to address to you this explanation, which will 
obviate, it is believed, the only ill consequence that could flow from the 


passage of the law. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


AN ACT to allow minors to hold commissions in the Army. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
from and after the passage of this act, commissions in the Army of 
the Confederate States, and in the Provisional Army of the Confeder- 
ate States, may be issued to persons under twenty-one years of age, 
except in the case of officers who are required by law to give bond. 

Approved April 16, 1863. 


AN ACT for the relief of the Brunswick and Albany Railroad Company. 


Whereas, the Brunswick and Albany Railroad, in the State of Geor- 
gia, has been run and used as a military necessity, from the month of 
September, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, to the present time, and 
no charge for the use of the said road has been made by the proprie- 
tors thereof against the Government: Therefore, to preserve the said 
railroad from being broken up or destroyed, 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the stock and bonds of the Brunswick and Albany Railroad Company, 
returned, or which may be returned to the receiver at Savannah, as 
property of alien enemies, and sequestered, or which may be seques- 
tered by decree of the proper courts, shall not be sold at public auc- 
tion, nor otherwise disposed of during the continuance of the war, but 


* Next, post. 


A496 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


shall, after the ratification of peace between the Confederate States 


and the United States, be appraised in the following manner: One 


e 


appraiser shall be appointed by the judge of the district court of the 
Confederate States for the district of Georgia; another shall be 
appointed by the Board of Directors of said company; and these two 
Shall appoint a third, and their appraisement shall be made under 
oath and in writing, and filed with the clerk of the said district court. 
When the said appraisement shall be made, the said company shall 
have the privilege of paying, within ninety days thereafter, to the 
receiver at Savannah, the amount of said appraised value; and upon 
such payment, the possession and title to the said stock and bonds 
Shall vest in and be transferred to the said company: Provided, how- 
ever, That by accepting the relief hereby granted, and upon payment 
of the said appraised value, the said company shall be held and taken 
to have relinquished all claim against the Confederate States for com- 
pensation for the use of their said railroad. 
Approved April 16, 1863. 


AN ACT for the relief of certain officers and soldiers from the State of Missouri. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, ‘That 
the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars be, and is hereby, appro- 
priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
to pay the officers and men of the Missouri State Guard (after their 
transfer to the Confederate States) who, from imprisonment, absence, 
and other accidental causes, have not received their pay, under such 
rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may prescribe. 

Approved April 16, 1863. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 44. Richmond, April 16, 1868. 


The following acts having been duly approved by the President, 
are published for the information of all concerned: 


AN ACT to prohibit the punishment of soldiers by whipping. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after 
the passage of this act, it shall not be lawful for any court-martial or military 
court to cause any soldier in the service of the Confederate States to be punished 
by whipping, or the infliction of stripes upon his person; and that all laws and 
customs contravening the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, 
repealed. 

Sa 2. That article twenty of the Articles of War be so amended as to read as 
follows: ‘‘All officers and soldiers who have received pay, or have been duly 
enlisted in the service of the Confederate States, and shall be convicted of having 
deserted the same, shall suffer death or confinement in a penitentiary, with or 
without hard labor, for a period not less than one year, or more than five, or 
such other punishment, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as the 
court-martial or military court may determine.” 

Approved April 13, 1863. 


AN ACT to exempt contractors for carrying the mails of the Confederate States and the drivers of 
post coaches and hacks from military service. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the contractors 
for carrying the mails of the Confederate States shall be exempt fromthe per- 
formance of military duty in the armies of the Confederate States, from and after 
the passage of this act, during the time they are such contractors: Provided, That 
no more than one contractor shall be exempt on any one route, and that no 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. AQT 


more than one member of any firm of contractors shall be exempt, and no con- 
tractor on any route of less than ten miles in length and on which the mail is car- 
ried on horse, shall be exempt under this act; and if any one or more members of 
any such firm be exempt, from age or other cause, from the performance of 
military duty, the other member or members of such firm shall not be exempt by 
this act, on account of being mail contractors: And provided further, That no 
person to whom a contract for carrying the mails may be transferred, with the 
consent of the Post-Office Department, after the passage of this act, shall be 
exempt from military service on that account. 

SEC. 2. That the drivers of post coaches and hacks for carrying the mails on all 
routes where the weight of the mails requires that they should be carried in 
coaches or hacks, shall be exempt from military service in the armies of the Con- 
federate States, from and after the passage of this act, so long as they continue to 
be employed as such drivers: Provided, The contractor by whom any such driver 
is employed, shall take and subscribe an oath, to be furnished to the enrolling 
officer, that the weight of the mails on his route requires the use of coaches or 
hacks for their conveyance, and that he has not a greater number of drivers 
employed in his service than are indispensable to enable him to fulfill his contract 
for carrying the mails, and that he will not, while a contractor, employ a greater 
number of drivers than may be indispensably necessary for that purpose, and that 
he will give notice to the enrolling officer when any such driver ceases to be in 
his employment. 

Approved April 14, 1863. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
e Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 45. hkichmond, April 18, 1868. 


I. The issue of whisky to troops, except in cases of extraordinary 
fatigue and exposure, -is prohibited. Commanding officers are 
enjoined to see that this prohibition is enforced. 

If. Paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 32, April 30, 1862, is so 
modified as to allow only a two-horse wagon and team to each regi- 
ment in the field, to be appropriated to the transportation of hospital 
supplies. 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


. RICHMOND, April 20, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Expecting to leave here day after to-morrow for Charleston, 
S. C., to take charge of the management of the business which has 
been inaugurated between the Confederate States and Messrs. Alex- 
ander Collie & Co., of London, and Crenshaw & Co., of this city, by 
Hon. James M. Mason, commissioner of the Confederate States at 
London, under your auspices, I have the honor to desire information 
upon the following points, which is necessary to be obtained for the 
proper conduct of said business: 

First. To whom shall goods belonging to the Confederate States 
and imported under the above arrangement be delivered ? 

Second. From whom will the cargoes of cotton be obtained, and 
what notice will be necessary to have the cotton ready for the vessels ? 

Third. Whom shall I pay for the one-fourth of each cargo of cotton 
exported on the account of Messrs. Collie & Co. and Crenshaw & Co. ? 


32 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


498 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Fourth. Who will decide whether the Confederate States will take 
the whole or any part of the goods imported by Collie & Co. and 
Crenshaw & Co. ? 

Fifth. Have all the necessary arrangements been made and the 
proper directions given for the goods to be imported by Messrs. 
Collie & Co. and Crenshaw & Co. to be allowed to enter and be dis- 
charged free of duty? If not, will they be made and given at once? 

Sixth. From whom can coal be obtained for the steamers? 

Seventh. Does the Government desire to give any directions about 
insurance against sea risk from and sea risk and capture to the 
islands? / 

Kighth. To whom shall the goods bought by Maj. J. B. Ferguson, 
quartermaster, referred to in the letter of William G. C[renshaw], 
be delivered on arrival ? 

Ninth. In addition to the above information be pleased to give me 
in another letter authority to ask of all authorities of the Confederate 
States all assistance in their power, compatible, of course, with a due 
regard to all other interests of the Confederate States. It may be 
necessary, under some circumstances, that I should pass without and 
within our lines. I therefore respectfully request a pass in the usual 
form for that purpose as on special service. 

I have the honor to be, with the highest esteem, your obedient 
servant, 

JAMES R. CRENSHAW. 


| Indorsement. | 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 

The accompanying letter answers the questions pertaining to this 
office. The seventh question is, I suppose, to be answered in the 
negative, as the Government desires, no doubt, to be its own insurer. 

J. GORGAS. 


[Inclosure. ] 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, April 20, 1863. 
JAMES R. CRENSHAW, KEsq., 
Richmond: 


Str: In answer to the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth of the 
accompanying questions I have to state J. M. Seixas, esq., appointed 
agent of the War Department at Wilmington and Charleston, will 
receive instructions in relation to all matters embraced therein. Mr. 
Seixas is now at Wilmington, but his duties under competent super- 
vision at Charleston will embrace all importations made for the War 
Department on its own account, and he has received already instruc- 
tions generally as to the matters touched in your questions. 


Very respectfully, 
J. GORGAS, | 
Colonel, Chief of Ordnance. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 47. | Richmond, April 21, 1863.. 


The following regulations respecting the rights of ‘‘ partisan ran- 
gers,” under the act of April 21, 1862, are published for the informa- 
tion of all concerned: 

1. The act of April 21, 1862, provides that for any arms and muni- 
tions of war captured from the enemy by partisan rangers and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 499 


delivered up at such place as may be designated by the commanding 
general, the rangers shall be paid their full value in such manner as 
the Secretary of War may prescribe. 

2. The terms ‘“‘arms and munitions of war” will include all small- 
arms and artillery, ammunition, infantry accouterments, and cavalry 
equipments, and also cavalry and artillery horses. The animals 
referred to will be appraised by competent officers, under the orders 
of the commanding general, and will be paid for when delivered up 
by any quartermaster, who will take receipts from the parties entitled 
to receive compensation, and afterward account for the property, as 
in the case of an ordinary purchase. The rest of the property speci- 
fied will be paid for in accordance with paragraph II, General Orders, 
No. 20, current series. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ) - ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 48. fiachmond, April 22, 1863. 


I. The following act of Congress having been duly approved by the 
President, is published for the information of all concerned: 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That any officer, 
non-commissioned officer, or private, now in the military service of the Confeder- 
ate States, who has been elected or appointed since entering said service, or who 
may hereafter be elected or appointed, a Senator or Representative in Congress, 
or in any State Legislature, or judge of the circuit, district or superior courts of 
law or equity in any State of the Confederacy, district attorney, clerk of any 
court of record, sheriff, ordinary, judge of any court of probate, collector of State 
taxes (not to exceed one for each county), or parish recorder, upon furnishing the 
Secretary of War with evidence of such election or appointment, if an officer, his 
resignation shall be promptly accepted ; and if a non-commissioned officer or 
private, he shall be honorably discharged by the Secretary of War. 

Approved April 2, 1863. 


II. The evidence required as to the elections referred to will be a 
certificate of the fact from the clerk of the county or parish or other 
officer whose duty it may be to certify to such elections, under the 
laws of the State, in manner and form required by said laws. This 
certificate must accompany the resignation through the usual chan- 
nel of communication, as prescribed in General Orders, No. 3, and 
the Army Regulations. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
fichmond, Va., April 22, 1863. 
Hon. JAmEs A. SEDDON, : 
Secretary of War: 


Sirk: I herewith have the honor to hand you the paper referred to 
in our conversation yesterday and read before the railroad confer- 
ence just adjourned. It exhibits more fully than does the report of 
that conference the reasons for adopting some of the measures recom- 
mended in the report, while it also explains the reasons why I ean- 
not, with every desire to do so, participate in the sanguine expecta- 
tions expressed in the report, or indeed in any hope that the railways 


500 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in this Confederacy, which are necessary to the operations of its 
armies, can be supplied with the rails necessary to their maintenance 
in use without much more extensive and efficient measures on the 
part of the Government than those suggested in the report. The 
accompanying printed copy of resolutions adopted by a general con- 
vention of the railroad officers of the Confederate States in Febru- 
ary, 1862, with the fact that to this day they have never been put 
into execution, confirms this apprehension and gives serious reason 
to fear that the reliance on relief from individual or corporate enter- 
prise now expressed will prove equally fallacious now, when the Con- 
federacy has too much at stake—perhaps its existence—to incur any 
risk of such a miscalculation. 
With high respect, your obedient servant, 
P. V. DANIEL, JR. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


The undersigned having been invited by the Honorable Secretary 
of War to consult with him as to the best means of increasing the 
efficiency of the railroads of the Confederate States in supplying the 
wants of the Army and country, and of arresting the deterioration 
and providing and applying materials for their repair and reconstruc- 
tion, respectfully make, in response to that invitation, the following 
suggestions: 

I. For the purpose of at once relieving the railroads of the over- 
whelming amount of transportation now required of them, and of 
very largely adding to the means of transportation available to both 
the Government and to citizens, the Government should at once, and 
as rapidly as possible, have built and placed on every canal, river, or 
other navigable water the greatest practicable number of boats, 
bateaux, lighters, or vessels of any kind which can be most speedily 
and cheaply built and will be suitable to the navigation of the waters 
on which they are to be used. These channels of navigation pene- 
trate into and traverse sections of the country most of all abounding 
in supplies of all kinds most needed for the Army, including forage, 
commissary stores, coal, and iron. Among the great advantages of 
this means of transportation are these: On railroads only a limited 
number of trains can be run at a time. On the water there is no 
practical limit to the numberof boats, which require no machinery 
and often no horses or mules, consuming forage. Had this policy 
been adopted two or even one year ago immense additions would have 
been made to the supplies for both the Government and the people, 
while the railroads would have been able to transport other large 
quantities which could not be brought by water, which often require 
more rapid transportation, or which have been spoiled or lost from 
being delayed. Instead of this being done boats and vessels usually 
employed in these channels of navigation have been taken by the 
Government to be sunken in river channels or for other purposes of 
defense, and have never been replaced by individual enterprise, 
which was deterred both by want of men and materials engrossed by 
Government and by the apprehension of repeated seizure of their 
boats if built. In the case of the James River and Kanawha Canal 
alone very large quantities of all kinds of supplies, including coal 
and iron, have been withheld from market and the use of the Army 
by the last-mentioned cause. | 

II. Government warehouses or shelters of some kind, however tem- 
porary, if only of canvas, guarded by soldiers, at suitable points con- 
venient for storing and distributing army supplies are indispensable 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 501 


to any efficient system of transportation. The absence of these has 
throughout this war not only very greatly delayed and diminished the 
efficient transportation on railroads whose cars are detained as tem- 
porary store-houses while they might be transporting further supplies, 
but has also cost the Government many times the cost of such ware- 
houses in supplies stolen, lost, or spoiled from exposure to weather. 
Incidental to this is the urgent necessity for adopting and rigidly and 
invariably enforcing some more stringent army regulations requiring 
all quartermasters and commissaries at all hours and seasons of 
weather promptly to load and unload railroad cars and remove sup- 
plies from railroad stations, and furnishing them with the requisite 
force of men, with authority to make them work, and other appli- 
ances where needed. The stations and usual force of men belonging 

. to railroads are totally inadequate to accomplish half what is in this 
way needed for the Army, many times exceeding any business for 
which they were calculated or adapted, or which they can have onthe 
removal from them of the Army. 

III. Let it be made a military offense, and as such be rigidly and 
severely punished, to use or consume [as] fuel for locomotives cross- 
ties or other materials for railroad operations or repairs. This practice 
has repeatedly very nearly caused a total suspension of transporta- 
tion on several railroads, besides subjecting them to very consider- 
able losses not easily repaired. 

IV. When engines or ears belonging to one railroad are unneces- 
Sarily detained on another railroad to which they have been sent to 
transport troops or supplies for the Government, let the Government 
by such fact of detention become indebted and pay to the railroad 
company owning such engines or cars for their line at the rate per 
diem of $25 to $50, according to size, for each engine, $25 for each 
passenger car, and $5 for each freight car so detained from the day 
when such unnecessary detention shall commence to that on which it 
Shall terminate, inclusive; the amount so paid to be chargeable to and 
by the Government collected from the railroad company or Govern- 
ment officer who shall have detained the said engines or cars when 
they shall next settle any accounts with the Government, This arrange- 
ment will remove very much, if not all, the reasonable reluctance now 
felt by railroad companies to allow their machinery and cars to be 
carried to other roads, and secure their prompt return for further use 
and necessary repairs to those who are interested in keeping them in 
the best condition and making the greatest use of them. Any deten- 
tion beyond the time required for the transit and twelve hours for 
loading and unloading should constitute unnecessary detention. 

V. For the maintenance of the railroads the greatest and most 
urgent need exists for iron rails, wheels and axles, tires, springs, and 
locomotives, with materials for their repairs. To supply rails during 
the existence of the blockade will give full employment to not less 
than four and probably five rolling mills of the largest size, requiring 
not less than six months to erect them, and consuming not less than 
5,000 tons of iron monthly, of which 3,000 tons may consist of old rails 
to be rerolled, if transportation can be had for them. To supply the 
residue of this iron there must be a large increase of the yield of the 
mines and furnaces in the Confederate States contiguous to railroads, 
or, much better, to water navigation. But before this could be done 
very large additions to the supply of iron could be obtained immediately 
from a source which is everywhere accessible and available. Let the 
Government through the public newspapers appeal to the citizens 


502 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


everywhere to collect and contribute for any price which the Govern- 
ment can afford to pay—which would greatly exceed what it has ever 
been worth before—all the serap-iron, wrought or cast, which can be 
found on the premises of each family. Let those in the country bring 
it to the nearest point of water or railroad transportation used by the 
Government, or to the nearest inland point visited by or easily acces- 
sible to the wagons of the Quartermaster’s Department, and let them 
there find quartermasters or other agents of the Government author- 
ized to purchase and pay for this iron, either permanently stationed 
there or visiting eaeh point on days of which previous public notice 
should be given. In cities, towns, and villages where Government 
wagons can be employed let sufficient previous notice be published 
that on certain days those wagons, accompanied by a Government 
agent with means of weighing and money to pay, or blank forms of | 
receipts for the iron, will call on each householder in certain wards or 
streets for such iron as they may have to dispose of, and let the wagons 
have on them a conspicuous sign indicating their object, with a bell 
or horn or other signal to announce their coming and avoid unnecessary 
delays. It is confidently believed that the quantity of iron which can 
be procured by this plan vigorously executed would very greatly 
exceed the calculations of the most sanguine. Some imperfect con- 
ception of it will be found by any experienced farmer or housekeeper 
who will consider how many broken or worn-out plows, plow-points, 
hoes, spades, axes, and other farming implements, and how many 
broken stoves, household and kitchen utensils he has seen lying use- 
less and encumbering his premises, because hitherto their market 
value as. old iron did not compensate for the labor and trouble of 
collecting and transporting them to market, though now worth to the 
Government not less than $5 for every 100 pounds. Into none of 
these enterprises will individuals engage with the contingency before 
them of losing heavily on an investment of capital made at the existing 
exorbitant prices for all labor and material, and of being at once 
deprived of a market for their work on the raising of the blockade by 
the competition of imported rails. The establishment and working of 
these rolling-mills is an obvious necessity to the success of our armies, 
as essential to the maintenance—in some cases for even the ensuing 
year—of many important railroads. And yet it is the most difficult 
problem we have now tosolve. Could asufficient number of railroad 
companies even now be induced at once to give a valid legal obliga- 
tion to individuals or corporations engaging in this work that all the 
rails needed for their roads for a number of years (say even five) shall 
be purchased from those undertaking their manufacture now in the 
Confederate States at prices bearing a stipulated ratio (say two to 
one) to the market price of pig-iron or of old rails prevailing at the 
date of each purchase, it is possible that capitalists might be found 
willing to embark in these manufactures. _ . 

But the numerous other investments affording at this time more 
certain and larger profits, with little or no risk or expense to capital, 
would render such a co-operation and arrangement among railroad 
companies, if at this time possibly attainable, too unreliable a resource 
to be resorted to now by the Government in its present urgent need, 
and more than a year since repeated efforts to secure such a co-opera- 
tion and arrangement wholly failed. Nosingle railroad company can 
or will undertake such an enterprise, and no joint management and 
ownership of such manufactories by a number of such companies 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 503 


could be harmonious, economical, or in any respect practicable. No 
alternative is perceived to the establishment by the Government itself 
of these rolling-mills, from which it can furnish rails for the mainte- 
nance of such railroads as it may deem essential as military roads to 
the successful movement and supply of its armies. To this deliberate 
conviction we are forced, in full view and after mature consideration 
of all the objections and difficulties, political and practical, which are 
incident to this plan. Of these, at first view, the constitutional author- 
ity of the Government to adopt this plan will to some appear the most 
serious, if not insuperable, but if, as has been readily conceded in 
theory and in practice, it be clearly within the scope of that authority 
that for military purposes the Government should when necessary 
take possession of railroads; destroy and reconstruct their roadways, 
bridges, warehouses, and other structures, providing and applying all 
requisite materials for such reconstruction; make, repair, and put in 
use on any railroads in the Confederate States locomotives and cars 
belonging to the Government, or impress and take the equipment of 
one railroad to use on another, and perhaps remote one—in what 
sense is it a greater exercise of constitutional power to provide and 
supply the rails for maintaining the roadways of these railroads 
essential to the transportation absolutely needed for our armies? All 
these powers are alike necessarily incident to the authority and duty 
successfully to carry on the war for our existence and independence. 

Nor does the question of compensation to be paid to the Govern- 
ment for these improvements necessary to their maintenance present 
any difficulty which may not be readily solved by plain principles of 
practical equity. Let them be charged with either the actual cost to 
the Government, or what the actual cost would have been to them of 
such improvements furnished at the same dates and localities by 
others, and neither party will have reason to complain. If the Goy- 
ernment with all the advantages it possesses can be proven to have 
incurred unnecessary expense beyond what would have been the cost 
of these improvements furnished by others, it is but reasonable it 
Should lose the excess, looking for compensation in the public impor- 
tance to itself of the work. On the other hand, no railroad company 
has the right, if it was so disloyal as to have the wish, to avoid such 
an expenditure needed for its maintenance, because its ultimate profit- 
ableness may be doubtful, although this may be made certain by a 
just and liberal rate of tolls for Government transportation. The 
disposal of these rolling-mills, and the possible loss resulting from 
their disposal by the Government after they shall be no longer needed. 
for supplying rails as a military necessity to railroads, will be another 
grave objection urged by some to this plan, but is believed to be far 
more of a chimera than a reasonable apprehension. Upon the resto- 
ration of peace there will be many causes contributing to maintain 
for a long time the price of rails at very high rates. Several thousand 
miles of railroad, now either destroyed, worn out, or in the hands of the 
enemy, must inevitably be immediately reconstructed, and very exten- 
Sive additions to existing lines of railroad will become instantly equally 
necessary both to the commercial interests and the public defense 
of the Confederate States. The existing war will leave not only 
nearly or wholly suspended the manufacture of rails in the Confed- 
erate States, but by exhausting the mechanical labor in the United 
States and depriving the manufactories there and in Britain for so 
long a time of the stimulus, support, or even hope of a market, will 


504 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


leave the aggregate stock of rails of all markets accessible to us much 
less than it has been in ordinary times, when the demand in the Con- 
federate States was many times less than it will be immediately on 
and for a long time after the restoration of peace. The import duties 
on rails which will inevitably then be imposed, both for the purpose 
of excluding Yankee manufactures and of creating them on our own 
soil, where we have been and are now suffering so much embarrass- 
ment and peril for want of them, will add to the great impulse which 
will carry into the manufacture of rails very large amounts of capital 
now withheld from it by the prevailing rage for more lucrative but 
less safe war speculations, which will then have subsided, and by the 
difficulty, if not impossibility, of procuring the requisite material or 
men for such work, which will then both be liberated from the all- 
engrossing demands of the Army. These causes will inevitably 
create a great demand for rolling-mills, and those which are already 
completed and in operation must afford every advantage for profits 
during the urgent and earliest scarcity and demand for rails over 
those which will have to be then commenced, erected, and furnished 
with machinery and put in operation. Besides, comparatively slight 
alterations of these mills will adapt them in the hands of either the 
Government or of individuals to thc manufacture of boiler-plate, gun- 
boat plates, bar-iron of every description, and other supplies equally 
needed for both Government and commercial purposes, so that there 
is little or no reason for apprehending any serious loss after the resto- 
ration of peace to the Government on its investment in these rolling- 
mills for the maintenance of military transportation during the war. 
But were it otherwise, and supposing some pecuniary loss should 
accrue to the Government on such investments, the question still 
forces itself upon its decision, and inevitably must now be decided, 
whether the maintenance of necessary military transportation and 
the suecess of our armies with this risk is not worth more to us than 
disaster, defeat, and perhaps subjugation for want of that necessary 
transportation without that risk of small pecuniary loss. We may 
shut our eyes to and attempt to ignore, but we cannot avoid this alter- 
native. With an enemy all around us, possessing on land an unlim- 
ited network of railroads concentrating on our frontiers, exclusively 
occupying our sea-coasts and harbors, and penetrating every part of 
our territory with their steam navigation of our rivers, how shall we 
contend with them if we are to depend for the transportation of our 
armies, ordnance, and all army supplies on the inadequate and tedious 
transportation of horses and mules, of which the country is now so 
much exhausted, over miry and often impassable roads cut up by 
unusual use and never repaired? Such a contingency is too disheart- 
ening to contemplate; and yet without the prompt, liberal, and effi- 
cient action of the Government to avert it, the recurrence of the 
seasons may not be predicted with more certainty than its early 
fulfillment. 

VI. To the problem of furnishing necessary locomotives, wheels 
and axles, springs, tires, and other materials for the equipment and 
machinery of railroads, much of the foregoing remarks are equally 
applicable, and therefore will not here be repeated. It is true that 
many of them might be made and furnished by the private manufac- 
tories now established, if the Government would relinquish wholly, 
or even partially, its engrossing employment of all such establish- 
ments exclusively in manufacturing articles for purely military and 
naval uses, and for those purposes would establish its own mines, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 505 


forges, foundries, and manufactories of iron. Even of rails, a very 
considerable quantity would have heretofore been made for railroads 
but for this exclusive monopoly by the Government of all the mines 
and manufactories of iron in the Confederacy, and they might now 
be made if the Government had its own rolling-mills for its boiler 
plate, bar iron, &c., instead of engrossing those of individuals. But 
the deterioration and destitution of our railroads and of their equip- 
ments have now greatly exceeded the point at which they could have 
been relieved by such expedients and imperatively demand much 
more extensive and efficient measures of relief. Two or more exten- 
sive foundries and workshops established and maintained by the Gov- 
ernment for the manufacture and supply of these materials and 
equipments for railroads at cost prices are absolutely needed to keep 
up the machinery upon them so as to be available for the necessary 
transportation for our armies. 

VII. But for the establishment or operations of any such manufac- 
teries of either rails or machinery mechanics are needed whom it is 
now impossible to procure perhaps in the Confederate States and cer- 
tainly without resorting to those enrolled in its conscription and 
armies. Tosupply this, perhaps of all the most important and urgent 
want of our Government and people, to any extent at all commensu- 
rate with existing necessities, it will be necessary to import from 
Kurope citizens and skillful machinists. This ean readily be done by 
the Government through its agents in Great Britain and France, who 
may assure to such mechanics a free passage on ships owned or hired 
by Government and constant employment at lucrative wages after 
their arrival here ; 500 to 1,000 such at the least might be most advan- 
tageously imported and employed. All the railroads and all the man- 
ufactories in the Confederate States on which they are dependent for 
their supplies have been very largely deprived of workmen, not only 
by the ruinous competition of the Government workshops, but also 
by the enlistment and conscription in the Army of such as were capa- 
ble of military service, and it will be absolutely necessary, for the 
maintenance in operation and use even in its present deteriorated 
condition of the machinery of our railroads, that until other mechanics | 
can be procured from abroad details from the conscription and from 
the Army of any such as may be now found there should be most lib- 
erally made. The number of men so detailed would: be too small to 
materially or even perceptibly weaken our armies in the field, whose 
ranks could be very largely recruited from the vagrants, American 
and Kuropean, who now infest our cities devouring our subsistence, 
demoralizing our society, and endangering our peace and safety, while 
each man so detailed would perform services more valuable to the - 
Government and armies of the Confederacy than ten men of his 
capacity could perform in the ranks. The neglect and violation of 
this obvious policy has constituted a chief—perhaps the chiefest— 
cause of the present dilapidated condition of our railroads and their 
machinery. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


RESOLUTIONS proposed to railroad conventions held in Richmond December, 
1861, and February, 1862, and adopted with some modifications, but never put 
into general execution. 


Resolved, That in order to promote the manufacture of iron rails 
and other railroad supplies essential to the maintenance of railroads 
in the Confederate States, we hereby pledge the railroad companies 


506 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


represented by us and recommend to others in the Confederate States 
to adopt the following measures: 

First. That to any person or persons who shall first within 
months from the Ist of January, 1862, establish and put into success- 
ful operation a rolling-mill capable of manufacturing not less than 
tons of good iron T-rails per month of a quality equal to those hereto- 
fore used by our companies, and who shall furnish such rails, subject 
to inspection and rejection by an inspector mutually agreed on if not 
of the required quality as aforesaid, and warranted to last not less 
than years, each of our said companies will pledge itself and 
contraet with such person or persons that it will annually, during 
years from the 1st of January, 1862, purchase of such person or per- 
sons, to the extent that they can supply them, such rails for not less 
than one-fifteenth of the length of its railroad, paying for the same in 
old rails to the extent of not less than one-half the number of tons of 
new rails so purchased, and the residue in cash at the rate of one ton 
of new rails for two tons, or their market value in cash of the old 
rails, of or $ per ton, added tothe market value of the old rails for 
each ton of new rails, as the manufacturer may elect. That should 
more than one such mill be put into successful operation in any one 
State within the time specified, the companies in that State will pur- 
chase of each such mill an equal portion of the quantities before men- 
tioned of such rails: Provided, That no company shall be under any 
obligation to purchase at a more distant mill rails which it can buy at 
a nearer one. 

Second. That to any person or persons who shall establish and put 
into successful operation within months from the 1st of January, 
1862, manufactories of any other railroad supplies, the said companies 
pledge themselves, and will contract each with such person or persons, 
to purchase of them annually during not less than years, or dur- 
ing the continuance of the existing war and blockade, such supplies, 
which shall not be less in quantity, if of equal quality, than they 
have each purchased during the year 1861, at a price exceeding by not 
less than per cent. nor more than per cent. the manufac- 
turers’ prices of such articles on the Ist day of July, 1860. That 
after the termination of the existing war the said companies will pur- 
chase the said articles of the same persons at prices which shall, 
during —— years from the Ist day of January, 1862, be not less than 
7 per cent. nor more than per cent. more than the aggregate 
market prices (including all import duties and charges) of like articles 
then imported into the Confederate States. Should more than one 
manufactory of any of such railroad supplies (other than rails) be 
- established within the time above limited in the Confederate States, 
each company shall give preference, first, to any such manufactory first 
established in the same State with such company; and secondly, to 
the nearest manufactory which shall be first established in any other 
Confederate States. 

Third. That to any such person, persons, or corporations who shall 
bona fide commence the manufacture or the erection of buildings or 
machinery for the manufacture of iron rails, or any other railroad 
supplies, within the Confederate States within months from the 
1st day of January, 1862, who shall apply for such loans, and shall 
for its repayment or satisfaction tender to the company, or companies 
making it an adequate security or lien on property, the companies - 
here represented, or hereafter uniting with them, will advance in 
money or materials, as provided in the foregoing resolutions, the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 507 


amount of its desired purchases for and during not less than one 
or more than two years from the date of such advances, one-half of 
such advances to be payable on the tender of such security and the 
residue to be payable on the actual bona fide commencement of such 
manufacture. 

Fourth. That to maintain the supply to each of our companies of 
such articles as shall be necessary to them before they can be manu- 
factured here, and to procure those materials for repairs and manu- 
facture which cannot be procured in the Confederate States and are 
immediately needed, the companies here represented, and others who 
may desire to unite with us, will send to Kurope a competent agent, 
furnished with the necessary funds, who shall purchase for each com- 
pany such articles as it may order and supply the means of purchasing, 
at such prices as such agent may deem necessary to pay to insure their 
early shipment to the Confederate States. 

Fifth. That such agent shall be appointed by an executive com- 
mittee selected from the officers of the companies here represented 
and now to be chosen by the meeting, to whom he shall give bond 
with security, to be approved of by them, for the due application 
under their instructions of the funds to be placed in his hands, who 
Shall for that purpose receive from each of the said companies the 
funds supplied for their respective importations, and themselves give 
bonds to such company for their due application of the same, and who 
shall be charged with the entire and confidential control and manage- 
ment of such importations, of the proper distribution thereof, and of 
all matters incident thereto; and that all such orders shall be furnished 
to the said committee within days from the Ist of February, 1862. 

Sixth. That the amount of purchases ordered for each company 
Shall be equal to what they will need of such Supplies during the two 
years succeeding the Ist of January, 1862, and shall be not less than 
$100 per mile of the length of its road. 

Seventh. That the prices to be paid by each company for the 
articles ordered by it shall be ascertained and determined by the 
executive committee by adding to the prices first paid for them abroad 
by the said agent the expenses of importation, including import 
duties (if required by the Government), and not including in such 
expenses of importation the proportion which each company may be 
required to bear of any loss which may be sustained by marine dis- 
‘asters or the public enemies. Any loss by marine disaster or the 
public enemies of any of. the articles purchased by any of the associ- 
ated companies shall be borne by all of the said companies, respect- 
ively, in the proportions which the purchases so made for each of the 
said companies shall bear to the amount of all the purchases made 
for all the said companies. 

Highth. That such agent shall receive for his compensation a com- 
mission to be determined by the executive committee, and regulated 
by the extent of his purchases. 

Ninth. That the executive committee be authorized to employ a 
clerk and accountant to settle accounts with the several companies 
concerned. | 

Tenth. All articles imported or manufactured under the foregoing 
resolutions during the existing war shall be transported over the rail- 
roads of the companies here represented for tolls, which shall not 
exceed the cost to them of such transportation, provided the com- 
panies for whom they are transported shall agree to transport upon 
the same terms articles designed for the companies here represented. 


508 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


A plan for immediate results toward restoring railroad track and 
. machmery. 


First. Ascertain by rapid inspection the actual wants of each fur- 
nace, forge, and rolling-mill—in labor, supplies, fuel, and material. 

Second. By concert of action Government and railroad to arrange 
to work each furnace, forge, and mill to a point as near its maximum 
capacity as the present resources of the country will permit. Especial 
attention to be given to labor, detailed or conscript, upon the part of 
the Government, and upon the part of the railroads to promote trans- 
portation of supplies and iron made. 

Third. Classify upon the basis of relative necessity the most press- 
ing wants of the Government, army, navy, and railroad transportation, 
giving precedence to axles and engine tire. Adhere to this classifi- 
cation and apportion under it all iron received. 

Fourth. Ascertain the most pressing deficiencies of track, remove 
iron from railroads to be designated by the Secretary of War, and 
arrange a prompt return of the worn-out iron to rolling-mills. 

Fifth. To collect and forward serap iron to be puddled and rolled in 
gun-boat plates, to an amount to be designated by 

Sixth. To intrust to two officers, selected for special qualifications 
by the railroads and Government, the execution of all details of inspec- 
tion, supply work, and distribution, all cases of divided opinion to be 
arbitrated through the chief of Engineer Bureau. 

Respectfully submitted. I. M. ST. JOHN, 

' Niter and Mining Corps. 


RICHMOND, April 22, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: | 

Sir: I have the honor to present you herewith a report adopted 
by the representatives of railroads, and a copy of certain resolutions 
by them passed at a meeting yesterday. The report of resolutions 
embody the views entertained on the subjects which you presented 
for consideration. 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
R. R. CUYLER, 


Chairman. 
[Inclosure No. 1.] 


The committee whose duty it was made to consider the communica- 
tion of the Secretary of War with the accompanying report and to 
report at 4p. m. of this day what action shall be taken, beg leave to 
report that the representatives of the railroad companies now assembled 
at Richmond upon the invitation of the Honorable Secretary of War, 
are deeply impressed with the necessity of adopting such measures as 
will on the one hand secure for Government speedy and safe trans- 
portation of troops, munitions of war, and supplies by the railroads 
of the Confederacy, and on the other hand the proper maintenance of 
the railroad tracks, motive power, and machinery owned by the rail- 
road companies. 

For the purpose of securing and accomplishing these great interests, 
which are or ought to be so intimately connected, the committee 
respectfully recommend the adoption of the following measures: 

First. That there should be established under the order of the See- 
retary of War, or under the authority of an act of Congress, a bureau 
attached to the Department of War to bé called the railroad bureau, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 509 


and to be placed in charge of Col. William M. Wadley, assistant 
adjutant-general, with four or more assistants, said assistants to be 
located at central convenient points in different sections of the 
country. That it be made the duty of such bureau, through its chief 
and assistants, to superintend all Government transportation, but not 
to have the control or direction of the motive power or cars by which 
such transportation is made; to agree with each railroad company in 
the Confederacy upon rates of passage for troops, and for rates of 
freight for the establishment of such schedules as may be found 
necessary and proper for the speedy transportation of army, navy, 
and other Government supplies; to make arrangements for the com- 
fortable accommodation of sick and wounded officers and soldiers, and 
generally to protect and preserve the interest of the Confederacy in 
the premises, and to audit all claims arising under such contracts. 
That all orders or requests for Government transportation of every 
kind shall be made under such rules and regulations as may be estab- 
lished by the railroad bureau. 

Second. That until such arrangements and agreements be made by 
the railroad bureau with the railroad companies, those companies 
Shall be paid the rates of passage and freight established at the rail- 
road meeting held at Augusta, Ga., on the 15th day of December last 
(except when special contracts have been made), and that the com- 
panies shall, as they have always hitherto done, give precedence to 

Government transportation over that of individuals. 

Third. That the several railroad companies be supplied through the 
railroad bureau with all such tools and materials as the Government 
can, consistently with the wants of the Army and Navy, from time to 
time furnish at fair prices to be agreed on, and also with such iron 
rails as may at any time come into possession of Government, by 
impressment or otherwise, from railroads deemed unimportant, or 
comparatively unimportant, for Government transportation. 

The committee believe that a considerable portion of the supply 
necessary to maintain the important railroads of the country could be 
secured at once by the exercise of a spirit of liberality on the part of 
the Government—a liberality imperiously demanded by the pressing 
wants of those companies. There is a rolling|-mill] at Atlanta, Ga.., 
which was established by pecuniary aid given by railroad companies 
of Georgia, and which never would have been established without 
such aid, engaged exclusively on Government work. That establish- 

~ ment, as well as all or nearly all the other iron-works in the country, 
have been during the war engaged by the Government, and thus the 
railroads have been deprived of every means of supply. Let the Gov- - 
ernment forego further work at the Atlanta rolling-mill entirely and 
concert measures for having the Tredegar rolling machinery in 
thorough working order to reroll all rails presented and great relief 
will be given. 

The committee believe that the Government should give substan- 
tail encouragement to the building up of furnaces, forges, iron-works, 

-Inachine-shops, and ear factories by individuals or by railroad or 
other incorporated companies. Such works founded on private capi- 
tal cannot be imported until the Government shall (in addition to 
assurances already given by the Mining Bureau when applied to) 
publicly pledge its faith that none of them shall ever be impressed or 
taken for Government use. If such pledge be given, there is no doubt 
that private enterprise and capital would in a short space of. time 
build up establishments of the kind most needed by the railroads. 
The railroad companies do not seek any pecuniary aid from Govern- 


510 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ment. They ask only that the Government will afford them such 
facilities ascan be granted without any hazard or loss. As supplies 
of tools, steel, and many other articles cannot be procured without 
resorting to the English manufactories, it becomes necessary for the 
railroad companies to place money or establish credits in England. 
The companies being generally willing to risk the blockade in order 
to procure supplies cannot in the present condition of exchange so 
place money or establish credits without the aid of Government. The 
committee would therefore respectfully recommend that whenever any 
railroad companies or association of companies shall purchase cotton 
and pledge the same to the Government, that an arrangement be made 
for their benefit of a character similar to the late loan procured on 
cotton in Europe by the Government. The operations of the Govern- 
ment have, from the very necessity of the case, interfered with the 
operations of the railroad companies. Many mechanics absolutely 
necessary toward keeping up railroad works are now in the Army. 
Without these workmen the railroads, even with supplies of iron, 
eannot get along. The number of such men cannot exceed, if it shall 
reach, 1,000. The committee would therefore earnestly recommend 
the detail of such mechanics as may be found absolutely necessary be 
made to railroad companies without delay. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


Resolved, That in order to increase the present efficiency and capac- 
ity of the railroads in their existing condition for the military trans- 
portation of the Confederate States, the following measures are 
respectfully reeommended to the War Department: 

First. That on all canals, rivers, and other lines of water trans- 
portation as large a number as practicable of boats and vessels of any 
kind be speedily constructed and used for transporting military sup- 
plies, so as to relieve the railroads of the overwhelming amount of 
freights now thrown upon them, and leave them available for trans- 
portation of what cannot be carried by water because of its locality 
or the urgency with which it is needed. 

Second. That [at] all points which are suitable for the storage and 
distribution of supplies on the lines of railroads or water transporta- 
tion adequate store-houses or shelters, if only of canvas, be erected 
and guarded for the storage and distribution, as they may be needed 
at various points, of supplies, which otherwise will inevitably detain 
many cars from active service. 

Third. That for the increase and improvement of military transpor- 
tation on railroads the Government should as early as practicable 
import from Europe artisans, machinists, and miners in number not 
less than 500 to supply the mines, rolling-mills, and machine-shops 
needed by the Government and railroads. 

Fourth. That more stringent and efficient army regulations and 
orders be made and rigidly enforced preventing effectually interfer- 
ence by military officers with the movements of trains and operations of 
railroads and with the obedience of railroad officers and agents to the 
orders of their superiors. 

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Jackson, Miss., Apri 22, 1863. 
Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON, 
Commanding Dept. of Mississippi and Hast Louisiana: 


— §1r: I am directed by Governor Pettus to say to you that in his 
opinion the distillation of grain in this-department ought to be pre- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 511 


vented by all means in the power of the authorities. The civil reme- 
dies for this evil are too slow, uncertain, and otherwise inadequate to 
prevent the evil, but the law under your requisition authorizes the 
Governor to impress provisions for the Confederate Army; and I am 
directed further to say that if you will make a requisition for corn 
upon the Executive he will have every bushel of corn in the distilleries 
of this State, or purchased for distillation therein, impressed for the 
use of the Army, and if that does not prevent it he will, under your 
requisition for copper to make guns, impress the stills. 
Respectfully, &e., 
JAMES H. RIVES, 
Private Secretary. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 49. hichmond, April 23, 1868. 


I. The following regulation is made and will hereafter be observed 
in the Army relative to the clothing of deceased soldiers: 

Upon the death of any soldier the surgeon in charge of the hospital 
at which it occurs will cause an inventory to be made of all his mili- 
tary clothing, and will make a fair appraisement of each article thereof. 
It will then be turned over to the nearest quartermaster for reissue. 
The original appraisement shall be forwarded to the Second Auditor 
to secure its value to the personal representatives of the deceased sol- 
dier, and a copy thereof be furnished to the receiving quartermaster, 
who will issue the clothing at the appraised prices, and not at those 
set forth in General Orders, No. 100, last series. 

Ii. Engineer officers while employed on reconnaissances, surveys, 
or other duty, under special orders causing temporary absence from 
their posts or from the headquarters of the armies, corps, divisions, 
or brigades with which they may be Serving, shall be allowed their 
personal expenses, to be paid out of the appropriation for engineer 
Service, in lieu of all allowances for fuel, quarters, and forage for the 
Same period. Each account must be certified to by the party receiv- 
ing the payment, and approved by the officer under whose orders he 
acts. : 

IfI. All supplies of contractors engaged exclusively in iron or muni- 
tions of war for the Government are exempted from impressment, 
either at the establishment or at the place of purchase. Satisfactory 
evidence by affidavit or otherwise may be required to establish 
ownership. 

By order: 

5. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG AND POTOMAC R. R. Co., 
PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., April 23, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Apprehending that the estimate made in the paper which I 
had the honor to leave with you yesterday may seem an exaggerated 
one of the quantity of iron rails now urgently needed for the main- 
tenance in use of the railroads of the Confederate States needed for 


512 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the operations of its armies, I have thought it proper that the facts 
on which that estimate is made should be known to you. A eareful 
examination of the statistics of railroads in the Confederacy, as given 
in the most approved maps, guides, and other publications, disclosed 
the fact that those railroads, exclusive of those now in the possession 
of the enemy or which might not be needed, amounted in length to 
not less than 6,300 miles. But assuming that only 5,500 miles of these 
roads would be necessary to the military movements of the Govern- 
ment, these would have in their main tracks (exclusive of side tracks, 
on which old rails may be used) 495,000 tons of rails, computing them 
at 90 tons to the mile—the average weight of rails on Southern rail- 
roads. In ordinary times and with the ordinary use and opportuni- 
ties in peace of repairing roadways and machinery experience forbids 
any reliance on the duration of rails for a longer period than from ten 
to fifteen years, and with the wear and use of them resulting from the 
overwhelming amount of army transportation and the diversion to 
them of all freights heretofore carried by water transportation, with- 
out opportunity or materials for repairs of roadways and machinery, 
their duration for ten years is the utmost that can be reasonably relied 
on; and when it is remembered that the rails have been laid or relaid 
on none of these roads less than three and on many not less than 
twelve and fifteen years since, it is but reasonable to calculate on 
the necessity of renewing during this and each successive year one- 
tenth of the length of all these railroads, requiring per annum one- 
tenth of the 495,000 tons of rails used in them, or 49,500 tons annually, 
or 4,125 tons monthly, being 1,500 tons more yearly or 125 tons more 
monthly than was estimated on the paper referred to. 

It may be said that no sufficient allowance is here made for the rails 
to be taken from roads of no or of minor military importance to the 
Confederacy; but it will be observed that this calculation is based on 
supplying 800 miles less of railroads than are believed to be necessary 
to the military operations of the Government, which 800 miles would 
require annually 80 miles or 7,200 tons more of rails to keep them in 
use. Experience, too, has practically demonstrated the great difficul- 
ties attending this resource for supplying rails. They must be often 
taken up in the vicinity of the enemy, who will of course prevent 
it if possible, and generally by soldiers unskilled in a work more 
difficult to the skillful than laying down the track, who rebel against 
such employment and will not be coerced by elective officers of a 
volunteer army. Before the battle of Fredericksburg General Lee’s 
army, with all the aid the railroad company could give him, was 
occupied more than two weeks removing four miles of rails. It 
remains, then, that not less than 49,500 tons of rails annually, or 
4,125 monthly, are needed, and urgently needed now, to the mainte- 
nance of the railroads of the Confederacy. Whence are they to be 
supplied? The railroad convention reply from one rolling-mill at 
Atlanta, now engrossed in Government work, and from the Tredegar 
Works here, now also equally engrossed with other Government work. 
There are none other in the Confederacy, and the efforts of railroad 
interests during the past two years have wholly failed to induce pri- 
vate capital to erect any others. No one has claimed for the Atlanta 
mill a capacity for making more than 10,000 to 12,000 tons of rails 
per annum, even when making nothing else. There is reason to 
believe this an extravagant estimate. One of the proprietors 
of the Tredegar Works informed me only last Monday that their 
two mills had never been able to make more than 8,000 tons per 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. * DAS 


annum. Here, then, is a provision proposed for at the utmost less 
than half the quantity absolutely needed, assuming the relinquish- 
ment by Government of all other work to be done by either of these 
establishments. Nor can it be wise or safe to place the Government 
and all the railroads of the country at the mercy of one or two fac- 
tories, whose pecuniary interests will prompt them to promise and 
perhaps attempt far more than they can accomplish, if thereby they 
only succeed in keeping down completion of other factories or sources 
of supply, and who, after extorting for their productions any price 
they may choose to exact, will leave the country without remedy for 
their failure to supply its necessities. On this point past experi- 
ence has furnished many most impressive lessons. 
With highest respect, your obedient servant, 
Dr Ne DANIELS Ra 
President. 


—___. 


HpDQRS. DEPT. OF MISSISSIPPI AND East LOUISIANA, 
Jackson, April 23, 1868. 
His Excellency J. J. Perrus, . 
Jackson: 


Sir: Corn for the support of the Army is greatly needed. I am 
informed that in the southeastern part of Marshall County, Miss.,. 
there are in active operation two or more distilleries which are con- 
suming large quantities of corn. For the purpose of securing this 
corn for breadstuff for the Army, you are requested to have it seized 
and turned over to the proper Confederate officers. 

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
J. C. PEMBERTON, 
Lieutenant- General, Commanding. 


AN ACT to lay taxes for the common defense and carry on the Government of 
the Confederate States. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
there shall be levied and collected upon the value of all naval stores, 
salt, wines and spirituous liquors, tobacco, manufactured or unmanu- 
factured, cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, sirup, rice, and other 
agricultural products, held or owned on the first day of July next, and 
not necessary for family consumption, for the unexpired portion of 
the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the growth or pro- 
duction of any year preceding the year eighteen hundred and Sixty- 
three, a tax of eight per centum; and on all moneys, bank notes or 
other currency on hand, or on deposit, on the first day of J uly next; 
and on the value of all credits on which the interest has not been 
paid, held or owned by any person, vopartnership or corporation, on 
the first day of July next, and not employed in a business, the income 
derived from which is taxed under the provisions of this act, there 
Shall be levied and collected a tax of one per cent.: Provided, That 
all moneys owned, held, or deposited beyond the limits of the Confed- 
erate States, shall be valued at the current rate of exchange in Con- 
federate Treasury notes, and the said tax shall be assessed on the first 
day of July next, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, and be 

33 R R—SERIES EY VOU Il 


514 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


collected on the first day of October next, oras soon thereafter as may 
be practicable. | 

SEc. 2. Every person engaged or intending to engage in any busi- 
ness named in the fifth section of this act shall, within sixty days 
after the passage of this act, or at the time of beginning business, and 
on the first day of January in each year thereafter, register with the 
district collector, in such form as the commissioner of taxes shall 
prescribe, a true account of the name and residence of each person, 
firm, or corporation engaged or interested in the business, with a 
statement of the time for which and the place and manner in which 
the same is to be conducted, and of all other facts going to ascertain 
the amount of tax upon such business for the past or the future, 
according to the provisions of this act. At the time of such registry 
there shall be paid to the collector the specific tax for the year ending 
on the next thirty-first of December, and such other tax as may be 
due upon sales or receipts in such business, at the time of such regis- 
try, as herein provided; and the collector shall give to the person 
making such registry a copy thereof, with a receipt for the amount of 
tax then paid. 

SEc. 3. Any person failing to make the registry, and to pay the tax 
required by the preceding section, shall, in addition to all other taxes 
upon his business, imposed by this act, pay double the amount of the 
specific tax on such business, and a like sum for every thirty days of 
such failure. 

SEC. 4. Except where -herein otherwise provided, there shall be a 
separate registry and tax for each business mentioned in the fifth sec- 
tion of this act, and for each place of conducting the same; but no 
tax shall be required for the mere storage of goods at a place other 
than the registered place of business. Upon every change in the 
place of conducting a registered business there shall be a new registry, 
but no additional tax shall be required. Upon the death of any per- 
son conducting a business registered and taxed as herein required, or 
upon the transfer of the business to another, the business shall not 
be subjected to any additional tax, but there shall be a new registry 
in the name of the person authorized by law to continue the business. 

SEC. 5. That upon each trade, business or occupation hereinafter 
named, the following taxes shall be levied and paid for the year end- 
ing on the thirty-first of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 
and for each and every year thereafter, viz: 

I. Bankers shall pay five hundred dollars. Every person shall be 
deemed a banker within the meaning of this act who keeps a place of 
business where credits are opened in favor of any person, firm or cor- 
’ poration, by the deposit or collection of money or currency, and by 
whom the same, or any part thereof, shall be paid out or remitted upon 
the draft, check or order of such creditor; but not to include any 
bank Jegally authorized to issue notes as circulation, nor agents for 
the sale of merchandise for account of producers or manufacturers. 

II. Auctioneers shall pay fifty dollars and two and a half per ceentum 
on the gross amount of sales made: Provided, however, That on all 
sales at auction of stock or securities for money, the tax shall be one- 
fourth of one per centum on the gross amount of sales. Every per- 
son shall be deemed an auctioneer, within the meaning of this act, 
whose occupation it is to offer property for sale to the highest or best 
bidder at public outcry. The tax upon the auctioneers shall be 
deemed a tax upon the personal privilege, to be. paid by each individ- 
ual engaged in the business, and without regard to the place at which 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 515 


the same is conducted. No tax shall be required upon auction sales 
‘made for dealers in a business registered and taxed and at their place 
of business, or upon official sales at auction, made by judicial or 
executive officers, or by personal representatives, guardie[a]ns, or 
committees. 

III. Wholesale dealers in liquors of any and every description, 
including distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and wines of all kinds, 
shall pay two hundred dollars, and five per centum on the gross 
amount of sales made. Every person, other than the distiller or 
brewer, who shall sell or offer for sale any such liquors or wines in 
quantities of more than three gallons at one time to the same pur- 
chaser, shall be regarded as a wholesale dealer in liquors, within the 
meaning of this act. All persons who shall sell, or offer for sale, any 
such liquors or wines, in quantities less than three gallons at one time, 
to the same person shall be regarded as a retail dealer in liquors. 

IV. Retail dealers in liquor, including distilled spirits, fermented 
liquors, and wines of every description, shall pay one hundred dollars 
and ten per centum on the gross amount of all sales made. 

V. Retail dealers shall pay fifty dollars and two and a half per 
centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person whose 
business or occupation it is to sell or offer to sell groceries or any 
goods, wares, merchandise or other things of foreign or domestic 
production, in less quantities than a whole original piece or package 
at one time, to the same person (not including wines, spirituous or 
malt liquors), shall be regarded as a retail dealer under this act: 
Provided, however, That any mechanie who shall sell only the prod- 
ucts of the labor of himself and his own family shall be exempt from 
this tax. 

VI. Wholesale dealers shall pay two hundred dollars and two and a 
half per centum on the gross amount of all sales made Every person 
whose business or occupation it is to sell or offer to sell groceries, or 
any goods, wares or merchandise, of foreign or domestic production, 
by one or more original package or piece at one time to the same pur- 
chaser, not including wines, spirituous or malt liquors, shall be 
deemed as a wholesale dealer under this act; but, having been regis- 
_ tered as a wholesale dealer, such person may also sell, as aforesaid, 
as a retailer. 

VII. Pawnbrokers shall pay two hundred dollars. Every person, 
whose business or occupation it is to take or receive, by way of 
pledge, favor or exchange, any goods, wares or merchandise, or any 
kind of personal property whatever, for the repayment or security of 
money lent thereon, shall be deemed a pawnbroker under this act. 

VIII. Distillers shall pay two hundred dollars, and also twenty per 
centum on the gross amount of all sales made. Every person or 
copartnership, who distills or manufactures spirituous liquors for 
sale, shall be deemed a distiller under this act: Provided, however, 
That distillers of fruit, for ninety days or less, shall pay sixty dollars, 
and also fifty cents per gallon on the first ten gallons, and two dollars 
per gallon on all spirits distilled beyond that quantity. 

IX. Brewers shall pay one hundred dollars, and two and a half per 
centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person who man- 
ufactures fermented liquors of any name or description, for sale, from 
malt, wholly or in part, shall be deemed a brewer under this act. 

X. Hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses shall be classified and 
rated according to the yearly rental, or if not rented, according to the 
estimated value of the yearly rental of the house or property occupied 


516 - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


or intended to be occupied as a hotel, inn, tavern or eating house, as 
follows, to wit: In cases where the actual or estimated rent shall 
amount to ten thousand dollars, or more, they shall constitute the 
first class, and pay an annual sum of five hundred dollars; in cases 
where said rent shall be five thousand dollars and less than ten thou- 
sand dollars, they shall constitute the second class, and pay an annual 
sum of three hundred dollars; and in cases where said rent shall be 
two thousand five hundred dollars and less than five thousand dol- 
lars, they shall constitute the third class, and pay an annual sum of 
two hundred dollars; in cases where said rent shall be one thousand 
dollars, and less than two thousand five hundred dollars, they shall 
constitute the fourth class, and pay an annual sum of one hundred 
dollars; and in cases where said rent shall be less than one thousand 
dollars, they shall constitute the fifth class, and pay an annual sum 
of thirty dollars. Every place where food and lodgings, or lodgings 
only, are provided for and furnished travelers, sojourners or board- 
ers, in view of payment therefor, the income or receipts from which 
amount to five hundred dollars, from that source, shall be regarded 
a hotel, inn or tavern, under this act. 

XI. That every place where food or refreshments of any kind are 
provided for casual visitors, and sold for consumption therein, and 
every boarding house in which there shall be six boarders, or more, 
shall be deemed an eating house under this act. 

XII. Brokers shall pay two hundred dollars. Any person whose 
business it is to purchase and sell stocks, coined money, bank notes, 
or other securities, for themselves or others, or who deals in exchanges 
relating to money, shall be deemed a broker under this act. 

XIII. Commercial brokers or commission merchants shall pay two 
hundred dollars, and two and a half per centum upon all sales made. 
Any person or firm, except one registered as a wholesale dealer or 
banker, whose business it is, as the agent of others, to purchase or 
sell goods, or seek orders therefor in original or unbroken packages, 
or produce consigned by others than the producers, to manage busi- 
ness matters for the owners of vessels, or for the shippers or con- 
signors of goods, or whose business it is to purchase, rent, hire or sell | 
real estate or negroes, shall be deemed a commercial broker or com- 
mission merchant under this act. 

XIV. Tobacconists shall pay fifty dollars, and two and a half per 
cent. on gross amount of sales. Any person whose business it is to 
sell, at retail, cigars, snuff, or tobacco in any form, shall be deemed 
a tobacconist under this act. But registered wholesale and retail 
dealers shall not be taxed as tobacconists. 

XV. Theaters shall pay five hundred dollars, and five per cent. on 
all receipts, which tax shall be paid by the owner of the building. 
Every edifice used for the purpose of dramatic representations, plays 
or performances, and not including halls rented or used occasionally 
for concerts or theatrical representations, shall be regarded as a theater 
under this act. Each circus shall pay one hundred dollars, and a tax 
of ten dollars for each exhibition, which tax shall be paid by the man- 
ager thereof. Every building, tent or space, or area, where feats of 
horsemanship or acrobatic sports are exhibited, shall be regarded as 
a circus under this act. Jugglers and other persons exhibiting shows 
shall pay fifty dollars. Every person who performs by sleight of hand 
shall be regarded as a juggler under this act: Provided, That no- 
registry made in one State shall be held to authorize exhibitions in 
another State; and but one registry shall be required under this act 
to authorize exhibitions in any one State. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 517 


XVI. Bowling alleys and billiard rooms shall pay forty dollars for 
each alley or billiard table registered, which tax shall be paid by the 
owner thereof. Every place or building where bowls are thrown or 
billiards played, and open to the public, with or without price, shall 
be regarded as a bowling alley or billiard room, respectively, under 
this act. 

XVII. Livery stable keepers shall pay fifty dollars. Any person 
whose occupation or business is to keep horses for hire or to let, shall 
be regarded as a livery stable keeper under this act. 

XVIII. Cattle brokers shall pay the sum of fifty dollars, and two 
and a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Any per- 
son whose business it is to buy and sell and deal in cattle, horses, hogs 
or sheep, shall be considered a cattle broker. 

XIX. Butchers and bakers shall pay the sum of fifty dollars, and 
one per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Any person 
whose business it is to butcher and sell, or offer for sale in open 
market or otherwise, the flesh of cattle, hogs, or sheep, shall be 
deemed a butcher under this act; and any person whose business it 
is to bake and sell, or offer for sale, bread, shall be deemed a baker 
under this act. 3 

XX. Ped[d]lers shall pay fifty dollars, and two and a half per cent. 
on the gross sales. Any person, except persons engaged in peddling 
exclusively periodicals, books, newspapers, published in the Confed- 
erate States, Bibles or religious tracts, who sells, or offers to sell, at 
retail, goods, wares, or other commodities, traveling with his goods 
from place to place in the street, or through different parts of the 
country, shall be deemed a ped[d]ler under this act: Provided, That 
any ped[d |ler who sells, or offers to sell, dry goods, foreign or domestic, 
by one or more original pieces or packages at one time, and to the same 
person or persons as aforesaid, shall pay one hundred dollars, and two 
and a half per cent. on the gross sales; and any person who peddles 
jewelry shall pay fifty dollars, and two and a half per centum on the 
_ gross sales. The tax upon ped[d]lers shall be deemed a tax on ‘the 
personal privilege, to be paid by each individual engaged in the busi- 
ness, without regard to place at which the same is conducted. 

XXI. Apotheearies shall pay fifty dollars, and two and a half per 
centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person who keeps 
a shop or building where medicines are compounded or prepared 
according to prescriptions of physicians, and sold, shall be regarded 
as. an apothecary under this act. 

XXII. Photographers shall pay the sum of fifty dollars, and two and 
a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Any person or 
persons who make for sale photographs, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, 
or pictures on glass, metal, paper or other material, by the action of 
light, shall be regarded a photographer under this act. 

XXII. Lawyers actually engaged in practice shall pay fifty dollars. 
Every person whose business it is, for fee or reward, to prosecute or 
defend causes in any court of record, or other judicial tribunal of the 
Confederate States, or of any State, or give advice in relation to causes 
or matters pending therein, shall be deemed to be a lawyer within the 
meaning of this act. 

XXIV. Physicians, surgeons and dentists actually engaged in the 
practice shall pay fifty dollars. Every person whose’ business it is, 
for fee or reward, to prescribe remedies, or perform surgical operations 
for the cure of any bodily disease or ailing, shall be deemed a physi- 
cian, surgeon or dentist within the meaning of this act, as the case 


518 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


may be; and the provisions of paragraph number twenty-one shall not 
extend to physicians who keep on hand medicines solely for the pur- 
pose of making up their own prescriptions for their own patients. ‘The 
tax upon lawyers, physicians, surgeons and dentists shall be deemed 
a tax upon the personal privilege, to be paid by each individual in the 
business, and without regard to the place at which the same is con- 
ducted: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to 
physicians and surgeons exclusively engaged in the Confederate 
service. | 

XXV. Confectioners shall pay fifty dollars, and two and a half per 
centum on the gross amount of sales. Every person who sells, at 
retail, confectionery, sweetmeats, comfits, or other confects, in any 
building, shall be regarded as a confectioner under this act. 

Sec. 6. And every person registered and taxed upon the gross 
amount of sales as aforesaid shall be required, on the first day of July, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to make a list or return to the 
assessor of the district of the gross amount of such sales as aforesaid, 
to wit: From the passage of this act to the thirtieth day of June, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, inclusive, and at the end of every 
three months, or within ten days thereafter, after the said first day of 
July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, make a list or return to the 
assessor of the district of the gross amount of such sales made as 
aforesaid, with the amount of tax which has accrued or should accrue 
thereon, which list shall have annexed thereto a declaration, under 
oath or affirmation, in form or manner as may be prescribed by the 
commissioner of taxes, that the same is true and correct, and shall at 
the same time as aforesaid pay to the collector the amount of tax 
thereupon as aforesaid, and in default thereof shall pay a penalty in 
double the amount of the tax. . 

Sec. 7. That upon the salaries of all salaried persons serving in any 
capacity whatever, except upon the salaries of persons in the military 
or naval service, there shall be levied and collected a tax of one per 
centum on the gross amount of such salary, when not exceeding fif- 
teen hundred dollars, and two per centum upon any excess over that 
amount, to be levied and collected at the end of each year, in the 
manner prescribed for other taxes ennumerated in this act: Provided, 
That no taxes shall be imposed by virtue of this act on the salary of 
any person receiving a salary not exceeding one thousand dollars per 
annum, or at a like rate for another period of time, longer or shorter. 

Src. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall cause to be assessed 
and ascertained, on the first of January next, or as soon thereafter as 
practicable, the income and profits derived by each person, joint stock 
company and corporation, from every occupation, employment or 
business, whether registered or not, in which they may have been 
engaged, and from every investment of labor, skill, property or 
money, and the income and profits derived from any source whatever, 
except salaries, during the calendar year preceding the said first day 
of January next, and the said income and profits shall be ascertained, 
assessed and taxed in the manner hereinafter prescribed: 

I. If the income be derived from the rents of houses, lands, tene- 
ments, manufacturing or mining establishments, fixtures and machin- 
ery, mills, springs of salt or oil, or veins of coal, iron or other 
minerals, there shall be deducted from the gross amount of the annual 
rent a sum sufficient for the necessary annual repairs, not exceeding 
ten per centum on said rent, except that the rent derived from houses 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 519 


shall be subject to a deduction not exceeding five per centum for 
annual repairs. 

II. If the income be derived from any manufacturing or mining 
business, there shall be deducted from the gross value of the products 
of the year: first, the rent of the establishment and fixtures, if actu- 
ally rented and not owned by the persons prosecuting the business; 
second, the cost of the labor actually hired and paid for; third, the 
actual cost of the raw material purchased and manufactured. 

III. If the income be derived from navigating enterprises, there 

Shall be deducted from the gross earnings, including the value of 
freights on goods shipped by the person running the vessel, the hire 
of the boat or vessel, if not owned by the person running the same, or 
if owned by him, a reasonable allowance for the wear and tear of the 
Same, not exceeding ten per cent. per annum, and also the cost of 
running the boat or vessel. 
IV. If the income be derived by the tax-payer from boat or ship 
building, there shall be deducted from the gross receipts of his occu- 
pation, including the value of the ship when finished, if built for 
himself, the cost of the labor actually hired and paid by himself, and 
the prime cost of the materials, if purchased by him. 

V. If the income be derived by the tax-payer from the sale of mer- 
chandise or any other property, real or personal, there shall be 
deducted from the gross amount of sales the prime cost of the prop- 
erty sold, including the cost of transportation, salaries of clerks 
actually paid, and the rent of buildings employed in the business, if 
hired and not owned by himself. 

VI. If the income be derived by the tax-payer from any other occu- 
pation, profession, employment or business, there shall be deducted 
from the gross amount of fees, compensation, profits, earnings or 
commissions, the salaries of clerks actually paid, and the rent of the 
office or other building used in the business, if hired and not owned 
by himself, the cost of labor actually paid and not owned by himself, 
and the cost of material other than machinery purchased for the use 
of his business, or to be converted into some other form in the course 
of his business; and in case of mutual insurance companies, the 
amount of losses paid by them during the year. The income derived 
from all other sources shall be subject to no deduction whatever, nor 
Shall foreigners be subject to a tax upon any other income than that 
derived from property owned, or occupations or employments pursued 
by them within the Confederate States; and in estimating income 
there shall be included the value of the estimated annual rental of all 
dwellings, houses, buildings or building lots in cities, towns or villages, 
occupied by the owners, or owned and not occupied, or hired, and the 
value of the estimated annual hire of all slaves not engaged on plan- 
tations or farms, and not employed in some business or occupations, 
the profits of which are taxed as income under this act. When the 
income shall be thus ascertained, all of those which do not exceed five 
hundred dollars per annum shall be exempt from taxation. On all 
incomes received during the year over five hundred dollars and not 
exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, a tax of five per cent. shall be paid; 
on all incomes over fifteen hundred dollars, and less than three thou-_ 
sand dollars, five per cent. shall be paid on the first fifteen hundred 
dollars, and ten per cent. on the excess; on all incomes of or over 
three thousand dollars, and less than five thousand dollars, a tax of 
ten per cent. shall be paid; on all incomes of or over five thousand 
_ dollars, and less than ten thousand dollars, a tax of twelve and a half 


520 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


per cent. shall be paid; and on all incomes of or over ten thousand 
dollars, a tax of fifteen per cent. shall be paid. All joint stock com- 
panies and corporations shall reserve one-tenth of the annual earn- 
ings, set apart for dividend and reserve fund, to be paid to the col- 
lector of the Confederate tax, and the dividend then paid to the 
stockholder shall not be estimated as a part of his income for the pur- 
poses of this act. All persons shall give in an estimate of their income 
and profits derived from any other source whatever, and in doing so 
shall first state the gross amount of their receipts as individuals or 
members of a firm or partnership, and also state particularly each 
item for which a deduction is to be made, and the amount to be de- 
ducted for it: Provided, That the incomes and profits upon which the 
above tax is to be imposed shall not be deemed to include the products 
of land which are taxed in kind, as hereinafter described: Provided — 
further, That in case the annual earnings of said joint stock compa- 
nies and corporations set apart as aforesaid shall give a profit of more 
than ten and less than twenty per cent. upon their capital stock paid 
in, one-eighth of said sum so set apart shall be paid as a tax to the 
collector aforesaid, and in case said sum so set apart shall give a profit 
of more than twenty per cent. on their capital stock paid in, one-sixth 
thereof shall be reserved and paid as aforesaid. The tax levied in 
this section shall be paid on the first day of January next, and on the 
first tg! of January of each year thereafter. 

SEC. 9. That if the assessor shall be dissatisfied with the statement 
or MR of income and profits derived from any source whatever, 
other than products in kind, which the tax-payer is required to render, 
or with any deduction claimed by said tax-payer, he shall select one 
disinterested citizen of the vicinage, as a referee, and the tax-payer 
shall select another, and the two thus selected shall call in a third, 
who shall investigate and determine the facts in reference to said 
estimate and deductions, and fix the amount of income and profits on 
which the tax-payer shall be assessed, and a certificate signed by a 
majority of the referees shall be conclusive as to the amount of 
income and profits on which the tax-payer shall be assessed: Provi- 
ded, That if any person shall fail or refuse to render the statement 
or estimate aforesaid, or shall fail or refuse to select a referee as 
aforesaid, the assessor shall select three referees, who shall fix the 
amount of income and profits on which the tax-payer shall be assessed, 
from the best evidence they can obtain, and a certificate signed by 
a majority of said referees shall be conclusive on the tax-payer: 
And provided further, That in any case submitted to referees, if they, 
or a majority of them, shall find and certify that the statement or 
estimate of income and profits rendered by the tax-payer does not 
contain more than four-fifths of the true and real amount of his tax- 
able income and profits, then the tax-payer, in addition to the income 
tax on the true amount of his income and profits, ascertained and 
assessed by the referees, shall pay ten per centum on the amount of 
said income tax, and the assessor shall be entitled to one-fifth of said 
additional ten per centum over and above all other fees and allow- 
ances: And provided further, That the assessor may administer - 
oaths to referees, the tax-payer, and any witness before the referees, 
in regard to said estimate, and any deduction claimed, or any fact in 
reference thereto, in such form as the Secretary of the Treasury, may 
prescribe. 

SEC. 10. On all profits made by any person, partnership or corpora- 
tion, during the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two, by the purchase 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 521 


within the Confederate States, and sale, during the said year, of any 
flour, corn, bacon, pork, oats, hay, rice, salt, iron, or the manufac- 
tures of iron, sugar, molasses made of cane, leather, woolen cloths, 
Shoes, boots, blankets and cotton cloths, a tax of ten per centum shall 
be levied and collected, to be paid on the first day of July next: 
Provided, That the tax imposed by this section shall not apply to 
purchases and sales made in the due course of the regular retail 
business, and shall not continue beyond the present year. 

SEC. 11. Each farmer and planter in the Confederate States, after 
reserving for his own use fifty bushels of sweet potatoes, and fifty 
bushels of Irish potatoes, one hundred bushels of the corn, or fifty 
bushels of the wheat produced in the present year, shall pay and 
deliver to the Confederate Government, of the products of the present 
year, one-tenth of the wheat, corn, oats, rye, buckwheat or rice, sweet 
and Irish potatoes, and of the cured hay and fodder; also one-tenth of 
the sugar, molasses made of cane, cotton, wool and tobacco; the cotton 
ginned and packed in some secure manner, and tobacco shipped and 
packed in boxes, to be delivered by him on or before the first day of 
March in the next year. Each farmer or planter, after reserving 
twenty bushels of peas or beans, but not more than twenty bushels 
of both, for his own use, shall deliver to the Confederate Goy- 
ernment, for its use, one-tenth of the peas, beans and ground peas 
produced and gathered by him during the present year. As soon as 
the aforesaid crops are made ready for market, the tax assessor, in 
case of disagreement between him and the tax-payer, shall proceed 
to estimate the same in the following manner: The assessor and the 
tax-payer shall each select a disinterested freeholder from the vicin- 
age, who may call in a third in case of a difference of opinion to set- 
tle the matter in dispute; or if the tax-payer neglects or refuses to 
select one such freeholder, the said assessor shall select two, who 
Shall proceed to assess the crops as herein provided. They shall 
ascertain the amount of the crops either by actual measurement or 
by computing the contents of the rooms or houses in which they are 
held, when a correct computation is practicable by such a method, 
and the appraisers shall then estimate, under oath, the quantity and 
quality of said crops, including what may have been sold or con- 
sumed by the producer prior to said estimate, whether gathered or 
not, and the value of the portion thereof to which the Government is 
entitled, and shall give a written statement of this estimate to the 
said collector, and a copy of the same to the producer. The said pro- 
ducer shall be required to deliver the wheat, corn, oats, rye, buck- 
wheat, rice, peas, beans, cured hay and fodder, sugar, molasses of 
cane, wool and tobacco, thus to be paid as a tithe in kind, in such 
form and ordinary marketable condition as may be usual in the see- 
tion in which they are to be delivered, and the cotton in such manner 
as hereinbefore provided, within two months from the time they have 
been estimated as aforesaid, at some depot not more than eight miles 
from the place of production, and if not delivered by that time, in 
such order, he shall be liable to pay fifty per cent. more than the esti- 
mated value of the portion aforesaid, to be collected by the tax-col- 
lector as hereinafter prescribed: Provided, The Government shall be 
bound to furnish to the producer sacks for the delivery of such articles 
of grain as require to be put in sacks for transportation, and shall 
allow to the producer of molasses the cost of the barrels containing 
the same. The said estimate shall be conclusive evidence of the 
amount in money of tax due by the producer to the Government, 


522 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and the collector is hereby authorized to proceed to collect the same 
by issuing a warrant of distress from his office, under his signature, 
in the nature of a writ of fiert fucias, and by virtue of the same to 
seize and sell any personal property on the premises of the tax-payer 
or elsewhere, belonging to him, or so much thereof as may be neces- 
sary for the purpose of paying the tax, and the additional fifty per 
cent. aforesaid and costs; and said sale shall be made in the manner 
and form and after the notice required by the laws of the several 

tates for judicial sales of personal property, and the said warrant 
of distress may be executed by the tax-collector or any deputy by 
him appointed for that purpose, and the deputy executing the war- 
rant shall be entitled to the same fees as are allowed in the respect- 
ive States to sheriffs executing writs of fiert facias, said fees to 
be paid as costs by the tax-payer: Provided, That in all cases 
where the assessor and the tax-payer agree on the assessment of the 
crops, and the value of the portion thereof to which the Govern- 
ment is entitled, no other assessment shall be necessary; but the 
estimate agreed on shall be reduced to writing and signed by the 
assessor and tax-payer, and have the same force and effect as the 
assessment and estimate of disinterested freeholders hereinbefore men- 
tioned; and two copies of such assessment and estimate thus agreed 
on and signed as aforesaid shall be made, and one delivered to the 
producer and the other to the collector: And provided further, That 
the assessor is hereby authorized to administer oaths to the tax-payers 
and to witnesses in regard to any item of the estimate herein required 
to be made: And provided further, When agricultural produce in 
kind is paid for taxes, if payment be made by a tenant who is bound 
to pay his rent in kind, the tenth part of said rent in kind shall be 
paid in kind by the tenant to the Government as and for the tax of 
the lessor on said rent, and the receipt of the Government officer 
shall release the lessor from all obligation to include said rent in kind 
in his statement of income, and discharge the tenant from so much 
of his rent to the lessor. 

Sec. 12. That every farmer, planter or grazier shall exhibit to the 
assessor, on or about the first of March, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
four, an account of all the hogs he may have slaughtered since the 
passage of this act and before that time. After the delivery of this 
estimate to the post quartermaster hereinafter mentioned by the 
assessor, the said farmer, planter or grazier shall deliver an equiva- 
lent for one-tenth of the same in cured bacon, at the rate of sixty 
pounds of bacon to the one hundredweight of pork. That on the first 
of November next, and each year thereafter, an estimate shall be 
made, as hereinbefore provided, of the value of all neat cattle, horses, 
mules, not used in cultivation, and asses owned by each person in the 
Confederate States, and upon such value the said owners shall be 
taxed one per cent., to be paid on or before the first day of January 
next ensuing. If the grazier, or planter or farmer shall have sold 
beeves since the passage of this act, and prior to the first day of 
November, the gross proceeds of such sales shall be estimated and 
taxed as income, after deducting therefrom the money actually paid 
for the purchase of such beeves, if they have been actually purchased, 
and the value of the corn consumed by them. The estimate of these 
items shall be made in case of disagreement between the assessor 
and tax-payer as herein prescribed in other cases of income tax; and 
on each succeeding first day of November, the beeves sold during the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 523 


preceding twelve months shall be estimated and taxed in the same 
manner. 

SEC. 13. That the Secretary of War shall divide the service of the 
Quartermaster’s Department into two branches, one, herein denomi- 
nated post quartermasters, for the collection of the articles paid for 
taxes in kind, and the other for distribution to the proper points for 
supplying the Army, and for delivering cotton and tobaceo to the 
agents of the Secretary of the Treasury. The tax assessor shall trans- 
fer the estimate of articles due from each person, by way of a tax in 
kind, to the duly authorized post quartermaster, taking from the said 
quartermaster a receipt, which shall be filed as a voucher with the 
chief collector in settling his account, and a copy of this receipt 
Shall be furnished by the chief collector to the auditor settling the 
post quartermaster’s account as a charge against him. The post 
quartermaster receiving the estimate shall collect from the tax- 
payer the articles which it specifies, and which he is bound to pay 
and deliver as a tax to the Confederate Government. The post 
quartermaster shall be liable for the safe custody of the articles 
placed in his care, and shall account for the same by showing that, 
after proper deductions from unavoidable loss, the residue has been 
delivered to the distributing agents, as evidenced by their receipts. 
The said post quartermaster shall also state the accounts of the quar- 
termasters receiving from him the articles delivered in payment of 
taxes in kind at his depot, and make a monthly report of the same to 
such officer as the Secretary of War may designate: Provided, That 
in case the post quartermaster shall be unable to collect the tax in 
kind specified in the estimate delivered to him as aforesaid, he shall 
deliver to the district tax collector said estimate as a basis for the dis- 
tress warrant authorized to be issued, and take a receipt therefor, and 
forward the same to the chief tax collector as a credit in the statement 
of the accounts of said post quartermaster: Provided, That any par- 
tial payment of said tax in kind shall be indorsed on said estimate 
before delivering the same to the district tax collector as aforesaid, 
and the receipt given to him therefor by the district tax collector shall 
specify said partial payment. When the articles thus collected through 
the payment of taxes in kind have been received at the depot as afore- 
Said, they shall be distributed to the agents of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, if they consist of cotton, wool or tobacco, or if they be suit- 
able for forage or subsistence, to such places and in such manner as 
the Secretary of War may prescribe. Should the Secretary of War 
find that some of the agricultural produce thus paid in and suitable 
for forage and subsistence has been or will be deposited in places 
where it cannot be used, either directly or indirectly, for these pur- 
“poses, he shall cause the same to be sold, in such manner as he may 
prescribe, and the proceeds of such sale shall be paid into the Treas- 
ury of the Confederate States. Should, however, the Secretary of War 
notify the Secretary of the ‘Treasury that it would be impracticable for 
him to collect or use the articles taxed in kind, or any of them, to be 
received in certain districts or localities, then the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall proceed to collect in said districts or localities the money 
value of said articles specified in said estimate and not required in 
kind, and said money value shall be due on the first day of January in 
each and every year, and be collected as soon thereafter as practicable. 

SEC. 14. That the estimates of incomes and profits, other than those 
payable in kind, and the statements or bills for the amount of the 


524 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


specific tax on occupations, employments, business and professions, 
and of taxes on gross sales, shall be delivered by the assessor to the 
collector of the district, who shall give him a receipt for the same, and 
the said assessor shall file his receipt with the chief tax collector of the 
State, and the collector of the district holding said estimates, state- 
ments or bills, shall proceed to collect the same from the tax-payer. 
The money thus collected shall be paid to the chief tax collector of the 
State, accompanied by the estimates, statements or bills aforesaid, 
delivered by the assessor to the district collector as aforesaid. 

SEC. 15. That every person who, as trustee, guardie|a|n, tutor, eura- 
tor or committee, executor or administrator, or as agent, attorney in 
fact, or factor, of any person or persons, whether residing in the Con- 
federate States or not, and every receiver in chancery, clerk, register 
or other officer of any court, shall be answerable for the doing of all 
such acts, matters and things as shall be required to be done in order 
to the assessment of the money, property, products and income under 
their control, and the payment of taxes thereon, and shall be indem- 
nified against all and every person for all payments on account of the 
taxes herein specified, and shall be responsible for all taxes due from 
the estates, income, money, or property in their possession or under 
their control. 

SEC. 16. The income and moneys of hospitals, asylums, churches, 
schools and colleges shall be exempt from taxation under the provi- 
sions of this act. 

SEC. 17. That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, 
authorized to make all rules and regulations necessary to the opera- 
tion of this act, and not inconsistent herewith. 

SEC. 18. This act shall be in force for two years after the expira- 
tion of the present year, and the taxes herein imposed for the present 
year shall be levied and collected each year thereafter in the manner 
and form herein prescribed, and for the said time of two years, unless 
this act shall be sooner repealed: Provided, The tax on naval stores, 
flour, wool, cotton, tobacco and other agricultural products of the 
growth of any year preceding the year 1863, imposed in the first sec- 
tion of this act, shall be levied and collected only for the present 
year. 

Approved April 24, 1863. 


AN ACT to authorize the issue of eight per cent. bonds or certificates of stock in 
certain cases. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to 
issue and deliver bonds or certificates of stock of the Confederate 
States, bearing eight per cent. interest per annum, to such an amount . 
as may be necessary to discharge all agreements entered into prior to 
the first day of December, 1862, whereby goods were sold and deliv- 
ered to the Government, and the vendor, at the time of sale, agreed 
to receive bonds or stock in payment of the price; and the said bonds 
or stock may bear date on the day of issue, or on the day the vendor 
was entitled to receive payment; but if dated on the day of issue, 
the interest which would have accrued had the bonds or stock been 
issued on the day the vendor was entitled to receive them shall be 
paid. And the said bonds or stock shall be issued under the same 
forms, conditions and restrictions as are provided in the act entitled 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 525 


“An act to provide further means for the support of the Govern- 
ment,” approved twelfth April, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall also be authorized to issue like 
bonds to any person who shall have actually paid money into the 
hands of an agent of the Treasury for the purchase of eight per cent. 
bonds of the one hundred million loan, prior to the twentieth Febru- 
ary, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. 
Approved April 27, 1863. 


CHARLESTON, 8. C., April 28, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SiR: In my letter of 20th instant, which I had the honor to hand 
you, I requested certain information in regard to the conduct of 
the business with which I am charged here, which was partially given 
me by you verbally. I now beg leave to submit the following upon 
the same subject, having since my arrival obtained some information 
of importance upon the matter referred to which I did not have when 
last I had this honor. 

In response to my first inquiry in my letter of the 20th I under- 
stood you to instruct me that all the goods imported for the Govern- 
ment under the arrangement with Messrs. Collie & Co. and Crenshaw 
& Co., pertaining to the Subsistence Bureau, should be delivered on 
arrival to the post commissary here, quartermaster’s stores to the 
post quartermaster, &ec. Upon this point upon reflection I would 
venture to make the following suggestions: Much more care attends 
invariably the custody of goods belonging to individuals than to the 
Government, and much better success seems to attend individual 
enterprises than when such enterprises are conducted in the name of 
the Government. If possible, therefore, to prevent it, it should not 
generally be known that the Government is directly engaged as an 
importer. This we cannot hope to conceal if so many are informed 
of it. Would it not be well, should you agree with me in thinking 
this desirable, to select some one officer here, or let General Beaure- 
gard select one of his staff officers, to whom the matter shall be 
confided, and he make the arrangements with the commissary, quar- 
termaster, &¢., to receive the articles which I would deliver as 
directed by him? This officer could also decide what portion, if any, 
of the goods imported on individual account the Government desires. — 
Thus the appearance of affairs would be that individuals were 
engaged in an extensive importing business, large quantities of whose 
articles the Government would take for its use, as it frequently has 
done here before, as I am informed. 

In regard to my second inquiry, viz, from whom will the cargoes of 
cotton be obtained and what notice will be necessary to have the cot- 
ton ready for the vessels, I beg leave to say that I am satisfied that 
it will be necessary to have a small stock of cotton kept here and a 
smaller one at Wilmington to insure dispatch to the steamers and the 
proper conduct of the business. This matter from the information 
(thoroughly reliable) which I obtained here in relation to transporta- 
tion I deem of the utmost importance. Vessels of every sort, and at 
all times even the most favorable to be well managed, must be as far 
as possible kept going continually This is peculiarly true now, in 
consideration of the very high prices that are paid for the steamers and 


526 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


their supplies, and the wages of their officers and hands, and espe- 
cially a&S the delay of a single day in the blockade business may 
cause an actual delay of sometimes two to three weeks because of 
the absolute necessity of availing yourself of a suitable night, and 
not undertaking it unless the weather and the moon are both ‘suit- 
able. Nor doI apprehend that there is really any risk in keeping 
this small stock here or at Wilmington. I mentioned this to-day to 
General Beauregard, to whom I had the honor of presenting the let- 
ter you furnished me, and he thought that such an arrangement was 
very proper and important. General Beauregard, I am happy to say, 
thinks the scheme a very good one for the Government. The quan- 
tity of cotton kept here should be 2,500 bales and at Wilmington 
1,500 bales. It would cost the Government no more to keep it here 
than where it does, and it would, I expect, be much better kept, as 
better storage could be obtained. 

In this connection I beg leave to suggest that it is eminently to 
the interest of the Government that the cotton exported under 
this arrangement should be as far as possible of the best quality, and 
I fear that much of the cotton belonging to the Government has been 
much injured. A very important matter connected with this enter- 
prise will be the proper trim of the steamers, as without it the speed 
of which they are capable cannot be obtained. To do this well it 
may be necessary sometimes, as well as wise in other aspects, to send 
out some Sea Island cotton, rosin, turpentine, tobacco, and possibly 
some few other articles. If this should prove so, will these articles 
be purchased by the Government, or shall I purchase and ship them 
as the balance of the invoice? 

In regard to my fifth inquiry, in relation to the orders for the goods 
of Collie & Co. and Crenshaw & Co. to be admitted free of duty, I 
beg leave to request that the order be sent me as soon as possible (as 
from the information which I received here from Messrs. Collie & Co.’s 
agent I should not be surprised that the first steamer arrived within 
the next week ), and in such manner as will accomplish the purpose, 
but at the same time for the reasons before referred to prevents its 
being known that the Government is importing. It seems to me 
this concealment is absolutely necessary, as the steamers are to 
be sailed and their cargoes to be held in the name of Collie & Co., 
British subjects, with a view to endeavor to render them more secure. 

My sixth inquiry related to coal; and I beg leave to say that it will 
be necessary to keep 300 tons of coal here and 150 at Wilmington. 
After this is delivered, to be kept on hand, very little, if any more, 
will be needed, because the steamers will obtain coal at Nassau suffi- 
cient to bring them in and carry them out; but inasmuch as it some- 
times happens that a steamer will be chased off and thus compelled to 
expend her reserve supply, so to speak, it is absolutely important that 
a supply should be on hand for such contingencies. ° A steamer will 
consume about thirty tons of coal per day. a am more than ever sat- 
isfied of the entire feasibility of the scheme about to be inaugurated, 
and am confident that if pushed with judgment and energy it will 
redound greatly to the advantage of the Government. I was informed 
before leaving Richmond by the Hon. Mr. Mallory, Secretary of the 
Navy, that he had the same arrangement for articles in his line that 
you had effected. It may be necessary, therefore, in effecting the 
final arrangements to see him concerning the questions which I have 
herein had the honor to submit. In view of the importance of the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 527 


instructions herein asked for to the Government, I venture to request 
that I may receive them at an early day. 
I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, your obedient 
servant, 
JAMES R. CRENSHAW. 


Memorandum in reference to accompanying letter. 


On the first point, I beg leave to say that General Beauregard’s 
assistance should be confined wholly to whatever military protection 
may be necessary to the steamers. Mr. Seixas has already been 
designated as the agent of the War Department, and will answer 
every purpose of an officer or agent of General Beauregard. Having 
no military rank, his actions will be more independent and will attract 
less attention. 

On the second point, I think it will we well to order cotton to 
Charleston for that place and Wilmington—say 2,000 bales to each 
place per month; or let Mr. Seixas have authority to order what he 
thinks necessary from points designated by the Secretary of the 
Treasury up to, say, 10,000 bales, when another order may be asked 
for. As Collie & Co. get a commission for disbursement of the ves- 
sels, it pertains to them to supply the coal, assistance as to trans- 
portation being afforded to them. The coal used at Charleston must 
be obtained at points south of North Carolina, as all the coal there 
will be required at Wilmington. The character of supplies needed by 
the Government out of those shipped by Collie & Co. may also be 
intrusted to Mr. Seixas under instructions. It is, of course, under- 
stood that Mr. Seixas will have an assistant at Charleston to repre- 
sent him in his transactions. It may be partially true that individuals 
make more money out of such enterprises than the Government 
does, but I think all experience points to the conclusion that Gov- 
ernment manages better for itself than other people do for it. I 
confess, however, I do not clearly understand the writer’s drift here, 
as his objection appears to be against Government custody of its 
own goods. 

J. GORGAS. 


AN ACT to admit free of duty all machinery for the manufacture of cotton, or 
wool, or necessary for carrying on any of the mechanic arts. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
all machinery for the manufacture of cotton, or wool, or necessary 
for carrying on any of the mechanie¢ arts in the Confederate States 
of America, be admitted free of duty until the ratification of a treaty 
of peace between the Confederate States and the United States. 

Approved April 29, 1863. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 51. Richmond, April 29, 1863. 
To simplify the manner of effecting discharges and furloughs, the 
following orders, condensed from those heretofore issued, are pub- 
lished for the government of the Army: . 
I. When a soldier, present with his regiment or company, shall be 
unfit for military service in consequence of wounds, disease, or infirm- 
ity, his captain shall forward to the commander of the department or 


528 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of the army in the field, through the regimental, brigade, and other 
commanders, a statement of the case, with ‘‘ certificates of disability,” 
that he is totally unfit for service, signed by the surgeon of the bat- 
talion or regiment, according to the form prescribed in the Medical 
Regulations. If the recommendation for the discharge of the invalid 
be approved by the department or army commander, he will indorse 
the order for the discharge upon the ‘‘ certificate of disability,” 
which will be sent back, to be signed by the commanding officer of 
the regiment or battalion to which the invalid soldier’s company 
belongs, and afterward forwarded by the captain to the Adjutant and 
Inspector General. The ‘‘ discharge” will be signed by the regimental 
or battalion commander, and ‘‘final statements,” by the company 
commander. 

II. When the soldier, present with his command, is certified to be 
laboring under temporary disability, which requires his removal or a 
change of climate, the commander of the department or of the army 
in the field may grant a furlough of thirty days; which, in extreme 
cases, may be extended by him to sixty days. 

Ill. When a soldier is absent from his company, battalion, or regi- 
ment, in hospital, and is unfit for military service, for reasons set 
forth in paragraph I of these orders, the commandant of the post, 
upon the recommendation of an examining board, to consist of two or 
more medical officers, established by the commandant of the post (or 
if there be no such board, the senior surgeon of the hospital), may 
grant him a furlough of thirty days, subject to extension by the com- 
mander of the department or army in the field, when he will make out 
‘ certificates of disability” and send them to the commander of the 
company, to be forwarded by him, as prescribed in the preceding 
paragraph. But when access to commanders is difficult, and attended 
with great delay, and the case is urgent, the certificates of disability 
may be forwarded by the surgeon directly to the Surgeon-General, 
for his approval, which being given, the discharge will be authorized 
from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, and the surgeon 
will make out ‘‘ final statements.” 

IV. When a soldier, absent from his command, certified by the 
surgeon or assistant surgeon of the army to be unfit for present duty, 
and that his health requires his removal or change of climate, the 
commander of the post, if access to the commander of the department 
or of the army in the field be difficult, may grant the soldier a fur- 
lough, not to exceed thirty days, and submit the application for a 
longer period, if necessary, to the general to whose command the 
soldier may belong; or, without granting the furlough, he may refer 
it to the discretion of such commanding general. 

V. In every case where a soldier has been discharged under para- 
graph III, by orders from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
and the ‘‘ descriptive list” and ‘‘ final statements” cannot be had, he 
will be mustered for payment upon hospital rolls by the surgeon in 
charge, upon his affidavit, taken before one or more witnesses, that 
he has not: received pay for the period for which he claims it to be 
due, and that he is not indebted to the Confederate States Govern- 
ment beyond the amount stated by him. 

VI. Due notices of all furloughs and discharges granted under 
these orders will be forwarded, through department and army com- 
manders, to the Adjutant and Inspector General, and to the immedi- 
ate commander of the company to which the soldier belongs. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 529 


VII. All orders heretofore issued relating to furloughs and dis- 
charges for the causes aforesaid are hereby revoked. 
By order: t 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


AN ACT to allow commutation for clothing to the militia in actual service of 
the Confederate States. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
there shall be allowed and paid to the militia of any State, who have 
been, or may hereafter be, called into the service of the Confederate 
States, under authority of existing laws, to each private and non- 
commissioned officer, commutation for clothing for the time of actual 
service, at the rate of forty-two dollars a year, up to the thirtieth day 
of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and after that date, at 
the rate of fifty dollars per annum, deducting therefrom the value of 
any clothing which may have been issued them, or commutation 
therefor, which may have been allowed them. 

SEC. 2. All claims for commutation under authority of this act 
-made by any of the militia who have been heretofore paid, shall be 

settled by the Second Auditor, with the approval of the Comptroller 
of the Treasury. ; 

Approved April 30, 1863. 


AN ACT relative to certain bonds and Treasury notes issued under the pro- 
visions of the act approved sixteenth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the ten-year bonds and two-year Treasury notes issued under the 
provisions of an act entitled ‘‘An act to authorize a loan, and the 
issue of Treasury notes, and to prescribe the punishment for forging 
the same, and for forging certificates of stock and bonds,” approved 
sixteenth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be, and the same are 
hereby, excepted from the operation of the act entitled ‘‘An act to 
provide for the funding and further issue of Treasury notes,” 
approved twenty-third March, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and 
the said ten-year bonds and two-year Treasury notes shall continue 
subject to all the provisions of the said act first hereinbefore men- 
tioned, approved sixteenth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one: 
Provided, That the said two-year Treasury notes now outstanding 
shall be funded prior to the first day of August, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-three. 

Approved April 30, 1863. 


JOINT RESOLUTION to establish a seal for the Confederate States. 


Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That 
the seal of the Confederate States shall consist of a device represent- 
ing an equestrian portrait of Washington (after the statue which 
surmounts his monument in the capitol square, at Richmond), sur- 
rounded with a wreath composed of the principal agricultural prod- 
ucts of the Confederacy (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, corn, wheat 


04 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


530 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and rice), and having around its margin the words: ‘‘The Confeder- 
ate States of America, twenty-second February, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-two,” with the following motto: ‘‘ Deo vindice.” 

Approved April 30, 1863. 


Abstract from returns of the Confederate Army on or about April 30, 1863. 


- . » 

fs Ee 5 

ee a ae ; 

‘Sie 2 ze 5 

Tre 

Command. a = ~ ba > 

ef es] ave S 

Ao wv oq ° 

Co H Ho oO 

BE = 2 g 

ps < 4 a ee 
Army of Northern Virginia.d (Wee) voce. ac oe sete c= eae aero 64, 799 77,379 | 109,859 | Mar. 31 
Department of Western Virginia (Jones) -..--.--------------- 6, 211 7, 001 9,747 | Apr. 30 
Department of Richmond (Hizey) - 2-5 sei. oak wee cee oe eee 3, 0380 38, 593 4,518 | May 1 
Department of North Carolina (D. H. Hill)..--..-......------ 23, 536 26, 838 34,469 | May 31 
Arm y,of Kast Tennessee (Maury) oan. ato ae oreo eine ce 15, 144 17, 678 25,554 | Apr 30 
Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida (Beau 32, 988 37, 520 44,770 | Apr 238 

regarda). 
Army ot Tennessee: (BTAge) op onc cases er on ne kin einen es neces ' 56, 999 67, 838 98,574 | Apr 30 
Department.of the Gulf (Buckner) s----- sete ee eee ee 4, 970 5, 271 6,059 | Apr 30. 
Department of Mississippi and Kast Louisiana (Pemberton)..| 48, 829 61, 495 82,318 | Mar 31 
On Blackwater, 6G. 4) a. (Hrench)e .25-5- eee ee ese oe eee 5, 5d2 6, 268 8,246 | May 10 
Trans-Mississippi Department b (Smith).--..-----.------.---- 26, 047 30, 389 46,021 | May 31 
Hood's and Pickett's divisions .- 32-2. .-onaces-orsshee + epee 13, 967 16, 317 24,686 | May 20 
Artillery. Second cA Tay yatOl DS ep cate ae clalee eee errata renee 2, 164 2,410 8,348 | May 20 
Votades ocic8 sekn ae See cele ck See ene ob ee eee eee eee 304, 236 360, 097 498, 169 


a Exclusive of Hood’s, Pickett’s, and Ransom’s divisions (detached south of the James River, in 
Virginia and North Carolina), the artillery of the Second Army Corps, and Imboden’s and Davidson’s 
commands (in the Valley District), for which there are no returns of April 30, or thereabouts. The 
strength of Hood’s and Pickett's divisions, after their return to the Army of Northern Virginia . 
(according to return for May 20), and that of the Second Corps Artillery is entered on last two lines 
of the table. Ransom’s strength is included in the Department of North Carolina for May 31, but 
Imboden’s and Davidson’s strength is not of record. 

b Five regiments of cavalry in the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona (Magruder), not 
included, estimated at 3,500, and the District of Louisiana (Taylor) are not reported. 


AN ACT to authorize the Secretary of War to purchase or lease real estate. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, authorized to purchase or 
lease any and all real estate which may by him be deemed necessary 
for the use of the Government in the conduct of those works or opera- 
tions submitted by law to the supervision or control of the War 
Department, and for which appropriations are made by Congress. 

Sec. 2. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to ratify 
and complete any purchase or lease of real estate heretofore made 
under the direction of the Chief of Ordnance, and all such leases or 
purchases heretofore made shall be binding as soon as the same are 
approved by the Secretary of War. 

SEC. 3. Every purchase of freehold estate made by authority of 
this act shall be subject to the condition that the consent of the State 
within whose limits it lies shall be obtained by the Confederate Gov- 
ernment. 

Approved May 1, 1863, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 531 


AN ACT to provide for the payment of certain North Carolina troops from the 
time of their enlistment. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the troops heretofore raised by the State of North Carolina, and after- 
wards received into the service of the Confederate States by the Con- 
federate States, shall be paid from the date of their enlistment. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to make appropriations for the support of the Government of the 
Confederate States of America for the periods therein mentioned. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of — 
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the sup- 
port of the Government, from the first day of July, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-three, to the thirty-first day of Decembér, eighteen hun- 
dred and sixty-three: 

War Department.—For compensation of the Secretary of War, 
Assistant Secretary, chief of Bureau, clerks, messengers, &c., in said 
Department, one hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars. 

To liquidate the claims to be paid for the river-defense service, 
ninety thousand dollars. 

For incidental and contingent expenses of the War Department, 
sixty thousand dollars. 

For compensation of Commissioner and chief clerk of Indian 
Affairs and incidental expenses of Bureau, two thousand and sixty- 
three dollars. | 

Quartermaster’s Department.—For the pay of the Army, one hun- 
dred and forty-one millions one hundred and eighteen thousand six 
hundred and eighty-eight dollars. : 

for transportation of troops and their baggage, of quartermaster’s 
stores, subsistence, ordnance, and ordnance stores, from place of pur- 
chase to troops in the field, purchase of horses, mules, wagons, and 
harness, purchase of lumber, nails, iron and steel, for erecting store- 
houses, quarters for troops and other repairs, hire of teamsters, 
laborers, &c¢., fifty-six million four hundred and forty-seven thousand 
four hundred and seventy-five dollars. 

For pay for horses of non-commissioned officers and privates killed 
in battle, under act number forty-eight, section seven, and for which 
provision is to be made, one hundred thousand dollars. 

lor pay for property pressed into the service of the Confederate 
States under appraisement, said property having been either lost or 
applied to the public service, two hundred thousand dollars. 

For the subsistence of prisoners of war, under act number one 
hundred and eighty-one, section one, and the hire of the necessary 
prisons, guard-houses, &c., for the safe-keeping of the same, or so 
much thereof as may be necessary, one million dollars. 

For the pay of officers on duty in the offices of the Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Department, the Quartermaster-General’s Depart- 
ment, Medical, Engineer, Ordnance, and Subsistence Departments, 
three hundred and eighty-eight thousand and twenty dollars. 

Commissary Department.—For the purchase of subsistence stores 
and commissary property, one hundred and thirty million eleven 
thousand three hundred and fifty-two dollars. 


532 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Ordnance Department.—For the ordnance service in allits branches, 
seventeen million five hundred thousand dollars. _ 

For the purchase of pig and rolled iron, five million dollars. 

For the purchase and manufacture of niter, two million dollars. 

Engineer Department.—For the engineer service, six million dollars. 

Medical Department.—¥or pay of private physicians employed by 
contract, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

For pay of nurses and cooks, not enlisted or volunteers, two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. 

For pay of hospital stewards, seventy-five thousand dollars. 

For pay of matrons, assistant matrons, and ward matrons, two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

For pay of ward-masters, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 

For pay of hospital laundresses, sixty-five thousand dollars. 

For medical and hospital supplies, three million five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. 

For the establishment and support of military hospitals, one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. 

* * * * * * * 


War Department.—For contingent and incidental expenses of the 
Army until the thirty-first day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
three, one hundred thousand dollars. 

For compensation of additional clerks in the War Department from 
February first to June the thirteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
three, twenty-five thousand dollars. 

For contingent and incidental expenses of the Adjutant and In- 
spector General’s Office, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, fifteen thousand dollars. 

Engineer Department.—¥or the engineer service, additional appro- 
priation from February first to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-three, two million dollars. 

Indian service.—For payment of treaty stipulations made with 
certain Indian tribes, to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
three, two hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and sixty 
dollars and fifty-seven cents. 

For current and contingent expenses of agencies in the Indian 
service from December first, to eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to June 
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, seven thousand one 
hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ninety-eight cents. 

Medical Department.—For hospital clothing required by act of 
Congress, approved September twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-two, entitled ‘‘An act to better provide for the sick and wounded 
of the Army in hospitals,” six hundred and twenty-five thousand 
dollars. 

For two hundred and one thousand and six hundred gallons of 
alcoholic stimulants, required by the Medical Department for medical 
and hospital purposes for the Army, for one year, six hundred and 
four thousand, eight hundred dollars. 

For additional amount required for the purchase of medical and 
hospital supplies from February first to June thirtieth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-three, one million dollars. 

Ordnance Department.—For the ordnance service in all its 
branches, for the period ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-three, five million dollars. 

For salaries of officers, printing, stationery and contingent expenses 
to be incurred in collecting taxes, four million dolars. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 533 


Amount required to refund the State of Louisiana the amount 
overpaid by her on the war-tax act of August nineteenth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-one, five thousand eight hundred and twenty-five 
dollars and sixty-one cents. ‘ 

Advertising and other expenses incident to the funding of Treasury 
notes, fifty thousand dollars. 

Amount required to build fire-proof vaults, and to fit up the city 
post-office rooms for the use of the Treasury, five thousand dollars. 

Amount required for alterations, rent, damages, lights, &e., fora 
building for a post-office for the city of Richmond, fourteen thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to abolish all ports of delivery in the Confederate States. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
all laws or parts of laws establishing any port or ports of delivery in 
the Confederate States be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and 
that all ports of delivery heretofore established be, and the same are 
hereby, abolished, except such ports of delivery as are also ports of 
entry. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to better provide for the sick and 
wounded of the Army in hospitals,” approved September 27, 1862. 


. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the commutation value of rations of sick and disabled soldiers of the 
Army shall, from and after the passage of this act, be fixed at one 
dollar and twenty-five cents each, instead of one dollar, as provided 
in the first section cf the above-recited act, and that the provisions of 
this act and the above-recited act, approved September twenty-seventh, 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, shall be so construed as 
to apply to all sick and disabled soldiers of the Army, whether in hos- 
pitals or other places used in camp or in the field as hospitals, and 
that it shall be the duty of the Surgeon-General, under the direction 
of the Secretary of War, to prescribe such rules and regulations in 
his department as will secure to all sick and disabled soldiers the 
benefit of the provisions of this and the act to which this is an amend- 
ment: Provided, That twenty-five cents for each ration so commuted 
shall not be drawn or appropriated until the Secretary of War shall 
deem the same necessary to purchase suitable supplies for the use of 
the sick and disabled of the Army. 

SEC. 2. That the pay to be hereafter allowed to all laundresses in 
hospitals or other places, in the service of the Confederate States, shall 
be twenty-five dollars per month, with rations and quarters, instead 
of the pay now allowed by law. 

SEC. 3. That in addition to the hospitals now established, it shall 
be the duty of the Surgeon-General to establish, at convenient and 
suitable points of location on the different railroad routes, such other 
hospitals as may be necessary to furnish quarters and rations to sick 
and disabled soldiers who may be permitted to return home on fur- 
lough, or after an honorable discharge from the military service, and 


534 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the hospitals so established shall be known and designated as way 
hospitals, and shall be furnished with suitable bedding and provis- 
ions, and in every respect be under the same rules and regulations of 
other hospitals. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


————— 


AN ACT to authorize the President to appoint officers in the Niter Bureau and 
in the engineer troops during the recess of the Senate. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, ‘That 
the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint officers in 
the Niter Bureau and in the engineer troops during the recess of the 
Senate, to be confirmed by the Senate at its next session, and the com- 
missions of the officers so appointed shall expire at the end of the 
next session of the Senate, unless the same be confirmed. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to establish the flag of the Confederate States. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: The field to be 
white, the length double the width of the flag, with the union (now 
used as the battle-flag) to be a square of two-thirds the width of the 

flag, having the ground red; thereon a broad saltier of blue, bor- 
~ dered with white, and emblazoned with white mullets or five-pointed 
stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


[May 1, 1863.—For joint resolutions of the Confederate Congress, 
on the subject. of retaliation, see Series Il, Vol. V, p. 940. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 53. \ Richmond, May 1, 1863. 


The following act of Congress, approved by the President, is pub- 
lished for the information and direction of all concerned, in connec- 
tion with the act relating to impressments, heretofore announced in 
General Orders, No. 37, from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s 
Office, April 6, 1863, and as supplementary to said act: 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to regulate impressments by officers of the Army.” 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in all cases 
of appraisement provided for in said act, the officer impressing the property shall, 
if he believe the appraisement to be fair and just, indorse upon it his approval; 
if not, he shall indorse upon it his reasons for refusing, and deliver the same, with 
a receipt for the property impressed, to the owner, his agent or attorney, and as 
soon as practicable forward a copy of the receipt and appraisement and his 
indorsement thereon, to the Board of Appraisers appointed by the President and 
the Governor of the State, who shall revise the same and make final valuation, 
so as to give just compensation for the property taken, which valuation shall be 
paid by the proper department, for use of which the property was taken, on the 
- certificate of the appraisers, as provided in the act of which this is amendatory. 
Approved April 27, 1863. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 535 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, May 5, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War Confederate States of America: 


Str: I had this pleasure 11th April, ultimo, duplicate of which is 
inclosed,* and am since without any of your favors. I beg now to 
hand you inclosed manifest of the cargo of the steamer Venus, being 
my first purchase under the recent contract with your Department. + 
You will observe that she carries 358 packages of goods, marked 
““R. P. W.,” all of which were purchased by Major Ferguson for the 
(uartermaster’s Department.. Having to carry so great a quantity of 
coal, she is unable to take as much freight as I had expected to send, 
and consequently the Navy Department has not on board its full pro- 
portion, say one-fourth. The first of the double screws contracted 
for, say the steamer Hebe, commences to load to-day. By her I shall 
send the balance of Major Ferguson’s purchases, say about 100 pack- 
ages, and as many of the goods of the Navy Department as I can get 
ready, and will fill up the part of the cargo to which your Department 
is entitled with provisions for the commissary, that order being the 
only one I have here from the War Department. I expect to clear 
the Hebe during the week. You will doubtless be disappointed, as I 
have been, that both of these vessels did not go to sea during last 
month, but it is very difficult to have work done here at the time 
agreed upon, and from what I see at present I think each of the 
steamers to be delivered will be delayed several weeks beyond the 
time named in my estimate to you some time since. The second of 
the double screws, which was to be ready for cargo the 6th of this 
month, is not yet launched, and will not be ready for cargo before the 
last of this month. 

I beg to hand you inclosed copies of the correspondence between 
Major Huse and myself, showing that his opposition to my arrange- 
ments will prevent him from co-operating with me to carry out what 
I understand to be your wishes and orders.{ Being entirely willing 
to cancel the contract if you were here and agreed with him in his 
opinion, I determined to lay his letters before the Hon. James M. 
Mason for his action and advice. A copy of my letter to him of the 
15th of April, submitting Major Huse’s letters, and of his reply of 
the 28th of April, I also beg to hand you inclosed. You will see that 
Mr. Mason does not agree with Major Huse in the opinion that I 
ought to discontinue the carrying out of your orders, which leaves 
me in a position of much embarrassment, inasmuch as your recent 
orders placing him in control of the finances of your Department, 
and as a guiding and controlling agent here, enables him to prevent 
me from going on in the purchase of another steamer (the sixth), as 
provided for in the contract with Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co., and 
will require the advance of much more money by Messrs. Alexander 
Collie & Co. than was contemplated at the time that the contract was 
entered into. I have no doubt that from a review of the correspond- 
ence you will arrive at the same conclusion which Mr. Mason and I 
have been forced to, viz, that there will be no concert of action 
between Major Huse and myself in the carrying out of the contract. 
I therefore greatly hope that already in reply to my letters of March 
last you have sent me drafts on the depositary with which to work. 


* See p. 480. + Manifest (inclosure No. 2) omitted. tSee p. 482. 


536 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


If not, I am sure on receipt of this you will at least give me some 
assurance that means will be placed in my hands as soon as the Goy- 
ernment can command them here. In the meantime, while awaiting 
your favors, and with the promise of the hearty co-operation of the 
Hon. James M. Mason and Captain Bulloch, I shall do all that I 
ean for a successful carrying out of the contract. I will send 
you by the Hebe invoice of the cost of the Venus and her disburse- 
ments here. The Hebe, as well as the Venus, has been paid for in 
full, and £12,000 on the three steamers that are being built. On these 
latter, under the contract, we have to pay three-fourths during the 
building, the other fourth on delivery. You will not lose sight of the 
fact that Major Huse has undertaken to draw on me a draft for £22,500 
against the money placed in my hands by Mr. Mason, although Mr. 
Mason already told him that he had taken the responsibility of pay- 
ing me the £55,000, and for that responsibility he was accountable to 
our Government, and that the amount should not be returned. 
Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. are sending out by the Venus a Mr. 
Watson to take special charge of the business at Nassau, and it is at 
my suggestion that he goes on to the Confederate States before taking 
up his abode at the islands, in order to make arrangements for pilots 
and ascertain whether he can rely on a supply of coal for our steamers . 
at the Confederate ports. If you can give him such assurance it 
will enable each steamer to carry in 75 to 100 tons more freight. 
There are some reports of yellow fever at Nassau, and it may be that 
this steamer will not go there and we will have to return to Bermuda. 
To meet such a contingency I shall at once send cargoes of meat, &e., 
to meet jer there, as also at Nassau. 

With the promise of writing you again in a few days by the Hebe, 
and anxiously awaiting your favors, 

I remain, your most obedient, 
| WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


{Inclosure No. 3.] 


PARIS, March 20, 1868. 
WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, Esq.: 
(Care of Hon. James M. Mason, C. 8. Commissioner, London.) 


Str: I have the honor to inform you that I have received a letter 
from the War Department containing an extract from a letter of Mr. 
Secretary Seddon to you, dated February 8. From what I can gather 
from this extract it will be desirable for us to confer with each other, 
and I regret that we have not met before. I regret still more that it 
is necessary for me to leave Paris for Vienna this evening. Imme- 
diately on my return I will communicate with you. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE, 
Major, C. S. Artillery. 


[Inclosure No. 5.] 


292A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, April 13, 1863. 
Maj. C. HUSE: 

Str: I am sure from what I know of the condition of supplies in the 
Confederate States that there are many articles of which our Govern- 
ment is in much need, and I therefore regret exceedingly to learn 
from your note of 11th instant that you had no orders that you are 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 537 


willing to have executed by Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. and myself 
under the arrangement made by us with the War Department. The 
goods already bought by Major Ferguson will go on board the two 
steamers we are about to load, and will about fill the space allotted to the 
War Department. The fourth of each cargo will be put on board by 
us for the Navy Department. It is important, however, in order to 
have cargoes in Nassau for these two steamers on their return from 
the Confederate States, and to lay them down in Nassau at a low rate 
of freight, that we should immediately buy and ship goods by sailing 
vessels. This I propose to do. Having no orders from the War 
Department except the one for meat from Major Ruffin, I think we 
had better commence to buy and send it forward, and as I am directed 
to confer with you in its execution, I shall be pleased to have your 
views in relation to it. I think it also very unfortunate that we have 
no other orders at this time, as it would be much better to equalize 
the value of each cargo than to ship by some vessels only low-priced 
goods, and on others those entirely of much greater value. I beg 
leave to repeat here that in addition to the two steamers about to 
load we have contracts for three others now building, all double screws, 
and promised by the builders to be ready as follows: 10th May, 30th 
June, and 15th July. We had intended buying another steamer, to 
make six in all, with which to start the joint account ventures, believ- 
ing they would not be too many for the wants of the War Depart- 
ment, and now that the Hon. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy, 
advises me that he has become a party to the same contract and is 
interested to the extent of one-fourth in whatever is done under it, I 
am quite persuaded that no time should be lost in making further 
contracts for steamers, and especially to take the place of any that 
may be lost; but as you informed me that you had recently purchased 
three vessels for the Government to run between Bermuda and our 
ports, I feel some hesitation on the subject, and in accordance with 
Hon. Mr. Seddon’s (Secretary of War) order to confer with you in my 
operations, I beg that you will give me your views on this subject at 
your earliest convenience. 
I remain, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 6.] 


71 JERMYN STREET, LONDON, April 14, 1863. 


WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, Esq., 
22A Austin Friars, London: 


DEAR Str: I am this morning in receipt of your communication of 
the 13th, and in reply have to say that as soon as I receive from the 
War Department of the Confederate States any communications 
relating to the purchase of supplies I shall inform you what articles 
will be required from the house established by yourself and Mr. 
Collie. I have not yet received any letters by the late Bermuda mail. 
When they arrive I shall probably find some definite instructions 
from the War Department in them. In conversation with you on 
Saturday last I informed you that I was not prepared to place the 
purchasing of the ordnance and medical supplies in your hands, and 
that at a future time I would state to you in writing my reasons. 
They are as follows: 

First. I have not received from the War Department any instruc- 
tions from which I can draw the inference that I am to do so. 


538 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Second. The Government has already four steamers—the Giraffe, 
Cornubia, Merrimac, and Kugenie—engaged in running the blockade, 
and I have instructions to purchase the fifth. These steamers would 
have to lie idle or be sold if I were to turn over to you the purchasing 
and forwarding of supplies for the Ordnance and Medical Depart- 
ments. 

Third. Several of the principal articles are now purchased direct 
from the manufacturers, and I could not without positive instructions 
from the War Department increase the cost to the Government 24 per 
cent. by placing the purchasing in your hands. 

Fourth. You have associated yourself with a house of high respect- 
ability, but entirely inexperienced in the purchasing of army supplies. 
Such business as I find it necessary to intrust to a commission mer- 
chant can be much better transacted by the house with which I have 
had very large transactions, which transactions have received the 
unqualified approval of the War Department. If you were connected 
with an army house, of which there are several in London, this objee- 
tion would not hold good. 

Fifth. To make any serious change in the conduct of the business 
of purchasing and forwarding supplies for the Confederate States 
Government, which has been successfully carried on since the war 
commenced, could not fail to be attended with inconvenience, if not 
loss, to the Government. 

In compliance with your request that I should furnish you with my 
views on the subject of purchasing more steamers, I would suggest 
that no definite arrangements be made requiring the expenditure of 
more money until you have some information as to how much money 
will be at your disposal for the purposes of the War Department. 
The loan has proved a success, but as yet has not placed us in posses- 
sion of any money whatever. I have a large account to pay, and 
have within a few days given out large contracts. Major Ferguson 
will require a considerable amount for his purchases, whether he 
makes them himself or intrusts them to you. It is of the highest 
importance that the orders of the Subsistence Department should 
receive prompt attention, and I would recommend if you have any 
money at your disposal that you appropriate it at once to that pur- 
pose. The Engineer Bureau also requires a portion of the funds 
available. With all these demands upon the loan, or that portion of 
it that may be placed to the credit of the War Department, I cannot 
but think it would be very unwise to make any further expenditure 
for ships. The difficulty that presents itself to my mind is, that even 
if no immediate embarrassment is produced with the five steamers 
you inform me you have purchased, of which the Government owns 
three-fourths, and with the four entirely owned. by the Government, 
the available fund will not be more than sufficient to keep them all 
supplied with cargoes. And it seems to me highly probable that some 
of the three-fourths steamers may have to leave with small Govern- 
ment cargoes on board. This condition of affairs will answer very 
well for the one-fourth owners, but would hardly subserve the Goy- 
ernment’s interests. In view of all the difficulties in the case I would 
suggest to you and even urge you not to enter into any further con- 
tracts for ships until a definite understanding is come to as regards 
the money to be supplied to you for that purpose and for the purchase 
of the cargoes. 

Since writing the above I have received instructions from the War 
Department which confirm me in the view I have taken of the case. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 539 


A letter from the Ordnance Bureau, dated March 8, contains the fol- 
lowing: 
As soon as you are in funds two more swift steamers may be added to this fleet. 


Now that we have a fair prospect of supplying ourselves, I feel disposed to take 
all the risks and trouble upon ourselves. 


It is evident, therefore, that the design of the Department is that 
-instead of disposing of or rendering useless the fleet already engaged 
in the blockade work it shall be increased. I shall, therefore, con- 
tinue to purchase and forward, as I have done heretofore, supplies 
for the Ordnance and Medical Departments. I have not received any 
lists of articles required by other bureaus. In the event of any such 
coming to hand, in compliance with the directions of the Secretary of 
War to forward them to you, I shall at the same time send a copy to 
the officers of those departments that may be in London at the time, 
and shall act in accordance with the wishes of those officers in regard 
to laying out such sums of money as may be placed at their dis- 
position. 
I am, dear sir, very truly, yours, 
CALEB HUSE. 


{Inclosure No. 7.] 


71 JERMYN STREET, LONDON, April 16, 18635. 
WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, KEsq., 
22A Austin Friars: 

DEAR Str: I hasten to inform you that since my interview with you 
this morning I have seen the agents of Messrs. Erlanger, and from 
them learned that there will be actually no money available for any 
purposes whatever from the loan for some time to come. I do not 
think you should calculate upon receiving any money from me before 
June, and I cannot say that even then there will.be any available for 
the Subsistence Department. The agents inform me that already the 
Government has received more money than the contract with the 
Government calls for. 

I am, dear sir, very truly, yours, 
CALEB HUSE. 


{Inclosure No. 8.] 


LONDON, April 23, 1865. 
Maj. C. HUSE: 
(Care Messrs. Isaac, Campbell & Co., No. 78 Jermyn street. ) 


Str: I have just received a telegram from Mr. C. H. Bosher, who 
went over to Liverpool with the hope of finding you there, that you 
had left, and requesting me to inquire when he might expect payment 
of Colonel Gorgas’ draft in his favor for £22,500, as he would need 
the money in a few days and would send the draft over to me for 
collection. Please inform me as to the reply I shall make hin. 

Your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 9.] 


25 GRANDE RUE AUTEUIL, PARIS, April 25, 1863. 
WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, Esq., 
22A Austin Friars, London : 


Sir: Iam this morning in receipt of your communication of the 
23d instant, informing me of Mr. Bosher having placed Colonel 


540 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Gorgas’ draft on me for £22,500 in your hands for collection. In 
reply I have to say that the only funds available for meeting this 
draft are those furnished to you by Mr. Mason for the War Depart- 
ment. You will, therefore, please pay to Mr. Bosher from the money 
you have received from Mr. Erlanger on account of the War Depart- 
ment the amount of the draft you hold for collection. I inelose to 
Mr. Bosher, by this post, an order on you for £22,500. 
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE, 
Major, &e. 
[Inclosure No. 10.] 
LONDON, April 27, 1863. 
Maj. C. HUSE, 
25 Grande Rue Auteuil, Paris: 

Sir: Your favor of 25th instant is to hand advising me of your 
draft in favor of Mr. C. H. Bosher for £22,500. It seems your draft 
was not inclosed in the letter to him, but I have informed him that 
if it was it would not be paid, as I have no funds in my hands sub- 
ject to your order, and my purchases for our Government already 
greatly exceed the amount paid me on its account by Mr. Mason. 

Your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 11.] 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, April 27, 1863. 
Maj. C. HUSE, 
25 Grande Rue Auteuil, Paris: 

Sir: I duly received your favors of 14th and 16th instant, and since 
the date of the latter you will recollect that we have had a personal 
interview. In that interview you took occasion to inform me as fol- 
lows, viz: 

First. That you thought that the interests of the Government would 
be best promoted by canceling the contract recently entered into by 
the Secretary of War with Messrs. Collie and myself. 

Second. That you had no authority to pay me any money for ear- 
rying out the said contract, and that my receipt to you would not be 
a voucher for any payment that you might make me, except for the 
express purpose of buying meat for the Department, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that the Hon. J. M. Mason has shown you the Secretary 
of War’s letter to him asking that he should furnish me with all the 
funds necessary for carrying out my arrangements, out of any money 
that the Government could command here, and I have shown you his 
letter to me under date of 8th of February, saying that if he had 
known as much he would have given this letter direct to you. 

Third. That Colonel Gorgas writes you ‘‘that the Secretary of War 
has entered into some arrangements with one William G. Crenshaw, 
the nature of which this department (Ordnance Bureau) remains in 
ignorance;” and either in the same or a subsequent letter the same 
officer writes that ‘‘in future this department (Ordnance Bureau) 
will control and manage the sea transportation for the Government.” 

These remarks, in connection with your letters already referred to, 
and especially when viewed with the position which you assumed in 
the first conversation we had together, viz, that the Government 
ought to have retained its purchasing in the hands of Messrs. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. (whose name, by the way, is, in all your letters, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 541 


studiously avoided), convince me that not only there will be no con- 
cert of action between us, but that you intend to throw every obstacle 
that you can in the way of my accomplishing the business intrusted 
tome. It is in my opinion unfortunate for the Government that the 
recent orders from Mr. Seddon, giving you control of the finances, 
will enable you not only to prevent me from moving on as rapidly as 
I think the wants of our Government require, but also embarrass me 
very much in carrying on what I had undertaken before your return 
from Paris. Believing, however, that those orders were based on 
incorrect information, and in fact given in total ignorance of the con- 
dition and management of the Government business here, I shall 
embrace the earliest opportunity of writing to the War Department 
as to the facts as I think they exist here. In the meantime, if you 
continue to refuse to furnish me with any funds for the carrying out 
of the Government portion of the contract and for the purchase of 
meat ordered for the commissariat, the responsibility will rest with 
you and you alone. 
Your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 12.] 


92A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, April 15, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES M. MASON: 

Sir: Being satisfied from the position assumed by Maj. C. Huse, in 
his letter to me of the 14th instant, not only that there is to be no - 
concert of action between us in carrying out the orders of the Hon. 
James A. Seddon, Secretary of War, but that in continuing to buy 
steamers in accordance, as he says, with orders from the Ordnance 
Bureau he is acting in direct conflict with the spirit of the agreement 
recently entered into by Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co. and myself with 
the War Department, I am induced to lay this letter before you for 
such action and advice as you may be pleased to give me on the sub- 
ject. In the position recently assigned to Major Huse by the Honora- 
ble Secretary of War he can (and from the tenor of this letter will, I 
think) seriously embarrass me in carrying out the arrangement agreed 
upon, and I do not see any chance of doing so except by looking to 
you for such pecuniary aid as I will require until I can inform the 
Secretary of War of the existing state of things and hear from him 
in reply. I know that the agreement was made by him in good faith, 
and that he will do all in his power to carry it out. 

Permit me in conclusion to say that my object in inaugurating this 
scheme was not only to benefit myself, but to be of service to our Gov- 
ernment, and I therefore beg leave to add that if in view of the whole 
matter as it now stands, and especially the course pursued by Major 
H[use] in continuing to buy steamers in opposition to what I believe 
to be the wishes of the Secretary of War, and in opposition to the 
spirit of the contract recently entered into between us, and especially 
in view of the fact that there may be some opposition in the two sepa- 
rate lines of steamers, one owned exclusively by the Government 
and the other only three-fourths by the Government—if in view of all 
this you think the interests of our Government would be promoted 
by canceling the contract recently entered into by you for the War 
Department with Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co. and myself, I beg that you 
will so inform me at once and it shall be done. Messrs. Alex. Collie 
& Co. and myself will take on our own account the five steamers 


5A2 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


already bought and contracted for and immediately return you the 
£55,000 already paid by you on account of the Government. 
Hoping to have your views fully on the whole subject, I remain, 
yours, very truly, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 
The above meets my cordial assent. 
ALEXANDER COLLIE. 


[Inclosure No. 13.] 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, April 27, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES M. MASON: 


Str: For your information, and in further proof that Major Huse 
will allow his opposition to the arrangement between the Secretary of 
War and myself to prevent him not only from affording me any aid 
in carrying it out, but will induce him to throw every obstacle that is 
possible in my way, I beg to inclose copy of a letter* just received 
from him advising that he has drawn on me for £22,500 to be paid out 
of the funds you placed in my hands. Of course I shall not pay the 
draft, and will only add that my purchases already for the Govern- 
ment greatly exceed the £55,000 you furnished me with. Be pleased 
to let me have your reply to the letter I addressed you last week at 
your earliest convenience. 

Your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


{Inclosure No: 14.] 


24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN -SQUARE, 
Apru 28, 1863. 
Capt. WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW: 


Sir: I have your letter of the 15th instant accompanied by one to 
you from Major Huse, and upon which you express the opinion that 
it will be impossible for you to expect a concert of action with him in 
carrying out your engagements with the War Department, and ask- 
ing for such action and advice as I can give on the subject. You 
further say that under those circumstances you do not see any hope 
of giving effect to the engagements entered into with the Secretary 
unless you can look to me for the financial aid required, and after 
expressing an earnest desire still fo be of service to the Government 
and in the manner indicated by the Secretary of War, under whose 
direction you came to England, you state that nevertheless should I 
‘‘think the interest of the Government would be promoted by ecancel- 
ing the contract” signed by me on behalf of the War Department 
with Mr. Collie and yourself, and would so inform you, that it should 
at once be done, and that you would immediately return the money 
(£55,000) which I had caused to be advanced to you on account of 
the Government. The letter from the Secretary of War which you 
brought to me, and which stated in some detail the character of the 
service you were to be engaged in, expressed also in the strongest 
manner the importance attached by the Secretary to the success of 
the enterprise, and for which he earnestly invoked every aid or facil- 
ity in my power to obtain for you the ‘‘command of adequate 
resources.” It was because of the character of that letter that I felt 
it incumbent on me (in the absence of other resources) to obtain for you 


* See inclosure No. 9, p. 539. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 543 


the sum referred to from the Messrs. Erlanger in advance of the pro- 
ceeds of the loan. The letters you have shown me from the Secretary 
of War, dated subsequently to the new orders referring you for guid- 
ance, &¢., to Major Huse, fully show that the Secretary still anxiously 
relies on the complete execution of the arrangements entered into 
with you; nor do I see any reason whatever why those arrangements 
eannot be fully carried out and in concert between you and the officer 
to whom you were referred, provided each frankly desires to do so. 
In my conversations with you I have certainly seen nothing of any 
other desire on your part. Since the receipt of your letter Major 
Huse also called on me on the subject to which it refers. The chief 
difficulty on his part seemed to be about furnishing the money, as 
nothing, according to his impressions (and I think them correct), can be 
looked for further from the loan earlier than June, if then. But the 
general tenor of his conversation showed that he considered the new 
orders to him from the War Department superseded, or in some way 
would overrule, the separate duties intrusted to you, and I should 
entertain, therefore, equally with you an apprehension that without 
further and explanatory orders from the Department there is not 
likely to be that concert which the Department had certainly full 
right to anticipate. Still, I cannot undertake to cancel your contract 
with the Department. Were I to do sol should run great risk of 
disappointing expectations from it on which the Secretary manifestly 
and greatly relies, and I so told Major Huse. As to further advances 
of money on the part of the Department I regret, so far as I am con- 
cerned, I can say no more than so far as anything may rest with me I 
shall, until otherwise advised by the Secretary, hold that the engage- 
ments entered into with you are entirely to be ranked as one of the 
primary events of the Government. 
Yours, very respectfully, &c., 
J. M. MASON. 


292A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, May 4, 1868. 


[Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War:| 


My Dear Sir: Having written an official letter to you as Secretary 
of War by this conveyance, it may surprise you that I should send 
this in addition. I have, however, conferred very freely with the Hon. 
J. M. Mason, and it is at his suggestion that I have in that letter 
confined myself to a mere statement of facts and omitted to draw any 
inferences whatever. He further advises that he cannot see that it 
would be the least out of place for me to write you privately my 
views as to the management of the Government business here, and 
suggests such action as it seems to me would best subserve the public 
interests. I should feel if I failed to do so that I had omitted to do 
my duty. You will of course attach to them only as much impor- 
tance as they may seem to deserve, and I flatter myself (as I have 
done nothing since my arrival here to lessen your confidence in me) 
that you will at least give me credit for integrity of purpose in what 
I say, and not attribute it to personal interest. Since my meeting 
with Major Huse I have been very much embarrassed as to the course 
I ought to pursue, especially after Mr. Mason’s refusal to advise me 
to cancel the contract with the Government. At onetime I concluded 
that I would, after investing the £55,000 advanced me by him in the 


544 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


two vessels I am about sending off, and in additional cargoes to Nassau 
tomeet them there on their next vogage, to return home and dispose of 
to the Government the fourth interest in these two steamers owned 
by Collie & Co. and myself, upon such terms as might seem to be fair 
and equitable, and thus close my connection with the Government; 
but after full conference with my friends here, including Mr. Mason, 
I feel that I ought not to do so, and especially after the very satisfac- 
tory conference I had a day or twoago with Captain Bulloch, and the 
assurances of him and Mr. Mason that they will do all they can to 
facilitate my operations, I have determined to remain here and strug- 
gle on as best I can, being assured by Mr. Collie that he will furnish 
funds to any reasonable extent to carry on our operations until I can 
hear from you. 

One of my reasons for preparing to close up my business here and 
return is that if I occupied an entirely disinterested position my sug- 
gestions might probably carry with them more weight than if those 
suggestions seemed to be in accordance with my own interests. Trust- 
ing, however, that on a review of the whole matter you will place a 
proper and just estimate on all I say, although remaining here, I shall 
state fully and freely what I believe to be the necessities of the service 
here. Every officer here to whom I have had occasion to explain the 
arrangements I am endeavoring to carry out expresses himself as 
highly pleased with it except Major Huse. Then naturally I am led 
to inquire, Why does it not meet his views? I have no hesitation in 
saying that it is because it takes from the hands of Isaac, Campbell 
& Co. the purchase of the Government goods. This is the true and, 
in my opinion, the only reason. Why is he so anxious to retain this 
business in their hands? He says because they have been so liberal 
to our Government. I say, no; it is not in their nature to be liberal. 
They have never had credit here for anything of the sort, and 
‘when it is told that they have advanced £500,000 for 24 per cent. 
commission, it bears its falsity on its own face. Before they com- 
menced dealing with our Government they had not one-tenth of 
this amount, and it is very well to inquire who they are. They were 
formerly contractors with the English Government, but were dis- 
missed as such, and their contracts canceled by the Secretary of 
War in May, 1858, for alleged bribery of one of its officers. They 
remonstrated and tried to explain that it was a loan of £500, and not 
a gift to the receiving officer, but the Secretary of War adhered to 
his determination and refused to reinstate them. It is true that they 
went before a committee appointed to examine into the corruption of 
the Crimean war generally, and in 1859, on the evidence of one of the 
firm (S. Isaac), the committee reported that it was a loan to the officer, 
although there was no evidence taken of the debt, and was altogether 
a very loose transaction. As far as I can learn the English Govern- 
ment has since ventured to do but little with them directly. You 
have doubtless before you the evidence that they offered to bribe one 
of our own officers last year. You know whether there was anything 
in Captain North’s character to justify them in making to him such a 
proposition without daring to make the same to others who had been 
dealing largely with them for more than a year. At all events, the 
scorn with which Captain North refused it showed that they would 
have been quite as safe to have made such a proposal tio any one else. 
The copy of Captain North’s letter on this subject has been forwarded 
by Major Ferguson to Colonel Myers, quartermaster, and doubtless 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 545 


with it a statement of the fact that Major Huse admitted both to 
Major Ferguson and Captain North that he had received some com- 
missions on Government purchases since he had been here, which he 
intended to apply to the payment of his expenses here and the pur- 
chase of a library to send as a present to the Ordnance Bureau, at a 
cost of £1,000 to £1,500. Hearing these reports, Mr. Mason spoke to 
Major Huse about them, and he said in reply that he had in one 
instance received a commission which he intended to apply to his 
expenses and the purchase of books for the Ordnance Bureau, but 
finding the Government so much pressed for money he had paid the 
amount over to the credit of his account with Isaac, Campbell & Co. 

I cannot help from looking at this in connection with the reports I 
hear of goods bought at 5 per cent. and charged at 7 per cent., refused 
guns bought at 35 per cent. and charged at 65 per cent.—although I 
can gain no absolute evidence of these facts—and especially with the 
proof that I have that he opposes my arrangements because they take 
the business out of the hands of a house who proposed to bribe one of 
our officers. Mr. White, a commissioner sent here by the State of 
North Carolina, who has had some opportunity of seeing something 
of Isaac, Campbell & Co., informs me that he entertains of them the 
same opinion that I do; nor have I seen any man since my arrival 
here who would say a good word for them except Major Huse. I 
understand that Mr. Slidell has expressed the opinion in opposition 
to the arrangement entered into by me. If such is the case it is that 
Major Huse has prejudiced him as he did Captain Bulloch, by a par- 
tial or incorrect statement of the facts, and I have entire confidence 
that if I had the same opportunity to show him all the facts that he 
would with the same candor that Captain Bulloch displayed frankly 
admit that his previous opposition had been based on an incorrect 
statement of the facts. Major Huse will probably write you that he 
would cheerfully co-operate with me if there was sufficient Govern- 
ment funds on hand, but from what I know of the financial condition 
of the Government I have every confidence that in the present condi-~° 
tion of the Erlanger loan there would be no difficulty in raising any 
reasonable amount of money on it if it were under the control of a 
party who was really anxious to serve the interest of our Government, 
which I do not believe Major Huse is. I sincerely believe if this loan 
was properly managed now it would form a basis by which to furnish 
our Government with all the means in England which it would require 
during the war. Of course, to do this a few hundred thousand pounds 
should be borrowed on the loan and invested in fifteen or twenty 
steamers, and contracts made for the building of ten others to take 
their places in the event of loss or capture. If this was done imme- 
diately we could rely in three or four months upon a quantity of cot- 
ton which would reimburse the cost of the steamers before the amount 
borrowed will be payable by the Erlanger on the contract. Money is 
very abundant and cheap here, but to command it satisfactorily 
securities must be presented. Nosecurity could be more satisfactory 
than this contract, the 25 per cent. already paid guaranteeing the 
prompt payment of the other installments as they mature. It is there- 
fore with much regret that I see the means arising from this loan are 
to be frittered away without accomplishing any permanent good, and 
that in a little time our Government will be forced to come upon the 
market with another loan. It may, and [ trust it will, be successful, 
but it is an operation that will not bear repeating too often. 


35 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


546 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Believing it absolutely necessary that all the Government business 
here should be under one control, when I heard of the appointment 
of Major Huse I thought it a move in the right direction, and met 
him (without prejudice, except that he was from the North) with 
every desire to co-operate with him. I am satisfied from what I see 
and hear that he is not fit for the position, and I sincerely trust it 
will be your pleasure to select some one now in the Confederate States 
of high character for integrity and honor, of great business capacity, 
to come over here and take charge entirely of the financial and com- 
mercial affairs of our Government. Let the orders of every deserip- 
tion come directly to him, and by him executed through that party 
that he thinks will do it best. He should have entire control of the 
finances here, with discretionary power to apply the funds (when 
enough for all purposes are not to be had) tothose in his opinion the 
most important. Mr. Mason agrees with me that such an arrange- 
ment would facilitate the operations of the Government very much, 
but says that it is very difficult to find such a man. Of course it is, 
but if we have found a man fit to be President of the Confederate 
States and others to form his Cabinet, we can find a man fit to occupy 
the position I suggest, and we can find him, too, among our native- 
born Southerners. It is useless to talk about allowing money to 
remain here in the depository idle, as was the case a short time since, 
subject to the draft of the Secretary of the Treasury, and all! the 
departments of the Government awaiting those drafts, suffering for 
the money. The operations here, as they are 3,000 miles from the 
headquarters of the Government, with a blockading fleet intervening, 
must be controlled by some one here with full discretionary powers. 
The responsibility of such a position would be very great, and would 
never be sought by any man who is fit for the position, but we have 
many patriots with us who would be willing to make the sacrifice upon 
being assured of the immense amount of good he could accomplish. 
I trust you will select such a one and send him over promptly; and 
I beg to repeat, let him be a true-born Southern gentleman, if you 
please. 

With regard to my own affairs, I beg leave to say that I do not 
usually make many professions, but every interest that I have in this 
world is embarked in the success of the Confederate States. With 
its failure I lose all; therefore interest, if I had no patriotism, would 
induce me to desire to see the Confederate Government pursue the 
best course for its own interest. I therefore would not desire to stand 
in its way, and I beg, if on receipt of this letter you think that the 
interest of our Government would be promoted by closing the con- 
tract with Messrs. Collie & Co. and myself, you will have no hesitation 
insoadvising me. On receipt of such advice I will immediately (after 
sending cargoes to meet the steamers at the islands) return to Rich- 
mond and dispose of our fourth interest in the steamers to the Goy- 
ernment upon such terms as may seem to be fair and equitable, or 
divide the steamers, as you prefer. If on the contrary you continue 
of the opinion that I can serve the Government here, I am sure that 
you will furnish me with funds independent of Major Huse to enable 
me to carry on the business upon such a scale as you desire. And in 
this connection I would beg to remind you that with orders from the 
commissary for 10,000,000 pounds (say 5,000 tons) meat, besides other 
wants of tea, candles, soap, &c., and with orders from Secretary of 
the Navy for about 10,000 tons sundries, including 6,000 tons armor 
plate, it would require a great number of steamers; and as thesearticles 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. HAT 


are of very little value, costing only a few cents per pound, every 
steamer that carries them in and brings back a cargo of cotton, which 
is worth here 40 to 50 cents per pound, would leave here a large fund 
with which to build other Alabamas and Floridas. 

You will, I hope, pardon the length of this letter and see the neces- 
sity of my knowing fully your wishes. If I am toremain here it will 
probably continue until the war is over. In that event I want my 
family here, and have arranged for them to join me here. It will be 
quite agreeable, however, to me to return, and indeed such is my pref- 
erence, so far as my own pleasure and comfort are concerned. I desire 
you to consider this question only with reference to the interests of 
our Government, and with whatever you may conclude I shall be per- 
fectly contented. 

I remain, my dear sir, yours, very truly, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


P. S.—Since writing the above I have received a letter from Captain 
Bulloch, and beg to inclose you a copy.* Although three days ago 
prejudiced against the scheme by Huse, he speaks out openly and 
plainly now as to his views, and says in writing exactly what he 
says verbally. This Major Huse never does, and his excuse, when I 
called his attention to this fact, was that in his verbal conferences 
they were always more unreserved, and that in his writing he only 
said what he thought was necessary. The contrast to me is very 
refreshing. 

W: Gre 


———————— 


[May 4, 1863.—For Seddon to Vance, in relation to desertion among 
the North Carolina troops, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 702. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., May 7, 1868. 
Brig. Gen. W. H. C. WHITING, 
Commanding, &c., Wilmington, N. C.: 

GENERAL: The pressure of engagements, consequent upon the late 
movements of the enemy around this city, has prevented me from 
earlier replying to your letter relative to running the blockade at Wil- 
mington. The law of Congress expressly allows the exportation as 
well of cotton and naval stores as of other things, and it seems to have 
been the policy of our legislation to encourage rather than impede the 
running of the blockade. More serious doubt might have been enter- 
tained as to this policy originally, when the stock of goods in the Con- 
federacy was unexhausted, and exclusive possession of the cotton and 
naval stores by the Government might have been a powerful lever in 
operating on foreign nations; but now there is such destitution among 
our people of almost all articles of foreign manufacture that it seems 
almost a matter of necessity that exchange should be allowed by the 
exportation of our valuable productions. It is my own conviction 
that such is our true policy, and that all those who introduce articles 
really useful to the Confederacy are promoting the public weal. I 
appreciate strongly the temptations presented by the trade to dealing 
with the enemy and the importation of Yankee manufactures, and I 
STE SR EUS EE SR RE IRE 


* Not found. 


548 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have no doubt that frequently cargoes derived mainly from the North 
through neutral ports, if not directly, are introduced. | 

Of course, when such fact can be ascertained and the parties brought 
within the provisions of the law passed to preclude such dealing with 
the enemy, examples should be made and the penalties of the law 
rigidly enforced. When, too, there is any just reason to suspect that 
parties engaged in the trade are disloyal and use the facilities afforded 
by running the blockade for the transmission of intelligence to the 
enemy, or for any other practices injurious to the Government, they 
may be subject to arrest, investigation, and, upon satisfactory ascer- 
tainment of the facts, to punishment. Whenever, too, peculiar mili- 
tary exigencies, such as threatened attack or the necessity of conceal- 
ing any proposed movement, require peculiar caution, the sailing of 
all vessels may be temporarily suspended, or those only liable to suspi- 
cion may, at your discretion, be stopped. Beyond the judicious exer- 
cise of restrictions, such as those to which I have referred, I do not 
see how this Department could authorize, or any military commander 
would be justified to preclude or prohibit, the free exportation, on 
due compliance with the revenue laws, of any articles of produce. In 
another way, perhaps when a conviction of the impolicy of such trade 
in particular instances demands interference, some impediments 
might, without a violation of express law, be interposed by the influ- 
ence which the Department or military commanders may exercise over 
the means of internal transportation. When parties are believed to 
be substantially engaged in trade with the enemy and evading the 
spirit of our laws the supply to them of transportation for outward-. 
bound cargoes might be denied; but the exercise of any power like 
this must be controlled with great discretion, since it must be regarded 
as through indirect instrumentality, conflicting with the legislation 
regulating external trade. 

I am aware that the suggestions I have made are very general and 
less specific than may be desirable as instructions, but it is difficult 
to give orders that may be applicable under the varying circumstances 
of the case as they arise. Therefore, relying on your own discretion 
and judgment, I have deemed it more judicious to express generally 
the judgment and views which are entertained by the Department. 

With high esteem, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


Hpqgrs. Dist. oF TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, AND ARIZONA, 
Fort Brown, May 7, 1868. 
His Excellency F. R. LUBBOCK, | 
Governor of Texas, Austin: 


SIR: I am instructed by Major-General Magruder to state that, 
under orders from Lieutenant-General Smith, he has ordered five 
regiments from the East Sub-District of this State to Louisiana, and 
2,000 troops from the Rio Grande frontier to the frontier of Louisiana 
and Texas. In view of these facts a necessity for an additional 
number of troops arises, and to meet this demand he has to request 
that you will call out the troops of the State who have been in the sery- 
ice under the call made by Brigadier-General Hébert, but whose term 
of service has expired. These troops, it is presumed, can easily be col- 
lected and remustered into service for the period of three months, 
unless sooner discharged. This call is rendered necessary by the fact 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 549 


that the aspect of affairs in Louisiana may assume so grave a charac- 
ter as to require the movement of troops from this district, whose 
places must be supplied by the State troops. The general requests 
that you will also call out such additional number of militia from the 
northeastern country as you may be able to arm for service and place 
them at once on a footing for active service in the field. In the case 
of the 5,000 militia who have been in service, you are requested to give 
such orders that they will assemble without any delay at their former 
places of rendezvous. You will please cause the brigadier-general to 
hold elections for field officers, and report by letter to Brigadier- 
General Seurry should the major-general commanding not have 
arrived. Those companies having furnished muster-rolls will in 
their reorganization be guided and mustered by the muster-rolls 
already furnished. Copy of the muster-rolls will be transmitted to | 
these headquarters and also to Brigadier-General Scurry. You will 
please cause the brigade commanders to report immediately upon 
their arrival at their respective camps the fact to these headquarters 
and to Brigadier-General Scurry without the slightest delay. It being 
understood that some of these brigades failed to comply with General 
Orders, No. 50, January 20, 1863, from these headquarters, in not 
turning over their arms, the general wishes the brigade commanders 
to report the number of companies, the strength of each company, 
and also the number and kind of arms in the hands of each company. 

The ordnance officer and quartermaster at Houston, Tex., have 
been directed to turn over, on proper application, the arms, ammuni- 
tion, cooking utensils, and camp and garrison equipage, according to 
the receipts taken at the time these articles were turned over by the 
brigade officers. These troops are at once needed on the Louisiana 
frontier, and Brigadier-General Scurry has been directed to make the 
necessary arrangements for their support by establishing at Harris- 
burg depots with ninety days’ rations for 5,000 militia, and also at 
some convenient point on the Louisiana and Texas frontier on the 
Nacogdoches road, placing there also ninety days’ rations for 5,000 
militia, if they shall be called out by you and armed by the State. 
The general requests that you call out all the available forces not less 
than the above number, and cause them to be organized and assem- 
bled ready to meet the enemy whenever necessary. I have the honor 
to inclose a copy of General Orders, No. 17, from these headquarters, 
with the remark that as far as consistent with letter its provisions 
will be adopted; also General Orders, No. 16, for the information of 
brigade commanders, which you will please cause to be furnished 
them.* 

I have the honor to be, Governor, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, ; 

EDMUND P. TURNER, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 

No. 57. Richmond, May 8, 1863. 
_ The operation of paragraph IV, General Orders, No. 28, March 12, 
1863, from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, is so far 
modified for the present as to allow payment of officers in hospitals 


* Inclosures not found. 


550 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


without the certificate of last payment, as required in said Orders 
No. 28; but the quartermaster making such payment will furnish 
certificates as heretofore required of him. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


MoBILE, May 10, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, , 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: Our country is now in the deepest distress, and if ever 
unity of sentiment and harmony of feeling was needed it is now. If 
ever it was desirable to denude the North and weaken their action 
and counsels it is now. Yet there is an agency at work in Richmond, 
purely Southern in feeling and sentiment, which is creating not only 
distrust among ourselves, but is uniting the North and intensifying 
the war feeling against the South. I allude to the course of the 
Enquirer. I am satisfied that it does not represent the views and 
sentiments of Mr. Davis; yet it is looked upon throughout the South 
as his organ, and at the North (if I can rely on rumor) is considered 
as speaking ex cathedrd on all political subjects connected with the 
war. This is not the gloomy feelings of a worn-out man, but the 
considerate Judgment of one not a bad judge of public sentiment. 
The great objection to the war at the North is that it cannot restore 
the Union, but they hold that peace will. Why not permit them 
quietly to indulge that belief until their armies are disbanded? The 
course of the Enquirer is to unite the feeling of all parties in a war of 
destruction. The views, too, put forth by the Enquirer would seem 
to indicate that all power over life and liberty should be intrusted to 
the President. Now, I know nothing is more foreign from his views, 
yet the Enquirer is fastening it on the public mind that such are the 
views of the President and his Cabinet. Hence doubts, mistrusts, 
and the want of that full confidence that did once and ought now to 
exist among us in the Executive. I assure you that some step ought 
to be taken to disabuse the public mind at home as well as at the 
North. Men who once had confidence in my opinion say in reply to 
my declarations that the Enquirer does not speak the sentiments of 
the President. Does it not publish the laws, receive the public patron- 
age, and has it ever been publicly denied that it is not the Government 
organ? There is no reasoning with them in the absence of some dis- 
tinct disavowal of the sentiments put forth by that paper. I do not 
know that a letter from me would reach the eye of the President in 
his present condition.. I therefore write you and beg of you to bring 
this matter before him. Good will come of it; evil cannot. 

Yours, very truly, 
EK. 8. DARGAN. 


CONFEDERATE STATES, OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
fichmond, May 11, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
+ Secretary of War: 


Sir: In reply to the proposal of Colonel Gorgas submitted by you 
to furnish 5,000 bales of cotton at Charleston or Wilmington, I would 
respectfully state that it would take nearly one-third of all the cotton 
I have in South Carolina and Georgia. As these deposits will be 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 551 


required to meet the financial arrangements of the Government, the 
cotton required by you had better be purchased. You are in a better 
condition than I am to make these purchases, as you have money at 
your command, and I respectfully offer you the use of my agents to 
make the purchases for you. This will prevent our agents bidding 
against each other. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


[First indorsement. ] 
May 14, 1863. 
The Commissary Bureau will order the purchase of cotton to the 
amount required to meet its contracts. I would advise the employ of 
some one or more of the agents employed by the Treasury. The 
Quartermaster-General will have to take the same precaution. 
: Ak Ne S., 
Secretary. 
[Second indorsement. | 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
Richmond, Va., May 16, 1868. 


Contents noted and respectfully forwarded to Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


[Third indorsement. ] 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
May 19, 1868. 
Contents noted and respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 


A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


—E———EEE, 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 58. \ Richmond, May 11, 1863. 
* *% *f * * * a 


TI. Allpersons, whether citizens or soldiers, are expressly prohibited 
from using or in any manner interfering with fuel or wood cut and 
delivered for the use of railroads or railroad companies. It is of the 
first importance that this order should be observed, and it will be 
strictly obeyed and enforced by the Army. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[May 11, 1863.—For proclamation of Governor Vance in relation 
to desertions from the Army, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part HU, p. 706. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 59. Richmond, May 12, 1863. 
I. The attention of regimental commanders throughout the Army is 
called to the requirements of paragraph I, General Orders, No. 69, of 


552 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


1862, which makes it the duty of adjutants to inquire into and report 
to this office all cases of slaves serving with their respective regiments, 
without written authority from their masters. It is especially required 
of all regimental commanders to enforce a due observance of said 
order, which is hereby extended to include commanders of posts and 
senior surgeons of hospitals, who will make similar reports, so far as 
they relate to their respective commands, to those required from adju- 
tants of regiments. 

IT. It will be the duty of a surgeon in charge of a hospital to make 
a separate provision return for all the persons attached to the hospital 
who may be entitled to rations, except the sick and wounded soldiers, 
and the issuing commissary will issue to said persons the same rations 
that are issued to soldiers in the field. These rations will not be com- 
muted, if the commissary can issue in kind. If he cannot issue in 
kind, the ration may be commuted, at 60 cents per ration, on the 
certificate of the surgeon as to the dates and facts. 

Separate and distinct provision returns will be made for the sick 
and wounded soldiers in the hospital, according to the form hereunto 
annexed, marked A.* No portion of the subsistence stores drawn for 
the sick and wounded will be otherwise appropriated. 

The attention of the medical directors and inspectors is particularly 
directed to this prohibition. 

III. So much of paragraph V, General Orders, No. 24, of 1862, as 
requires ordnance-sergeants to make returns of surplus stores with 
regiments to the Ordnance Bureau is revoked. All the returns required 
by the regulations of ordnance stores in the possession of regiments 
or battalions, other than artillery, will be made by commanding officers 
of the same. 


By order: 
5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 60. ftichmond, May 13, 1868.. 


I, The exigencies of the service requiring a large number of artillery 
horses, all public horses suitable for that service, employed in trans- 
portation or otherwise with armies in the field, will be turned over to 
the chief quartermasters of said armies, and will supply their places 
where necessary with mules. The chief quartermasters of armies are 
charged with the prompt execution of this order, under the direction 
of the commanding generals. 

II. At posts or depots other than those immediately belonging to 
armies in the field, all public horses suited for artillery will be 
collected under the orders of Maj. A. H. Cole, inspector-general field 
transportation, for the purpose named above, and mules substituted 
where necessary. | 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[May 13, 1863.—¥For Vance to Davis, in relation to desertion among 
North Carolina troops, &c., see Series I, Vol. LI, Part IJ, p. 709. | 


* Omitted. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 553 


Ricumonp, May 14, 1868. 
General R. E. LEE, 
Commanding, Fredericksburg, Va.: 


GENERAL: I am directed by the Secretary of War to inform you that 
in future no substitute for a soldier in service will be received unless 
the substitution first have the approval of the general commanding 
the army or department to which the soldier belongs. 

I am, general, very respectfully, &c., 
| H. L. CLAY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(Same sent to Generals Joseph E. Johnston, G. T. Beauregard, 
B. Bragg, E. K. Smith, D. H. Hill, and 8. G. French. ) 


———— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., May 14, 1863. 


The following act of Congress is published for the information of all 
concerned: 


AN ACT to repeal certain clauses of an act entitled an act to exempt certain persons from military 
service, etc., approved 11th October, 1862. 


1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much 
of the act approved October 11th, 1862, as exempts from military service ‘‘ one 
person, either as agent, owner or overseer, on each plantation on which one 
white person isrequired to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any State, and on 
which there is no white male adult not liable to military service, and in States 
having no such law, one person, as agent, owner or Overseer, on each plantation 
of twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to mili- 
tary service,” and also the following clause of said act, to wit, ‘“‘ and, further- 
more, for additional police for every twenty negroes, on two or more plantations 
within five miles of each other, and each having less than twenty negroes, and on 
which there is no white male adult not liable to military duty, one person, being 
the oldest of the owners or overseers on such plantation,” be and are hereby 
repealed. 

9. For the police and management of slaves there shall be exempted one person 
on each farm or plantation, the sole property of a minor, a person of unsound 
mind, a femme sole, or a person absent from home in the military or naval service 
of the Confederacy, on which there are twenty or more slaves: Provided, The 
person so exempted was employed and acting as an overseer previous to the 16th 
April, 1862, and there is no white male adult on said farm or plantation who is 
not liable to military duty ; which fact shall be verified by the affidavits of said 
person and two respectable citizens, and shall be filed with the enrolling officer: 
And provided, The owner of such farm or plantation, his agent or legal representa- 
tive, shall make affidavit and deliver the same to the enrolling officer, that after | 
diligent effort no overseer can be procured for such farm or plantation not liable 
to military duty: Provided further, That this clause shall not extend to any farm 
or plantation on which the negroes have been placed by division from any other 
farm or plantation since the 11th day of October, 1862: Provided further, That 
for every person exempted as aforesaid, and during the period of such exemption, 
there shall be paid annually into the public Treasury by the owners of such slaves 
the sum of $500. 

3. Such other persons shall be exempted as the President shall be satisfied ought 
to be exempted, in districts of country deprived of white or slave labor indispen- 
sable to the production of grain or provisions necessary for the support of the 
population remaining at home, and also on account of justice, equity, and neces- 


sity. 

‘4 In addition to the State officers exempted by the act of October 11, 1862, there 
shall also be exempted all State officers whom the Governor of any State may 
claim to have exempted for the due administration of the government and laws 
thereof; but this exemption shall not continue in any State after the adjourn- 
ment of the next regular session of its Legislature, unless such Legislature shall, 


ee 


554 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


by law, exempt them from military duty in the Provisional Army of the Confed- 
erate States. ; 
Approved May 1, 1863. 
G. J. RAINS, 


Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 61. Richmond, May 15, 1863. 


I. Farmers upon whose premises horses and mules have been or 
may hereafter be left by the enemy are admonished to pursue the 
requirements of the laws of their respective States respecting astrays 
so far as to have the same properly valued and the valuation thereof 
duly recorded; and where it is not apparent that such property was 
the property of the United States Government, to have advertisement 
thereof made as required by law. ‘ 

II. Upon compliance with the above admonition the Governmen 
will not assert any adverse claim to such horses and mules, unless 
they shall exceed in value the property whereof the citizens having 
possession may have been despoiled by the enemy, and then only to 
the extent of such excess in value. 

III. All officers of the Army will respect the rights of citizens as 
defined and conceded in the foregoing sections. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, May 15, 1863. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: I had this pleasure — instant, copy of which is inclosed.* I 
continue. without any of your favors. The steamer Hebe left here on 
12th instant, and but for bad weather in the Channel would now be at 
sea. She will probably leave Falmouth to-morrow; or, if not, cer- 
tainly the next day. <A portion of the cargo I had ordered down for 
her (account of your Department) was shut out, which I regret 
exceedingly, our portion of the cargo being already on board. It is 
now in excess of our portion. It shall be arranged in next cargo. In 
order to arrange it as far as possible in this I have entered on com- 
missary invoice 183 bags coffee, and on Navy Department invoice 50 
boxes tin plates that I had bought for ourselves; but yet our portion is 
too large. Major Huse refuses yet to pay the draft Mr. Bosher passed 
to A. Collie & Co., and on the promise of payment of same Messrs. 
A. Collie & Co. authorize the purchase of over £40,000 provisions in 
Liverpool. We are now sending of them one cargo to Nassau and 
another to Bermuda, to meet there steamers Venus and Hebe on their 
return. The advance, however, that I will have to call upon Mr. 
Collie to make me in order to keep on is so great that I fearI shall be 
unable to send forward the balance of the provisions, but will have 
to borrow money on them. Especially do I fear this since Captain 
Bulloch tells me he can furnish me with no aid shortly. I hope the 
Diana will be ready in all this month for cargo. 


* Not found as an inclosure, but probably that of May 5, p. 543. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 555 


Anxiously awaiting your favors and begging your attention to a 
necessity of providing coal for these steamers, 
I remain, your most obedient, 


WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


GENERAL realm ApDJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 62. Richmond, May 16, 1863. 


L. In accordance with an act to amend an act entitled an act to 
better provide for the sick and wounded of the Army in hospitals, 
approved May 1, 1863, the following modifications in General Orders, 
No. 95, last series, from this office, are published: 

The computed value of rations for sick and disabled soldiers in 
hospitals (field or general) will, until further orders, be $1.25. 

Il. Hospital laundresses will be paid $25 per month and allowed 
rations and quarters. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, May 16, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I respectfully submit for your information and consideration 
the accompanying letter from Maj. J. B. Ferguson, quartermaster, 
dated London, April 18, 1863. In the communication which I hadthe 
honor to address to you on the 22d ultimo I referred to the mercantile 
experience and ability of this officer as qualifying him particularly 
for the duty of purchasing supplies for the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment and enabling him to secure much more favorable terms than 
could be obtained by Major Huse; and I submitted that the public 
interests would be most decidedly promoted if the funds appropriated 
for the purchase of quartermaster’s supplies in Europe were placed 
directly in the hands of Major Ferguson. The letter from that officer, 
herewith inclosed, confirms very distinctly the correctness of the 
views I then expressed, and shows that the operations of an inexperi- 
enced purchasing agerit, as Major Huse must be so far as this class of 
purchases is concerned, will entail unnecessary pecuniary loss upon 
the department. I beg, therefore, to ask your recurrence to my 
former communication, and to repeat the request therein made, that 
Major Ferguson may be directly supplied with funds and be empow- 
ered to act in the scope of his particular duties abroad, independently 
of Major Huse, who, it may be proper to add, was never constituted 
by this department its agent abroad or authorized to purchase sup- 
plies, although, of course, they proved both valuable and useful to 
the service at a time when the resources of the Quartermaster’s 
Department were limited. In view of the fact that Major Huse is 
unfitted by education and previous pursuits in this service, and refer- 
ring particularly to the statement made by Major Ferguson that he 
has borne relations toa mercantile house, from which large purchases 
were made by him, in my judgment, inconsistent with the obligations 
resting upon an officer representing the pecuniary interests of the 
Government in a foreign country, I deem it a duty to express my 


556 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


unwillingness that Major Huse should continue to be an agent-of this 
department. 
Tam, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[First indorsement. ] 
May 18, 1863. 


Referred to Colonel Gorgas for special consideration. 

This matter seems of serious nature. The taking of a commission 
is altogether inconsistent with the purpose and duty of a trusted 
agent of the Department. The matter should be fully investigated. 

J?) Asieas 


Secretary. 
[Second indorsement. | : 


QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
June 1, 1868. 


The inclosed letter* of Colonel Gorgas has been noted, and the 
papers are respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[Third indorsement. ] 


JUNE 3, 1863. 


The Quartermaster’s indorsement is in very good spirit. I hope it 
will prove that Major Huse and Major Ferguson have only been each 
so zealous in his own branch of business as to cause some little eol- 
lision between them, which a better acquaintance will mutually 
remove. 

An order has been made to have Major Huse’s accounts settled and 
verified by vouchers, &c. 

J. Agee 


Secretary. 
[Inclosure. | 


LONDON, April 18, 1868. 
-Col. A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster-General, Richmond, Va.: 

COLONEL: In my letter to you of the 11th of April I stated that 
there were other reasons than those mentioned in my letter of the 8th 
of December for my declining to turn over the money I had in hand 
to Major Huse. I will now proceed to give them: 

In the first interview I had with Major Huse he informed me 
that his indebtedness to-Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. was, in 
round numbers, £500,000, and that over £100,000 had been used for 
the Quartermaster’s Department, and requested me to pay over to 
him the funds I had remaining on hand. I told him I would consider 
the matter. The subject was dropped for the time being, and the 
following conversation ensued: Major Huse informed me that it had 
been stated that he was interested in the house of S. Isaac, Campbell 
& Co., but such was a slander. He said it was true that upon some 
of his purchases he had received a commission, but he intended to use 
a part of the money to pay his traveling expenses, and the balance, 
amounting to £1,000, to purchase a military library, which he intended 
to present to the Ordnance Department. I expressed the opinion 


* See Gorgas to Seddon, p. 564. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 557 


that the amount of-commission should have been deducted from the 
face of the invoices in the shape of a discount, and that I would 
advise him to postpone his donation to the Ordnance Department 
until his debts were paid and our Army shod and clad. <A few even- 
ings after this there was a general meeting of all the Government 
agents, consisting of Messrs. Spence & Prioleau, Captains Maury, 
Bulloch, and North, of the Navy, Major Huse, and myself. In that 
meeting the financial affairs were discussed and the wants of each 
agent presented. It was determined to withdraw all of our securities 
from the market and wait the result of Messrs. Erlanger & Co.’s propo- 
sition to the Government. At the close of said meeting Major Huse 
again insisted that I should turn over to him the funds I had remain- 
ing on hand, but it was the unanimous opinion of all present that 
my instructions forbade my doing so. fter the meeting was over a 
conversation occurred between an officer of the Navy and myself, the 
sum and substance of which you will find in a copy of his letter, 
inclosed. The next morning I called at Major Huse’s office, and he 
showed me the invoices of the articles sent out by the Justitia. My 
familiarity with some of the classes of goods mentioned in said 
invoice led me to believe that extortionate prices had. been charged 
for them. I requested Major Huse to show me a sample of the 
12,000 yards sent out at 7s. 6d. per yard. I took a sample of it, 
and I feel no hesitation in saying that a similar article can be fur- 
nished at from 4s. 6d. to 4s. 10d. per yard, equal in every respect to 
the cloth sent out. You will see by this that this article (which I 
selected from the fact of its being a large item in our expenditures) 
has been charged more than 50 per cent. over what it eould have 
been bought for for cash. In addition to this a commission of 25 per 
cent. for purchasing is charged on the face of said invoice. 

From the foregoing you will perceive there were three prominent 
facts for me to consider: First, the admission of Major Huse that he 
had received a commission on some of his purchases; second, that the 
senior partner of the house through whom nearly all of his business 
had been transacted offered to divide a commission with an officer of 
the Navy, and third, that exorbitant prices had been charged for such 
articles as I could identify. I drew my own inferences, and came to 
the conclusion that the wisest and best thing for the country was to 
disburse the funds intrusted to my care as I was instructed todo. I 
left London and took up my quarters in the center of the great manu- 
facturing districts of England. I have made my purchases in a great 
measure without the aid of commission men, relying on the knowl- 
edge and experience acquired by twenty years’ service in the mercan- 
tile profession. I can but hope that my purchases may reach their 
destination. I desire that they be rigidly inspected and compared 
with those that have preceded them. In the last paragraph of your 
letter you say that you desire that I will remain to complete my pur- 
chases under your instructions, consulting with Major Huse. [ am 
willing and ready to consult and co-operate with any officer of the 
Government who has its interest at heart, but I am very certain you 
will justify me in declining to transact my business with any house 
who would divide with me a-commission on any transaction for the 
Government. If you desire me to remain out here I ask to be allowed 
to control the means intended to be used for the Quartermaster’s 
Department, every cent of which will be accounted for properly. 

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. B. FERGUSON, JR., 
Major and Quartermaster. 


558 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


BRIDGE OF ALLAN, N. B., April 1, 1863. 
Major FERGUSON: 


DEAR SiR: Your letter of March 30 has just been received. In that 
letter you ask me to do you the favor to state in writing the substance 
of a conversation I had with you shortly after your (my) arrival in 
this country, touching an offer made me by S. Isaac, of the firm of S. 
Isaac, Campbell & Co., to divide a commission with me on a business 
transaction for the Government of the Confederate States, and whether 
or not I regarded that offer as an attempt to induce me to combine 
with him (S. Isaac) for the purpose of defrauding the Confederate 
Government, and whether I rejected the same on that ground. 

In reply to the foregoing I would say that the subject of the conver- 
sation to which your letter refers may be briefly stated as follows: 
That I did call on §. Isaac, of the firm of S. Isaac, Campbell & Co., 
on a matter of business; that Mr. Isaac did in the course of conver- — 
sation make an offer to divide with me a commission of 5 per cent. on 
' a business transaction for the Confederate Government, and that I 
did regard that offer as an attempt to induce me to enter into a trans- 
action to defraud the Confederate Government, and that I did reject 
the same on that ground. 

Very respectfully, &c., 
JAMES H. NORTH, 
Commander, C. S. Navy. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, May 19, 1863. 


By an act of Congress May 1, 1863 (copies of which will be furnished 
for distribution so soon as printed *), the general exemption of over- 
seers aS a class for the hitherto prescribed purpose, ‘‘to secure the 
proper police of the country,” ceases to be obligatory, and the obliga- 
tory exemption is confined to certain enumerated classes of planta- 
tions. In a separate section of the same act, however, the President 
is intrusted with a general discretion to allow exemptions in any class 
of the community in cases of justice or necessity. 

In construing this legislation as a whole, it is to be presumed that 
Congress, in view of the difficulty of fixing a general rule of equally 
just application in the various parts of the country, intended to leave 
the necessary rules of exemption in unenumerated classes to be fixed 
by Executive discretion. 

A violent and most injurious change would probably result from 
the immediate withdrawal of all exemptions formerly provided by the 
police clause and not now expressly authorized. It is therefore neces- 
sary to proceed with deliberation and discretion. 

The commandants of conscripts for the several States will make 
report of such cases or classes of cases in which the necessities of the 
community appear manifestly to require the exemption of any portion 
of the overseers, in whose hands now rests the supervision and police 
of our negrolabor. Temporary indulgence will meantime be extended 
in such cases until Executive pleasure be known. 

The preparatory enrollment to bring into service those newly ren- 
dered liable will, however, be actively prosecuted. 


* Published under date of May 14, p. 553 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 559 


In no ease will this Bureau entertain applications for exemptions 
proposed on grounds of necessity unless a reasonable amount of sworn 
testimony be forwarded. This rule is imperative to avoid error grow- 
ing out of deception by petitioners or mistaken judgment by forward- 
ing officers. 

Cd odie Balpen 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


GENERAL ORDERS,) [ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, | 
No. 65. j May 21, 1863. 


I. The following schedules of prices for articles named therein, 
adopted by commissioners appointed pursuant to law, for the States 
of Virginia and Georgia, respectively, are announced for the informa- 
tion of all concerned, and the special attention of officers and agents 
of the Government is directed thereto: 


II. VIRGINIA. 


SCHEDULE A. 
RICHMOND, May 18, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: The commissioners appointed under section 5 of the bill recently passed by 
the Confederate Congress regulating impressments constitute a board whose duty 
it shall be to fix upon the prices to be paid by the Government for all property 
impressed or taken for the public use aforesaid, so as to afford just compensation 
to the owners thereof. Said commissioners shall agree upon and publish a sched- 
ule of prices every two months, or oftener if they shall deem it proper. 

In accordance with the foregoing requisition we respectfully lay before you the 
following schedule of prices for the ensuing two months. Owing to the difficulty 
in obtaining satisfactory information as to pork, beef, and materials of clothing, 
&c., we have postponed their appraisement till our next assignment. It is proper 
to add that Mr. W. B. Harrison was invited to act as third commissioner, and that 
this appraisement receives the unanimous approval of the commissioners. 

The following are the maximum prices to be paid for the articles appraised at 
all cities and usual places of sale, and when impressed elsewhere the same prices 
are to be paid elsewhere, less the cost of transportation to the city or usual place 
of sale to which the article would go ordinarily for sale from that neighborhood, or 
less the cost of transportation to the point at which the Government needs the 
article and wishes it to be sent, provided that in no case the amount deducted for 
transportation as above shall exceed 25 cents per bushel for grain and 25 cents per 
hundredweight for long forage, flour, bacon, iron, &c.; in addition to the estab- 
lished price of transportation, the Government to pay all legal tolls, and, where 
farmers cannot procure nails for baling forage, Government to furnish the same 
at cost, which will be deducted from the established price of baling : 


—— 


| Article. | Quality. Description. Quantity. Price. - 
1 | VELOSO aes =iaisiereiaiac IPTIMNG Es. aes= SW hi tereeraniscinas om atime Per bushel of 60 pounds ..| $4.50 
MME LOOT a - 26206. —5- Goode sess SuUpoertine sss see e- ...--| Per barrel of 196 pounds ..| 22. 50 
3 | (CO Mie Agahanponeeane Erie). se= Wehitelee saat ecco: aaa Per bushel of 56 pounds .-. 4. 00 
aensheiled corn. ...|.-.-40-......|.2+<- Pihay ee nee: Seer ety eccoe Ok, sce cote se eat 3.95 
5 - Corn-meal ......... LOOM een See ee eee fe calorie ction Per bushel of 50 pounds .. 4, 20 
GU ViGr seers. <5 (aa | JER Gio coal Goote 5 amp n0o Doo saneanerk Per bushel of 56 pounds .. 3. 20 
7 Cleaned oats ....--. Sac Jéebrsa Bache deL eo reeeeaerP er Eeonare Per bushel of 32 pounds .-.- 2. 00 
8 Wheat bran....... OOM ect ctics = sem a ctiele Stee sien ers Per bushel of 17 pounds -. - 50 
De SLOPES conan wa x- oe SS 80 ge5 ae Cee aera sedinnc Per bushel of 22 pounds -. AKL 
10 , Brown stuff....... ee eee eee rae hitter bute se iciae sate ee Per bushel of 28 pounds .. - 90 
Pike bip Stull 2...005.8% LOM eee! |e ot ils cece Aosereiiec eeeeyne Per bushel of 37 pounds -. 1. 40 
12'; Bacon...-.--.--+--- cee Pes. Hog round.....-----.--.-- Per pound .....----------- 1.00 
13 | Salt pork.......... de AACR a oe Ope. howe J. 1. 00 
TW Wo OPTRA <param tes me least Fre aiso2 Jel eee eee nene Bae eboee ea trace Ome re some emesis 1. 00 
AGE ELOTBOS ee os <= «ce1- > % First class..| Artillery, &c .....-------- Average price per head...| 350. 00 
HG le WOO Uae ctade init os Ln ee eae AV ESNU | ec an ame SEeOCCOOre IRerPOUNGs 2.4 s-052<--- - = 3. 00 
BW GAB. ste ss-0as = wale Ue se ae Sas aie ciaicia bininlo cecal Per bushel of 60 pounds 4.00 


560. 


CORRESPON DENCE, ETC. 
Article. Quality Description. Quantity. Price 
Potatoes .....22... Goodees.- DPIBD SUE tech eo caseuen eee tat Per bushel. 2.3.5.2. $4. 00 
Bee GO. nc sckdns poctee eho leeeeem | nn er 5. 00 
nous eos. eases a0 Ge ceccete ce eta a eet Panne mony ene do .....100: see 5. 00 
Dried peaches... .. ies Over anes Lecled soso ee ee Per bushel of 38 pounds .. 8. 00 
Bee NG foe eee ee ene Unpesied: .0iishs seta st acing 0 . 3 4e e 4.50 
Dried apples ..._..|. ShOpse 8 ta heeled {Seyi yee Per bushel of 28 pounds . 3.00 
Hay baled cto Ase Oise. sae Timothy or clover....._.. Per 100 pounds ........... 4.00 
Saeae CO Pecan On A eee OEAnne or herd grass .-/.|....:00 ......0. ene 4.00 
Hay, unbaled......|._.. dO ieee tl nae CORTE te erie nn -0.-d0 ..1.., 3 3. 70 
Sheat ontspaledsi0 2.00 .ccoelat i. kehaetig Oma aan uaa do ..-... 2) ee 4.00 
sheaf oats unbaled|..- dos. sos clin ae ones oer ceo Wes dO... sn. 2sgen en 3. 70 
Bladetodder beled). edo sine lave Gel cet See do .... 5.5 eee 4. 00 
Blade fodder tn die7 00 cue, at) A, te ALE Senne OM do ¢..... See 3.70 
baled. 
Shucks, baled..... Des Ser Mota eb ene Barmera Me ML | dO |... . 1.3.5 2.50 
Shuqks, sunbaled (2.] 2.20 co.cc oe ease, Liane fea do’... ...5cesea ean 2.20 
Vipeat straw, pyle). kde?! 200s, a seus peel oe an ee Ue 1.30 
Wheat straw, un- Sa eens Ree eR RGR Rho ta, Nhs? | G0 .222065- 0.08 ee 1.00 
baled. 
Pasturage......... er) eas ea Jnterior. 7.2.02. ona eee Per head per month....... 3. 00 
a MO Rats Serer Ae dG Ae. tea Near citiess/ ./0.0.e1e. oe 0 «1 sacar 6. 00 
EGE as Me Ree rae S1d6 2s oan eS tee Ok See eer Per bushel of 50 pounds ... 5. 00 
BOED chs cee c uses cls See Mime e keer wt eS Per pound: 7.7 5..5 see - 30 
Candles 2.25.55. ..|.. PLO ee ene Tallow 3.002150) 3 oy do 205. 5 1.00 
Wategar (on 62 ade EO wines Cider. {cakes eee Per gallon ..-4.eeee 1. 00 
VAM EY coe cc ae See Orse eee Trade \2. ... 2a eee ae do. 5, -23 26ers 3. 00 
ugar eee eC Opee ee Brown. . 2.) 15asa eee Per pound «2.31 2eeee ee 1.00 
Molasses.......... Sep eek New Orleans:f2.2 3) Per gallon .- >. .022 See 8.00 
RUCO cron he a Ses O aa cae vali lode) SCL ae Per pound ..-. 27. ee 15 
Coessc eee ey Se eC ae Rios... 3.23 dO... 5) aoe 3. 00 
erent ie Sete ha | pe ROm oes Trade. ..20.) sees ee eee do ... 17.6 10. 00 
Wiheoar oie oe Enel eencte ae Manufactured ....._...... Per gallon. .i.., supa . 56 
SiS POR aL ae See (One n ee No. quality Soren ane ey Per ton .../_ 3) 2 125. 00 
pleat BOP 52. se ewes ado Seater INigeS quality, <5... 5 2eu oe ado oo 22 dees nce eae OOD 
secon d0t. 28S, 3. 24) Ae owes anos quality.: 3.5 tee ees} sek cdo or ect nen eis caer ae aoe OOM 
Bloom iron 5... 2.0) 4..4 WO 8 Sele sen occu eu ilg oo eee ee do .....< Swrpta eee 180. 00 
Smiths’ iron.......|.... dos)... Round, plate, and bar .....|..... G0 ....<slos 380. 00 
Leather So do Pe. re Harness 3.226. Tees Per pound... 22.4. 2. 60 
ate dos s-20ssi toi Ae. Caden | lasels Tsao Recigeiee wn de siele<inrcls cae ClO eee ee te ae 2.40 
Se cin oS CORE Sericak Berard ee [aloe Upper ..) ieee eee da vise cme se eee 2. 80 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, team 


EK. W. HUBARD. 


ROBERT GIBBONEY. 
WM. B. HARRISON. 


S$, wagons, and drivers. 


CO ND TRO DH 


Baling long forage. or20. ste A ee eee a 
Shelling and bagging corn; sacks furnished by the Gov- 


ernment. 


Per 100 pounds 
Per 56 pounds 


SA UL oan 2 'sts ato aed Unde act ee ee 2 A ne Re Per hundredweight per mile.. 

Hauling erain. 2s. <0... sc.) of ee Per bushel per mile........_.. 

Hire of 2-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished | Per day...2 2. ..diu ale 
by owner. 

Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....|..... do... 2b.) i acceso 

Hire of 4-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished |..... do. 24874... ee 
by owner. 

Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....|._... dO. .ceide 5 

Hire of 6-horse team, wagon, and driver; rationsfurnished |... .. do 22S. eee 
by owner. tee 

Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....|._... GO 25. fd. 1.0 

Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner.............|.__.. d6 2. sb. ccc cece do 

Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....|..... do < thc... 2.05. ee 

Hire of same; rations furnished DYIOWRSE Sec Ber oo Per month :_........J00seee 

Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....|..... dO ..52 sso 


E.’ W. HUBARG 


ROBERT GIBBONEY. 
WM. B. HARRISON. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 561 


III. GEORGIA. 


SCHEDULE No. 1.—Maximum prices fixed by the commissioners for the State of 
Georgia for produce and army supplies delivered at the usual shipping-points 
on the following-named railroads, to continue in force until the 15th of June, 
18683. 


TG SS | Gaga 

Pace’ | 235 

qase| gee 

qeS0g|/ Es 

-~-BY oO 2 os or 

=|) <q a Mr 

3 3 rc is ZB my 5 wz 

Satya | SOx 

Articles. Quality. Description. Quantity. Bah ang s = 

eat*q| Bae 

gaa | Cas 

eecOs | Oye 

Grae AS) vo 

oe aaa 

sok | Se 2 

8 2o8 ooo 

Sra cies oF 
VG 5 ane Primes) .W hitec.<...---=<< Per Dushelior GO pOuUNnGs aie anaes e se <i eteieeer ate 
Ls SS Seer Good ...| Superfine -...----- Per barrel of 196 pounds. . $35.00 | ~ $40. 00 
Ores ee ech air. ...-do...| Less cost sacks ...| Persack of 98 pounds.... 17. 50 20. 00 
Sans 356 ae Primer. |pohelledie ess. <1. Per bushel of 56 pounds.. 2, 25 1.50 
W486 Soe pe dor Uasinelled le vm.) Per bushel of 70 pounds... 2.10 1.40 
Corn-meal .....--.--- (EY n! Gaal Bae eee eeci ts Soa ee Per bushel of 48 pounds. . 2. 40 1. 60 
EG cin cee cles sons 5 Haar 1 O0ees- gece =a == Per hundred 2: 27.255... 30. 00 30. 00 
Woon son ose s <.- necatilo) 6.) Rati igarccac poscue 3 0) Ges tere One aoe e 20. 00 20. 00 
Seve een, Cee eee (GOON 53 SIGS) < oa anosadee™ Per DOWN Mes as: eee <n sae 85 . 85 
WDOMeee seekers ees anodes lethiini 5S A eeoosce aeerae (Oe tee eee os mere eaters . 80 . 80 
LEN) 3 cone eee ee edow es |tohouldersssseess4e1-- =: OD Ge Iter asop eee soe 75 75 
NOM: mateo nian 5 = ---do SO WHI soe aiattecstee =! fcreie.< = (10g SB ass Saas eee 30 30 
JOO GS nee ae eee eed Ouest = Oa bem eceertet ese lars COM ses aes eee onn ee 60 60 
[A eee AMO bee alts Ant. ciety ataiinpisisys a+! 2 se 'e'< Gl hao pe Mee he net peat 58) oats 
SYSOP. allele 5 ee Rea Mare sas oh Osis Neb. ces 12 == -|'s 2 = COME eee eee ce ee eee, ay .18 
Wosee scene so asn Good ...| Salt or corned ....|..... AO tee seis Seo e CCE aE SEBO SAR ao) baRoccicac.: 
iin Wet ee 2 a HU | AME case5 obnood Aeeee ISH amo aeem re Braces . 50 - 40 
10}) Sos becseeae ae Been Ore aie GROSS eeerae site acim s.' Or a eras Seam .18 m2 
ean meses Se eat c sce Seem) 6 SCRE seh scouecrekctee Per bushel of 60 pounds. . 2.25 1. 50 
TV GDING|cec5cDARDEe. 26 BS50U (CROCE 4 IBDSS oso Soce> Sp Cssobd amen Oana secre aocnosor EARS Baae nAllenamemcace 
PPOfAbOGS oe s4 2-25. == tO, SRR LCS ee eae ata ate aia | --a'm a: = COS Shoes eee eRe er sera alee rane ee 
G. Dee eee Ree OM EE IS Wel ssa cleasi=|\<'s oin.= Omer cts ae os Sees cre ee 2. 60 1.50 
ONnIGHStee nesses ess =e ee LO, aoa erte aero ee oie ae 2 | cle os Ome Steet cokes ne 2. 50 2.50 
Pode es tasks ss a se. ..--do ...| Dried, peeled -...-.. Per bushel of 38 pounds.. 6. 00 6. 00 
IDE agaceRe mes ceaee Pe dome ieDried, unpeclede=.24- 0 Olesen saree ais 24-9 4.00 4.00 
JAN IBE 06s aaa cece 3 Sea) S080 ae comagedec Per bushel of 28 pounds. . 4.00 4.00 
08 oe oo dow =k} Bl6d .-22.eo4-de5- Per 100 pounds ........-..|---0-----++-+|-----+---- 
(D0. pei See ae dGese Unbaledtesecce so slo a--.- GQ pores Scere eaves ete se shepetelet ator ost ener 
Clover or timothy. --.|---- Gr ss) DAWG sce socc.nes scores EO: He eto wa oe set alas oe eee ea el pe a 
1D - eee e Se egene Gees donee i Un) palediee seas a eila ler (Nee Bethe bo aeeporinca lee a eae AERP SBOE Sea ot 
Heat OALS cc. 22-023 .|<=-- dose is Baled)| Se cenccesonicc es = (CNRS SER Pe ee ee een ecb ebocee cad armen Oot 
Mae ences. =-|-+-- dO wele Un baledieete cat. sales cer Bi a We Ae BRA Ro biaee is ae Gre ENS HGl spin boot 
Bladetodders-=-=.---|---- dope balediisca satan aber. tre TE Be et, ioe Geer EN 2. 50 2. 00 
MO}: c= 2aeee dosed Sa doveul Unbaledis 22220. 2120-0. GOL Ot eo eee oaeeee es 1.50 1.00 
OO TS Ge er eeeeeg Goes d6:0./SBrowDseskes eas. Por pound. te.4- 2 act hase 75 75 
Miolasses....-...----.|---- (ORE eC eee eice Per allenic we ces- eaence - 4.50 4.50 
UO ee GO eee OLE fee be wea tcc ee Périnounds ses sssscccarets 10 10 
IDO 336 cee eee eee COMeniwNGw: seeae ce cists) asin Gt \seeeancs Sersaaere 12 12 
CUR eB SOR SR Se Saaee enee (lO) nei4l eonecehocdbeecsacean |bpoce SIG as Re 6 Hehe peo Neen COSSorasocenl Gntoem iScic 
Matlommaceeee se. s/< os. GOW eats eerste nn cee: see sets ose e < (LO Bear re ee oat crete, oe 75 50 
RC ee re ee do ...| By Government | Per gallon..-......-------|------+++22+|---220-22° 

contract. 

WO Oreetansceie. tccscls oe do When impressed -|.--.- (ioe Aeon ee Sao cteece sorte nacre dae areticcs 
Werner wi. ice. ts): |... Mow Pencil eto. «2 => sc. Oe Secon iek Roeser ee eee ae cas ene ete 
0 conn a@eadeeara ese Alor weal Gn lOmS 5an6 pao See | Seber CIDGUDEGENE Soop 0S neDEes) se SeouurE oo) corr oucuac 


We, the commissioners appointed in accordance with the provisions of the 
impressment act for the State of Georgia, after mature and careful deliberation, 
have agreed upon the foregoing tariff of prices, which we think fully meets the 
contemplation of the law in fixing a just compensation for the articles mentioned. 

We need not add anything to the recent patriotic address of our most excellent 
President as to the duty of producers in this crisis. Blind, indeed, must be the 
judgment and cold the patriotism that will not rally to the support of an Army 
whose glorious triumphs have shed such undying luster upon our national history. 
Standing as it does a wall of brass between us and our malignant foes, shall it 
feel the pinchings of hunger when our granaries are filled to overflowing and our 


36 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


ws» 


562 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


broad fields are waving with rich grain nearly ready for the sickle? The Govern- 
ment demands only your surplus supplies, and for them will pay remunerative 
prices. Fortify the hearts of our soldiers, then, by showing that while they illus- 
trate the chivalry of Georgia upon the tented field, we at home are ready to dis- 
pense with all superfiuities, relinquish all luxuries, and make any sacrifice neces- 
sary to maintain and perpetuate our honor and our liberties. While we may have 
erred in our judgment as to what is a fair compensation for some of the articles 
in the above schedule of prices, we feel that we have stood impartially between 
the Government and the producer, and while protecting one have not lost sight 
of the other. We have omitted to annex prices to certain articles, either on 
account of their scarcity or because the Government is fully supplied. At the 
proper time prices will be fixed for all. 
JOHN E. MORGAN, S 


U. B. WILKINSON, 
Commissioners. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


COLLECTOR’S OFFICE, 
Charleston, S.C., May 21, 1863. 
General THOMAS JORDAN, 
Chief of Staff: 

GENERAL: Referring to my letter of the 16th instant, I beg to 
inclose you a statement of the foreign commerce of this port from 
1st July, 1861, to 30th March, 1863. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. F. COLCOOK, 
Collector. 


[Inclosure. | 


Statement of the commerce of the port of Charleston with foreign countries from 
the 1st of July, 1861, to 30th of March, 1863. 


; g 
3 5 C 
- © He) 
oi rb) Se . 
Period. ® cS F a 
m n (0) os} a 
O a) 2 a S| © 
4 iB E i & = 
© ® = S Ee" e 
> > A 7 =) > 
Pounds. Pounds. 
From July i to Sept. 30, 1861...---. 2 5 LAO has Ge mets anew 72, 937 $6, 657 
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 1861....-... 3 11 4, 67 242,030 | 1,752,119 534, 902 
From Jan. 1 to Mar. 30, 1862....-.. 6 28 2,195 20,459 | 1,034, 299 97, 021 
From Apr. 1 to June 30, 1862....-- 10 41 LOAD Al eae trad eter sae 671, 128 59, 007 
From July 1 to Sept. 30, 1862...... 1G tf 4,101 213,954 | 1,689,375 223, 01) 
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 1862-.....-.. i 13 10, 220 243,695 | 4,411, 669 954, 009 
From Jan. 1 to Mar, 30, 1863.-..... 19 20 9, 374 502,131 | 3,701, 364 1, 179, 369 
Motel sare cence eee 62 130 32,050 | 1,223,269 | 13, 332, 891 3, 054, 476 


Statement of revenue received from July 1, 1861, to March 30, 1863. 


Jilly. Lito. september .30, 1861) > 5 bee ee een psp $6, 543. 71 
October. 1 to December 31, 1861 _... = 22... =. - - a kearwe cy - ae 11, 489. 06 
January 1 to March 30, 1862 -..-.---- re 37, 916. 98 
April 1 to June 80; 1862 5. : 07> Oe see ee 39, 844. 66 
duly 1litorSseptember 30, 1862 2-2 eee dee) <4 88, '702. 80 
October. 1-to December.31, 1862 [eee ek. 2s ee 57, 549. 27 
Jauuary 1.0. March 30, 1863.2 2, eee eo 173, 014. 64 


Totalt.. si. 22...25-4 54-22 EE 410, 011.12 
Month of “April,)1863 2... . a eee ee - 2 - 28, 509.78 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 563 


During the month of April five vessels entered and fourteen cleared. From 1st 
to 20th of May, 1863, seven vessels entered and six cleared. 
W. F. COLCOCK, 
Collector. 


——! 


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE, 
Knoxville, May 21, 1863. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: The civil condition of East Tennessee is a subject of solicitude 
- with me. Under the pressure of the enforcement of the conscript act 
several thousand of the young men of East Tennessee have fled the 
territory and entered the ranks of the Federal Army. Large numbers 
of others, to avoid the conscription, have fled from their homes and 
are lurking in the mountains, the woods, and the caves. They-are 
chiefly men of families, who desire to avoid all military service in 
either army and yet wish to remain near their families. Many of 
these men, rendered desperate by their situation, are infesting the 
roads, waylaying the conscript officers, and, urged alike by necessity 
and a spirit of revenge and bitterness, are stealing horses and destroy- 
ing the cattle, hogs, and products within their reach. Occasionally 
their depredations extend to the destruction of barns and houses and 
injury to crops within their reach. The civil arm is paralyzed; the 
bitterness of faction is intense. The enforcement of order by the 
military arm, however we may seek to restrain its enemies, will often 
be attended by instances of unnecessary severity, giving room for the 
charge of persecution. In whatever light we view it the question is 
surrounded by difficulties that have doubtless attracted oftentimes 
the attention of the President. After considering the question as 
fully as my time will permit, I am convinced that the following policy 
would be the best solution to the difficult problem: 

First. To exempt from conscription for a certain period—say six or 
eight months—such fugitives as within a limited time will return to 
the cultivation of their fields, and will lead a life of quiet and obedi- 
ence to the laws. The effect of this would be to disperse or weaken 
the bands which are scattered through the mountains; to cultivate 
and gather a more abundant crop, and to put an end to the molesta- 
tion of the highways and the destruction and stealing of animals. 

Second. To such as refuse to avail themselves of these privileges a 
severe policy should be pursued when practicable. They should be 
considered as alien enemies in armed opposition to the Government, 
and when captured regarded as prisoners of war and to be exchanged 
as such. In very flagrant cases a more severe policy might be pur- 
sued, but in most cases it would seem needless to try the offenders 
before a civil court, on account of the difficulty of obtaining two 
witnesses to the same overt act. To do so would be equivalent to 
releasing them in our midst, to renew their former course of depreda- 
tions. : 

Third. With a view to local defense against such depredations I am 
encouraging, with some prospect of success, the formation of volun- 
teer companies for local defense, under: the act of October 13, 1862. 
As the people are generally unarmed, their arms having been taken 
for other purposes by the State authorities, I propose, with your con- 
currence, issuing to these organizations the squirrel and shot guns 
now in the arsenal here. In an emergency these companies may add 
somewhat to the security of the bridge defenses. 


564 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I will thank you to lay these views before the War Department. 
The question is a most delicate one and very difficult of solution; but 
I think a temporary exemption would gradually bring back these 
fugitives to the quiet cultivation of their fields—the best service which 
they can render the Government. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
S. B. BUCKNER, 
Major-General, Commanding Department. 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, May 22, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: In returning the accompanying papers* I deem it due to Major 
Huse to remark: 

First. That I believe from information derived from Captain Stiles, 
who is just from London, that the receiving of a commission by Major 
Huse will be satisfactorily explained by him. Major H. is an officer 
of nearly fifteen years’ service. He knows perfectly well that the 
naked transaction of taking a commission on purchases, or receiving, 
directly or indirectly, compensation for purchases for the Government, 
would dismiss him from the service with disgrace; yet he makes 
confession of this flagrant crime to a stranger in his very first inter- 
view with him. It is unnecessary to suggest the propriety of at least 
hearing Major H.’s statement. 

Second. That I have no doubt Major Huse was frequently com- 
pelled to pay quite 50 per cent. over the actual market value of his 
purehases. I am free to admit that if Major H. had applied to me 
for instructions as to whether he should procure supplies at such rates, 
authority to that effect would have been given to him without a 
moment’s hesitation. Purchases made at those rates have saved my 
department and that of the Quartermaster-General millions of dollars 
if compared with the charges made by Confederate houses at Confed- 
erate ports. The Quartermaster-General has not weighed the matter. 
of his letter, or this count in his indictment against Major H. would 
have been left out or supported by further testimony. 

Third. The matter of Major Huse’s unfitness for making purchases 
is assumed by the Quartermaster-General probably on the testimony 
of Major Ferguson. I think it proper to say that I am perfectly sat- 
isfied with his business capacities, and so far as that is concerned 
desire no change. He has, however, declared his unfeigned regret at 
having volunteered to do service for the Quartermaster’s Department 
to which he was induced by his sense of the nakedness of our Army. 
This appears abundantly in his letters from the first. If he did 
wrong it must be admitted that it was a most venial error. He has, 
since the expression of his own wishes on this point, been formally 
directed to confine his purchases to the Ordnance and Medical 
Departments, Doctor Moore having full confidence in his judgment. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


* See Myers to Seddon, May 16, and inclosures, p. 555. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 565 


[May 22, 1863.—For General Orders, No. 66, Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office, publishing ‘‘ An act to provide and organize engineer 
troops to serve during the war,” approved March 20, 1863, with rules 
and regulations for the selection and organization of the same, see 
Series I, Vol. XXV, Part II, p. 817. | 


| May 22, 1863.—For Davis to Vance, in relation to desertions among 
North Carolina troops, &c., see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 711.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., May 238, 1868. 
Col. JAMES R. CRENSHAW, 
Charleston, S. C.: 


Sir: I have received with satisfaction, and read with interest, your 
several late letters, and have regretted that the engrossing business 
of the office has compelled me to devolve on Major Ruffin the duty of 
replying and conveying the information desired by you. 

I can understand the interest you feel.in having all preparations 
made to give the enterprise on which your brother and his associates 
have embarked, together with this Department, a favorable start, and 
I have every disposition to afford all the requisite facilities needed on 
the part of the Government. You have, I hope, been able, under the 
instructions given through Major Ruffin, to secure the requisite coal 
and cargo for the first steamer or two that may arrive. Until the 
railroad we are now constructing for a few miles to the pits in North 
Carolina is complete, there will be delay and difficulty in getting the 
requisite supplies; after that I think the depots for the Government 
at Wilmington and Charleston will be readily and constantly sup- 
plied. I observe, however, with regret, that you think the coal from 
abroad so much better adapted for the steamers that it will be advis- 
able to bring in supplies. That will seriously diminish tonnage that 
I had hoped might be better employed, and I yet hope it will be found 
that the coal from North Carolina will answer reasonably well. 

For your first cargoes you have been, I hope, adequately supplied 
with cotton, either by the purchases you were authorized to make, or 
by the quantity which, on Colonel Gorgas’ requisition, had been pre- 
viously forwarded to Charleston by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
That officer has informed me that all the cotton which he has obtained, 
or been authorized by law to purchase, will be required for his finan- 
cial operations under late laws of Congress, and that we must for the 
future rely on our own purchases; but he has placed at my disposi- 
tion for such purposes the agents he stillemploys. Onvarious accounts 
it is desirable to me that the purchases should be made through those 
agents, as, besides freeing from responsibility, they impose on the 
Department no charge or expense. 

You will probably have heard from Major Ruffin that I had to take 
the responsibility of a positive order to the Commissary-General to 
make the requisition of $100,000 in your favor for the purchases you 
had to make. 

I do not understand exactly the motives that influence Colonel Nor- 
throp, but do not think it proceeded from any distrust in yourself. 
At all events, I had no hesitation in manifesting the confidence which 
I felt assured you fully deserve. I am not sorry that the Secretary of 


566 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Treasury has relinquished the supply of cotton to this Depart- 
ment, for it was always a matter of embarrassment to settle the prices 
to be charged for the cotton and the disposition to be made of the 
funds abroad. This would have been still more untoward when it 
becomes necessary, under the contract with your brother and his asso- 
ciates, to keep each venture separate, and have accounts entered with 
commercial accuracy. 

Heretofore whatever error or mischarge was made caused no loss to 
the Government, but only an undercharge for or against one of the 
departments or bureaus. The thing is altogether different when the 
question is between third parties and the Government. You must 
therefore have an accurate ascertainment of the cost of your cargoes 
in cotton. Of the purchases made by yourself you can, of course, 
have no doubt; and in regard to any cotton heretofore purchased by 
Mr. Memminger and supplied, the cost at Charleston of similar cotton 
will have, I suppose, to be taken. In respect to the purchases here- 
after to be made, we shall have rendered you the cost as paid by the 
Treasury agent purchasing, with the addition of the transportation 
and other incidental expenses. 

I have directed to be in full preparation the several bureaus of 
Ordnance, Subsistence, and Quartermaster’s, to purchase through the 
Treasury agents without delay as large quantities of cotton as they 
think will be necessary to meet their contracts or exchange for the 
supplies they will need. They have been advised, as they can com- 
mand transportation, to purchase cotton at more distant points, where 
it is cheaper, and have it forwarded to convenient points for transfer 
to Wilmington and Charleston. On conference with Mr. Memminger 
I found he did not conceive himself authorized to allow the goods, as 
imported on account of your brother and his associates, to be admitted 
free of duty, though I thought I had distinctly explained to him this 
feature of the contract. This will compel this Department, as I had 
not expected and do not recognize any necessity for (since to pay to 
one Department what is remitted by another is idle, so far as the 
common Government is concerned), to pay to the Treasury the amount 
of the duties on such imported goods of Crenshaw &- Co. I have, 
however, obtained from Mr. Memminger instructions to the collector 
of Charleston to merely charge the duties on such goods against this 
Department and report the amount. So, as far as your brother and 
his associates are concerned, the effect is the same, and there will 
only be another distinct manifestation of the purpose of this Depart- 
ment to maintain full faith with its contractors. 

Upon the goods come in you have already, I believe, been fully 
instructed as to the officers to whom you are to submit the selection 
from your brother’s portion of the cargo, if desired by the Govern- 
ment, and to whom you are to hand over the stores for the Govern-— 
ment. If youare at any loss, confer with the agent of the Department, 
Mr. Seixas, with whom I hope you will preserve a cordial understand- 
ing, and who can inform you of the disposition he makes of the stores 
brought over in Government vessels. 

I will endeavor to have the agents of the Treasury who may pur- 
chase for this Department instructed to furnish cotton for your 
steamers on requisition from yourself, and will send the letters you 
desire to the commanders at Wilmington and Mobile, as well as a 
general recognition of your agency, with a direction that all reason- 
able facilities be afforded you by officers of the Government in the 
execution of your brother’s contract with this Department. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. | 567 


Ihave been somewhat annoyed by disagreements which have already 
arisen in England between Major Huse (the ordnance officer much 
trusted by Colonel Gorgas, and whom I wished on that account, as 
circumstances had cast the commercial business of this Department 
mainly on the Ordnance Bureau, to constitute the main agent abroad. 
of all the bureaus) and Major Ferguson, of the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment, and your brother. These will, I fear, entail serious embarrass- 
ments in the importation, through your brother’s agency, of some of 
the most important freight of the Government. I trust there will be 
no hesitation on his part in taking any and all Government freight 
which it is desirable to the Government to have imported, and submit 
all matters of controversy afterward to my arbitrament. As a public 
officer, I ean have no private interest to swerve me, and do not doubt 
my ability to render justice to all concerned. 

On inspecting closely the contract made between Mr. Mason and 
your brother, there are two points which I think transcend the terms 
of my letter, which constitute its basis. They are those providing for 
commission on the purchase and sale of the ships and the prohibition 
of contraband of war to the islands. This latter may prevent the 
bringing in the first voyages of some most important munitions. 
These subjects will, however, be submitted to your brother’s just con- 
sideration, and I have no idea that they will not be equitably explained 
or arranged between us. 

I have written hastily, and may have still omitted points on which 

you required explanations or instructions, but I hope the letters of 
- Major Ruffin have already supplied such possible oversights. I feel 
much interest in the success of these ventures, and have full confi- 
dence that they will not fail from want of fidelity, energy, or ability 
on your part. : 

Very respectfully, | 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 

_ Secretary of War. 


[May 23, 1863.—For Seddon to Vance, in relation to desertion 
among North Carolina troops, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part I, p. 714. ] 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, May 24, 1868. 

Maj. CALEB HUSE, | 
88 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, London West, England: 


Magor: It is deemed of great importance to get a supply of arms 
into Texas, and perhaps this can be effected directly from abroad. 
~ Captain Stiles suggests that a French house would undertake the risk 
of supplying us, and probably the port of Matamoras could be used. 
If so, there would be no difficulty in getting the arms from Browns- 
ville to the interior. Cotton is available there at any moment, and 
Maj. Sackfield Maclin, ordnance officer at San Antonio, Tex., will 
furnish any quantity of cotton needed at Brownsville on your order if 
payment is desired in that way. He will be instructed to that effect, 
and it will be well to transact the business with him. About 12,000 
arms for infantry and 3,000 or 4,000 for cavalry, with some revolvers 
and necessary ammunition, say forty rounds per arm, should consti- 
tute the bulk of the cargo. There is a good supply of lead, powder, 
and leather in Texas. A few officers’ sabers and equipments, and 


568 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


anything which your knowledge may lead you to think of, might be 
added. Medicines are needed, and tea and coffee would doubtless be 
acceptable. ‘Terms are left entirely to your discretion, and large 
inducements may be offered. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel-and Chief of Ordnance. 


P. S.—A copy of this letter will be furnished to General J. B. 
Magruder, commanding Department of Texas, whose energetic co- 
operation in carrying out the scheme may be confidently relied on. 
The parties charged with it should be accredited to him. 

J3 Gr 


GENERAL ORDERS, [ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, | 
No. 67. | fichmond, May 25, 1868. 

I. Officers on ordnance duty, when temporarily absent from their 
posts or positions in the field, under special orders, shall be allowed 
their personal expenses, to be paid out of the appropriation for ord- 
nance service, in lieu of all allowances for fuel, quarters, and forage 
for the same period. Each account must be certified to by the party 
receiving the payment and approved by the officer under whose orders 
he acts. 

II. Whenever a cavalryman fails and refuses to keep himself pro- 
vided with a serviceable horse, he may, upon the order of the corps 
commander, be transferred to any company of infantry or artillery 
of the same army that he may select. In lieu of such soldiers, others 
belonging to the infantry or artillery, who are able to furnish horses, 
and prefer that service, may, in like manner, be transferred in equal 
number to the cavalry. 

III. Surgeons will turn over money or other effects of deceased 
soldiers (except clothing, which will be disposed of as directed by Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 49, 1863) to the quartermaster of the regiment to 
which the soldier belonged, if he died in the field, or to the quarter- 
master of the post, if he died in hospital, taking therefor receipts in 
duplicate—one of which will be forwarded by him to the command- 
ing officer of the company of which the soldier was a member, to be 
sent by him to the family of the deceased, and the other to the Sec- 
ond Auditor of the Treasury. Quartermasters will take up upon 
their quarterly returns money thus paid, specifying the amount left by 
each deceased soldier, his name, company, and regiment. 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 124. Richmond, May 26, 1868. 
*% 5 *K *K 1s k * 
XJ. * * * Brig. Gen. C. W. Field is assigned to duty as super- 
intendent of the Bureau of Conscription in this city. 
* oy Kk *k * * k 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
_ JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


“ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 569 — 


[MAy 25, 1863.—For Vance to Seddon, in relation to desertion 
among North Carolina troops, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 715.] 


STATE OF GEORGIA, ADJT. AND INSP. GEN.’S OFFICE, 
Milledgeville, May 26, 1868. 
Lieut. Col. CHARLES J. HARRIS, C. S. Provisional Army, 
Superintendent of Conscription in Georgia, Macon: 

COLONEL: I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the 

receipt of your letter of the 19th instant, inclosing a copy of a letter 
to you from the Bureau of Conscription at Richmond in relation to 
exemptions from conscription under the act of Congress of May 1 
last. : 
In reply His Excellency desires me to say that he claims generally 
for the due administration of the government and laws of Georgia all 
of her officers, civil and military, appointed under her laws. In mak- 
ing this claim thus broadly His Excellency advances it in no spirit of 
opposition and the desire to impede you in the execution of your 
duties, but as the best method of avoiding unnecessary discussions 
and of securing without acrimony the just rights of the State and of 
the Confederate Government. 

With this understanding the Governor will be prepared at all times 
to receive and examine dispassionately any claims you may urge upon 
him for this or that individual. 

In conclusion His Excellency desires me to express to you his grati- 
fication officially and personally on being able to address you as the 
superintendent of conscription in Georgia and to say that it will give 
him pleasure to extend to you any facilities in your business and offi- 
cial residence in Georgia not inconsistent with the position occupied 
by him with regard to conscription and which is well known to you. 

To the Governor’s tender of services and congratulations I also add 
mine. ; 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, May 27, 1863. 
In addition to the selected indigenous remedies of the supply table 
now furnished on requisition medical officers will have gathered by 
the attendants and convalescents and will employ in the treatment 
of the sick all other useful remedies which may be found growing in 
_ the vicinity of the hospitals under their charge. Attention is called 
to the reputed efficacy of an infusion of the common elder (Sambucus 
Canadensis) as a means of expelling the maggot investing wounds. 
The infusion after cooling is locally applied by means of cloth or lint. 
It has long been in common use and favorably considered as dispos- 
ing wounds to heal kindly. The abundance in which this shrub is 
found will admit of its being gathered fresh for use whenever it may 
be required. 
; Sel, MOOR, 
Surgeon-General C. S. Army. 


970 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 69. Richmond, May 28, 1868. 


I. In places where there are three or more hospitals, three surgeons 
in charge of hospitals, or divisions in hospitals, shall constitute a 
board of examiners for the hospitals to which they belong, whose duty 
it shall be, twice in each week, to visit said hospitals and examine 
applicants for furloughs; and in all cases where they shall find an 
applicant unfit for military duty, either from disease or wounds, and 
likely so to remain for thirty days or upward, they shall, provided his 
life or convalescence will not in their opinion be endangered thereby, 
grant a furlough for sucll time, not to exceed sixty days, as they shall 
deem he will be unfit for duty. 

II. There will be detailed for each board herein constituted, from 
one of the hospitals visited by them, a competent clerk, who will 
issue furloughs, to be signed by the senior member of the Board, 
which will specify therein the length of furlough, the place of resi- 
dence of the soldier, his company, regiment, and brigade; and no 
further formality shall be required of the soldier, and no passport 
other than his furlough. | 

III. In every case furloughed under the provisions of this order a 
medical certificate stating the name, company, regiment, and brigade 
of the soldier, his place of residence, and the length of furlough, with 
the full particulars of the disease, wound, or disability, and the 
period during which he has suffered from its effects, with an opinion 
of the time which will elapse before he can resume duty, must be fur- 
nished by the Board of Examiners to the Surgeon-General; and if 
such furlough has been improperly granted, the derelict officer will 
be held responsible before a military tribunal. 

IV. The Board aforementioned will also examine applicants for dis- 
charge from the service, in hospitals visited by them, and may recom- 
mend a discharge when a soldier is deemed permanently unfit for 
service in the field or in any department of the Army in consequence 
of wounds, disease, or infirmity; in which case certificates of disabil- 
ity, signed by the senior member of the Board, and approved by the 
general commanding the army or department to which the soldier 
belongs, or by the Surgeon-General, will entitle him to a discharge, 
to be granted by the commandant of the post, who will complete and 
forward the ‘‘ certificates of disability” to the Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office. The surgeon in charge of the hospital will make 
out ‘‘final settlements.” The soldier will receive transportation to 
the place of his enlistment or residence. 

V. In places where there are but two hospitals, two surgeons in 
charge of a hospital or division shall constitute a board for the pur- 
poses aforesaid; and in places where there is but one hospital the 
surgeon in charge and two assistant surgeons, if there be two, and if 
not, then one, shall constitute a board for the purpose aforesaid, and 
may furlough and recommend discharges as herein prescribed. 

VI. Where a soldier has been discharged under the provisions of 
this order and his descriptive list and final statements cannot be pro- 
cured, he will be mustered by the surgeon in charge on the hospital 
rolls for payment, upon his affidavit, taken before one or more wit- 
nesses, that he has not received pay for the period for which he claims 
it to be due, and that he is not indebted to the Confederate States 
beyond the amount stated by him. 

VII. Notices of all furloughs issued under these orders will be for- 
warded weekly by the Board of Examiners, and notices of all dis- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 571 


charges from service by commandants of posts to the immediate 
commander of the company to which the soldier belongs, and to the 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 

VIII. The house surgeon in all hospitals shall see each patient 
under his charge once every day. 

IX. Paragraphs III, IV, and V, General Orders, No. 51, current 
series, from this office, pertaining to matters herein regulated, are 
rescinded. 

X. Boards of examiners and post commandants have no power to 
grant an officer leave of absence. They can only recommend it, upon 
the usual surgeon’s certificate, for the consideration of the command- 
ing officer of the army or department to which the officer belongs. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


rg 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 70. Richmond, May 29, 1868. 


I. The following act of Congress, and regulations adopted by the 
Department in pursuance thereof, are published for the information 
of all concerned: 


AN ACT to abolish supernumerary officers in the Commissary and Quartermaster’s Departments. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the office of 
regimental commissary be, and the same is hereby, abolished, and the duties here- 
fofore devolved by law upon said commissary shall be performed by the regi- 
mental quartermaster: Provided, That said quartermaster shall, if required by 
the Secretary of War, execute a new bond, with such additional penalty as he 
may require. 

Src. 2. That the commanding officer of a regiment or battalion shall, when the 
good of the service, in his opinion, requires it, detaila non-commissioned officer or 
private as commissary-sergeant, who shall be assigned to the regimental quarter- 
master to perform the duties now performed by commissary-sergeants; and the 
non-commissioned officer or private so detailed shall receive as extra pay twenty 
dollars per month. 

Src. 3. That the regimental quartermasters acting as commissaries shall draw 
supplies for their respective regiments on Provision Returns, Form 14, and not in 
bulk ; and when detached from their brigades, so that it is impracticable to draw 
supplies from the brigade commissary, it shall be the duty of the nearest brigade 
or post commissary to supply his regiment on provision return 14. 

Src. 4. Sales to officers shall be made by the brigade commissaries to which 
such officers are attached. 

Src. 5. That quartermasters and commissaries, assistant quartermasters and 
assistant commissaries, who become permanently detached from divisions, 
brigades, or regiments, to which they are originally appointed and assigned, 
respectively, whether by resignation or otherwise, shall cease to be officers of the 
Army,and their names shall be dropped from the rolls of the Army, unless 
reassigned by a special order of the Secretary of War. 

Src. 6. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to issue the necessary 
orders for the earliest practicable enforcement of the provisions of this law, and 
that he shall communicate to the chiefs: of the Subsistence and Quartermaster’s 
Bureaus the names of the commissaries and assistant commissaries, quartermasters 
and assistant quartermasters retained and dropped from the rolls under this act. 

Src. 7. That all laws and parts of laws contravening the provisions of this act 
be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


II. Regulations. 
1. After this date no appointment will be made of regimental or 
battalion commissaries in the Provisional Army. Departmental 


572 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


commanders will direct the transfer, by regimental commissaries, of 
all money, effects, and property in their hands to the proper regimental 
quartermasters, who will thereafter discharge the duties of the 
former in accordance with the provisions of this act. Until such 
transfer is perfected, regimental commissaries will continue in the 
performance of their usual duties; but after the 31st day of July 
next all quartermasters and commissaries, assistant quartermasters 
and assistant commissaries, who have not been or may not be, prior 
to July 31, specially detailed or assigned to duty will cease to be 
officers in the Confederate service. 

2. Sales to officers will, after the 31st of July next, be made by the 
brigade commissary, as required in the fourth section of the act; and 
to enable him to do so the brigade commander will select and report 
tothe War Department, through the usual channel, the best qualified 
regimental commissary of his brigade, for assignment to duty with 
the brigade commissary. It shall be the special duty of the commis- 
sary thus assigned to receive supplies in bulk and to make the 
usually required sales to officers of the Army. He will be under the 
immediate direction of the brigade commissary, will receipt to him 
for all property received, and make through him the proper reports 
and returns of his transactions. . 

3. In cavalry regiments, a lieutenant of cavalry or other competent 
officer may be detailed, when necessary, to aid the regimental quarter- 
master in the discharge of such additional duties as may be devolved 
upon him under the operation of this law. 

4. Additional bonds will not be required of regimental quarter- 
masters charged with commissary duties, except where directed by 
the Secretary of War. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
INO. gas j _ Richmond, May 30, 1868. 
The following act of Congress having been approved by the Pres- 
ident is announced for the information and guidance of all concerned: 


AN ACT allowing hospital accommodations to sick and wounded ofticers. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That sick or 
wounded officers shall be allowed hospital accommodations in any of the hos- 
pitals of the Confederate States at one dollar per diem. 

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, When said officer shall be without money, 
he shall nevertheless be entitled to the same. The surgeon in charge, at the 
expiration of every thirty days, shall state the account, and be entitled to draw 
the amount at any place where the officer might have drawn it, which shall be 
deducted from said officer’s pay in the same way as if he himself had drawn at, 
and any officer drawing the same again shall be punished as in the case of fraud- 
ulent drawers. 

Approved April 29, 1868. 


By order: , 
: ; S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. a Ya 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., May 30, 1868. 


By the circular from this Bureau of May 19, 1863, commandants of 
conscripts were directed to abstain from fully carrying into execu- 
tion the second section of the act of Congress of May 1, 1863, mak- 
ing new regulations for the exemption of overseers until such further 
instructions should be issued as deemed proper by Executive discre- 
tion under the third section. The whole subject was referred to the 
War Department. 

In view of the great demand for provisions and their scarcity, and 
of the fact that many persons have made their arrangements for cul- 
tivating their farms upon the conditions of the law of October 11, 
1862, the Department deems it imprudent by the withdrawal of super- 
vision from slave labor to disturb the processes in operation for the 
supply of food. The Assistant Secretary of War writes: 

It is therefore recommended to you not to conscribe the persons employed as 
superintendents of the plantations employed in growing crops of provisions which 
there is reason to believe will be appropriated to the use of the Army or the sup- 


ply of the indigent population during the growing seasons. A liberal use of the 
power of granting temporary exemptions in meritorious cases will be approved. 


Commandants of conscripts will, therefore, in the enforcement of 
the act of May 1, pay particular attention to these suggestions of the 
War Department, and be governed by them. 

All persons subject to the operation of the act will be enrolled, 
and temporary exemptions granted or refused by the commandant 
where the merit or want of itis clear. Doubtful cases will be referred 
to the Bureau for decision. 

G. J. RAINS, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


[ Indorsement. | 
JUNE 5d, 1863. 
CONSCRIPTION BUREAU: 

The spirit approved, but overseers, &c., should be enrolled and 
temporarily detailed. Details are to be preferred to temporary 
exemptions. : 

JAs Ss 


Secretary. 


No. 74. Richmond, June 3, 1868. 


I. The Congress of the Confederate States having failed to recog- 
nize the appointment of provost-marshals.from persons not belonging 
to the Army, or to make appropriation for the services of those per- 
sons who had been employed in that capacity, hereafter no such 
appointments will be made. | | 

Il. The generals of departments will report the posts at which 
provost-marshals are needed, with the number of provost or other 
guards at the same, and recommend for appointment suitable officers 
for the same. 

Ill. In all eases preference will-be given to competent officers who 
have become disabled, by wounds or other infirmity, for active field 
duty. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


574 , CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


IV. At all the posts not supplied before the 1st of July with provost- 
marshals belonging to the Army, in accordance with this order, the 
office will be considered as abolished. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF SUBSISTENCE, | 
ftichmond, June 4, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SiR: Immediately after the battles of the 12th and 13th of Decem- 
ber, 1862, at Fredericksburg, with the intention of accumulating all 
the stores possible at Richmond, orders were given for meats from 
Atlanta, Ga., where a reserve had been collected. Ever since per- 
sistent efforts have been made to have these orders carried out and 
daily specific shipments required. During the month of April especi- 
ally but little at long intervals was received, and Major Cummings, 
commissary of subsistence, in charge at Atlanta, was called on for 
reasons of failure. He alleges that he was peremptorily ordered by 
General Johnston to stop everything else until he had supplied his 
army. He also furnishes a memorandum of the shipments made to 
that army in the month of April, as follows: 1,010,910 pounds of 
bacon, 102,055 pounds cured beef, besides 923 head of beeves. This 
occurred while it was a critical question if General Lee’s army could 
get provisions to hold its position. 

By telegraph Colonel Cole states that it is of first importance that 
1,000,000 of pounds of meat should be collected in Richmond for 
that army; this, of course, irrespective of the great local and sur- 
rounding demand. You are aware that this necessity has long 
been anticipated and meeting it steadily aimed at since the 15th of 
December, but no proceedings which this Bureau can institute have 
been equal to realizing such collections ahead. 

I think proper to ask your consideration of other points in econnec- 
tion with an abstract of stores on hand, herewith presented.* The 
plan of bringing cattle from Texas to put on grass here has been 
effectually prevented. 

The dream about the oceans of cattle in East Florida has no founda- 
tion. If they can meet the demands of the troops in Georgia and 
South Carolina, so as to save the bacon in those States and furnish 
from Georgia some surplus hither, all will be realized which should 
be reasonably expected. 

Importations from abroad were looked for by the 1st of May. <A 
few mouthfuls have come. In consequence of the insufficient quan- 
tity and inferior quality of salt among the inhabitants, much of their 
meat is spoiling. The high prices fixed by the county committees, and 
the fear that the commissioners of appraisement might not reach 
prices high enough to satisfy avarice, has doubtless stimulated every 
one who could spare any meat to bring it out, and the fear of its 
being fly-blown and spoiled in their hands has strengthened the 
patriotic desire of feeding the soldiers. 


* Omitted in view of the recapitulation following. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 575 


I am of the opinion that there will not be enough meat to last until 
new bacon comes in; therefore I respectfully urge that throughout 
the whole Army the ration of salt meat be reduced to one-third of a 
pound for all troops not engaged in actual movements, to one-fourth 
of a pound for all troops garrisoning forts, or manning permanent 
batteries or intrenched camps, and the ration only to be raised to 
one-half of a pound of bacon when on an active campaign. 

The condition of troops—that is, health and appearance—proves 
that it is enough, as evinced by observing those who have for a long 
time been on reduced rations. It has been provided when necessary 
to increase the bread rations. 

On the other hand, we continue to lose territory—here in Virginia 
as elsewhere—and the enemy are largely increasing the mouths to 
be filled, while they are instituting proceedings for destroying exist- 
ing supplies in our country and growing crops, or the appliances for 
raising them. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


[Inclosure. ] 


RECAPITULATION. 
Bacon and | Salt and 
pork. fresh beef. 
OE OUMLG: Of ns oy vide once a 5 esc) es omnes = oss oid tae Senos ee eaenn ees 8, 743, 063 8, 282, 827 
aripus Or ONe-NAlh- POUNG «oe sc5s- cee ews cele onan eee see ee tee ss een ane 17; 486; 126 |os ogee ces 
RablOnsOr ONe-LHITGsPOUNG o-4-- a2 eta seats = = os nine Bn ewe = oles wwii aee wials 26, 229189) a. Jace ccet 
Rations of three-quarters pound.............2.22- eee eee eee ee eee teen einen eee cer eee 11, 043, 769 


’ In Virginia, 11,559 head of cattle. 


ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., June 4, 1863. 
Col. A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster-General : 


Sir: The last paragraph of section 13 of the tax act contemplates 
that the Secretary of War will notify the Secretary of the Treasury 
of the region where it will be impracticable to collect the tax in kind. 
After a close examination I have the honor to report on this subject 
as follows: Excepting in Greenesville, Surry, and Sussex Counties, the 
Second Congressional District is impracticable; also the Third Dis- 
trict, excepting Henrico, Hanover, Charles City, and New Kent. The 
Ninth, Tenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Districts are 
impracticable. In the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Districts, 
the counties of Pendleton and Pocahontas, Raleigh and Fayette, 
Scott, Wise, Buchanan, and McDowell are impracticable. This is for 
the State of Virginia. | : 

In North Carolina the counties of Gates, Hertford, Bertie, Chowan, 
Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden, Currituck, Martin, Washington, 
Tyrrell, Pitt, Beaufort, Hyde, Lenoir, Craven, Carteret, Jones, Onslow, 
Cherokee, Macon, Jackson, Haywood, Madison, Buncombe, McDowell, 
Yancey, Watauga, Ashe, Surry, and Stokes are deemed impracticable. 

In the State of Alabama the counties of Walker, Marion, Lawrence, 
Franklin, De Kalb, Marshall, Blount, Randolph, Choctaw, Pike, 
Henry, Coffee, Dale, and Covington are deemed impracticable. 


WAG) CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In the State of Florida the counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Wal- 
ton, Taylor, La Fayette, Levy, Putnam, Duval, Saint J ohn’s, and all 
counties south of Mari ion, Levy, and Saint John’s, are ‘deemed 
impracticable. 

In the State of Louisiana it will be practicable to collect only in 
the counties of Sabine, De Sota, Caddo, Bossier, Claiborne, Bienville, 
Natchitoches, Rapides, and Winn, Union, Jackson, Morehouse, 
Ouachita, East and West Feliciana, Saint Helena, Washington, East 
Baton Rouge, Livingston, and Saint Tammany. 

In the State of Tennessee it will be practicable to collect only in 
the counties of Marion, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Bradley, Polk, 
McMinn, Monroe, Meigs, Rhea, Roane, Blount, Sevier, Cumberland, 
Morgan, Anderson, Knox, Union, Grainger, Jefferson, Hawkins, Han- 
cock, Greene, Washington, Sullivan, Carter, and Johnson. 

In Mississippi the practicable counties are Hinds, Madison, Holmes, 
Yazoo, Carroll, Yalobusha, Tallahatchie, Panola, La Fayette, Attala, 
Greene, Wayne, Jones, Paulding, Clarke, Dale, Lauderdale, Newton, 
Scott and Rankin, Kemper, Noxubee, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Chicka- 
saw, Monroe, Pontotoc, and Itawamba. 

In Arkansas it is deemed impracticable to collect the tax in kind, 
except in the following counties: Desha, Arkansas, Jefferson, Pulaski, 
Conway, Perry, Yell, Pope, Johnson, Franklin, Sebastian, Crawford, 
Monroe, Prairie, Saint Francis, White, J ackson, Independence, Ash- 
ley, Calhoun, Union, Ouachita, Dallas, and Hempstead. 

The remoteness of Texas and the want of information of the means 
of transportation in that State render it impracticable to designate 
the localities where it is practicable to collect the tax in kind. In the 
above statement practicable regions may have been omitted, and 
regions that are impracticable may have been given. Information as 
it is received will be communicated to eack controlling quartermaster, 
so far as it relates to his State, and he will be required to advise with 
the officers of the Treasury (the State collectors) on the subject. I 
have not referred to the States of South Carolina and Georgia, as 
collections to a certain extent may be made in all the counties and 
parishes of those States. Nor are Kentucky or Missouri referred 
to, as collections can be made in no part of those States. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
LARKIN SMITH, 
Assistant Quartermaster- General. 


[First indorsement. | 


(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
June 6, 1863. 
The inclosed copy of a report from Lieut. Col. L. Smith, who is in 
charge of the collection of the tax in kind, showing those districts 
of the country in which it is not practicable to make such collections, 
is respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War for his information. 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[Second indorsement. ] 
JUNE 12, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to the Secretary of the Treasury for his infor- 
mation. He will please return the paper, that any modifications that 
further information may. induce may be noted and communicated. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. De 


ro 


[Third indorsement. ] 


The Treasury Department can take no action upon this document 
unless formally left with it by the Secretary of War, or some special 
communication be made according to the act of Congress. 

C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 75. J Richmond, June 4, 1868. 


I. The following act of Congress concerning compensation to detailed 
- men, and the instructions of the War Department in regard thereto, 
are published for the information and direction of all concerned: 

1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That non-com- 
missioned officers, musicians or privates, when employed on detached or detailed 
service by the departmental or other commander of a district, or under the direc- 
tion of any of the military bureaus, instead of the compensation now allowed, 
may be allowed the sum of not more than three dollars per day, in lieu of rations 
and all other allowances, upon the recommendation of the officer immediately in 
charge of such men, with the approval of the commander or chief of bureau, 
as the case may be, and the sanction of the Secretary of War. 

2. This act shall remain in force for one year from the first day of January, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-three. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


If. 1. Detailed men in the service of the several military bureaus, 
other than the clerks described in act No. 52 (clerks employed in pub- 
lic offices in the city of Richmond by reason of physical disability), 
will be allowed such sum per day in lieu of rations and all other 
allowances, not exceeding $3, as may be recommended by the officer 
in charge of such detailed men, and approved by the chief of bureau. 

2. The maximum allowance of $3 will be paid only to the class of 
detailed men serving at posts or stations without troops, or in coun- 
ties and towns or Government workshops. | 

3. The rate of allowance to men serving in the field as clerks at 
headquarters, or on duty in the Quartermaster’s, Ordnance, Engineer, 
_ Commissary, or Medical, Mining and Niter Departments, will be estab- 
lished at such sums per diem as may be recommended by the officer 
in charge of such men and approved by the commanding general. 
These rates will not exceed $1.25 per diem, except in special cases of 
service in the departments above mentioned, when a greater rate may 
be authorized by the chiefs of bureaus, upon the approval of the 
commanding general. 

4. The extra compensation allowed by the foregoing act will be 
paid to detailed men by the departments in which they are respect- 
ively employed, except medical departments, upon such rolls as may 
be prescribed; except that payments by the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment will be made upon rolls according to Form No. 3, Regulations 
of the Quartermaster’s Department. Such payments will be in full of 
all payments and allowances heretofore paid and allowed to soldiers, 
except their monthly pay. Payments in the Medical Department will 
be made as now by quartermasters. 

5. Shoemakers detailed under the provisions of the act of October 
9, 1862, who may receive the per diem allowance in lieu of rations 
and other allowances authorized by the act of May 1, 1863, will also 
be entitled to the compensation of 35 cents per pair for shoes manu- 
factured by them authorized by the said act of October 9, 1862. 


37 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


578 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


6. All payments to detailed men under the act of May 1, 1863, will 
be made from the Ist day of January, 1863, and will not be continued 
beyond the 31st of December, 1863; but no payment shall be made 
to those who have been detailed heretofore ‘‘ without pay and allow- 
ance as soldiers.” From and after the 31st of May payments to such 
men will be made under this act. 

7. The approval of the chiefs of bureaus and the sanction of the 
Secretary of War, required by the above-recited act of Congress, will 
not be necessary in each particular case of detail; but each bureau 
may, with the approval of the Secretary of War, prescribe general 
regulations for the payment of the different classes of detailed men 
in their respective employments. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
(JUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, June 30, 1868. 

I. The sanction of the Secretary of War required by the act of 
Congress is given generally by the above order. 

II. The approval required from this Bureau is announced as follows: 

1. Officers of the Quartermaster’s Department in charge of detailed 
men are authorized to pay all such in their employ, when serving at 
posts or stations without troops, or in cities, towns, or Government 
workshops, such sums as they may deem proper, not exceeding $3 
a day. 

2. Officers of this department in charge of detailed men in the - 
field are authorized, with the approval of the commanding general, 
to pay them such rates as they may deem proper, not exceeding $1.25 
a day. 

Ill. The approval of other chiefs of bureaus, as also of depart- 
mental or other commanders, when required by law, will be given in 
such manner as they may deem most convenient, and the paying offi- 
cer will act thereon, without reference to this office. 

IV. No case need be referred for the further approval of the Quar- 
termaster-General, except when under the provisions of paragraph 
Ill of the above general order it is proposed to exceed, on special 
grounds, the allowance of $1.25 a day to detailed men serving in this 
department in the field. Then the recommendation of the officer in 
charge and the approval of the commanding general must always be 
had before the application is forwarded. 

V. In determining the rate of compensation to be paid men detailed, 
quartermasters will not go unnecessarily to the maximum, but will 
exercise a discretion and act with reference to the additional expense 
to which the men are put by reason of the locality in which they 
serve. 

VI. The per diem allowed will in all cases go back to the Ist of 
January last, if the applicant shall have been on detached or detailed 
duty so long, but care must be taken in all cases to deduct the value 
of all allowances heretofore received. 

VU. The act of Congress referred to as act No. 52 relates exclu- 
sively to clerks employed in the public offices in the city of Richmond 
by reason of physical disability. They receive, independent of any 
approval, $1 a day, as extra-duty pay, and that without prejudice to 
their allowances, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 579 


VIII. Detailed conscripts will stand, from the date of their enroll- 
ment, upon the footing of infantry soldiers, and in no case will any 
officer of this department having them in charge pay them wages as 
employés from civil life. | 


COMMUTATION OF QUARTERS. 


By the decision of the Secretary of War, the rate of commutation 
of quarters at all stations other than Richmond, where commutation 
is paid, is fixed at $15 per room a month. This rate takes effect from 
the Ist of June, 1863. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 133. fichmond,* Va., June 4, 1868. 
* *% *% * * *% *k 


XIV. Capt. F. W. Sims, assistant adjutant-general, will assume 
the duties of inspector and agent for the supervision of railroad trans- 
portation on the railroads of the Confederacy lately discharged by 
Col. William M. Wadley, and will proceed to execute the same to the 
like extent with his predecessor, reporting through the Adjutant 
and Inspector General to the War Department. 

*k k * * * *k * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[JUNE 4, 1863.—For correspondence between Magruder and Lub- 
bock, in relation to a call for 10,000 Texas militia, see Series I, Vol. 
XXVI, Part II, pp. 33, 36. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 76. j Richmond, June 5, 1868. 
Officers of the Army are directed in all official reports, whether of 
sieges, campaigns, or battles, to confine their statements to the facts 
and events connected with the matter on which they report. No 
extraneous subject, whether of speculation or of collateral narrative, 
has a proper place in the official reports of military operations. As 
much conciseness as is consistent with perspicuity and fullness of 
statement will be observed in such communications. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[JUNE 5, 1863.—For order directing organization of all men detailed 
or employed in the War Department at Richmond, and citizens gen- 
erally, for local defense, see Series I, Vol. XXVII, Part III, p. 862. | 


° 


580 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ) | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 77. Richmond, June 6, 1868, 


When an infantry soldier is detailed as a courier, under paragraph 
III, General Orders, No. 7, current series, and shall keep himself pro- 
vided with a serviceable horse, he will be allowed 40 cents per day 
for the use and risk of his horse. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., June 6, 1868. 
His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, 
Governor of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.: 


sir: Under the instruction of the President, I have the honor to 
address you on a subject deemed by him of great moment. The 
numerically superior armies of the enemy confronting us in the field 
at all the most important points render essential for success in our 
great struggle for liberty and independence greater concentration of 
our forces, and their withdrawal in a measure from the purpose of 
local defense to our cities and least exposed States. Being the 
invaded country, it is impossible throughout the extent of our limits 
to maintain permanently, without dispersion, which causes weakness 
everywhere, adequate forces at the numerous points where we may 
be attacked. The recent raids of the enemy in different portions of 
our productive, but thinly populated, districts strikingly illustrate 
both our liability to distracting and desolating invasions, and the 
impracticability of affording from our armies, with sufficient prompt- 
ness, the soldiers necessary for prevention or punishment. It 
becomes essential, therefore, that the reserves of our population 
capable of bearing arms, yet required for the useful operations of 
society and the maintenance in the field of our embodied forces, 
should be relied on for employment in the local defense of important 
cities, and in repelling, on emergencies, the sudden or transient inva- 
sions of the enemy. How best to organize such reserves and make 
them most effective has been the subject of consideration with the 
Department, and I venture to present some suggestions for your 
eonsideration and action. 

The militia of the respective States might on occasion be ealled 
out, but this would be attended with the serious evil of being dilatory 
in execution, and by its generality be exhaustive of the already 
diminished population engaged in the necessary work of production 
and supply. The difficulty of assembling, and after discharge again 
reassembling them, would probably induce their retention on each 
call beyond the time strictly necessary. Experience, too, has not 
shown this kind of force to be very reliable or efficient, as it is diffi- 
cult, from the want of previous preparation and co-operation, to 
inspire them with confidence in their leaders or themselves. Local 
organizations or enlistments by volunteering for limited periods and 
special purposes, if they can be induced, would afford more assurance 
of prompt and efficient action. For these the legislation of Congress 
has made full provision by two laws, one entitled ‘‘An act to provide 
for local defense and special service,” approved August 21, 1861;* the 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 579. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 581 


other entitled ‘‘An act to authorize the formation of volunteer com- 
panies for local defense,” approved October 13, 1862,* to which your 
attention is invoked. and of which, as they are brief, copies are 
appended. 

Under the former of these, if organizations could be effected with 
the limitation prescribed in their muster-rolls of ‘service only at home, 
or at specified points of importance within the particular State, they 
would be admirably adapted to obtain the desired ends of calling out 
those best qualified for the service; of employing them only when and 
so long ‘as they might be needed; of having them animated with 
esprit de corps, reliant on each other and their selected officers, and 
of thus securing the largest measure of activity and efficiency, per- 
haps, attainable from other than permanent and trained soldiers. 

After the most active and least-needed portion of the reserves were 
embodied under the former law, the latter would allow smaller organ- 
izations, with more limited range of service, for objects of police and 
the pressing contingencies of neighborhood defense. Could these 
laws generally be acted on, it is believed as full organization of the 
reserve population would be secured for casual needs as would be 
practicable. These laws, however, contemplate only voluntary 
action, and no compulsion or draft can be resorted to to secure organ- 
izations under them. It may well be doubted whether at this stage of 
the war, with the engrossing duties pressing on the limited popula- 
tion at home, and the. experience had of the privations of military 
service, the spirit of volunteering would be sufficiently eager and 
active to secure the prompt formation of such organizations. The 
apprehension at least of a draft, otherwise unavoidable, would aid 
powerfully patriotic impulses, and by interesting all to encourage 
and assist such organizations might suffice to assure them. The 
President has, therefore, determined to make a requisition on the 
Governors of the several States to furnish, by an appointed time, for 
service within the State, and for the limited period of six months, a 
number of men -proportionate to the relative population of each, 
unless the same can be organized previously in such voluntary corps 
as may render them subject to his call for like duty; and it is recom- 
mended to you to announce by proclamation such requisition, and 
that, unless by a preceding day the requisite forces can be presented 
by voluntary organizations under the first-named law, a draft will be 
made on all the militia not engaged in voluntary organizations under 
that law to furnish the requisite quota. _ 

When the need of the country for such additional service is fully 
presented to and realized by the patriotic population of your State, 
and, in addition, the question is narrowed to the election between 
voluntary organizations for special service within the State, under 
officers of their own selection, and with the privilege of remaining at 
home in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations, unless when called 
for a temporary exigency to active duty and the continuous service for 
an appointed time, under compulsory draft as militiamen, it is confi- 
dently believed that the general preference will be promptly mani- 
fested for the former. 

In the formation of these organizations it is reasonable to be 
expected that such portion of the population as may have seen serv- 
ice, but have been, by detail, discharge, or other cause, released from 
the Army, will constitute an important element, and that officers in 


* See p. 206. 


582 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


like situations will be elected to command, and thus there will be 
afforded the untried men a confidence and an encouragement wanting 
to ordinary militia. Without the general disturbance of a call on 
the militia the organizations nearest to the points of attack would 
always be readily summoned to meet the emergency, and the popula- 
tion resident in the cities and their vicinities would, without serious 
interruption to their business or domestic engagements, stand organ- 
ized and prepared to man their intrenchments and defend, under the 
most animating incitements, their property and homes. 

In pursuance of the views thus imperfectly presented, and to recon- 
cile greater concentration to our armies, with adequate internal pro- 
tection to your State, I am instructed by the President, in his name, 
to make on you a requisition for 5,000 men, to be furnished by your 
State, for service therein, for the period of six months from August 1 
next, unless in the intermediate time a volunteer force, organized. 
under the law for local defense and special service, of at least an 
equal number be mustered and reported as subject to his call for 
service within your State. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
f Secretary of War. 


(The same sent to His Excellency Joseph EK. Brown, Governor of 
Georgia, for 8,000 men; His Excellency Isham G. Harris, Governor 
of Tennessee, "for 6, 000 men; His Excellency John Letcher, Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, ‘for 8,000 men; His Excellency John Milton, 
Governor of Florida, for 1,500 men; His Excellency J. J. Pettus, Gov- 
ernor of Mississippi, for 7,000 men; His Exeelleney J. G. Shorter, 
Governor of Alabama, for 7,000 men, and His Excellency Z. B. 
Vanee, Governor of North Carolina, for 7,000 men. ) 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, June 8, 1863. 
The circular of May 30 is so amended that hereafter instead of 
temporary exemptions being granted to overseers in worthy cases, as 
prescribed, they will be enrolled and temporarily detailed. 
C. W. FIELD, 
Brigadier-General and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., June 9, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I have respectfully to acknowledge the letter of Secret Detect- 
ive Greenwall, communicated by you with favorable indorsement. 

The services of such a detective, to track out the professional sub- 
stitute agents in their habitual frauds and the self-styled officers 
Signing papers without commission or authority, and also to expose 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ' 583 


the criminal disregard of law and orders by company and regimental 
officers, whether moved by corruption, complaisance, or recklessness, 
might be eminently useful. 

To that end, however, the limited scope of the jurisdiction of this 
Bureau makes it desirable that, while consulting with and recom- 
mended to the authorities of conscription, he should be the direct 
representative of higher authority, and clothed by such authority with 
special powers and duties to procure arrests and prosecutions in con- 
eert with Confederate marshals and district attorneys. 

There have not been wanting abundant evidences of irregularity 
and disobedience of orders, grossly criminal and mischievous, in the 
conduct of officers of the Army respecting substitutes. In practice, the 
remedies attempted to be applied by this Bureau have, by reason of its 
want of jurisdiction, generally proved unavailing. In all the cases for- 
warded with evidence the guilty officers seem to have escaped with 
impunity by, or without, the rendering of some sort of defense or 
explanation. 

Captain Davidson, commanding a battery of Virginia artillery, now 
it is believed in the region of Southwestern Virginia or East Tennessee, 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Dunn, commanding a regiment of Virginia 
partisan cavalry, are flagrant instances, among several not far behind 
them. 

As to the remedy of vitiating the exemptions thus irregularly 
obtained, that has been defeated by the unwillingness of the War 
Department and of this Bureau to make innocent parties suffer by 
the fault of officers representing the Government, though violating its 
orders. 

All the limitations imposed on recruiting officers (such as to raise 
bodies of non-conscripts only) or on company and regimental officers 
as to the number and qualification of substitutes, or the mode of 
receiving them, have generally proved so far to be mere fetters of 
straw. But one remedy has ever appeared to this Bureau to offer any 
hope of practical effectiveness. The War Department has a right to 
regulate the terms and manner of receiving substitutes. 

Let none be presented anywhere but at one of the camps of con- 
script in the respective States and the examination be made there. 
If the substitute offered be for an unassigned conscript, let the 
exemption of the principal issue then and there; if for a member of a 
company or regiment, let it be suspended until the approval of the 
captain and regimental commander be obtained. Should this regula- 
tion be adopted, it ought to be very conspicuously and widely published, 
that ignorance of the law may no longer be pleaded. In all the cases 
occurring heretofore we have had to encounter the allegations of 
innocence by the principals, the efforts of lawyers, the public sym- 
pathy, and the active exertions of leading men in office and in influence, 
all thrown against the Government. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
| GEO. W. IeAY, 
Lieut. Col. and Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


[JUNE 9, 1863.—For Davis to Brown, in relation to the organiza- 
tion of a regiment of non-conscripts for ‘‘local defense and special 
service,” see Series I, Vol. LI, Part I, p. 492. ] 


584 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL Sages ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. Richmond, June 10, 1868. 


if ache actors with Government officers to supply paper are hereby 
authorized to send agents to the armies in the field and to military 
posts for the purpose of collecting material convertible into paper. 

II. Commanding officers of armies and military departments will 
direct suitable facilities to be given to such agents, when coming certi- 
fied by the officers with whom the contract is made, and will direct the 
quartermaster’s department to furnish transportation to the nearest 
public route for all material collected whenever consistent with the 
interest of the service. 

III. Non-commissioned officers and privates who belonged to com- 
panies or regiments which have been disbanded, and who, on account 
of their absence on detailed duty, were not mustered out of service 
with the commands to which they were attached, but were continued 
for detailed duty, will be paid for the period of such detail, upon 
descriptive lists prepared and signed by the officer under whom they 
may be serving. Clothing will be drawn and issued to them by such 
officer, who will keep an accurate account of such issues and indorse 
them upon said descriptive lists. All such non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers within the conscript age will be at once reported to the 
nearest enrolling officer, who will take measures to assign them to 
companies. ‘Those who are not liable to service as conscripts will be 
discharged by order from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office. 

IV. In all elections of officers prescribed by law a majority of all 
the votes cast will be necessary to a choice. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


MILLEDGEVILLE, June 10, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON: 


I have this day receivea your letter of the 6th instant and will write 
you fully. I assure you of my readiness to do all in my power to the 
extent of my legal authority to carry out the President’s views on the 
subject and to fill requisition. There is no law of this State which 
subjects those over forty-five to draft; the acts of Congress of which 
you send copies do not. If there be an act that does please send copy. 
Under my proclamation of 26th of May past many volunteer compa- 
nies are tendering to me for local defense, and are receiving commis- 
sions from the State, which they prefer. If the President will accept 
8,000 men, infantry and cavalry, organized by the State into battal- 
ions, companies, and regiments, and tendered for local defense for 
six months, to receive pay and allowances only when on duty, and he 
can arm them, I think I can have them ready in August. If this is 
satisfactory say so by telegraph to save time, and instruct Confederate 
officers in the State to act in harmony with me, and not attempt to 
get up conflicting organizations, and I shall have strong hopes of my 
ability to fill the requisition. 

JOS. E. BROWN. 


[JUNE 10, 1863.—For General Orders, Adjutant-General’s Office, 
State of Virginia, with indorsement, in relation to the requisition of — 
the President for 8,000 militia, &e., see Series I, Vol. XX VII, Part 
III, p. 883. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 585 


MoBILE, June 11, 1863. 
[Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War:| 


Sir: I know you have not time to read letters, yet it is important 
to know facts which tend either to good or the injury of our country. 
I have always been in favor of keeping up some communication with 
the outside world, yet I see that the running the blockade unless 
restrained will ruin us forever. The fast sending of all our cotton, 
or a large part—some little is captured—that which passes had better 
be; the most of it is laid out in brandies, wines, and flimsy gewgaws 
that bring exorbitant prices, but little in articles that produce sub- 
stantial good. But besides this itis corrupting our people; it is turn- 
ing all their hearts and souls to speculating. It teaches, as I have 
heard officers in the Army—not, however, our present commanding 
general, Maury, whom I do not know, but who is. recommended as a 
good and able officer—the service is becoming odious because of the 
large profits made by this mode of speculating. And above all this, 
it is ruining our currency. Our money now bears a relative value to 
specie, and because of this trade in a great degree. Think of these 
things. Show this or repeat the substance to Mr. Davis. Do not 
believe this too is but moody despondency. These things are facts. 
Deal with them as such. 

Yours, truly, 
HK. 8. DARGAN. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 82. f Richmond, June 12, 1863. 


The second section of the act entitled an act to organize partisan 
rangers provides that such partisan rangers, after being regularly 
received into service, shall be entitled to the same pay, rations, and 
quarters during their term of service and be subject to the same regu- 
lations as other soldiers. The irregularities reported to this Depart- 
ment as having been committed by such corps renders it proper that 
these corps shall be placed under stricter regulations than those here- 
tofore adopted. The generals commanding the departments in which 
they are serving are hereby authorized to combine them into battal- 
ions and regiments with the view to bringing them under the same 
regulations as other soldiers in reference to their discipline, position, 
and movements; and the same officers will recommend any further 
measures for their organization as an integral portion of their com- 
mands as will in their opinion promote their efficiency and the interest 
of the service. The general of the department will recommend field 
officers for the organizations that may be made, to be submitted for 
the consideration of the President. Such partisan corps as are serving 
within the enemy’s lines are for the present excepted from this order. 

By order: 

“ers: (COOPER; 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 140. Richmond, June 12, 1868. 
** * * *% * * * 
XXI. Col. Henry Forno, Fifth Regiment Louisiana Volunteers, will 
proceed without delay to suitable points in Mississippi and Alabama 


586 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and gather volunteers and conscripts from among such citizens of 
Louisiana as are not already enrolled by the regular authorities of 
conscription. He will also gather together all the officers and pri- 
vates of Hays’(Louisiana) brigade who may be found absent without 
proper authority. The regular conscript officers at Mobile, Ala., are 
already under instructions to allow full permission to Louisiana con- 
scripts to volunteer before enrollment, and will offer no opposition to 
recruiting by Colonel:Forno of any unenrolled. In the execution of 
these duties Colonel Forno will be governed by the circular from this 
office of January 8, 1863, with the limitations imposed by General 
Orders, No. 16, current series. : 
* * * * * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, June 12, 1868. 


Governor JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Milledgeville, Ga.: 

Your assurance of co-operation is gratifying. Organizations under 
the law of the Provisional Congress are preferred, mainly because of 
their longer term of duration and greater adaptation for ready eall 
on temporary service and then for dismission to their ordinary pur- 
suits. The militia called out for even a limited time would be con- 
tinuously in the field. Besides, militia corps, if they could be called 
out so temporarily, might be considered by the enemy as State troops, 
not in their construction entitled to exchange. If, however, the 
organizations under the act of Congress are not formed in adequate 
numbers, militia on the. plan proposed by you or in the usual way 
will be accepted. 

JAS. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, June 12, 1863. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, ; 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


SIR: I had this pleasure 6th instant, and beg now to inclose dupli- 
cate of it. I confess to very great disappointment at not receiving 
any advices from you by the Bermuda mail, especially as Mr. Mason 
informs me that [he] has a letter from you of as late date as 16th May. 
As yet I have no advices from General McRae as to the payment of 
Colonal Gorgas’ draft on Major Huse for £22,500, left by Mr. Bosher 
with Messrs. A. Collie & Co., and I fear that by its non-payment the 
provisions cannot be shipped to reach the islands in time for the 
steamers. As I feared, the D[iana] will not have.her trial trip until 
next week. I will refrain from repeating to you how disagreeable I 
find my position here, and how anxiously I looked to the receipt of 
your letter in reply to mine of 6th May. 

I remain, yours, very respectfully, : 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 587 


[Inclosure. ] 
JUNE 6, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I had this pleasure 15th ultimo, and continue without any of 
your favors of later date than 22d February. On Monday last (1st 
instant) I received advices from my brother James of 6th May inform- 
ing me that you had received my letters of 13th March, inclosing a 
copy of contract I was about concluding with Messrs. A. Collie & Co., 
and would have drafts from the Treasury sent out so that there should 
be no want of funds. This letter was received via Nassau, and as the 
Bermuda mail will be in on 8th or 9th instant, I hope soon to receive 
them; but if (as I fear will be the case) they are sent to Major Huse, 
or if he in any way has control over them, I doubt whether they will 
do any good. I have nothing new to advise except that the Diana is 
not yet ready. She is to have a trial trip next week, and I hope to 
get her away in a week or ten days after. I think it will be best to 
put less freight and more coal on her than the others carry, so as to 
avoid the necessity of calling so often for coal, and making out her 
cargo when she gets to Nassau. 

I inclose copy of a letter addressed to Mr. Mason, and statement 
24th May, and afterward at his request placed in the hands of General 
McRae; and also copy of another letter handed to Mr. Mason in Paris 
4th instant. Mr. Mason informed me just as I was leaving Paris that 
the commissioner had determined to pay out of the Erlanger loan 
Colonel Gorgas’ draft for £22,500, but that they did not feel willing to 
make me any further payments without orders from home. You may 
rely upon it that I will do all I can, but without money and without 
any authority to raise money much ought not to be expected of me. 
While in Paris I called on Mr. Slidell, not intending to say anything 
about business, as I had gone over hurriedly and did not carry any of 
my papers with me, and only called to pay my respects. He very 
soon got on the subject, and expressed his views very decidedly that 
our Government had made a great mistake in entering into this 
arrangement with me, and that it would be much better if it could be 
discontinued. I told him that I had no doubt that he arrived at his 
conclusions by the arguments of Major Huse, and as I had none of 
my papers with me I could not explain so fully as I would like, and 
did explain as best I could without them. He was not convinced. I 
informed him distinctly that I would do nothing at the suggestion of 
Major Huse, as I did not believe that he had at heart the good of 
our cause, but that I would seriously consider any suggestions that 
the commission then in Paris would make, and explained to him that 
I had written you offering to discontinue the arrangement if you 
desired it; to which he replied that he thought the commission (con- 
sisting of himself, Colonel Lamar, General McRae, and Mr. Mason) 
would unanimously propose to close it, giving Collie and myself the 
privilege either of taking all of the property ourselves or the Govern- 
ment taking it all, as we preferred; but that if anything was done it 
must be done at once, and if I returned to London that evening it 
might be too late, as we might at any moment hear of the capture or 
safe arrival of either or both of the vessels that had gone out. I told 
him that if they would unanimously make such a proposition, believ- 
ing as I do that they would be governed by a sole desire to serve our 
Government, and not by any interested motive, that I would remain 
in London the next day to receive the proposition, and would seriously 


588 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


consider and consult with Messrs. Collie & Co., and give them an 
immediate answer. : 

On my return to the hotel I met Mr. Mason and informed him that 
I should remain to receive it. He said I must have misunderstood 
Mr. Slidell about such a proposition being unanimous, as he had 
expressly told them what he had told me and written to you, and that 
the only terms upon which he would propose to annul the contract 
was on my saying that I preferred to do so because of the failure on 
the part of the Government to comply with its portion of the terms, 
and on account of the trouble and annoyance to which I was sub- 
jected by this failure and the opposition it met with on almost all 
sides here, and that if I put it on this footing he would advise that I 
had the right to cancel it. I am unwilling (if possible to avoid it) to 
annul the contract because it is not to my interest to carry it on. I 
knew when I entered into and signed it that I could do much better 
for myself, but I knew that it promised enough, if successfully ear- 
ried out, and hoped gave me a position in which I could render great 
service to our people and Government, which was what I desired. 
So, the opinion of the commission being divided, and those opposed 
to my arrangement having been convinced by Major Huse, I took no 
further steps and heard nothing further from Mr. Slidell. 

I have thus gone into the details of this conversation, at the risk of 
tiring you, simply to show you how very disagreeable is the position 
I find myself in here. On informing Mr. Collie on my return here, 
he expressed himself as perfectly willing to accept the proposition to 
cancel, and, further, to put it even on the footing Mr. Mason pro- 
poses in order to close it, but leaves me to do as I please about it. I 
will wait, at all events, until I have further advices from you, and, if 
possible, until I have time to hear from my letter of 6th of May, if I 
can work on so long, but it may be that in the absence of any means 
reaching me for the Government I may be forced, in justice to Mr. 
Collie, to dispose of the vessels now building or to make some 
arrangements to decrease the business before I hear fully from you. 

I was very much grieved yesterday at receiving a letter from New 
York informing me that: Maurice L. Hobson, of Virginia, a bearer of 
dispatches to the Confederacy, had been captured and sent North. 
I cannot believe that the dispatches were captured, as both mine and 
Mr. Mason’s were placed in leaded boxes, and he was urged under 
any circumstances not to let them pass into other hands; yet, as he 
is spoken of as the bearer, I can but feel very uneasy until I hear 
further. By him I wrote you fully and inclosed signed contract 
exactly in all respects the same as was inclosed to you 13th of March. 
I am more than ever satisfied Nassau is the best port on the islands 
we can use, and I shall make no further shipment to any other place 
until I hear that it is necessary. 

Anxiously awaiting your favors, I remain, yours, very respectfully, 

WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 
May 24, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES M. MASon: 
Sir: As suggested, I beg leave to hand you herewith a rough state- 
ment of payments made by Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co., and esti- 
mate of the amount of money absolutely necessary to furnish cargoes 
for the steamers already sent from here and the Diana (which was 
launched yesterday), say, £53,534. As you are aware, at the time 
purchase of provisions was made by Mr. Bosher on the authority of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 589 


Alex. Collie & Co., it was on the promise of Major Huse that Colonel 
Gorgas’ draft on him for £22,500, drawn on a shipment of cotton, 
would be paid in afew days. He even went so far as to send Mr. 
Bosher a letter saying that it would be paid on presentation by 
Messrs. Isaac, Campbell & Co., but before Mr. Bosher’s return from 
Liverpool he rescinded that authority and drew on me for the amount, 
which of course I did not pay. If this draft had been paid it would 
have enabled me to work on with an advance of about £30,000 from 
Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co., which is the amount I had been promised 
if necessary. You will observe that I have added an estimate for 
preserved meats, which I am inclined to think would result very well 
at the reduced price now proposed. In order to send any by the 
Harkaway, which is now loading, we must decide at once. As here- 
tofore stated verbally to you, I could make out with a portion of the 
money estimated for if I could have assurance of payments out of the 
loan as they mature. But as you are aware, I can give no assurance, 
having no orders on the depositaries, and no authority to draw any 
money except simply a letter from the Secretary of War requesting 
you to furnish me with all I required out of any funds the Govern- 
ment can command abroad. 


ESTIMATE, 
Dr. 
Government’s three-fourths cost of steamers Venus and Hebe____ £35, 000 
Payments already made on three steamers now building -------- 9, 000 
£44, 000 
Invoice of goods shipped per Venus and Hebe------------------- ee IK 10, 034 


(In addition to which these steamers carried other goods bought by Major 
Ferguson, costing about £40,000.) 

Goods bought and now being shipped to Bermuda and Nassau to meet 
the Venus and Hebe on their return from the Confederate States, per 


sailing vessels Harkaway, Petrel, and Nautilus --.--.-..-------------- 23, 000 
Total amount paid for Government. --.--.---------- fd et See 77, 034 
CR. 
By amount paid by Mr. Spence on the order of Hon. J. M. Mason_ £55, 000 
Mure crates received of ©. H. Bosher ._.-.-...-.--.-s.--.---.--- 2, 500 
— — 57,500 
Actual cash balance due by the Government--_-_-____--------------- 19, 5384 


Balance of provisions already bought by C. H. Bosher and now in 
Liverpool, and which ought to be sent forward to the islands 
without delay to insure continuous cargoes for the Venus and 


Hebe and the steamer Diana, launched yesterday ------------- 25, 000 
Three-fourths payments necessary on steamers now building 
within the next thirty days, including balance on Diana__-.----_- 9, 000 
———— 34,000 
53, 5384 
100,000 pounds of preserved meat, which could be had in time to 
go by the Harkaway this week if ordered at once__..-.-------- 3, 800 
Preserved meats proposed to be furnished at the rate of 175,000 
pounds per week if the contract is closed, would amount to 
TAmuo perweek tor four weeks... 42). . 6-0 y hace aes ss 16, 000 
Preserved-meat contract continued to the ist of August (five 
* Sy AIR aa Bs ME or oy Same ae eg gg ep a oo My 20, 000 
Balance due on two steamers building, to be paid for before the : 
Pm Le Te a enn eerteee ADIT. oe oe CO E.R . 22,000 
Ball — 61,800 
115, 334 


Yours, very truly, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


590 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


PARIS, June 4, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES M. MASon: 

Sir: Believing as I do that it is very important to send forward 
provisions to the islands as rapidly as possible in any event, and 
especially if we have lost control of the Mississippi River, as at 
present reported by the Yankees, I feel that I would fail in my duty 
if I omitted to call the attention of the representatives of the Govern- 
ment at present in Paris to this fact, and beg that some measure, if 
possible, be taken to pay the draft of Colonel Gorgas on Maj. C. 
Huse in favor of C. H. Bosher for £22,500, held by Messrs. Alexan- 
der Collie & Co. On Major Huse’s promise to pay the draft in a few 
days, and his letter to Mr. Bosher to call on Messrs. Isaac, Campbell 
& Co. for payment, Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. authorized Mr. 
Bosher to purchase provisions on account of our Government to the 
extent of £40,000. After the purchase was made the authority to 
Messrs. Isaac, Campbell & Co. to pay the draft was withdrawn. In 
a conversation with Major Huse yesterday he suggested that on going 
to Liverpool he ascertained that other drafts had been drawn on the 
cotton, but I reminded him that his orders to present the draft to 
Messrs. Isaac, Campbell & Co. for payment was written after his 
return from Liverpool, and that his withdrawal of this authority was 
only made when he found that Mr. Bosher was operating in the 
execution of his orders in connection. with myself and Messrs. 
Alexander Collie & Co. Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. are already 
in advance to the Government about £30,000, leaving about £20,000 
yet due on the balance of the provisions. They have already done 
more than I had a right to expect, and it would be unreasonable to 
expect them to send forward these provisions and pay the additional 
amount until the draft on Major Huse is paid, and as I infer from 
him that he has no idea of paying the draft, I submit the question to 
you. 

Yours, very truly, 

WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, June 18, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR SiR: I received your communication of 6th instant on the 
10th, and replied by telegraph, in which I stated that I would write 
you fully. Ihave your reply to-day to my telegram, and have sent 
you the inclosed dispatch by telegraph. While I am willing to do all 
I can, within the range of my constitutional and legal powers, to 
carry out the views of the President, I do not see how it is in my 
power to assist in raising the troops for local defense in any way 
only the one proposed in my first dispatch. 

As I then stated, the laws of this State do not subject those over 
forty-five years of age to draft or militia duty, and I am not aware of 
the existence of any act of Congress which does. Both you and I 
seem, therefore, to. be powerless to compel the service of those over 
that age. If, then, you fail to get volunteers under the acts of Con- 
gress for local defense, and you make requisition upon me for troops, 
to be composed of men over forty-five, you call upon me for those 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 591 


whom the laws of the State have not placed at my command. If you 
insist on the volunteer ccmpanies being raised and tendered to you 
at Richmond, and commissioned from your office, you cause much 
delay in the organization, and you place it out of my power to render 
you much assistance, as all I can do in that case is simply to invite 
our people to form such companies and report them to you. If, how- 
ever, you will authorize me to say to the people of this State that you 
make requisition upon me now for 8,000 volunteers for local defense, 
to be organized into companies, battalions, and regiments by the 
State and tendered to you as organized, and immediately mustered 
into Confederate service for six months, without pay or allowances, 
except when on actual duty, and in no case to be ealled out of the 
State or the section of the State which they have volunteered to 
defend, without their consent, and only to be kept in service till the 
exigency has passed, and then permitted to return to their ordinary 
pursuits till another emergency may arise, I think I ean fill the 
requisition. I will, in that case, attempt it with all the energy I 
possess. I trust you will at once see the reason why this plan is more 
practicable than the other. If I am called on to organize and tender 
the volunteers as organized, I can use all the State officers in getting 
up the organizations, and as soon as a company is complete I can 
have it mustered in before there is time for disagreement or disband- 
ing, which would frequently occur before you could send a Confederate 
officer to muster them in, and they could get commissions from 
Richmond. 

If this plan is agreeable to the President I also ask for authority to 
direct State officers to muster the companies into Confederate service 
as fast as ready. ‘There are one hundred and thirty-two counties in 
the State, many of them remote from railroad, and it would cause great 
delay and expense to send off in every case for a Confederate officer 
to go probably seventy-five miles from a railroad to muster in a com- 
pany, while I could order a State officer in the county to muster them 
in and send the company roll to me to be forwarded to you without 
expense. 

Again, there are many difficulties that arise in organizing troops, 
where questions have to be referred to headquarters which could soon 
reach me and proper instructions could be given; but if they must be 
sent to you for direction at so great a distance from the company, with 
so many other pressing engagements much delay and confusion must 
grow out of it. Again, I desire to submit a request that you appoint 
no Confederate officer in the State to get up organizations of this 
character while the requisition is upon me. If you callon me for the 
number of troops you need it is justice to me that I have the whole 
matter of the organization left in my hands till I fill the requisition. 
If you authorize Confederate officers in the meantime to come into the 
State to get up organizations independent of the State authorities, 
they naturally place themselves in antagonism to the State govern- 
ment, as they consider themselves its rivals in organizing troops, and 
conflict and confusion, if not ill-feelings, are the result. All this I 
desire to avoid, and I trust you will agree with me that my request in 
this particular is reasonable. Already a few companies have been 
organized and tendered to the commandants of the different military 
posts of this State. All these I wish to have report to me, and let 
me include them in the number you ask for and there is then order 
and system in the whole organization. I also wish to know whether 
the troops called for can be armed by you, or what number of arms 
you can furnish. 


Con CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


As you have referred to the subject of a draft, I will allude to that 
fact in my proclamation without saying whether there is State 
authority for it or not, as I think this may stimulate the volunteer 
Spirit, as you seem justly to conclude. I shall delay my proclamation 
till I hear from you in reply to this letter unless your answer to my 
telegram of to-day (of which the inclosed is a copy) shall satisfy me 
that the suggestions herein contained are substantially approved by 
the President. If he is satisfied with this letter as the basis of the 
organization, and you will so say by telegraph as soon as you get it, I 
will proceed with the organization with the least possible delay. It 
may be necessary in getting up troops to accept those in the lower 
part of the State for the defense of that part, and those in the upper 
part for defense there, and possibly some about the cities for the 
defense of their own place. Will this be approved by the President ? 

I would further suggest that I be permitted to include in the organ- 
ization persons between forty and forty-five years of age till the Pres- 
ident shall have ordered them to be enrolled as conscripts, when they 
are to be dropped from these organizations. Many of them would be 
willing to volunteer, for the time, for home defense and I think it 
good policy to permit them to do so. As time is important, please 
answer promptly. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure. ] 


MILLEDGEVILLE, June 13, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


As you call on me for 8,000 men, organized for local defense, to be 
reported to you and mustered into Confederate service for six months, 
I ask that the whole matter be left in my hands and that no Confed- 
erate officer be authorized to raise companies while the requisition is 
upon me, as this produces conflict and confusion. I shall require all 
companies in the State for local defense to report to me and will 
report the organization to you as fast as possible. With your sanc- 
tion I will detail State officers to muster the companies into Confed- 
erate service as fast as organized, as I cannot always have Confederate 
officers at hand in every part of the State. Please answer by telegraph 
on both points. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


I send you this dispatch fearing that the other copy may have 
miscarried. A prompt reply is necessary, as I cannot act till I hear 
from you. 

Very respectfully, &c., a : 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S OFFICE, VIRGINIA, 
Richmond, June 18, 1868, 
His Excellency JEFFERSON. DAVIS, . 
President of the Confederate States of America: 
Sir: The Virginia Military Institute is filled to its utmost capacity, 
and although the utmost order prevails, with an earnest, even zealous 
attention to study and obedience to all the rules of discipline, there 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 593 


is coupled with the desire of each cadet to complete his course a rest- 
less feeling of uncertainty as to whether they ought not, every one of 
them, to be in the field, and an apprehension that the war may be 
over before they have struck one blow for Southern liberty. 

It is understood that you regard this institution with much interest 
as being to the Confederate States, to a considerable extent, what 
“West Point was to the late United States, and as possessing the 
capacity beyond any other Southern institution of training the best 
officers for the Army. 

In this view, if it shall be your opinion that the cadets are more in 
line of their duty to our country in the course of training at the 
Military Institute, and will in fact render more important service to 
the Southern Confederacy by completing their course than by entering 
the Army before they graduate, I am well assured that a full expres- 
sion of your opinion and wishes will have a controlling influence over 
them and effectually remove all doubt or apprehension in their minds 
as to the line both of duty and expediency. 

The Board of Visitors and the superintendent are most anxious to 
direct the operations of the institute so as most effectually to meet 
the wants and wishes of the Confederate Government, and I beg 
leave to say for them that it will be most gratifying to receive from 
you any suggestions or recommendations as to the character and 
duration of the course of instruction, and on any and all other 
matters which in your judgment has, or may have, an important 
bearing upon its prospective value to our common Cause. 

I beg leave, therefore, with the highest respect, to ask a full and 
unreserved expression of your opinion upon the whole subject. 

Very respectfully and truly, your obedient servant, 
WM. H. RICHARDSON, 
Adjutant-General of Virginia, Ex officio Member of the Board. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 84. Richmond, June 15, 1868. 

I. Ordnance officers on duty in the field do not form a part of the 
personal staff of the commanding general. 

II. Chiefs of ordnance of armies and departments will be assigned 
by the War Department, and will not be removed except on orders 
through the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office. 

Ill. Other ordnance officers will continue to serve with the com- 
mands to which they are attached until relieved by orders from the 
headquarters of the army or department in which they are serving. 
Copies of orders assigning or relieving ordnance officers will be for- 
warded to the chief of the Ordnance Bureau at Richmond. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


MONTGOMERY, June 15, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Richmond: 
Am preparing orders for raising the State troops called for by the 
President for local defense. It is impossible for the State to arm 


38 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


594 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


them. If you will promise to arm them promptly the assurance will 
greatly expedite the organization. Please answer by telegraph, and 
designate also the proportion of cavalry. 

JNO. G. SHORTER, 


Governor. 
GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 85. ‘ Richmond, June 16, 1863. 


J. The following act of Congress and the regulations adopted by 
the Department in pursuance thereof are published for the informa- 
tion of all concerned: 


AN ACT to establish a Niter and Mining Bureau. 


SEecTION 1. The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, That the officers 
authorized and appointed under the act entitled ‘‘An act for the organization of a 
corps of officers for the working of niter caves,” etc., passed April 11, 1862, together 
with such additional officers as are authorized by the provisions of this act, shall 
constitute an independent bureau of the War Department, to be entitled ‘‘ The 
Niter and Mining Bureau.” 

Src. 2. Be it further enacted, That said bureau shall have charge of all the 
duties prescribed in the second section of said act, and shall besides be charged 
with all duties and expenditures connected with the mining of iron, copper, lead, 
coal, &c., so far as it shall be deemed necessary to supply the military necessities 
of the country ; and the superintendent thereof shall, under the Secretary of War, 
have full power to make such leases of real estate and purchases of fixtures as 
are necessary or appurtenant to any mines it may be deemed expedient to open or 
work on Government account; and may also contract, subject to the approval of 
the Secretary of War, for such supplies, by purchase or otherwise, of all copper, 
lead, iron, coal, zinc, and such other materials as may be required for the prose- 
cution of the war. . 

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That said bureau shall consist of one lieutenant- 
colonel as superintendent; three majors as assistant superintendents; six cap- 
tains and ten lieutenants, in which shall be included the officers of the present 
Niter Corps, who shall have the same pay and allowances prescribed for officers of 
cavalry of the same grades. 

Approved April 22, 1863. 


IJ. The Secretary of War is of opinion that it is necessary to accu- 
mulate supplies of iron in the various military departments for the 
repair of railroads, the manufacture of arms, munitions, and materials 
of war, and for the operations of the Quartermaster’s, Ordnance, and 
Engineer Departments, and that experience has shown that the neces- 
sary supply cannot be obtained by purchase. -Impressment, there- 
fore, according to the act of Congress relating to impressments, has 
become necessary to secure a supply. It is ordered that all impress- 
ments that may be made of iron for this purpose shall be conducted 
by the chiefs of the Quartermaster’s, Ordnance, Engineer, and Niter 
and Mining Bureaus, or by officers designated by them, who shall in 
every instance communicate to the owner the necessity that exists 
for the use of the property, the disposition of the officers to purchase 
the same, and an offer to purchase it at a price to be ascertained in 
accordance with the act relating to impressments if the parties can- 
not agree upon the same. ; ; 

III. And whereas the existing necessity for iron in the departments 
aforesaid, and for the good of the public service, is such that all prac- 
ticable measures must be taken to secure an adequate supply, it is 
further ordered that whenever it may become necessary to secure the 
full product of any mine or manufactory that the same shall be worked 
for the sole benefit of the Government of the Confederate States. It 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 595 


shall be competent to the chief of either of the departments aforesaid 
to lease or purchase the same; and in case that the lease or purchase 
is impracticable, then they are authorized to impress the same for the 
use of the Confederate States during the war, or while such necessity 
shall continue. 

IV. That proceedings under these orders will be conducted under 
the fourth section of the act concerning impressments, and in pursu- 
ance of the directions contained in paragraph I. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, June 16, 1863. 
Governor J. G. SHORTER, 
Montgomery, Ala.: 


Volunteers are expected, as far as they can, to use the arms in their 
possession; deficiencies we expect to supply. Cavalry proper, armed 
with sabers, are not considered desirable, as without training they 
must be inefficient. Mounted gunmen to fight dismounted are advis- 
able. The proportion of such may be left to the choice of the people, 
as from their habits many will prefer horseback. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, June 16, 1563, 
Governor J. EK. BRown, : 
Milledgeville, Ga.: 


The privilege of organizing companies for local defense, and of ten- 
dering them to the President for acceptance, is allowed to the people 
by the act of Congress. I am not authorized to restrict or deny it. 
If you will undertake to direct such organizations, and can thus 
obtain the whole number required in Georgia for the purpose 
explained, I will thankfully accept your aid, and from this time leave 
the matter in your hands for execution. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
7 Secretary of War. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
Wark DEptT., ADJT. AND INSP. GEN.’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., June 16, 1863. 

In accordance with-the request of His Excellency Governor Vance, 
of North Carolina, suggesting the propriety of allowing detailed men 
in that State at work for the Government to repair to their homes for 
two or three weeks to aid in securing the harvest, the Secretary of 
War directs that the chiefs of the different bureaus give instructions 
in their respective departments that men detailed in the Quartermas- 
ter’s, Commissary, and Ordnance Departments, and Bureau of Con- 
scription in the several States, be allowed to repair for two or three 
weeks to their homes, for the purpose indicated, without further ref- 
erence to this Department. Officers will limit the number to those 


596 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


who can be spared consistently with the pressing interests of the 
service, who are believed to be reliable, and who will return as soon 
as the harvest shall have been gathered. The whole matter is referred 
to their discretion. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
H. LeCLAY 
Ineutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


Official: For the information and guidance of commandants of 
conscripts. ) 
G. W. LAY, 
LIneutenant-Colonel, Acting Chief of Bureau of Conscription. 


MILLEDGEVILLE, June 17, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

If you will accept volunteers organized under the acts of Congress 
for local defense, and those organized by the State and tendered, as 
explained in my letter of 13th instant, which has or will reach you 
soon, for the same service and same length of time, I will give to all 
the choice of the two modes of entering Confederate service, and I 
would then hope to be able to fill the requisition; and if you will then 
put it all under my control in this State I will undertake to get up 
the number you ask for as fast as possible. 

3 JOS. E. BROWN. 


BY THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA: 


A PROCLAMATION. 


Whereas, the President of the Confederate States, by virtue of the 


authority vested in him by the Constitution, has made a requisition 
upon North Carolina for 7,000 men to serve within the limits of the 
State for six months from and after the Ist day of August next; and 
whereas, it is desirable that if possible the troops should be raised by 
voluntary enlistment, with the right to select their own officers: 

Now, therefore, I, Zebulon B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina, 
do issue this my proclamation, calling on the patriotic citizens of the 
State to volunteer for State defense, and tender their services in com- 
panies, battalions, and regiments on or before the 17thof July. The 
control and management of the troops raised under this proclamation 
will be retained by the authorities of the State. Orders for the 
enrollment of the militia, preparatory to draft, in case it may be nec- 
essary, will be issued by the adjutant-general. 

In witness whereof, Zebulon B. Vance, captain-general and com- 
mander-in-chief, hath signed these presents and caused the great seal 
of the State to be affixed. 

Done at Raleigh this 17th day of June, A. D. 1863, and in the year 
of American Independence the eighty-seventh. 

| SEAL. | Z. B. VANCE. 

By the Governor: 

R. H. BATTLE, JR., 
Private Secretary. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 597 


[JUNE 17, 1863.—For Bonham to Seddon, inclosing proclamation 
ealling for 5,000 men from South Carolina for local defense and 
special service, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XXVIII, Part II, p. 143. ] 


RICHMOND, VA., June 17, 1868. 
General W. H. RICHARDSON, 
Adjutant-General of Virginia, Richmond, Va.: | 

GENERAL: I have the honor, by direction of the President, to 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant in relation 
to the Virginia Military Institute. The President takes a warm 
interest in the efficiency and success of the military schools in the 
several States of the Confederacy, but having had no opportunity to 
form any opinion by observation of the relative merits of the systems 
of education pursued at these institutions, he does not desire to be 
understood to*express any especial preference for any. His Excel- 
lency is debarred from expressing any opinion as to whether the 
cadets at the Virginia Military Institute do better service to their 
country by pursuing their studies than by joining the Army, because 
his action in regard to the matter must necessarily conform to the 
law, which requires all citizens who are over eighteen years of age to 
enter the service, and which leaves him no discretionary power to 
which the case of cadets who have become liable to military duty can 
be properly referred. The President would be glad to comply with 
the request of the Board of Visitors, as expressed by you, that he 
should make suggestions as to the ‘‘character and duration of the 
course of instruction,” &¢., but the pressure of public business will 
. only allow him to refer the Board to a report made by him in 1860 on 
the subject of military education at West Point, in which his views 
are given at length. . 

With assurances of the President’s respect and esteem, I remain, 
general, 

Your obedient servant, 
WILLIAM M. BROWNE, 
Colonel and Aide-de-Camp. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., June 19, 1868. 
His Excellency JOSEPH E. BROWN, — 
| Governor of Georgia: 

Str: I am gratified to receive by your letter of the 13th instant 
assurance of your desire to co-operate in securing for casual and tem- 
porary service the forces desired by the President for the defense of 
your State. With the mutual purpose of effecting this end in the 
speediest and most certain mode compatible with existing laws, I can- 
not doubt accord in the means of operating may be readily obtained 
between us. As I explained to you in my original letter, the organi- 
zations which it was thought would most effectually secure the ends 
proposed would be those under the act of Congress of 1861, for local 
defense and special service; but as these were purely voluntary, it 
was thought best to add to the motives for their formation the alterna- 
tive of a call to the militia service, and thus to assure in any event 
the required force. 


598 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I regret to learn that no law of your State allows the calling out as 
militia any over the age of forty-five, as I had hoped the announced 
purpose, in case of a deficiency in the proposed organizations to call on 
the militia, would have presented to almost every man in your State 
capable of [bearing] arms the choice between a volunteer organization 
and service in the militia; still, although in this respect the alterna- 
tive of choice between the two modes of service will not extend as 
generally as was anticipated, the number of exempts, and those 
between the ages of forty and forty-five who, until called out by the 
President under the law of conscription, would be liable to militia 
duty, would, in your large and populous State, be sufficiently great 
to assure very nearly, if not quite, the force for which requisition 
was made on you. I do not doubt, therefore, that in the mode 
originally contemplated the number of men required might be 
obtained in organizations under the law of 1861, which, for the reasons 
mentioned in my letter, and since in my telegrams, are thought 
decidedly preferable to militia, or organizations on a basis similar to 
the militia, for a limited period of service. 

As I have also explained in my telegrams, I have no power, even if 
I wished, to preclude the people from forming volunteer organizations 
under the law of 1861, and tendering them for service, which, when 
accepted, would exempt from the liability to militia call. It is not 
perceived by me, then, how I can or ought to prevent such organiza- . 
tions, and cast entirely upon the State authority the formation of 
corps for local defense. You will observe the call on you was not, in 
the first instance, for the force required as militia, but only for such 
number of militia as had not been met by the voluntary organizations. 
Thus the view strongly presented by you, that, as the call is made on 
you, the whole matter should be committed to your discretion and ~ 
control, loses much of its applicability and force. . 

The difficulties, delays, and confusion you anticipate as arising from 
the organization of these volunteer associations under the auspices of 
the Department are not apprehended as likely to oceur. The process 
of forming the organizations is very simple and familiar to your people 
as having been generally adopted in volunteering for the Provisional 
Army. There will be no occasion to send on to the Department here 
anything but the muster-rolls, duly authenticated, which, under the 
regulations to be issued, may be verified by a judge, justice, or col- 
onel of militia. I think, with deference, the whole matter of prompt 
and easy accomplishment. 

My sole purpose, however, is to secure the requisite force with 
the greatest facility and least delay, and if organizations of equal 
efficiency can be secured more readily by your executive action, I 
shall be happy to accord the supervision and direction to you. As 
far as organizations are voluntarily made under the law of 1861, by 
the action of the people, I must, of course, accept them; but, as I have 
informed you, I shall abstain from giving any further authority or 
permits to Confederate officers, and leave to you to encourage and 
arrange such organizations. 

As far as I can gather your wishes, you prefer organizations under 
State authority and their acceptance as State troops. Ido not deem 
it desirable, chiefly on account of the limited term of their proposed 
service engagement (six months), that they should be mustered and 
received as militia; but if you can organize State volunteer organiza- 
tions of equal duration and equal liability to call for special service 
as emergency may demand and tender them for acceptance to the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 599 


Confederate Government, they will be cheerfully accepted and put 
on like footing as constituting when in service part of the Provisional 
Army. ; 

As you may have inferred from a previous passage of this letter, it 
is expected that men between forty and forty-five shall enter the pro- 
posed organizations; but should such be hereafter called out by the 
President they will be liable to be transferred or discharged and 
conscribed. 

It is expected that as far as the men entering these organizations 
have guns or arms they shall use them, but we hope to be able to 
make up deficiencies in arms and accouterments, and to supply 
ammunition when needed. 

The limited resources of the Department will not allow me to 
promise with fuller assurance. Certainly all in the power of the 
Department will be done to render the organizations as complete and 
efficient in equipment as may be practicable. 

With high esteem, very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, June 21, 18638. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I took oceasion a few days since to call your attention to the 
fact that the officers of this department were not supplied with neces- 
sary funds, owing to the practice which I am informed obtains of 
marking requisitions for other bureaus of the War Department 
*“special.” On inquiry at your office I have ascertained that requisi- 
tions are laying over in favor of officers of my department amounting 
to $15,459,574. There are estimates now on my table ready to be sent 
in amounting to $15,187,547.39, and from a statement from the office 
of the Secretary of the Treasury there remain in his office requisitions 
not filled amounting to the sum of $14,896,557.64 pertaining to officers 
of the Quartermaster-General’s Department. From this statement 
you will perceive that to meet all demands upon this department up 
to date the sum of $45,543,678.39 will be required to pay requisitions 
issued and to provide for those issued to-day. 

I submit the matter respectfully for your action. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., June 21, 1863. 
WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, Esq., 
London, England: 


Sir: I have been pleased to receive your several letters informing 
me of your views and operations in carrying out the contract contem- 
plated in my letter by you to the Hon. James M. Mason, and subse- 
quently entered into by that gentleman, acting in behalf of this 
Department with you. My official engagements are so engrossing that 
I have not been able to reply personally, as I would have preferred; 
but through Major Ruffin and your brothers I have endeavored to 
keep you advised of my views as to your operations, and, through 
instructions which I have caused the Ordnance Bureau to send to 


600 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Major Huse, I have endeavored to give you such facilities as I could 
readily afford. I have regretted the embarrassments which have 
grown up in the relations of Major Huse and yourself, and that dis- 
trust on your part and jealousy, or perhaps a desire to engross the 
whole business of the Department on his side, have taken the place 
of the cordiality and co-operation I had hoped. You will recollect that 
you yourself advised decidedly to have only one financial agent of the 
Department abroad, and that as far as practicable general supervision 
of purchases and expenditures should be exercised by one mind. The 
selection of Major Huse for this purpose was naturally induced by 
the position he already held, and the fact that the chief purchases of 
the Department abroad had heretofore been made by him. I am 
naturally very averse to entertain suspicions against a regular officer 
of the Army, whose professional training and sentiment should assure 
honor and integrity, and must, in common justice, require very satis- 
factory proof before taking steps which might cost him both his com- 
mission and character. 

The statements which, in one form or another, have come to me in 
respect to his connection with the house of Isaac, Campbell & Co., 
and some of his dealings therewith, have caused me to direct an hon- 
orable, competent, and reliable gentleman, Mr. McRae, now abroad 
on an official mission, to make thorough examination and settlement 
of his accounts, and if there has been anything irregular or censur- 
able in his past conduct of affairs it will doubtless be disclosed or 
detected and reported. 

I have certainly felt some surprise and annoyance that in his rela- 
tions with you—instead of acting in the spirit of co-operation I had 
urged, and using the increased powers I had intrusted him with, to 
advance the plainly expressed wishes of the Department in respect to 
your contract and expected operations—he has exhibited a disposition 
to thwart and a refusal of all aid. 

I am indebted to Mr. Mason for the confidence and liberality with 
which he carried out my views, and think Major Huse might well 
have deferred to his construction of my declared wishes without 
undertaking, on casual expressions in letters from the Ordnance 
Bureau, to make me change my avowed purposes and annul engage- 
ments I had authorized. I am, too, especially surprised that, with 
the information he had received of the wants of the Commissary 
Department for commissary stores, he should have failed promptly to 
pay, or, if he had not funds, to arrange (as it appears he could have 
done) to discharge the draft which Colonel Gorgas had drawn upon 
him in favor of Mr. Bosher. In regard to these matters I have caused 
instructions to be sent him, and shall endeavor to write him person- 
ally, and I trust the draft at least has been already, or soon will be, 
paid. 

The relations between Major Huse and yourself satisfy me if 
retain (as for the present, and until the results of the investigation 
ordered, I feel bound to do) that officer in his position I must disso- 
ciate you from him in the further conduct of your operations under 
your contract. As the interests under that contract are not purely 
governmental, but complicated with private interests, it is, perhaps, 
better in any view they should be dissociated and kept distinct. I 
expect to do this, as far as practicable, in the future. My leading 
motive, still continuing with its original force to the contract with 
you, was to secure the superior vigilance and judgment of a capable 
merchant, personally interested in the conduct of the exporting and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 601 


importing business, to which, under the blockade and in the excep- 
tional circumstances of the war, the Department was forced to resort. 

I have no disposition to change this arrangement or become the 
exclusive owner, for the Department, of the ships either purchased 
or contracted for under your contract. While, therefore, appreciat- 
ing your offer, I am pleased that Mr. Mason advised against your 
acting upon it, and I prefer you should continue to give your experi- 
ence, energy, and judgment to the conduct of a business in which, 
I hope, with reasonable profits to yourself and your associates, you 
will be enabled to render valuable service to the cause of your 
country. My only difficulty on this whole subject results from my 
inability to give the prompt aid I desire and expected in the purchase 
of the steamers you have contracted for. I had full reason to believe 
that funds to meet the portion of expenditure required from this 
Department could be readily furnished in sterling by the Treasury 
Department; but subsequent events make this now very doubtful. 
With adequate time the shipment of cotton would, of course, meet 
the engagements; but without aid from the Treasury that resource 
will not be available in time. I can only promise on this point that I 
shall be prompt to use such available funds as the Treasury Depart- 
ment can put at my command (beyond the actual needs to keep up our 
supplies for our Army), as well as the proceeds of the cotton I shall 
urge forward to meet your contracts. If these fail I must either rely 
on you to negotiate funds or allow the sale of some of the steamers 
being built. I consider this Department strictly responsible and 
bound to provide funds for only the half of the last three steamers to 
be delivered, as it has advanced for the Navy Department on the 
first two enough to pay for its interest in the third. You will readily 
perceive this; but still I shall endeavor to facilitate the payment of 
all the contract ostensibly calls for from this Department. 

In the purchase of supplies you will be strietly instructed. At 
present you will have full employment in purchasing and bringing 
over subsistence stores and such quartermaster’s stores as Major 
Ferguson may have secured orders for. As ordnance stores of all 
kinds require special knowledge and inspection, they will be pur- 
chased and sent forward by Major Huse, to be shipped from the 
islands in Government steamers. This arrangement is recommended 
by the further consideration that such stores are contraband of war, 
and it is not desired to expose the Collie steamers to the additional 
risk, when not absolutely necessary, of carrying contraband. 

I have had, however, with both of your brothers the distinct under- 
standing that whenever necessary even contraband—and at any time 
Government freight at the islands requiring transportation—will be 
taken by the Collie steamers. In such event the 25 per cent. com- 
mission, on what should have been your purchases, will be remitted 
out of the corresponding commission on the cotton furnished by the 
Department. With the above exception, I expect the business to be 
conducted by you and your associates on the basis of a separate mer- 
cantile business. The cotton will be furnished by the Department at 
fair market rates; will be shipped, sailed, delivered, and sold under 
your charge; expenses and the cost of return cargo deducted, and the 
balance applied to steamers, if anything be due thereon, or otherwise 
the Department’s share paid over to the depositary of the Treasury in 
London to the account of the Department. Account will be kept and 
rendered of each voyage or venture. 


GOU2N 4" CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


In one small particular I observe a departure in the contract made 
by Mr. Mason from the terms of my letter. It is in regard to the com- 
mission on the sale of the vessels, should such sales be made. I had 
supposed all sales would be made at 23 per cent. commission; indeed, 
I had not exactly contemplated any commission on the vessels, as to 
either purchase or sale, but think they come within the terms of the 
letter, and should be regulated by the samerule. I mentioned this to 
your brother James, and asked him simply to mention it to you, as I 
did not doubt it could be readily arranged on your examination of 
my letter, or, if you differed from me, determined in some equitable 
manner. 

I am pleased you are associated with Messrs. Collie & Co. In the 
gale of the Giraffe they acted in a spirit of liberality and friendliness 
to our Government, which is gratefully appreciated. It will be a 
source of gratification if in their further connection with the Depart- 
ment they shall find a liberal compensation to themselves, as well as 
the opportunity of further manifesting their kindly interest in our 
cause. 

Very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 86. Richmond, June 22, 1868. 


Whereas, there have been a number of applications to this Depart- 
ment for authority to raise companies for local defense and special 
service, and for instructions as to the method by which such organi- 
zations may be made and the privileges they may claim, the Depart- 
ment has adopted the following regulations on the subject: 

I. Companies, battalions, and regiments composed of persons not 
within the age of conscription (eighteen and forty) will be accepted 
as volunteers throughout the Confederacy, under the act of August 
91, 1861 (No. 229), for local defense and special service. 

II. The organization of corps for local defense must conform to that 
prescribed for companies, battalions, and regiments of the Provis- 
ional Army. The minimum number for a company of infantry is 
sixty-four rank and file, and for cavalry sixty. Battalions must con- 
sist of not less than five companies, and regiments of ten. Artillery 
is not desirable. Members of cavalry companies must furnish their 
own horses, but will receive 40 cents per day for their use while in 
actual service. 

Ill. The muster-roll of all such organizations shall specify that 
the said organizations are raised under this act, and subject to these 
regulations, and contain a description of the volunteer as to age, 
residence, and date of enlistment, and the term of enlistment for 
the war. 

IV. Such organizations will not be considered as in actual service, 
for the purpose of receiving pay or subsistence, except when called 
for by the President. 

V. They will not be called for until a necessity arises for service. 
They shall not be required to go beyond the limits of the State to 
which they belong. 

VI. They are expected to serve, when called out, only so long as the 
emergency exists, and then to return to their ordinary pursuits until 
again called. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 603 


VII. Arms and equipments, when not possessed by the members, 
will, to the extent necessary to supply, be furnished by the Confed- 
erate States. 

VIII. Should any of them be captured, they shall be claimed as 
prisoners of war, and all the protection of the Government will be 
extended to them. 

IX. Field officers of battalions and regiments to be organized will 
be appointed by the President, in accordance with the act aforesaid. 
Company officers may be elected by the companies, or appointed, as 
the members may consent. 

X. That these organizations will be preferred to and exempt their 
members from any eall of militia. 

XI. The commandant of any military post of the Confederate 
States, the sheriff of any county, or the colonel commanding any 
militia regiment, or the judge or justice of any county or other court, 
may certify and return the muster-rolls, which must be sent to the 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office at Richmond for acceptance. 

XII. In the event of a call by the President, under the law of con- 
Scription, on all between the ages of forty and forty-five, those in 
said organizations subject to such call will be liable to discharge or 
transfer. 

For the information and guidance of those desirous of volunteer- 
ing for local defense, the law of August 21, 1861, is hereto appended: 


AN ACT to provide for local defense and special service. 


SECTION 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to accept the services of volunteers 
of such kind and in such proportion as he may deem expedient, to serve for such 
time as he may prescribe, for the defense of exposed places or localities, or such 
special service as he may deem expedient. 

Sec. 2. And such forces shall be mustered into the service of the Confederate 
States, for the local defense or special service aforesaid; the muster-roll setting 
forth distinctly the services to be performed; and the said volunteers shall not 
be considered in actual service until thereunto specially ordered by the President. 
And they shall be entitled to pay or subsistence only for such time as they may 
be on duty under the orders of the President or by his direction. 

Sec. 3. Such volunteer forces, when so accepted and ordered into service, shall 
be organized in accordance with and subject to all the provisions of the act enti- 
tled ‘‘An act to provide for the public defense,” approved March 6, 1861, and may 
be attached to such divisions, brigades, regiments or battalions as the President 
may direct, and when not organized into battalions or regiments before being 
mustered into service, the President shall appoint the field officers of the battal- 
ions or regiments, when organized as such by him. 

Approved August 21, 1861. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[JUNE 22, 1863.—For proclamation of Governor of Georgia, calling 
for 8,000 men for local defense, &c., see Series I, Vol. XXVIII, Part 
II, p. 154. | 


MONTGOMERY, June 23, 1863. 
Hon. JOHN A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War: 
DEAR SiR: You will see from the inclosed slip that I propose to aid 
in raising, as promptly as possible, the 7,000 troops recently called 


604 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


for by the President from this State (Alabama). I would respectfully 
submit a suggestion which occurs to me might be of considerable 
advantage at present and in the future toward strengthening our 
forces in the field. In several counties of this State there are, unfor- 
tunately, quite a considerable number of troops, or rather men fit for 
troops, hiding and skulking in the hills and mountains, where it 
would require a force nearly equal to themselves to ferret them out 
and arrest them, and this being done, they are of very little service 
and of no reliability. These men might be, in.a great many instances, 
reclaimed by allowing them to volunteer and serve in this six-mont s’ 
term, under officers elected by themselves, but who could be judi- 
ciously indicated to them by one in whom they had confidence. By 
a judicious course of discipline and treatment they could at the end 
of this term be turned over to the Army without difficulty. Iam sure 
that I could name several counties in this State where this system 
might reclaim numerous fine soldiers, and if it shall be allowed to 
take them for the six months, I will make it my business to make 
appointments to meet the people of these counties, speak to them, 
and try and reclaim them to the service. I confess that I make my 
suggestion to the Department with great reluctance, but after all, I 
am anxious and ready to serve my country, especially in this trying 
emergency; and hence I have ventured to address you this note. 
Nor would I have made the suggestion, but that I fear that these 
7,000 volunteers or troops will not be otherwise promptly forth- 
coming. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your very obedient 
servant, . 

J. J. SEIBELS. 


[Inclosure. ] 
RESPOND TO THE CALL FOR TROOPS. 


The undersigned feels it his duty to respond to the call which the 
Governor has made upon the State in his recent proclamation for 
7,000 troops to serve for six months by an effort to aid in raising at 
least one of the regiments in this section of the State from volunteers. 
These troops are intended for State defense, and mainly for the pur- 
pose of repelling the raids which the enemy may undertake at any 
moment and in any quarter; consequently mounted troops would be 
most efficient, from the celerity with which they could assemble and 
move from point to point. The proposed regiment, therefore, will be 
of mounted men, drilled as infantry and cavalry, to fight on foot or 
horseback. All those wishing to join such a corps with the under- 
signed will at once unite in companies, each to consist of 1 captain, 1 
first lieutenant, 2 second lieutenants, 5 sergeants, 4 corporals, 1 
bugler, if practicable, together with at least 64 privates, making in 
all 77. When this number is attained the company will elect their 
officers and report at once to:the Governor and inform me of the fact, 
when an officer will be sent forthwith to muster them into service. 
The great advantages secured personally to these volunteer organiza- 
tions are apart from the conscious gratification of serving one’s coun- 
try without compulsion and escaping the odium of a draft when the 
country is in peril; that they remain at home with their families 
attending to their business until the exigency arises from active serv- 
ice. They elect their own officers and thus avoid the possibility of 
having strangers or obnoxious persons to command them. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 605 


And now, my countrymen, once more to the rescue. Don’t stand 
back because you are a little over age, although this call is only for 
those between eighteen and forty-five not liable to the conscription. 
I only ask you to do what I am willing to do myself. It is my honest 
conviction that if we can only keep back the enemy and prevent him 
from further progress in our territory for the term for which we are 
called out, that we shall then have peace. In this we can most mate- 
rially aid. But if we are further overrun, the war must, with all its 
horrors, be prolonged indefinitely, or we must submit to the yoke of 
the conqueror—an alternative that no true friend to the country 
would countenance for a moment. ji 

I append an extract from the law of March 6, 1861, relative to 
compensation, &c., and a few suggestions upon the important matter 
of equipment. 


Extracts from the law, March 6, 1861. 


SEc. 4. Non-commissioned officers and privates in any company shall be entitled, 
when called into actual service, to money in a sum equal to the cost of clothing of 
a non-commissioned officer or private in the Regular Army of the Confederate 
States. 


* * * * * * * 


SEc. 7. * * * entitled to the same pay and allowances as may be provided 
for the Regular Army. All non-commissioned officers and privates, musicians, 
and artificers shall be allowed 40 cents per day for the use and risk of their 
horses. * * * For horses killed in action volunteers shall be allowed compen- 
sation according to their appraised value at the date of muster into service. 


Each volunteer must at once procure a good, strong, serviceable 
horse, saddle, and bridle, the stirrup leather and bridle reins of the 
best and stoutest material. The bridle should be made so that the 
bits should be buckled up to the headstall on one side, so that by 
simply unbuckling, the horse would be ready to forage, the bridle 
never taken off at all.. A cartridge-box or pouch capable of holding 
sixty rounds of ammunition must be made of material perfectly 
impervious to water from rain. Straps should be provided to buckle 
on the blankets, clothing, &c., to the saddle, for which rings must be 
securely fastened to it. An oilcloth or other substance that will turn 
water should be provided, if practicable, to throw over clothing, &c. 
So soon as a company is organized the captain will order an inspec- 
tion of arms with the view of ascertaining how many can arm them- 
selves. Kach man must furnish his own gun where it is possible to 
do so; but where it is not, the Government will supply the deficiency. 
But let it not be lost sight of that the double-barreled shotgun is the 
most effective arm in the world for service, and the Government only 
will be able to furnish the single-barrel rifle or musket. So soon as 
this inspection is made the captains willreport forthwith to the under- 
signed the number and description of arms on hand in his company, 
and if possible the caliber of each. Those needing repairs will, if 
properly labeled and forwarded to Montgomery to Col. A. B. Clith- 
erall, ordnance officer, be repaired at the expense of the State. The 
troops will be furnished with ammunition so soon as they are mus- 
tered into service. 

J. J. SEIBELS. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Rachmond, Va., June 28, 1863. 
A difference of opinion having arisen as to the right of officers of 
conscription to order a re-examination of persons.to whom exemptions 


606 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


have been granted by medical examining boards, and upon the duties 
of such boards, as governed by paragraph II, General Orders, No. 
39, current series, in connection with General Orders, No. 98, of 1862, 
and 22, of 1863, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, the follow- 
ing instructions are issued for the information and guidance of all 
concerned: | 

The War Department, in its construction of the act of Congress 
providing for the examination of enrolled persons by a medical board, . 
whose decision should be final, ‘‘has not regarded the term ‘final’ in 
this act as importing that there should be but one examination of the 
Medical Board, or that their certificates cannot be recalled or revised.” 
The condition of a person’s physical or mental capacity is liable to 
change, and with the changes that may occur his liability to perform 
service may alter. 

‘The act of Congress makes these certificates of the Medical Board 
‘final’ in the sense that it settles the liability so long as it is in force; 
that the person is not subject to the enrolling officer or commandant 
of conscripts while it is in force. But this agency for enforcing the 
conscript act, like all other agencies of its administration, is subor- 
dinate to the War Department, as charged by the President with its 
execution. The Department can call out and place in service from 
time to time persons enrolled who are not in the service, and may 
direct the inquiries proper to accomplish the object.” 

The War Department having the necessary authority to order 
re-examination in all cases, recognizes the hardships that would result 
from an indiscriminate exercise of this power, and is of opinion that 
it should be used only ina limited way. Enrolling officers will there- 
fore exercise great caution in executing the following instructions: 

When, in the opinion of enrolling officers, the causes for which 
exemption was granted to a person after examination by the Medical 
Board have ceased to exist, they will make a report in full to the 
Board, stating the name of the person, when enrolled, when examined, 
and the disease, with reasons for believing it to have disappeared, and 
that the person is capable of performing service. 

If the Examining Board shall think proper, it will order the party 
to be brought before it for a re-examination. Until the Board shall 
so order, the person exempted will not be molested. 

In this connection it is deemed proper to state that General Orders, 
No. 22, of 1863, and 58, of 1862, Adjutant and Inspector General’s 
Office, are general instructions, and should not be construed as an 
exhaustive enumeration of causes insufficient to exempt from review 
a verdict of physical incapacity for military service. 

G. W. DAXe 
Lieut. Col. and Asst.-Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


_———— 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., June 23, 1868. 


To enable this Bureau to refer for the approval of the Secretary of 
War general regulations concerning the extra compensation of detailed 
men, commandants of conscripts will report what sum they deem 
proper to be allowed to the men in their employ. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 607 


Attention will be paid to the intention of Congress in passing the 
act, which was not to offer a premium to this service, but to increase 
the pay to the extent required by the necessary daily expenses actu- 
ally incurred. It is presumed that the additional compensation 
recommended will depend upon the locality, the cost of living vary- 
ing with the district. Specific estimates of the expense necessarily 
incurred in the different districts will be given in the reports with the 
sum recommended as extra compensation, and in general, any infor- 
mation that will lead to the formation of a correct opinion on the 
subject. 

The commandants are referred to General Orders, No. 75, Adjutant 
and Inspector General’s Office, current series, which will be carefully 
considered as an expression of the views of the War Department on 
the subject. 

G. W. LAY, 
Lneut. Col. and Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting C hief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 88. hichmond, June 24, 1868. 
Operators on telegraph lines, established by military commanders 
for military purposes, will be allowed payment for their services, not 
to exceed the rate of compensation fixed and allowed by the Post- 
master-General to the operators under his control. : 
By order: 5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, June 24, 1868. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General: 


_ SIR: The evil of desertion from the Army, with the determination 
to avoid and even resist future service, appears of late on the increase, 
and it is the more difficult to deal with that the soldiers now bring 
with them Government arms and ammunition, banding among them- 
selves and with evaders of conscription. The enrolling officers are 
sometimes shot by them and the community kept in terror. This 
state of things exists more or less in each of our Atlantic States espe- 
cially. The various mischiefs resulting apart from the loss of soldiers 
to the Army are such as all good citizens are interested in putting 
‘down; and there is a general desire growing up to aid the Govern. 
ment in this matter. The War Department looks to the agencies of 
conscription to apply the remedies. The resources at command of 
the authorities of conscription are insufficient in number and in char- 
acter for the repressive measures needed. Applications for aid to the 
military commanders are usually unsuccessful. Occupied with the 
enemy the generals expect these matters to be somehow provided for 
by home authorities, and are not tempted to even a brief loan of force 
by the prospect of return in an addition to their numbers. There are 
many objections to asking special organizations for the purposes in 


608 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


view. Itisthereforesuggested, first, that conscripts enough be retained 
from among those presenting themselves as owning horses for cavalry 
service to supply the necessities for patrols in each State, and be 
allowed while so employed cavalry pay and commutation of forage 
and rations. No additional officers will be needed; only authority to 
draw arms. Second, that the commandants of conscripts for the State 
be authorized to order payment to citizens while aiding in this busi- 
ness of a fair price for their horses and actual expenses of travel and 
forage, also to hire horses when necessary to mount enrolling officers 
or conscripts. This authority would need to be exercised for a time 
on a somewhat large scale, but the ultimate economy and public 
advantage of speedy repression before this evil can spread into large 
proportions would be very great. These commandants are very judi- 
cious and discreet officers. Third, that where the Governors of States 
may consent small bodies of militia may be taken into temporary serv- 
ice under these commandants and paid as infantry or cavalry accord- 
ing to the duties required. Tor example, at the ferries over some of 
the streams in Virginia guards are very necessary to stop soldiers 
escaping from the Army to North Carolina and Tennessee. These 
militia might furnish these, say, for a moment, in order to act vigor- 
ously at once, an average of fifty men to each Congressional district. 
Fourth, as a mere suggestion (liable, perhaps, to objection in other 
respects) I invite consideration whether a call may not be made on 
the men between forty and forty-five for this home service only (under 
the commandant of conscripts), which is as important to the police and 
peace of the home community as to the Army. If these measures be 
adopted my inclination inclines me to believe that in a few weeks it 
will have become known throughout our armies that home affords no 
safety for the individual deserter, still less for armed bands of such. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. W. LAY, 
Lieutenant-Colonel and Acting Chief of Bureau. 


[Indorsement. | 


Approved, except the last suggestion, which is not at this time 
deemed judicious. 
J: (Aces 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 89. \ Richmond, June 25, 1868. 
All discharges for disability will be held as conditional, dependent 
upon the disability, and valid only during its continuance. If on 
examination the disability is at any time found to have ceased, the 
holders will be liable to conscription, to serve the unexpired terms of 
their enlistments. This regulation applies to substitutes, whether 
‘under or over the age of conscription. Their services are due for the 
war, and the Government should not be deprived of them, for what 
proves to be a temporary disability. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 609 


GENERAL sane a, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 90. Richmond, June 26, 1868. 


I. The senior officer of engineers serving with an army in the field 
will be held responsible for the proper execution of all duties apper- 
taining to his department; and the orders of the commanding general 
relating to the engineer service will be communicated through him, 
and he will recommend to the general commanding the assignments 
of junior officers of engineers to serve with corps, divisions, and 
brigades. The engineer officer of highest rank in each assignment 
will receive the orders of his immediate commander, report to him 
whatever concerns the engineer service, and communicate to him the 
orders he receives from the seniorengineer. He will also report to the 
Senior engineer all his operations, with Sketches, drawings, and maps 
for the information of the commanding general, and for transmission 
to the Engineer Bureau. 

If. All officers of engineers, and employés under the Engineer 
Department, will communicate through the proper channels with the 
senior engineer serving with the army in the field, be responsible to 
him for all public funds and property in their hands, and receive his 
orders and instructions. ) 

Ill. The duties of officers of engineers serving with the armies of 
the Confederate States in the field, camp, or cantonment are as fol- 
lows, viz: To make reconnaissances and surveys of the sections of 
country occupied by our forces, and as far as possible of the country 
held by the enemy, embracing all the information that can be obtained 
in reference to roads, bridges, fords, topographical and military fea- 
tures, the character and dimensions of the water courses, the practica- 
bility of constructing fixed and floating bridges, the extent of wooded 
and cleared lands, and the capacity of the country to supply the gen- 
eral wants of the army; to make detailed examinations and surveys 
of positions to be occupied for defensive purposes; to select the sites, 
and form plans, projects, and estimates for all military works, defensive 
or offensive, viz, field forts, batteries, rifle-pits, lines of infantry 
cover, military trenches, ‘parallels, saps, mines, and other works of 
attack and siege; also works for obstructing rivers and harbors ; to 
prepare such maps and plans as will give a full ‘knowledge. of the 
ground and proposed works, and submit the same to the commanding 
general for his information and consideration, and forward, through 
the proper channels, copies of all reports, memoirs, estimates, plans, 
drawings, and models relating to the duties above enumerated to the 
Engineer Bureau, at Richmond. 

IV. The locations and plans for the works being thus determined, 
they will be marked out on the ground by the engineers, who will 
indicate by stakes, lines, profiles, and other guides the Shape and 
dimensions of the different parts for the information and govern- 
ment of those who direct the troops or laborers employed to do the 
work. When troops are detailed to construct temporary defenses 
they will be in all cases commanded by their officers, who will see 
that the work is done in exact conformity to the plans and direc- 
tions of the officer of engineers, without regard to rank. 

V. When an officer of engineers is charged with directing an expe- 
dition, or making a reconnaissance requiring the support of an escort, 
without having command of the troops, he will call on the commander 


39 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


610 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of the escort to move with and extend to him all protection necessary 
to secure the success of the operation. 

VI. Officers of engineers will not assume nor be ordered on any 
duty beyond the line of their immediate profession, except-by special 
order of the President. In the operations of the armies of the Con- 
federate States, all that appertains to the science of civil or military 
engineering will be assigned by commanders to the officers of engi- 
neers serving with their forces; and with them will rest the responsi- 
bility of a proper execution of the works. The labor will be per- 
formed, if possible, by details of troops commanded by their officers; 
in other cases, by hired labor under the control of overseers employed 
by the engineer officers. 

VII. Officers of engineers will not be required to give other super- 
vision to the fatigue parties or laborers employed in the construction 
of works than is necessary to indicate, in a clear and distinct man- 
ner to those directing the labor, their plans and the character of the 
work to be done. 

VIII. The senior officer of engineers serving with a commanding 
general in the field will transmit to the Engineer Bureau at Rich- 
mond the reports, plans, and journals called for by paragraph 478, 
Army Regulations. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector Gteneral. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, June 26, 1868. 
Governor J. E. BROWN, 
Milledgeville, Ga.: 

Sir: Your communication of the 30th of May last has been received, 
and the consideration given to it required as well by the serious con- 
sequences of the claim of a right to fill the vacancy occasioned by the 
death of the lamented Colonel Slaughter, of the Fifty-first Georgia 
Regiment, by election, as by the earnestness and confidence with which 
the claim is presented. It appears from the muster-rolls filed in the 
Office of the Adjutant and Inspector General that the Fifty-first Georgia 
Regiment was mustered directly into the Confederate service on the 
4th of March, 1862, for three years or the war. The regiment was 
raised under the act of January 23, 1862, which authorized the Presi- 
dent to call upon the several States for troops to serve for three years 
or the war; and a circular on the subject from the War Department 
of February 2, 1863, was addressed to the several Governors. By the 
tenth section of the act of April 16, 1862, commonly known as the 
conscription act, it is provided that all vacancies shall be filled by the 
President from the company, battalion, squadron, or regiment in which 
such vacancies shall occur by promotion according to seniority, &c. 
This provision was supposed to apply only to troops referred to in that 
act, but, as if to put the question at rest on this point, five days after, 
to wit, on the 21st of April, 1862, Congress passed a general act provid- — 
ing that all vacancies shall be filled by the President, &c., by promotion 
according to seniority, &c. It seems to me, therefore, that in accord- 
ance with this last act all vacancies in volunteer organizations are to 
be filled by promotion according to seniority, &c., and that the vacancy — 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 611 


referred to in the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment should be so filled, and 
not by election. The laws and regulations provide for a stringent 
investigation as to the fitness of an officer for promotion, to which he 
would be entitled by seniority if worthy; and, as you state that such 
promotion has been made of the officer entitled by seniority, it is pre- 
sumed that he is worthy to fill the place. The act of the general 
announcing the promotion is in accordance with the laws of Congress, 
with the regulations and uniform usage of the service, and is approved 
by the Department. It is to be regretted that this difference of opinion 
should have existed, and that the expression of your views should 
have been given such direction as may possibly excite some dissatis- 
faction among the officers of that gallant regiment. It is hoped 
that upon a reconsideration you will concur with the views herein 
expressed. 
With esteem, respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, June 26, 1868. 


Sir: As representing the Government, you have aright to exer- 
cise discretion in accepting or rejecting substitutes. 

Accept none unless satisfied that the transaction is in good faith, 
the substitute reliable, and of good character, and that the interests 
of the Government will not suffer by the inferiority (in physical 
capacity or in character) of the substitute to the principal, or by 
the withdrawal of men interested in the country from the military 
service. 

You may require the principal to be present in person, and will 
refuse to deal with brokers or paid agents. Undomiciled foreigners 
are forbidden to be received as substitutes; nor can a declaration of 
intention to become naturalized qualify a foreigner to be a substitute. 
Such a declaration would make him, if of conscript age, liable to serv- 
ice in his own person. All doubtful cases reject, or refer to this 
Bureau. 

These instructions are issued by direction of the War Department. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, § 
G.. W... LAY, 
Lneut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts and Camps of Instruction.) 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 92. fiuchmond, June 29, 1868. 


I. The acts of Congress passed on the 6th of April, 1863, and dates 
subsequent thereto, having provided the means of procuring army 
supplies, notice is hereby given to the people of the Confederate States 
and to receiving officers that from the date of this publication no 
more quartermaster’s supplies will be received under the appeal made 
by the President and the plan of the Secretary of War annexed 
thereto. All such supplies collected or tendered prior to the time 


612 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


above referred to will be paid for at established rates. Hereafter 
supplies will be obtained, as far as practicable, by purchase, and 
when necessary by impressment; and officers, when authorized to 
resort to impressment, will observe strictly the requirements of law 
and the general orders of the War Department and the regulations 
of this office founded thereon. 

II. That any officer who shall be authorized by the act of Congress 
concerning impressments, or under the regulations of this depart- 
ment pursuant thereto, which have been or may hereafter be made, 
and who has given the notice required by the same, shall have full 
power and authority to enter upon any property in which he shall 
have good reason to suspect any of the articles of produce, goods, 
merchandise, or other things subject to impressment may be stored or 
concealed, in order to obtain or secure the same; and if he shall have 
reason to believe that they are stored or concealed in any dwelling 
house, store-house, or other building, to which he is refused access, he 
may apply to any judge, justice of the peace, or commissioner of a 
Confederate court for a warrant to enter upon the same upon oath of 
the facts, and describing the objects stored or concealed, and obtain a 
warrant to search for and secure the same, which warrant shall only 
be executed in the daytime and after a demand of theowner or occu- 
pant, if the owner or occupant shall then be inhabiting the building 
aforesaid. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 93. Richmond, June 30, 1868. 


Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 49, current series, is so amended 
that the appraisement of deceased soldiers’ clothing shall be made 
after it has been washed and put in condition by the quartermaster, 
and will approximate to the Government prices or rates at which it 
was originally issued. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


es 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Montgomery, Ala., June 30, 1863. 


GENERAL: The Governor is in receipt of yours of the 20th, but has 
been so pressed by matters growing out of the recent call that he has 
been obliged to turn it over to this office. In relation to the guns he 
submits the matter to your sound discretion, expressing his satisfac- 
tion at learning that your division is so well supplied. 1 am inclined 
to think that it is the same in the other sections of the State, although 
perhaps not to the same extent. It is certain, however, that first and 
last more than 60,000 men have gone into service from Alabama, and 
I should think, upon a reasonable calculation, full one-half must have 
left guns at home. It is very certain that the State has not got many 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 613 


of them, and those which it has obtained are, generally speaking, the 
meanest, scarcely worth the repairs which have been put upon them. 

In relation to the success of the late requisition, the security of the 
country depends upon its being met, and if it is not we may expect 
to be desolated by raids. We must necessarily depend upon our 
home population to repel them, as we cannot draw upon our main 
armies to doit. Our forces in Tennessee and Mississippi are opposed 
by those of the enemy greatly superior in numerical strength as well 
as equipments and munitions of war. Bragg and Johnston each need 
_ at least 20,000 men, and Lee to do his work is obliged to uncover 
Richmond. It would deplete each of these armies if we were to take 
from them men enough to give security against the predatory and 
plundering incursions which will be attempted at every point within 
our lines where we can be weakened by the destruction of our 
resources of any kind. Our lines of communication will be inter- 
rupted, our workshops destroyed, and the most fertile section of our 
country desolated. I do not believe they will strike at the poorer 
sections. The object is to demoralize our slaves and destroy our 
means of subsistence. 

There is with us a considerable and [ think an increasing disposi- 
tion manifested to meet the requisition by forming volunteer com- 
panies under the act of Congress of the 21st of August, 186 Rem his 
course is greatly to be preferred, and is in every respect more efficient 
to accomplish the purpose of the call as well as the least burdensome 
on the troops, as they would not be called out unless demanded by 
some particular and special exigency, and returned to their homes and 
their avocations as soon as the exigency had passed. In case of militia 
this course would be impracticable, at least to the same extent, as 
being generally infantry they could not be concentrated upon any given 
point with the requisite rapidity, nor could they if once discharged 
be reassembled without much difficulty. I know there is a strong 
prejudice entertained by many against entering the Confederate serv- 
ice, but am satisfied that under the assurances given by the Secretary 
of War, in his letter to the Governor making the requisition, that 
there is really just grounds for apprehension. I inclose extracts* 
from the letter referred to, which, although you are not authorized to 
make any public use of them, so as to risk their being published, you 
can use in any other way in which you think proper if it will tend to 
encourage volunteering. 

As to substitutes, i expect a large portion of them will try their best 
to escape taking any part whatever in the defense of their country, 
but it will be passing strange that a man who is able to fight for his 
country should not in any emergency be required to do so because he 
had furnished a substitute in the Confederate Army. I have no 
doubt whatever as to their liability to draft. By putting in a substi- 
tute he simply discharges a debt he owes to the Confederacy under 
the conscription act, but does not affect the duty he owes as a militia- 
man. The first is regulated by Confederate and the last by State 
authority. While it is the power of Congress to raise armies from 
men who are subjected to militia duty, that body has no authority 
to say that those who do not belong to the Confederate Army shall 
not be subject to militia duty. Under the first conscription Quakers 
could obtain exemption by a payment of a sum of money into the 
Confederate Treasury. Would that exempt them from militia duty? 


* Not found. 


614 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The militia cannot under the existing law be called out for more than 
six months. The conscript goes for three years, and one or both can 
be placed in the service as the public safety requires. A discharge or 
exemption from the duties of the one of itself furnishes no ground of 
exemption from the other. As to you having a showing, there will be 
no difficulty as to that if the occasion offers. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. GOLDTHW AITE, 
Adjutant and Inspector CGleneral, Alabama. 


To THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA: 


Since the date of my proclamation calling for 8,000 volunteers for 
home defense* I have received a letter from the Secretary of War, 
dated June 19, 1863, upon the subject of the proposed organizations 
and the material of which they are to be composed, embracing a class 
of our fellow-citizens not included in the original requisition. The 
Secretary says: 

It is expected that men between forty and forty-five shall enter the proposed 
organizations, but should such be hereafter called out by the President they will 
be liable to be transferred or discharged and conscribed. It is expected, as far as 
the men entering these organizations have guns or arms, they shall use them, but 
we hope to be able to make up the deficiencies in arms and accouterments and to 
supply ammunition when needed. 


In obedience to the above requirement of the President, made 
through the Secretary of War, it is expected that each man in the 
State able to bear arms, including those between forty and forty-five 
years of age, will promptly unite with one of the volunteer organi- 
zations called for by my proclamation. Let no county fail to organize 
on the first Tuesday in July, and let each tender its full quota within 
the appointed time. The late raid of the enemy into Kast Tennessee, 
and the destruction of the railroad bridges, together with their depre- 
dations upon our own sea-coast, admonish us that we have no time to 
lose in preparation for our defense. Let no one, high or low, rich or 
poor, officer or private, who has physical ability to endure one week’s 
service falter or make anexcuse. The patriotic daughters of Georgia 
will mark with perpetual reproach, and regard in future with merited 
distrust, eyery man who hides himself behind any sort of exemption 
and has not the courage and manliness to take up arms when the 
enemy is in our midst to protect their houses against the flames, their 
little children against nakedness and hunger, and their persons against 
the insults and injuries of bands of ruffian robbers, who are desti- 
tute alike of honor, civility, and shame. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Executive Department 
this 30th day of June, 1563. 

[SEAL. | JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


* See Series I, Vol. XXVIII, Part H, p. 154. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 615 


Consolidated abstract from returns of the Confederate Army on or about June 
30, 1868. 


[Compiled from such returns as are on file in the War Department. } 


| : ~ 
Present for duty. = a 
o D 
| a a, ot Tate ae 
Date of re- 
Command. = = v= tan 
ait 0 ers 
és 2 28 
| ap ap 
ca ® an ap 
3S a <q < 
Army of Northern Virginiaa (Lee)......----- 6, 116 68, 343 88,735 | 133,652 | May 31, 1863 
Department of Western Virginia (Jones) --.--- 375 6, 047 (alls; 11,520 | May 31,1863 
Department of Richmond (Elzey) ..-.-.-.------ ; 470 6, 760 8, 525 10,176 | June 20, 1863 
Department of North Carolina (D. H. Hill).---. 1, 308 18, 825 22, 822 30, 757 | June 80, 1863 
Department of East Tennessee (Buckner) ----| 1, 085 15, 182 18, 752 27,598 | May 381, 1863 
Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and |-.--.---.--- 19, 400 22, 006 27,666 | June 23, 1863 


Florida (Beauregard). | 
Department No. 2, or Army of Tennessee | 3, 785 46, 622 59, 527 83, 581 | June 20, 1863 
(Bragg). 
Department of Mississippi and East Loui- | * 2,657 28, 569 36, 315 54,747 | June 25, 1863 
sianab (Johnston). 


Vicksourg forces c (Pemberton) ...--.---...-..|---=-----+|+--+------|-----+°---- 29, 376 

Port Hudson forces (Gardner) .----..---.-..-- 291 2,512 4, 098 6, 273 | June 30, 1863 

Department of the Gulf (Maury) ..-:-.---...-- 254 3, 984 5, 129 6,226 | June 8, 1863 

oe Military District of Mississippi (Rug- 131 1, 881 2, 390 2,995 | May 24, 1863 
gles). 

Fifth Military District of Mississippi (Chal- |..----.---|.---------|---+-----.|---------- No return. 
mers). 

enton.las (oman) 655 6.2 Loee ey ewsh er to 116 1,178 1,571 2,470 | June 25, 1863 

Trans-Mississippi Departmentd (EK. K. Smith) - 1, 845 24, 202 80, 489 46,021 | May 31, 1863 


SOG rey oe See eR erie ee tae eee eee 18,433 | 248,005 | 307,464 473,058 


a Alexander’s and Garnett’s battalions of artillery, Ransom’s division of infantry, and other troops 
in the Valley District, not reported. 

b The Army in Mississippi under the immediate command of Johnston, and exclusive of troops at 
Vicksburg under Pemberton, at Port Hudson under Gardner, the First and Fifth Military Districts 
: on commanded, respectively, by Ruggles and Chalmers, and Logan’s command, near 
Clinton, La. Et: 

cNo returns of an approximate date. The ‘‘aggregate present and absent” is taken from the 
paroles at date of surrender. 

d Five regiments of cavalry in the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona (Magruder), esti- 
mated at 3,500, and the District of West Louisiana (Taylor) are not reported. 


4 


OFFICE INSPECTOR-GENERAL FIELD TRANSPORTATION, 
Richmond, July 2, 1863. 
General A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General : 


GENERAL: The sources for the supply of horses and mules being 
well-nigh exhausted in the Confederate States, it has become a ques- 
tion of serious inquiry how the animals necessary for the future 
equipment of our armies in the field are to be obtained. By purchase, 
by impressments, and by a system of infirmaries, from which we have 
been enabled to return a large number of animals recruited for serv- 
ice, we have been able thus far to keep up the transportation and 


artillery. Forthe future I see nothing left us but to procure animals 


from the enemy’s country. The present is the only favorable oppor- 
tunity we have had, and unless we avail ourselves of the chance whilst 
General Lee is in Pennsylvania I see no hope for us. I therefore 
respectfully urge that a system be at once adopted for procuring the 
supply we need. We cannot expect the army now in Pennsylvania 
to do much more than supply themselves, as the commander and _ his 
officers have other matters of importance immediately in hand. We 


616 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


should therefore endeavor to inaugurate a system for our own depart- 
ment, and I am confident that it can be done. In orderto act promptly 
and securely I think it absolutely necessary that a military force 
accompany our officers charged with this duty. We cannot expect 
to draw upon the army in the advance for this force. I therefore pro- 
pose that we be authorized to raise from the hospitals, by volunteer- 
ing, a thousand men, to be mounted by our department, to act, under 
a judicious military commander, as escorts to our officers charged with 
the collection of this property, the command and the operations to be 
confined to the country in rear and in striking distance of our army 
and to be governed by any orders from General Lee. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. H. COLE, 
Major and Inspector-General. 


{[Memorandum. } 
JULY 3. 

Over 6,000 convalescents were reported by Surgeon Carrington able 
to perform cavalry service. 

AL Ga 
[Indorsement. | 
JULY 4, 1863. 

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. 

It is absolutely necessary that we should obtain some 8,000 or 10,000 
animals to replace those killed and unfit for service from long work. 
Measures have been taken to get mules from Mexico and Texas. Some 
have been for months on the borders of the. Mississippi River. We 
cannot depend upon a safe transit. 

Officers of this department have been sent with funds in the wake 
of General Lee’s army. Two thousand may be procured in Maryland 
by purchase. Ten companies of convalescents organized as a regi- 
ment and sent on this duty might succeed admirably. About 300 can 
be mounted at once at Staunton. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


ATLANTA, GA., July 2, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Confederate States of America: 


Str: We beg leave to call your attention to the following resolu- 
tions passed at an informal meeting of commissioners under ‘‘ The 
act to regulate impressments” from the States of Tennessee, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, held in this city on yes- 
terday, the Ist day of July, to wit: 

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by the chair to confer with 
the War Department in relation to instructions to the purchasing agents in the 
Commissary and Quartermaster’s Departments, requiring them to conform in 
their purchases to the schedule of prices established by commissioners of the 
respective States of the Confederacy. . 

Resolved, further, That the committee address a letter of invitation to the com- 
missioners of the several States to an adjourned convention to be held in city hall 
of Atlanta, Ga., on Monday, 27th day of July, instant. 


The undersigned having been appointed a committee under the first 
resolution, have the honor to call your attention to the same, and to 
state in connection therewith that instances are within their knowl- 
edge where purchasing agents of the Government have disregarded 
the prices affixed by the commissioners in their schedule, and have 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 617 


paid more for the articles purchased than the price therein established 
for the same. We deem it of the utmost importance that there should 
be, as nearly as possible, a uniformity of prices throughout the Con- 
federacy and concert of action between all the agents of the Govern- 
ment. Without it dissatisfaction will be necessarily engendered, and 
a difficulty in procuring supplies for the Army be the inevitable 
result. The experience of the past but confirms this, for already con- 
siderable dissatisfaction exists in the country because of the differ- 
ence in prices paid for the same article in different localities, and in 
many instances in the same locality; and, as a consequence, difficul- 
ties in procuring supplies have been augmented. ‘To avoid this in 
the future we most respectfully suggest to Your Honor the propriety 
of instructing the agents of the Government in the different States to 
conform to the schedule of prices established by the commissioners. 
Such we believe to be the spirit and intent of the impressment act. 
Permit us to state also that the object of the convention of commis- 
sioners from the different States of the Confederacy, to be held in this 
city on the 27th of July next, is to agree as far as practicable upon a 
uniform schedule of prices and concert of action, upon which occasion 
we should be glad to receive from the War Department any sugges- 
tions it may be pleased to communicate. The convention which has 
but to-day adjourned declined to take any definite action with regard 
to their future schedule because of the partial attendance of the com- 
missioners from the different States, caused, doubtless, by the limited 
notice given of its meeting. 
In conclusion we beg leave to subscribe ourselves, most respect- 
fully, your obedient servants, 
G. D. MOORE, 
Commissioner from Mississippt. 
A. H. MARTIN, 
Commissioner from: South Carolina. 
U. B. WILKINSON, 
Commissioner from Georgia. 


RALEIGH, July 2, 1863. 
President DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


By the returns from my militia regiments there will not be men 
in the State to raise the 7,000 required by you without resorting to 
the classes exempted from conscription as State officers, men with 
substitutes, &c., who would be entitled to discharge if made Confed- 
erate troops. The military committee have instructed me to ask if 
you will agree to the troops remaining under my control as State 
troops, which enables us to put in all these exempts. Please answer 
at once. The Legislature sits but a day or two longer. 

Z. B. VANCE. 


RICHMOND, VA., July 2, 1863. 
Governor Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

This day received your dispatch. Will receive as many as will 
organize under the act for local defense, and for the residue will accept 
the militia or State troops. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


618 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 94. Richmond, July 4, 1863. 


Information having been received that soldiers absent from their 
commands without proper authority are employed by officers in charge 
of Government work, it is hereby directed that all such men be 
returned immediately to their respective companies. Officers who 
employ men not regularly detailed will, in every instance, be held 
answerable for the offense before a court-martial. 


By order: 
| i S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
CIRCULAR. | CONSCRIPT OFFICE, 


Richmond, July 7, 1868. 

The evil of desertion from the Army, with the determination to 
avoid, and even to resist, future service appears to be on the increase. 
The War Department looks to the agencies of conscription to arrest 
the growing evil, and has adopted the following regulations for 
increasing the force at the disposal of the commandant: 

1. A sufficient number of conscripts can be retained from among 
those presenting themselves as owning horses for cavalry service to 


supply the necessity of patrols in each district, and. be allowed while — 


so employed cavalry pay and commutation of forage and rations. 
No additional officers will be needed, but on application to this office 
authority will be given to draw arms. 

2. The commandant of conscripts is authorized to order payment 
to citizens while aiding in the service of a fair hire for their horses 
and actual expenses of travel and forage; also to hire horses in 
extreme cases to mount enrolling officers or conscripts. 

3. That when Governors of States may consent, small bodies of 
militia may be taken into temporary service (under the direction and 
control of the commandant) and paid as infantry or cavalry, according 
-to the duties required. 

The commandant desires that you immediately proceed to organize 
such force as may be needed in your district, reporting the names and 
number of persons so employed. In the selection of persons so 
employed for this service he is to a great extent dependent upon the 
judgment and discretion of the district officers, and he entertains the 
hope that by the selection of suitable assistants and the exercise of 
the necessary vigilance and activity many men may be returned to 
service, and the evil of desertion effectually stopped. 

Very respectfully, 
J. H. BINFORD, 
Lieutenant and Adjutant. 
(To District Enrolling Officers. ) 3 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 96. fichmond, July 8, 1868. 
I. Soldiers not deemed subjects for discharge under paragraph IV, 
General Orders, No. 69, current series, because of their being fit for 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 619 


service in the staff departments of the Army, will be recommended 
by the Board of Examiners to the general commanding the depart- 


~ ment or army for detail in the Medical Department as nurses, guards, 


&c., to relieve as far as practicable able-bodied soldiers fit for duty 
in the field; or if specially fit for duty in another staff department, 
they will be recommended for detail in such department. | 

Il. Soldiers detailed under these provisions will, when fit for field 
duty, be relieved and sent to their commands. - } 

IlI. Paragraph X, General Orders, No. 69, current series, having 
in some instances been evaded, is so far amended as to prohibit med- 
ical officers from extending leaves of absence to officers or furloughs 
tomen. They can only certify to the disability and recommend such 
extensions. 

IV. Commutation for rations to men upon furlough will not be paid 
until they rejoin their commands. 

V. Rations will be issued to discharged men delayed at way hos- 
pitals. | ; 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, July 9, 1868. 


‘His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 


Richmond, Va.: 

DEAR Str: J am fearful I shall not be able to furnish the 7,000 men 
called for. Upon receipt of the Secretary’s letter I immediately 
issued my proclamation and ordered a general enrollment throughout 
the State. The returns so far are gratifying to our State pride, but 
sad to contemplate. The average of soldiers and detailed men is 
about equal to the voting population, and there are very few behind. 
On learning this I visited the Legislature in secret session and urged 
them to draft the magistrates and militia officers. They declined to 
do so and adopted the exemption bill of Congress, which I fear will 
prevent me from raising the whole number required. I will proceed 
rapidly, however, to get out as many as I can. I have already in 
Eastern Carolina some 800 men raised for local defense which I wish 
you to receive as part of the men he called for. There are also some 
five or six small companies along the Tennessee border, authorized by 
me to be raised before your requisition for defense of the citizens 
against the swarm of tories, refugees, and deserters who have congre- 
gated in the mountains and who carry pillage and murder in their 
path. It will be impossible to remove them without ruin to the loyal 
people. I would be glad if you would receive them and permit them 
to remain. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 
[First indorsement. ] 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 


Let the order be given to receive the local-defense companies men- 
tioned within, and give credit to North Carolina for the number. 
ADE BE, 


620 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


JULY 20, 1863. 
To Adjutant-General for attention to and execution of the Presi- 
dent’s indorsement above. 
J. ASG 
Secretary. 


———— 


MARIETTA, GA., July 10, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR SiR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of 26th of June last in reply to my letter claiming for the gal- 
lant Fifty-first Georgia Regiment the right to elect an officer to fill 
the vacancy of the late Colonel Slaughter, who was killed in battle 
and whose vacancy has been filled by the general in command by 
promotion, denying to the regiment the right of election. ‘This action 
I consider in palpable violation of the plain constitutional rights of 
the regiment, and while I thank you for the courtesy of your reply, 
I must express both my surprise and mortification at your denial of | 
the right of election to this regiment and others which entered the 
service as it did, and your announcement that the conduct of the 
general in refusing to permit the regiment to exercise this right, and 
assigning to it a commander by promotion without regard to the 
wishes of the troops, ‘‘is approved by the Department.” You predi- 
cate this decision upon the act of Congress known as the conscription 
act and a subsequent act which provides that ‘‘ all vacancies shall be 
filled by the President.” I predicate my objection to the decision 
upon the Constitution of the Confederate States, which is of higher 
authority than any act of Congress, and hold that the acts referred to 
by you, so far as they deny to the State of Georgia the right to fill this 
and all similar vacancies, are in conflict with the Constitution, and 
therefore void and of no binding force. The sixteenth paragraph of 
the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution of the Con- 
federate States declares that Congress shall have power ‘‘ to provide 
for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for govern- 
ing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Con- 
federate States, reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment 
of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to 
the discipline prescribed by Congress.” By this paragraph of the 
Constitution the State of Georgia in plain language reserved to her- 
self the appointment of the officers to command any part of her 
militia when employed in the service of the Confederate States; and 
by her own constitution and laws she has provided that such appoint- 
ment shall be made by election of those to be commanded by these 
officers and commission from the Governor, and that vacancies shall 
be filled in the same manner. By ‘‘the militia” I understand the 
Constitution to mean the whole arms-bearing population of the State 
who are not enlisted in the regular armies of the Confederacy. 

I am aware that writers upon English law define the militia to be 
an organized body of troops, &e. That the framers of the Constitu- 
tion did not intend to use the term in this sense. is evident from the 
fact that they speak of the militia as in existence at the time they are 
making the Constitution, and give Congress the power not to make a 
new militia nor to organize that already in existence, but to provide 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 621 


for organizing the militia; in other words, to provide for forming 
into military organizations the arms-bearing people of the respective 
States. Had the Constitution given Congress the power to organize 
the militia without other qualifying words, it would have had the 
power to appoint the officers to command them, or to authorize the 
President to appoint them, as they cannot be organized without 
officers. The language is, however, very guarded. Power is given 
to Congress to provide for organizing that which was then in existence . 
without effective organization—the militia or arms-bearing people of 
the States. When Congress has provided for the organization and 
the States have organized the militia, Congress may authorize the 
President to employ them, or part of them, in the service of the Con- 
federate States; but in that case the States expressly reserve to them- 
selves the right to appoint the officers to command them, and Congress 
cannot, without usurpation, exercise that power itself or confer it 
upon the President. But suppose I adopt the definition of the term 
‘‘militia” insisted upon by those who differ from me; the result is the 
same. Inour correspondence upon the constitutionality of the con- 
script act the President says: ‘‘The term ‘militia’ is a collective term, 
meaning a body of men organized.” 

In February, 1862, the President made requisition upon me under 
the act of Congress of 23d January, 1862, for twelve regiments of 
troops, to be employed in the service of the Confederate States. I 
proceeded under the laws in existence at the time to organize the 
regiments called for. The Fifty-first Regiment was tendered as one 
of the twelve, and with the other eleven, and several additional regi- 
ments which offered their services as volunteers, was accepted by the 
President as organized and officered by the State. This regiment 
when tendered was therefore an organized body of men taken indis- 
criminately from the arms-bearing people of the State, who tendered 
their services, and were accepted by the President as a body of men 
organized by the State, or as militia, according to his own definition. 
The right of the State to appoint the officers, which she does upon the 
election of those to be commanded, was distinctly recognized in the 
organization of the regiment. If the State possessed this right, then 
how has she lost it since? If it is her right to appoint the officers 
when the regiment is organized, how does she lose the right when a 
vacancy is to be filled? But the case does not rest here undoubted 
as were the State’s rights under the Constitution. Before this regi- 
ment and the others called for at the same time were formed I wrote 
Mr. Benjamin, then Secretary of War, upon this question, that the 
reserved rights of the State and of her troops might be distinctly rec- 
ognized to avoid any misunderstanding in future. In his reply of 
16th of February, 1862, after the requisition had been made, and 
before the regiments were organized, Mr. Benjamin said: ‘‘I will add 
that the officers from the regiments called for from the State under 
the recent act of Congress are, in my opinion, to be commissioned by 
the Governor of Georgia, as they are State troops tendered to the Con- 
federate Government.” This opinion of the Secretary of War was 
communicated to the troops, and they were assured by me that they 
had the right to elect all the field and company officers by whom they 
were to be commanded while employed in the service of the Confed- 
erate States. With this assurance from the Secretary of War and 
the Governor of their State they volunteered and entered the Confed- 
erate service with the officers elected by them. Aside from this con- 
stitutional right, here was a fair contract between them and the 


622 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Government, under which they entered its service and have nobly 
performed their part, and I deny that Congress possessed the power 
by any subsequent act to wrest from them this constitutional right, 
or that the Government, without a most unjustifiable breach of its 
plighted faith, can now deny to them the exercise of this right. 

I beg to be excused for the use of strong language, which may appear 
to show too much zeal on my part in this cause. By the act of the 
Secretary of War I was made a party to this contract with the troops, 
and my action under it was ratified by the President when he accepted 
the troops organized under it, with officers elected by them, and I feel 
in honor bound to exert all the energy and power I possess to prevent 
the injustice which is being done to these gallant, self-sacrificing men. 
If the right is still denied it will be my duty to communicate the facts 
to the General Assembly of this State when again convened, and to 
ask them to take such action in the premises as will secure justice to 
their injured fellow-citizens and constituents and protect their plain 
constitutional rights. 

You say you regret that ‘‘the expression of my views should have 
been given such direction as may probably excite some dissatisfaction 
among the officers of that gallant regiment.” Much as I may regret 
to excite the dissatisfaction of the officers who may be unwilling to 
submit their claims to preferment to a fair vote to those whom they 
aspire to command, I cannot be silent when the rights of the regiment 
in the selection of its officers are no longer respected. But I cannot 
suppose that the dissatisfaction of any meritorious officer who treats 
his men humanely and has shown himself worthy to lead them in bat- 
tle will be excited, as such an officer has no reason to fear the decision 
of the gallant troops with whom he has been long associated, and who 
are well acquainted with his character and his capacity to command 
them and protect their lives in battle. It can only be those officers 
whose chief claim to preferment rests upon their rank and the date of 
commissions, acquired by them when less known to the troops, whose 
dissatisfaction can be excited when the troops are informed that the 
Executive of their State claims that they shall be permitted to exercise 
what they believe to be their constitutional right of election, and what 
they and their officers know was guaranteed to them when they entered 
the service. You say, further, that ‘‘ the actofthe general in announe- 
ing the promotion is in accordance with the laws of Congress, with the 
regulations and uniform usage of the service.” I trust I have shown 
that the act of Congress, so far as it confers the right of appointment 
in this case upon the President, is a nullity, on account of its conflict 
with the Constitution, and it follows as a necessary consequence that 
any regulation of your Department carrying into execution that which 
is void is also unauthoritative. In reference to the uniform usage of 
the service, I can only remark that you labor under a very great mis- 
take. I think it safe to say that a majority of the whole number of 
vacancies which have occurred in regiments in Confederate service 
from this State, which entered the service as did tho Fifty-first, under 
requisition from the President, have been filled by election and com- 
mission from the State. There has been, therefore, no uniform usage 
in favor of your construction, but rather the contrary. I am informed 
that soon after the passage of the conscription act this question was 
raised in Colonel Benning’s regiment, General Toombs’ brigade, and 
was carried up regularly to the War Department for decision, and was 
decided in favor of the right of the State to appoint the officers to fill 
these vacancies, and against the right of the President to fill them by 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 623 


promotion. I am also informed that a case involving this very prin- 
ciple has been submitted to the Attorney-General for his opinion, and 
that his opinion sustains this right of appointment by the States in 
regiments tendered and accepted under the requisition of the Presi- 
dent upon the States for troops under the act of Congress aforesaid. 
If I am mistaken in either of these points I will thank you to inform 
me of the error, and what has been the decision of your predecessors 
and of the Attorney-General in cases similar to that now under discus- 
sion. Certain it is, within my own knowledge, that since the report 
of the decisions above referred to most of the Georgia regiments organ- 
ized as this was have exercised the right of election, and I have com- 
missioned the persons selected, and they now have command under 
‘their State commissions and are recognized by their superior officers 
as entitled to the rank and command. 

In conclusion, I must express my profound regret that you have felt 
it your duty to make a decision in this case which in my opinion 
denies to the State the exercise of a right expressly reserved by her in 
the Constitution, and which does great injustice to the troops, not only 
because it deprives them of a legal right which they consider of great 
importance to them, but because it violates the express guaranty of 
this right under which they entered the service. Amidst the weight of 
cares and responsibilities: by which you are surrounded I am induced 
to hope that your decision was predicated upon the act of Congress 
without having given that mature reflection to the constitutional 
question involved in the case which its importance demands, and 
that you were not aware of the understanding between me and the 
Secretary of War which I have mentioned above, and upon which the 
troops acted when they entered the service. I therefore most respect- 
fully ask a reconsideration of this case, and trust I may soon have the 
pleasure to inform the gallant Fifty-first Regiment, and all others 
organized as it was, that their right of election, which I consider so 
clear and they regard so valuable, is recognized and respected by the 
Confederate Government. 

Iam, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 
[First indorsement. | 
JU oY Zl. eos. 
To Assistant Secretary for consideration and conference. 
SAAB! 
Secretary. 
{Second indorsement. ] 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 
Please send me the muster-rolls of the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment. 
JepAuaGh: 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


24A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, 
July 10, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I beg to hand you inclosed duplicate of my respects 3d 
instant, and remain without any of your favors. After very mature 
deliberaticn and consultation with some of my friends here I con- 
cluded that, honestly entertaining as I do the opinion that the object 


w» 


624 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of the contract Major Huse was about to enter into in France was to 
embarrass our Government, and that I would fail to do my duty if I 
omitted to do all that I could to prevent such embarrassment, I 
addressed a letter to the Hon. J. M. Mason on the subject, a copy of 
which I beg to inclose herein. Receiving to this a verbal reply that he 
would inform Mr. Slidell of my views, I sought a personal interview 
with him, which he readily granted, and in it I sought by additional 
facts and arguments to convince him that it was not only his prov- 
ince to tell Mr. Slidell of my views, but that if he was unwilling to 
protest against this contract of Major Huse being entered into at this 
moment, I had at least the right to expect him (inasmuch as I had con- 
sented to hold on and not cancel the contract already existing between 
myself, Collie & Co., and the Government until we had time to hear 
from you at his earnest request) to urge upon Mr. Slidell and General 
McRae a delay in its execution until your reply was received; and 
especially did I urge this, as I had, after writing a letter to him, heard 
that one of the conditions of this contract required our Government 
to place in the hands of the contractors orders to the extent of 
$5,000,000 within fifteen days after the signing of the papers. If I 
should have doubts before, this clause would have convinced me of 
the anxiety to hasten the matter to a conclusion before your orders 
could be received, because if this clause -was acted on it entirely 
superseded my contract and forced the Government to carry it on and 
receive the goods even if, as I hope will be the case, the letters car- 
ried out by Mr. Bosher will induce you to withdraw all authority from 
Major Huse. I flatter myself that I convinced Mr. Mason that he 
ought to take some action in the matter, though he did not say 
exactly what he would write, and Colonel Lamar, commissioner to 
Russia, who was also present during the whole interview, volunteered 
to say on my leaving that he should also write to Mr. Slidell that he 
thought it was due to me that action on this contract of Major Huse 
should be delayed until advices were received from you. 

I have in this matter taken upon myself some responsibility, but it 
has only been done with entire confidence. It is true I do not occupy 
in it as high grounds as I would have preferred, and my first idea was 
before taking such action to divest myself of all interest with the Goy- 
ernment, but my friends have urged that as an individual my protest 
would have no weight, and that it being my duty to defeat its execu- 
tion, if possible, I should use my contract todo so. I cannot of course 
know now what action Mr. Slidell will take, but I cannot but believe 
that he will hesitate before pressing it to an immediate conclusion, 
especially as Major Ferguson has, in my opinion, very properly 
refused to act under it. Yf so, all will depend upon your replies to 
my letter and that of Mr. Mason, dated 3d and dth of May, and the 
promptness with which they are sent out. I have a letter from Mr. 
Bosher, at Bermuda, informing me that he would sail that day (11th of 
June) for Wilmington, and if not captured would deliver your letters 
of 16th or. 17th of June. He knew how important it was that replies 
should be sent out at once, and therefore they should arrive at Nassau 
in time to leave there by the mail 6th of July, and Bermuda 11th of 
July. The former mail is due here 27th of July and the latter 4th of 
August. I cannot expect to keep the matter open longer. If by those 
mails satisfactory letters are received, and the control is taken out of 
Major Huse’s hands and placed in the hands of some one who will 
look singly to the interests of our Government, there will be no diffi- 
culty in sending forward as rapidly as need be all of the supplies that 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 625 


are wanted under the contract with Collie and myself at a commission 
of 23 per cent., as I am assured that there remains of the loan subject 
to Treasury drafts about £1,400,000 sterling, or $7,000,000, with which 
if properly managed we can meet all of our wants until cotton comes 
out in abundance. If on the contrary no letters are received from 
you by either of these mails, or they continue to retain the control in 
Major Huse’s hands, this contract will be carried out to the loss of 
many millions of dollars to our people and Government. In this latter 
event my contract will not be needed, and I shall immediately close 
it up and dispose of the three steamers now building and return home. 
Indeed, before my interview with Mr. Mason I had prepared a letter 
to him insisting upon closing the contract with Collie and myself, 
whith I intended to deliver if he adhered to his determination of not 
taking any action in the matter. This letter, however, was of course 
not delivered. I have nothing to add except that from this statement 
you will be able (knowing what your advices are) to form an idea as 
to the action that I will take within the next four weeks. 

In the meantime having entire confidence that some provision will 
be made out of the loan to meet the wants of the Quartermaster’s 
Department, I have suggested to Major Ferguson the propriety of 
his placing a portion of his orders in the manufacturers’ hands to be 
paid for on delivery, and that if no Treasury drafts are received that 
I will furnish him all the aid that I can to pay for and send them 
forward. 

I remain, yours, very respectfully, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 
JULY 3, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Str: [had this pleasure 22d of June (duplicate of which is inclosed*) 
and continue without any of your favors. In this I am quite disap- 
pointed, as I learn from letters received a few days ago that my advices 
to the 18th of April, including duplicates of those by M. L. Hobson of 
30th of March, had been received. As already advised, being without 
funds and Mr. Mason being unable and Major Huse unwilling to assist 
me, I could see no hope of being able to furnish cargoes for the Diana, 
and therefore arranged with Mr. Collie to take her for his private 
venture account and to let me have the one that is to succeed her, he 
having contracted for it. He therefore loads the Diana and she 
leaves next week. I regret it exceedingly, but embarrassed as I am I 
could do nothing more. The one that I am to receive in her place 
will soon be launched, and I can but continue to hope that full advices 
will soon be received from you in time for her, though if reports be 
true Major Huse is about concluding a contract for the delivery of 
supplies to be paid for in cotton, which will supersede the contract 
with Messrs. Collie & Co. and myself. Not being in the confidence of 
Major Huse, I do not know the terms of the proposed contract, but if 
it be to allow 20 per cent. profit in the goods and 10 per cent. on the 
cotton, as I hear it is, I look upon it simply as a swindle that ought 
not to be put upon our Government. I have done my duty as I under- 
stand it by telling the Hon. Mr. Mason what I have heard and express- 
ing to him my opinion of it, but having no evidence as to the facts he 


* Omitted, it being an illegible press copy. 
40 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


626 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


says he can do nothing. He also says that all of the money arising 
from the Erlanger loan has been appropriated, and that as the quarter- 
master’s supplies ordered through Major Ferguson are much needed 
they must be had even upon these terms if better cannot be done. 
It is exactly this that I complain of, that since this contract has for 
its basis exactly the same that you proposed, and for a small advance 
too much compensation is to be made, whereas if there had been a 
disposition to carry out your wishes on the part of Major Huse these 
goods might now be in the course of shipment, but unfortunately, in 
my opinion, for our Government this contract of mine is now not to 
the interest of Huse to carry out. 

I am, however, unnecessarily taking up your time, as before this 
reaches you action of some sort will have been taken by you. "The 
fear I have is that if you desire me, in reply to my letter of 3d May, 
to go on with my arrangements as there requested, and will send me 
Treasury drafts with which to work, that there will be no money in 
the Treasury. I wait patiently, however, the receipt of your advices, 
and in the meantime will go on sending off the balance of the pro- 
visions from Liverpool, as the draft of Colonel Gorgas is to be paid 
to-day, I understand. 

Permit me in conclusion to call your attention to the inclosed cor- 
respondence with General McRae. To my last letter I have no reply, 
but Mr. Schroeder informed me yesterday that Erlanger had directed 
him to pay the draft upon Major Huse’s authority, and that he received 
the authority last evening and would pay the draft. Comment on 
such action of an officer of our Government is unnecessary, and I 
omit any. 

I remain, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


JULY 4, 1863. 

P. S.—I understand that the charges being made at the islands 
(both Nassau and Bermuda) are excessive and out of all character, 
and if I knew what your wishes were as to the carrying out of my 
contract I would send out and try to remedy it, but in my present 
uncertain position I can and shall do nothing until I have advices 
from you. If I am to go on, I will immediately go to vork and try to 
arrange the business to be carried on at the islands, as well as in this 
country, on a more economical basis. ; 
W. G. C. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


292A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, June 13, 1868. 
General MCRAE: : 


Str: As Mr. Mason informs me that some provision has been made 
for the prompt payment of a draft held by Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co. 
on Major Huse, and drawn by Colonel Gorgas, ordnance officer of our 
Government, for £22,500 sterling, and as it is very important that no 
time should be lost in sending forward the provisions bought for our 
Government, and which cannot go forward until this draft is paid, I 
take the liberty of inquiring when Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co, may 
expect payment of it. 

Yours, most obediently, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 627 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 
; PARIS, June 24, 1868. 
Capt. WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, 
22A Austin Friars, London: 


Str: Your letter of the 13th was duly received. Not until yester- 
day was I able to make arrangements for taking up the draft of 
£22,500 referred to in your letter. I have now paid that sum to Maj. 
ae Huse for the purpose of taking up the draft of Colonel Gorgas 
on him. 

Regretting the delay that has occurred in this matter, 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for the Loan. 


P. 8.—I think it proper to inform you that it will not be in my 
power to make you any further payments from the proceeds of the 
loan except on warrants regularly issued from the Treasury Depart- 
ment. 

C. J. McR. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 3.] 
JUNE 29, 1863. 
General C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for Confederate Government Loan: 
(Care Hon. John Slidell, Paris. ) 


Str: Your favor of the 24th instant came duly to hand, informing 
me that you had paid to Maj. Caleb Huse £22,500 with which to pay 
Colonel Gorgas’ draft on him for that amount. Several days after it 
was to hand I received a letter from Major Huse to Mr. C. H. Bosher 
requesting him to call on Messrs. J. H. Schroeder & Co. for payment 
of the draft. This letter I handed to Messrs. A. Collie & Co., who 
sent it to their bankers with a request that they would collect the 
draft. Messrs. Cunliffes & Co. report that on presenting the draft 
they were informed by Messrs. Schroeder & Co. that they will be pre- 
pared on the 2d of July to pay to C. H. Bosher £22,500 on Mr. Bosher’s 
signing receipt in triplicate for the amount, by order of Major Huse. 
Now, it is very well known to Major Huse that Mr. Bosher has returned 
to the Confederate States, and that before doing so he purchased for 
our Government provisions to the value of over £40,000 in the name 
of Messrs. Alex. Collie & Co., and that he left this draft with them 
to be used in part payment of said purchases. All this Major Huse 
knew very well when he wrote to Schroeder & Co. to require Mr. 
Bosher’s receipt in triplicate, and it is only additional evidence that 
he will resort to any trick he can to prevent the carrying out of the 
orders of the Hon. J. A. Seddon, Secretary of War. I hope it will 
be your pleasure to take such further action as is necessary to have 
this draft paid without further delay. I take due note of your post- 
script informing me that it will not be in your power to make me any 
further payments from the proceeds of the loan except on warrants 
regularly issued from the Treasury Department, and in reply I beg to 
assure you that I have entire confidence that I will be very soon either 
in possession of such drafts or relieved of my connection with the 
Government, as I wrote to the Honorable Secretary of War on 6th of 
May that I would not longer hold position in connection with Huse, 
because I did not believe that he had the interest of our Government 
at heart. 

I remain, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


628 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 4.] 


BAD REPPALDSAW, GRAND DUCHE D’BACH, 
July 2, 1868. 


Capt. WILLIAM G. CRENSHAW, 
No. 22A Austin Friars, London : 


DEAR SiR: Iam just in receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo 
informing me of the conditions on which Major Huse ordered the 
draft of Colonel Gorgas for £22,500 paid. I regret that the major 
should have embarrassed the matter in this way, and have written 
him a letter which, I hope, will induce him to cause the draft to be 
paid without further delay. I will return to Paris early next week, 
and if the draft has not been paid will endeavor to have it paid at 
once. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
: _C. J. MCRAE. 


[Inclosure No. 2.} 


22A AUSTIN FRIARS, LONDON, 
July 4, 1863. 


Hon. JAMES M. MASON: 


Str: Having heard that Maj. Caleb Huse is about to conclude a 
contract for furnishing our Government with various supplies to a 
very large amount, and believing, from what I can hear of the pro- 
posed contract, that if it is carried out it would result in enormous - 
loss to our Government, but yet if rejected by it, as 1 believe it would 
be, upon the ground that Major Huse had no authority to make it, 
may embarrass our Government and give rise to reports that it had 
repudiated the action of an officer whom heretofore it had indorsed, 
and to this extent injure the credit of our Government, I hasten to 
eall your attention to it and protest against Major Huse entering into 
such contract, because it is in direct conflict with the contract made 
and signed in March last by Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. and 
myself with you as the representative of the Hon. James A. Seddon, 
Secretary of War, in accordance with his letter to you. And in thus 
offering my protest I beg leave to add some of the reasons why such 
a contract should not be entered into, in my opinion, and especially 
why it should not be entered into at this moment, viz: 

First. Major Huse is now, as I understand, under charges for mal- 
feasance in office. 

Second. Maj. C. Huse is aware of the contract existing between 
Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co. and myself and the Secretary of War 
for furnishing Government supplies, and has orders to confer with and 
aid me in carrying out said contract. 

Third. Maj. C. Huse, instead of carrying out his orders, has, after 
trying to prevail on me to cancel the contract, thrown every obstacle 
he could in the way to prevent me from carrying it out, as is evi- 
denced by his letters, which I had the honor to submit to you; by his 
action with regard to Colonel Gorgas’ draft in favor of C. H. Bosher, 
with which you are furnished, and especially in trying to substitute 
the contract against which I now protest in place of it. 

Fourth. I confidently advance the opinion that it is not to the inter- 
est of our Government to make such a contract as is now proposed, 
because it pays to the contractors 20 per cent. profit on the goods and 
10 per cent. on the cotton upon the same basis of our contract—that 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 629 


is, exchange cotton for goods—while the contract with us stipulates 
only to be paid on each a commission of 25 per cent. for the same 
service, except that I understand the contractors propose to make 
some advance until cotton comes out. This has been done already to 
some extent by Messrs. Alexander Collie & Co., and would have been 
to a much greater but for the action of Major Huse toward us. As I 
shall presently show, such an advance is not necessary; if it is, it 
could be had on much more advantageous terms than Major Huse 
now proposes. 

Fifth. The pressing wants of the moment which are not provided 
for are the orders for the Quartermaster’s Department placed in the 
hands of Maj. J. B. Ferguson, jr., and it is to meet these wants that 
Major Huse insists upon entering at once into this contract, involving 
the expenditure of many million pounds sterling, at a loss of 30 per 
cent. on the whole amount. Now, I insist that it is very absurd to 
suppose that the Honorable Secretary of War is going to dispose of all 
the funds arising from the Erlanger loan without making any provis- 
ion for these supplies, although most of them were ordered six months 
ago. Onthe contrary, I have entire confidence that special drafts on 
the loan will be sent forward and will be here long before the goods 
are ready for shipment. In the meantime Major Ferguson could go 
on placing his orders in course of execution at once, and there would 
be no more delay in obtaining these supplies than if Major Huse was 
to make this contract. 

Sixth. According to Major Huse’s own statement to me he has been 
obtaining heretofore very large supplies on credit from Messrs. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co., on which he assured me they only charged cost and 
24 per cent. commission. Then why pay now 30 per cent.? Is the 
- eredit of our Government not quite as good as heretofore? On the 
contrary, does it not stand higher than it ever did before? 

Seventh. Major Huse informed me, about the 25th of April last, 
that he had just written him fully as to the condition of Government 
business here and the conflict of orders, and the necessity of definite 
orders from the Department. I informed him that I would in a few 
days pursue the same course and give the Department my views 
fully on the subject. This I did on the 3d of May, and these letters 
being of such a character as to insure immediate replies, we may 
reasonably expect such definite advices within two or three weeks as 
will leave all the Government agents here without any doubt as to 
the wishes of the Department. It therefore, in my opinion, betrays, 
to say the least of it, indecent haste in Major Huse to insist upon 
closing this large contract on the eve of advices from home, which, 
in my opinion, will take from him even the show of authority which 
he now professes to have, but which I deny that he does possess, 
because it would be in direct violation of the orders from the Honor- 
able Secretary of War. 

I therefore beg to repeat distinctly and positively my protest 
against Major Huse’s execution of this contract until sufficient time 
has elapsed to receive replies to the letters he informed me he had 
written to the letter I wrote, and the letter you wrote the 3d of May to 
the Honorable Secretary of War on the subject of my contract; and 
while this protest is made personally to you, because it was to you 
that I came to this country accredited, yet I shall deliver a copy of it 
also to Colonel Lamar, one of our commissioners, and another to 
Major Huse, and will be pleased if you will acquaint Hon. Mr. Slidell 
and General McRae of its contents. 


630 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


’ Having thus laid before you the facts as I believe them to exist, I 
now respectfully submit the whole matter to you for such disposition 
as you may deem most conducive to the interests of our Confederacy. 

I remain, very respectfully, your most obedient, 
WM. G. CRENSHAW. 


[Inclosure No. 3.] 


JUNE 11, 1863. 
W. G. CRENSHAW, Esq.: 


DEAR SIR: When in conjunction with yourself I undertook the very 
onerous duty of purchasing and fitting out various steamers for your 
Government, in which we were to be partially interested, I did so 
with the hope that I might be of some real benefit to the Government, 
in the expectation of receiving from the officers of the Government 
here all the aid and assistance it was in their power to give. Cireum- 
stances have occurred recently, however, which render it impossible 
I ean any longer continue the business which has been inaugurated 
between us on behalf of the Government, and I shall now state briefly 
the causes which have led me to this determination. When Mr. 
Bosher arrived here he had an interview in my office with Major 
Huse, at which you and I were both present. Mr. Bosher at that 
interview showed Major Huse a draft on him at sight, drawn by Col- 
onel Gorgas, for £22,500 sterling, specially for the purchase of provis- 
ions. Major Huse said this draft was made against Commissary to 
Isaac, Campbell & Co., from Bermuda, and that in a few days he would 
arrange that the draft should be paid. As the wants of the Confed- 
erates of food for the Army were at that time very pressing, Mr. 
Bosher proceeded immediately to Liverpool to learn the price and 
quantity of bacon, &c., to be found in that market, and while there 
Major Huse wrote to him that Colonel Gorgas’ draft for £22,500. 
would be paid on presentation to Isaac, Campbell & Co. On this 
faith I authorized Mr. Bosher to purchase food to the value of 
£40,000, which was done on my credit. Soon after this I heard it 
stated that Major Huse did not approve of the arrangement Mr. 
Seddon had made with you, and that he would oppose in every way 
the fulfillment of it, but I did not believe that, as an honorable man 
and an officer of the Confederate Government, he would refuse to pay 
Colonel Gorgas’ draft after having stated twice that he would pay it. 
To prevent any unpleasantness I wrote to him several days before 
passing the draft through our bankers, and received noreply. I con- 
cluded that the matter was all in order. On our bankers’ clerk pre- 
senting the draft he states that he was treated by Mr. Isaac, of Isaac, _ 
Campbell & Co., as if he had been a pickpocket, and to the application 
of our bankers to Major Huse direct, that officer informed them that 
my conduct in putting forward the draft at all was very unwarrant- 
able. I beg to state to you in the strongest manner, and have to 
request that you will send this statenfent to your Government, that 
such conduct on the part of Major Huse is not only unbusinesslike, 
but discreditable and disgraceful in the highest degree; that it is not 
only a violation of good faith, which is disgraceful to him as an 
individual, but that it is also discreditable to those who continue to 
be connected with him. Therefore, as I find it impossible to put any 
confidence in Major Huse, and as he has been appointed to the chief 
command here of the Ordnance and Quartermaster’s Departments, I 
must ask you to relieve me of any further co-operation with you on 
behalf of the Government, and to arrange as speedily as possible the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 631 


terms on which the business already put forward can be adjusted. 
Had Major Huse asked time, or stated that he was not able at pres- 
ent to meet the draft, I would most willingly have met his wishes 
in this respect; but having recently learned that he has purchased 
from Isaac, Campbell & Co. 50,000 rifles at 15 per cent. to 20 per cent. 
each above the market price, and that he is to pay cash for them (Mr. 
Spence is my informant), I can come to no other conclusion than that 
Major Huse has other reasons than want of money for refusing to pay 
Colonel Gorgas’ draft and to conducting his business as an honorable 
man would do. I regret very much being obliged thus to terminate 
the very pleasant relations which have existed between us, especially 
as I believe that had they gone on much real good would have resulted; 
and I must add that yoware the only man I have met with from the 
other side who seems to be capable of properly carrying on such a 
business; but I am sure you will agree with me in believing and in 
acting on the belief that no business can be satisfactory when the 
party who has chief control sets at defiance the ordinary rules of 
honorable business. 
I am, dear sir, yours, very truly, 
ALEX’R COLLIE. 


[JuLyY 10, 1863.—For Seddon to Whiting, in relation to organizing 
men of Wilmington, N. C., for local defense, &¢., see Series I, Vol. 
Nesey LL. Part, I1,.p; 993.) 


—————————$— 


RICHMOND, VA., July 11, 1868. 
Governor VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 
Your letter received and shall have attention. Referring to reports 
from the eastern part of the State, have to request that if practicable 
you bring into service as many of the local defense or of the militia 


troops as have been organized. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


——_—_ 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 165. Richmond, Va., July 13, 1563. 
* * * * * * *k 
XXV. All soldiers detached from the Army and detailed in Rich- 
mond will be temporarily connected with companies organized by the 
several departments and bureaus in the city, and be subject to all 
military duty. 
* *% *f *f * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 14, 1863. 
G. D. Moors, Esq., and Others, 
Commissioners, Atlanta, Gra.: 
GENTLEMEN: Your letter of the 2d instant has been received. The 
Department is pleased to hear of the efforts being made to secure a 


632 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


conference among the commissioners from the respective States rela- 
tive to the delicate and important duties with which they are charged. 
Such consultation cannot fail to prove beneficial by securing greater 
uniformity and general concert as to prices. If the price could in 
justice be made uniform, it would, of course, on the score of conven- 
ience and facility of application be preferable, and besides, by general 
semblance of equality, preclude many existing complaints. Still, the 
difference in the costs of production and transportation in different 
parts of the Cenfederacy are so great that such perfect uniformity 
would seemimpracticable. As near approximation to it as equity will 
allow and the extension of the same rates over wide districts are 
deemed advisable. Wherever it is possible striking disparities in 
prices between contiguous districts, especially in different States, 
should be avoided as the causes both of dissatisfaction and evasion of 
the law. These suggestions are made with deference, as the knowl- 
edge and experience of the commissioners speciaily directed to the 
subject will enable them to judge, perhaps, more correctly than the 
Department. Instructions to secure observance of the rates fixed will 
be given as desired. 
Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 14, 1868. 
Governor J. G. SHORTER, 
Montgomery, Ala.: 


The disasters of Vicksburg and Port Hudson render necessary the 
use of all possible means to protect your State. Can you not: adopt 
measures to induce the array of all your arms-bearing population for 
defense? 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 14, 1868. 
Governor J. E. BRown, 
, Milledgeville, Ga.: 

The disasters at Vicksburg and Port Hudson render necessary the 
use of all possible means to protect your State. Can you not adopt 
measures to induce the array of all your arms-bearing population for 
the defense of the northern portion of Georgia ? 

JAMES A. SEDDON. 


RICHMOND, VA., July 14, 1868. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C:: 


GOVERNOR: [I regret that an accident has so long prevented an 
answer to your letter of March 31 in reference to the enrollment of 
certain State and corporation officers in North Carolina; but I trust 
that no serious embarrassment has resulted to you from my delay in 
replying, as the attention of the chief of the Bureau of Conscription 
was promptly called to the matters discussed in your letter, and the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 633 


commandant of conscripts for the State was ordered to defer to you in 
every case where it could be done without positive infraction of law. 
In enforcing the enrollment of conscripts it has been my desire to 
comply as far as possible with the wishes and views of the Governors 
of the several States in all cases where there seems to be any fair 
doubt as to the intention of Congress as expressed in the several acts 
relating to this subject; but where the law-making power has plainly 
declared its will the Executive has no discretion, and must simply 
enforce the law. In eases of individual hardship, the, President is 
authorized to interfere with an order of special exemption; but with 
regard to classes of citizens the case is different. The Congress has 
explicitly designated those classes whose continued occupation with 
their ordinary pursuits seemed necessary to the well-being of society, 
and has at the same time declared that the danger to the country from 
its armed enemies is so great as to demand the presence of all other 
citizens within certain ages in the field. If, after trial, their legisla- 
tion appears to have been without proper regard to the true interests 
of the community, in forcing into the Army classes of people whom a 
wiser policy would have retained at home, they will probably remedy 
the evil at future sessions. Meanwhile I am not justified in interfering 
with a full execution of their enactments. Such a course would not 
only be an evasion of a fair trial of the wisdom of the laws, but would 
imperil the successful issue of the war by withholding from the Army 
men who have been by the competent authorities declared subject to 
military duty. The Government has asserted no claim to conscribe 
the militia officers of the States in actual commission, and the com- 
mandants of conscripts have been so instructed. I have also fully 
recognized the exemption of all State executive and judicial officers 
not made liable to ordinary militia duty by the laws of the States 
themselves. In the particular case of constables and justices of the 
peace in North Carolina, about whose liability to service there were 
conflicting opinions, the enrolling officers were directed to suspend 
action until conference could be held with you and the laws of the 
State could be examined. I have not considered it within my power 
under existing laws to extend a general exemption to the police of 
the corporate towns, but in some instances organizations in the char- 
acter of home guards have been allowed to remain free from conscrip- 
tion temporarily, on condition of rendering local military service when 
called on by the commanding general. It was supposed that many of 
the policemen would become attached to these companies and thus be 
enabled to attend to their ordinary duties during most of the time. 
As some months have now elapsed since your letter was written, and 
as the officers of this Government have always been instructed to 
confer fully with you, and to insist upon a rigid construction of the 
laws only where it appeared necessary, it is hoped that all difficulties 
have been satisfactorily adjusted. 
Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


————EEEEE 


Nassau, NEW PROVIDENCE, July 14, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 
Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt through Mr. L. G. 
Watson of your communication of the 20th ultimo, informing me that 
this gentleman has been selected as the agent of Crenshaw & Co. in 


634 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the execution of an important contract with the War Department, a 
copy of which has been exhibited to me, laying down also certain 
rules for my guidance in the prosecution of the contemplated enter- 
prise, and commending Mr. Watson to such good offices as I may be 
able to render in carrying into effect the objects of his agency. Per- 
mit me to assure you that nothing shall be wanting on my part 
toward contributing to the success of this undertaking. 

Mr. Watson has just left me after a long and frank interview, in 
which I have fully explained all the salient points to be considered in 
conducting the business on a safe and prudent basis; that is, more 
especially with reference to the loading and running of the boats, 
points on which I feel entirely competent to offer an opinion. It will, 
furthermore, be my pleasure to render Mr. Watson every aid and 
facility in my power. The Venus is the only boat of the line that has 
yet come out, and she is now momentarily expected from Wilmington. 
On her arrival I shall select from the Government stores on hand a 
sufficiency to make up a fair portion of her cargo. During the last 
sixty days I have been shipping freight by nearly every steamer, pay- 
ing a contingent rate of £30 per ton, or its equivalent, on delivery. 
Pending the period of extravagant transportation—that is, from £45 
to £60 per ton, payable in advance—I refused to ship a package, feel- 
ing persuaded that this course would meet your approval. 

About the middle of May I received a requisition from General 
Beauregard for 300 tons of armor plates, and of so pressing a charac- 
ter that I compelled every steamer to take some. In this way I have 
got rid of about 350 plates, averaging 1,432 pounds each—say about 
225 tons—leaving only 75 tons to make up the requirement. I advised 
the Navy Department of this arrangement, the iron, as I was informed, 
being under the control of that Department, and having received no 
intimation to the contrary, I presume that my course was approved. 
Whether I should feel justified in continuing these shipments, in the 
face of the contract made by you, is open to some doubt, though it 
must be borne in mind that steamers can only take a certain amount 
of such heavy material; and if, therefore, I conclude to make up the 
quantity at once, it will not, I trust, be taken as evidence against me 
not to stand up to your instructions, as embodied in the document 
submitted to me by Mr. Watson, but will be excused rather on the 
plea of the very urgent necessity which induced General Beauregard 
to write that I could render no more valuable service than by secur- 
ing the prompt transportation of this iron, and thus enable him to 
complete the harbor defenses of Charleston. 

Colonel Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, has from time to time sent me — 
orders for the purchase of block tin, and has latterly most urgently 
[called | for a supply of lead. In conformity with his request I pur- 
chased all the lead on the spot, and during last week shipped thirty- 
five tons by four different steamers. It seems obvious that Colonel 
Gorgas desires to divide the risk, and I therefore adopted the course of 
sending in small quantities by each conveyance. If there was a large 
supply here I would not hesitate to ship the remaining forty tons by 
one boat, but my present intention is to divide it up into four ship- 
ments. I need not allude to the orders that constantly reach me from 
other departments, intending of course to dispose of them hereafter 
in the manner assigned by you, and which, the Government being the 
owner of the largest share of the new line, is obviously the best and 
cheapest mode. But in view of the facts above cited—and they are 
far from embracing all in which my judgment and discretion are 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 635 
ay 


repeatedly appealed to—it will be a satisfaction indeed to receive the 
benefit of your approval and to know that if always under great 
reserve I feel impelled to assume responsibility, you will not withhold 
your sanction after frank explanation of the motives that dictated my 
action. 
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER, 
Government Agent. 


—————__—__ 


PROCLAMATION BY THE PRESIDENT. 


Whereas, it is provided by an act of Congress entitled ‘‘ An act to 
further provide for the public defense,” approved on the 16th day of 
April, 1862, and by another act of Congress approved on 27th of Sep- 
tember, 1862, entitled ‘“‘An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to 
provide further for the public defense,’ approved 16th of April, 1862,” 
that the President be authorized to call out and place in the military 
service of the Confederate States for three years, unless the war shall 
have been sooner ended, all white men who are residents of the 
Confederate States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years 
at the time the call may be made, and who are not at such time legally 
exempted from military service, or such part thereof as in his judg- 
ment may be necessary to the public defense; 

And whereas, in my judgment the necessities of the public defense 
require that every man capable of bearing arms between the ages 
aforesaid should now be ealled out to do his duty in the defense of 
his country, and in driving back the invaders now within the limits 
of the Confederacy : 

Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate 
States of America, do, by virtue of the powers vested in me as afore- 
said, call out and place in the military service of the Confederate 
States all white men residents of said States between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five years, not legally exempted from military 
service, and I do hereby order and direct that all persons subject to 
this call and not now in the military service do, upon being enrolled, 
forthwith repair to the conscript camps established in the respective 
States of which they may be residents, under pain of being held and 
punished as deserters in the event of their failure to obey this call, 
as provided in said laws. And I do further order and direct that the 
enrolling officers of the several States proceed at once to enroll all 
persons embraced within the terms of this proclamation not hereto- 
fore enrolled. And I do further order that it shall be lawful for any 
person embraced within this call to volunteer for service before 
enrollment, and that persons so volunteering be allowed to select the 
arm of service and the company which they desire to join, provided 
such company be deficient in the full number of men allowed by law 
for its organization. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States of 
America, at the city of Richmond, this fifteenth day of July, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. 

[SEAL | JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

By the President: 

J. P. BENJAMIN, 
Secretary of State. 


636 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 15, 1868. . 
Col. JOHN 8S. PRESTON, 
Columbia, S. C.: 

COLONEL: It is most important to secure the promptest and most 
efficient execution of the law of conscription througheut the Confed- 
eracy, and to this end the Department is most anxious to place in 
charge of the whole subject at the central sub-bureau here an officer 
of high ability and known repute. The officers heretofore in charge 
have been temporarily detached from the Army and have perhaps 
naturally considered the duty as in some measure incidental, and it 
may not therefore have commanded their exclusive direction and 
their full energies. The requisite qualifications are found concen- 
trated in yourself, whose able administration of your special depart- 
ment has attracted the attention and secured the commendation of 
all acquainted with it. Trusting to your zeal and patriotism for 
whatever sacrifice, if any, of your tastes and preferences it may entail, 
I seek your acceptance of this position, and shall feel greatly relieved 
both from personal responsibility and solicitude for the public service 
by your assent to assume the general direction of one of the most 
important branches of the public service. 

With high esteem, very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


AvuaustTa, July 15, 1868. 
Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance: 

Permission is asked of the Secretary of War to muster into the 
Confederate service the city companies of Augusta for its special 
defense to serve in times judged threatening during the war and 
exempted from all other military calls. 

GEO. W. RAINS, 
Ineutenant- Colonel. 


HbDQRs. VOL. AND RECRUITING BUREAU, ARMY OF TENN., 
Chattanooga, July 15, 1868. 
Colonel KEWELL, 
Chief of Staff: 

I inclose an order* from General Bragg directing the functions of 
this bureau to be resumed in the enforcement of the conscript law; 
also directing me to report by letter to General Johnston. My head- 
quarters will be established at Marietta, Ga., to which place I shall 
repair in a few days. 

I also transmit an application to organize the population of North 
Alabama, Middle and West Tennessee, including stragglers and 
deserters from the Army, into the cavalry arm of the service. To 
this I invite the immediate attention of the general. If it receives 
his approval I will immediately visit him in person and fully explain 
to him my plan of operations, from which I have confident expecta- 
tions of the most signal success. I would be glad to be informed 
whether the officers of the Richmond bureau will still continue their 


* See Series I, Vol. XXIII, Part II, p. 912. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 637 


operations in the department independently. If they are not placed 
under the orders of this bureau conflicts are again likely to arise 
between the two and misrepresentations made to the War Depart- 
ment in ex parte statements. I have drawn all the officers under me 
south of Tennessee River and I am rapidly reorganizing for the work. 
General Bragg has ordered a small regiment of cavalry to the assist- 
ance of the bureau, but until the large bands of deserters that infest 
the mountains of North Alabama are broken up I shall need addi- 
tional force. Iam surethat there are at least 5,000 deserters banded 
together in those mountains. 

The importance of early action in this matter induces me to send a 
special courier. I hope it will receive the immediate attention of the 
general and that I shall receive by the courier, Colonel Lockhart, 
instructions from the general. 

Respectfully, 
; GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brig. Gen., C. 8S. Army, and Chief of Bureau, Army of Tenn. 


{Inclosure No. 1.] 


CHATTANOOGA, July 14, 15638. 


Brig. Gen. W. W. MACKALL, 
Chief of Staff, &c.: 

If the general commanding can place at my disposal a body of cav- 
alry to cover and protect my work, I propose to enter Tennessee— 
West and Middle—and organize as cavalry all the population of those 
divisions of the State that can be drawn into the service. I am sat- 
isfied a large body of troops can thus be gotten up who will otherwise 
be lost to the service for the balance of the war. My application 
embraces the stragglers from the Army as well as the citizen popu- 
lation. These stragglers in Tennesse cannot be reached and drawn 
out except in this way. The simple question to be decided is 
whether as a matter of policy we had better get these men into the 
service as cavalry or lose them altogether. Both Congress and the 
President have sanctioned the principle of recovering in new com- 
mands stragglers in the special law passed legalizing the organiza- 
tion of Major-General Hindman in the Trans-Mississippi Department, 
in which were embraced many stragglers from the Army of 'Tennes- 
see. I would not of course desire to undertake a service of this 
kind, except with the view of providing a command, if successful, for 
myself. This force kept in Tennessee would not only protect that 
country, but by operating upon the enemy’s line of communication 
with his base of supplies, and harassing his rear and forcing him thus 
to weaken his front in order to keep up his line, would give material 
aid to General Bragg’s army in any future movement forward. If I 
undertake this service I should deem it essential to success to have 
entire control, under the commanding general of the department, of 
all organizations within those regions. I comprehend in my plan of 
operations the organization of that part of Alabama north of Ten- 
nessee River, and to be allowed the services of all supernumerary 
officers of that portion of the Army of Tennessee from that section 
of the country. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, &e. 


638 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Indorsement. ] 


This movement can be covered by the cavalry force of Colonel 
Roddey in North Alabama, and promises important results. 
| BRAXTON BRAGG, 


General. 
[Inclosure No. 2.] 


CHATTANOOGA, July 14, 18638. 
Brigadier-General MACKALL, 
Chief of Staff: 

Being advised by General Bragg that the Government has ordered 
this bureau to be restored to its former functions and to be carried 
under the orders of the department commander, General Johnston, I 
deem it my duty to bring to his attention the necessity of being pro- 
vided with an adequate supporting force or of being allowed to organ- 
ize myself such supporting force, 

The cavalry with which I was enforcing the conscription law was 
withdrawn when the bureau was suspended in its work. The conse- 
quence has been a great increase of stragglers, who now infest the 
mountains of North Alabama, and who are so formidable in numbers 
and so thoroughly armed and organized as to hold the citizen popula- 
tion in terror of their displeasure. They rob, burn, and murder the 
unarmed and defenseless population of the country with impunity. 
As a general thing, they have been joined by the tory population, 
who were liable under the conscript law. They thus constitute a 
force with which the officers of this bureau can do nothing unaided 
by a supporting force of cavalry. But for the work of this bureau 
having been suspended, this evil to the service would have been 
cured before it grew to such formidable proportions. Its suspension 
was considered by the men placed by it in the Army as an evidence 
of the displeasure of the Government. They believed they were 
wrongfully put in the service, and as a necessary consequence they 
deserted in large numbers, carrying with them their arms and ammu- 
nition, and have now become a terror to the whole of the eleven 
counties—North Alabama—infested by them. Noman is safe in pass- 
ing along the public roads. The peaceable citizens are shot down at 
their daily labor in the fields. They burn up the property of those 
who condemn their course of conduct where they have no opportu- 
nity of other revenge. I performed great labor and added vastly to 
the strength of the Army of Tennessee, and instead of receiving the 
commendation I was visited by the censures of the Government. 
Under circumstances so discouraging I could hardly be expected 
again to go willingly into the work, but as my sole object has been to 
be useful to the country in this great struggle, I will again resume 
that work if allowed the supporting force so essential to success; 
otherwise it would be useless for me to undertake ~it. My small 
squads of officers and cavalry have been driven from the mountains 
and some of my men killed. . 

If these deserters are arrested again and sent to the Army of Ten- 
nessee, as many of them have been a second, third, and even fourth 
time, they will not stay. I therefore strongly recommend that they 
be sent to the Army of Virginia. They cannot get back from that 
army as easily as they do from the Army of Tennessee, operating so 
near their homes. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
General, C. S. Army, and Chief of Bureau, Army of Tennessee. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 639 
‘{(Indorsement. ] 


I deem the views of General Pillow important and prompt action is 
necessary. 
BRAXTON BRAGG, 
General. 


RICHMOND, July 16, 1865. 
Lieut. Col. N. D. COLLINS, 
Capt. H. J. PRICE, 
Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: In conjunction with Colonel Richardson, now operating in 
West Tennessee, and with his indorsement first obtained, you are 
authorized to raise within the enemy’s lines a regiment of partisans 
to act near and on the banks of the Mississippi River in obstructing 
the communication and transportation of the enemy thereon. When 
the regiment is formed and the muster-rolls of the companies filed in 
this office, Lieut. Col. N. D. Collins will be appointed colonel, and 
Capt. H. J. Price lieutenant-colonel, the majority to be afterward 
filled, by appointing a suitable officer. 

The company officers will be elected and copies of the election 
returns should be forwarded for file in this office. 

By command of the Secretary of War. 

SAM. W. MELTON, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


TO THE PEOPLE OF GEORGIA: 


The late serious disaster to our arms at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, 
together with General Bragg’s retreat with his army to our very bor- 
ders, while they are no cause of despair of our ultimate success, if 
we are true to ourselves and place our trust in God, admonish us that 
if we would protect our homes from the ravages of the enemy it is 
time for every Georgian able to bear arms to unite himself without 
delay with a military organization, and hold himself in readiness at 
a moment’s warning to strike for his home and the graves of his 
ancestors, with an unalterable determination to die free rather than 
live the slave of despotic power. Tens of thousands of our citizens 
have volunteered for the war, and those of them who have not been 
slain or disabled are still risking everything for our success in distant 
fields on the borders of the Confederacy. On account of the near 
approach of the enemy to the interior, the call is now upon those at 
home, who have made comparatively little sacrifice, to volunteer to 
defend their habitations and property, and the homes and families of 
their neighbors who are in the Army, against the threatened attacks of 
the enemy. Is there a Georgian able to bear arms so lost not only to 
patriotism, but to all the noble impulses of our nature, that he will 
in this emergency refuse to take up arms for the defense of his home 
and his family when the enemy comes to his very door to destroy the 
one.and insult and cruelly injure the other? If there be a Georgian 
possessed of so little courage and manliness, let his fellow-citizens 
mark and remember him. If he hides himself behind some legal 
exemption, as a mere pretext to avoid duty, let him be exposed to the 
censure he deserves; or if, in his anxiety to make money and become 
rich, he turns a deaf ear to the promptings of patriotism, and would 


640 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


sacrifice his liberties to his avarice, let him be exposed with indignant 
scorn to public contempt. The time has come for plain talk and 
prompt action. All that is dear to a people on earth is at stake. 
The best efforts of every patriot are required to save our cause from 
ruin and our children from bondage. We are determined to be a 
free people, cost what it may, and we should permit no man to remain 
among us and enjoy the protection of the Government who refuses 
to do his part to secure our independence. If all our people at home 
will organize for home defense, and the Secretary of War will issue 
and enforce such orders as will compel the thousands of persons in 
Confederate service, who, on account of the wealth of parents or 
political influence, or other like causes, are now keeping out of the 
reach of danger, as passport agents, impressment agents, useless 
subalterns connected with the different departments, including other 
favorites of those in position, stragglers, &c., many of whom are 
suspected of riding over the country at public expense, engaged on 
private speculations—enrolling officers in counties where the officers 
are exempt are almost as numerous as the conscripts now in the 
counties subject to enrollment—and the host of officers in uniforms, 
and others who are daily seen in every city, town, and village, and 
upon every railroad train, and in every hotel in the Confederacy, to 
return immediately to their respective commands in the field, we 
should soon have armies strong enough to roll back the dark cloud 
of war which now hangs over us, and drive the invaders from our 
soil. 

By reference to the general order herewith published it will be seen 
that a draft will be had on Tuesday, the 4th day of August next, in 
each county in this State which neglects or refuses to furnish the 
quota of men required of it. Though some few of the counties have 
exhibited too little interest, I cannot believe that: a single one will 
have its character stained by the necessity for a draft for men to 
_ defend their own homes. To those counties which have nobly and 
promptly responded, and especially to those which have tendered 
much more than their quota, I return my sincere thanks. 

While the militia officers of this State have generally responded 
promptly and willingly, I regret to hear that some of them, in contra- 
diction of all the professions they have made that they remained at 
home for home defense, now refuse to volunteer. To all such I hereby 
give notice that if they fail to connect themselves as volunteers with 
the organizations now called for, and to enter the service, as invited 
in my proclamation calling for 8,000 troops by the 4th of August next, 
the protection of the State against conscription will be withdrawn 
from them, and they will be turned over to the enrolling officers under 
the conscript act. If, however, any militia officer when approached 
by the conscript officer will make an affidavit that he has not heard of 
this proclamation or had notice of it, he shall have five days from 
that date within which to join one of the companies now called for asa 
volunteer. This rule does not embrace any one connected with the 
staff of the commander-in-chief, as they are expected to hold them- 
Selves in readiness at all times to obey his orders, and are not expected 
to join these companies. All justices of the peace and constables are 
subject to the same rule as militia officers, as their offices are not now so 
important that they cannot be spared to do local and temporary service 
in the defense of the State. In protecting State officers against con-- 
scription I have acted upon what I consider an important principle. 
If any of them now refuse to aid in the defense of their homes it will 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 641. 


be proper that the State withdraw this protection from such in future. 
Let no one despair of our ultimate success. We should not expect to 
be victorious upon every field. The splendid achievements of our 
armies in the past have made us an historic people, and have clearly 
foreshadowed the final triumph of our arms and the future glory and 
grandeur of the Confederacy. Such a people, inhabiting such a 
country, and having such mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, need 
only be true to themselves and humbly trust in Almighty power to be 
invincible. 

Given under my hand and seal of executive department this 17th 
day of July, 1863. 


| SEAL. | JOSEPH E. BROWN. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 16. Milledgeville, July 17, 1868. 


The commander-in-chief having heard with regret that some of the 
counties in this State have not made preparations to respond to his 
eall for 8,000 men under the late requisition of the President for 
home defense, orders > 

1. That the commander of each regiment and independent battalion 
of the militia of this State, in each county that has not filled the 
requisition made upon it, order every man under his command whois 
between eighteen and forty-five years of age to assemble at the regi- 
mental or battalion drill ground on Tuesday, the 4th day of August 
next, and that at 11 o’clock on that day he form them into line and 
read, or have read, the Governor’s proclamation of this date and 
this order, after which he will invite them to volunteer to the num- 
ber required of the county. If they refuse to volunteer, then 
he will proceed to draft the number required of the county 
by placing in a hat the names of all persons within the limits 
of his command, of the ages aforesaid, who are not in the actual 
military service of this State or the Confederate States, or in one of 
the companies formed or forming under this call, whether they are 
present or not. And he will cause to.be drawn out of the hat indis- 
criminately one-third more names than. will fill the requisition, to 
take the places of such as may be drawn among the number required 
who are not able to do service. No one will be discharged, however, 
who cannot satisfy the commanding officer that he is unfit for as 
much as two weeks’ active duty at one time. When the number is 
full, the last names drawn which are over the quota, after those 
unfit for service have been deducted, will be dropped from the list, 
having with the number who have volunteered the quota required. 

2. When there are two regiments or independent battalions in a 
county, the commanding officers will meet prior to the day fixed for 
draft and agree, if they can, what part of the quota each is to fur- 
nish. If they cannot agree, each will draft the number required, if 
he has so many, and when the names are returned to headquarters 
with facts the number will be apportioned by returning such part of 
the men drafted by each as will equalize the burden and fill the 
quota. The fact that a person within the ages mentioned is not from 
any cause subject to be taken into active service as a conscript does 
not exempt him from draft by the State for home defense. If he has 
procured a substitute or has procured an appointment under some 
Confederate officer having but little duty to do, to keep him out of 
conscription, or if he is an unnaturalized foreigner and is living 


41 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


642 CORRESPONDENCE, ETO. 


under the protection of our Government and. laws, in these and all 
like cases he is bound to defend his domicile, and liable to be 
drafted by the State and compelled to do so. 

28 When the number drafted is not sufficient with the volunteers 
in the county to form a company, their names will be sent to these 
headquarters and they will be distributed among such companies as 
may be most convenient. 

4. As the law of Congress prohibits the President from ordering 
the troops organized under this call out of the State without their 
consent, and authorized them in their muster-rolls to prescribe the 
limits within which they are to serve, all volunteers will be accepted. 
with this privilege, provided they will in each case prescribe a reason- 
able boundary within the State, not more than one-fourth of its terri- 
tory, which they will engage to help defend. All companies formed 
of operatives in factories or workmen in Confederate or State machine- 
shops, or other railroad employes, and all persons engaged. in the 
manufacture of iron, if they can form a company of forty-four men, 
may limit their service in their muster-rolls to the particular locality 
of their employment, and they will be accepted for such local defense 
and in no case ordered out of the county without their consent. 

5. Neither ministers of religion, telegraphic operators, justices of the 
inferior court, nor county agents charged with the duty of relieving 
the necessities of soldiers’ families, not exceeding two of the latter 
to each county, will be drafted under this order for home defense. 

HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


3 RICHMOND, July 17, 1863. 
Lieut. Col. GEORGE W. RAINS, 
: Augusta, Ga.: 

CoLONEL: In answer to your telegram of the 15th, the Secretary 
of War directs me to say that no authority can be given which will 
intervene between any party and his liability as a conscript. You 
are authorized, however, to organize local companies under General 
Orders, No. 86, current series, composed of men not liable to or in 
any manner exempt from conscription, including detailed men and 
men employed in Government works. Upon receipt of the rolls, 
accompanied by certificates of election of the officers, or recommen- 
dations for their appointment, in accordance with paragraph IX, com- 
missions will issue. A copy of the order is inclosed.* 

Very respectfully, &e., 
; S. W. MELTON, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[JuLY 17, 1863.—For Bonham to Davis, in relation to President’s 
proclamation of July 15, see Series I, Volo LIMp:-2914 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 17, 18638. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: oma’ 
Mr. PRESIDENT: The General Assembly of Virginia on March 7, 
1862, passed an act directing the enrollment in certain cities of the 


* See p. 602. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 643 


Commonwealth of all white male inhabitants of the same between the 
ages of sixteen and eighteen and forty-five and fifty-five years, and 
constituted the persons so enrolled ‘‘the second military class,” sub- 
ject to be called out by the Governor in whole or in part ‘‘whenever 
in his opinion it shall be necessary for public defense.” (See Session 
Agts 1861-62, pp. 44, 45, 46.) Concurrent with your requisition upon 
Virginia for 8,000 militia for State defense, this ‘‘second military 
class,” by orders from the Governor, was called into the service of the 
State, and the organization of one regiment in the city of Richmond 
(of ten companies), nearly 1,000 strong, was perfected on the 12th 
instant, and the nucleus of another obtained. Since the proclamation 
of Your Excellency extending the conscription to forty-five years 
there is no military power left in this State with which the Executive 
may be enabled to ‘‘suppress insurrection and enforce the execution 
of the laws” but this ‘‘second military class” (see constitution of 
Virginia, art. 5, sec. 5), in no wise liable to Confederate authority, 
but, on the contrary, conscripted into the service of Virginia; yet the 
Executive of this State has interposed no obstacle in the way of any 
of this class (who preferred to do so) to join any organization author- 
ized by act of Congress, where such person had not been already 
enrolled and was actually a component of a perfected organization 
under State laws; nor am I advised that a different rule will be 
adopted in the future, but it will occur to Your Excellency that it 
cannot be allowable to permit companies, raised and commissioned in 
pursuance of the law referred to, to be interfered with as in the case 
about to be brought to Your Excellency’s notice. Since the regiment 
referred to has been commissioned, officers of the Confederate Gov- 
ernment, in disregard of law and without consultation with or the 
approval of the Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, and doubtless 
without your knowledge, have seriously impaired its strength by ~ 
recruiting from its ranks companies of their own authorized by Con- 
gress to be raised for the same object which demanded the call for the 
‘‘second military class.” The result has been that one company has 
been reduced since the regiment was put in commission by the 
abstraction of fifty men, and another has lost nearly its whole num- 
ber; and it will be readily seen by Your Excellency that at this rate 
the first regiment of the ‘‘second military class” will shortly cease to 
exist. It is only necessary to call the attention of Your Excelleney 
to the matter of complaint to insure your prompt correction of the 
mischief likely to be produced and the immediate return of the men 
to their proper command. 

With sentiments of cordial esteem, I am, Mr. President, Your Excel- 
lency’s obedient servant, 

S. BASSETT FRENCH, 
Colonel and Aide-de-Camp. 


_ This letter has been delayed awaiting instructions of the Governor, 
who is absent from the city, and is now respectfully forwarded by his 
direction. 

med Be Ga a 


[First indorsement.] 


SECRETARY OF WAR: ; 
There seems to be some misapprehension, which you will please 


correct, 
ha RLDs 


644 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


AUGUST 11, 1863: 


No men are enrolled for local defense. “They volunteer, and those 
of the militia are entitled so to do. ; 
J. Aes 
Secretary. 


Ce 


RICHMOND, VA., July 18, 1563. 
His Excellency Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 


GOVERNOR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of the 9th instant informing me of your efforts to raise the 
7,000 men I recently called for, and asking me to receive as part of 
this number certain companies already organized by you for local 
defense. The Secretary of War has been directed to receive the com- 
panies offered, and to credit them to the State, in compliance with 
your request. Your zeal and energy are so well known and so highly 
appreciated that I am induced to hope that you will succeed in 
organizing the full number ealled for, though you do not now expect to 
be able todo so. Your failure to obtain the desired legislation shows 
how slow our people are to realize the necessities of the country. 

Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[JULY 18, 1863.—For Davis to Bonham, explaining terms of procla- 
mation of July 15, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 292. | 


———————. 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, July 18, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


In connection with the letter of Major Huse of June 12, inclosed for 
your perusal, I beg respectfully to say that as Major Huse has 
requested Hon. C. J. McRae to audit the account of S. Isaac, Camp- 
bell & Co., with a view to its settlement, and General McRae has 
entered upon an adjustment of the loan with a view to placing the 
credit of the Government on the best footing and of realizing present 
means for its use, I respectfully recommend that he be furnished with 
the copy of agreement with S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. for settlement 
of their debt, made here, which is inclosed; that after deducting the 
£100,000 in cotton, as therein provided, and such other sums as may 
have been paid, that he be authorized to draw upon the Erlanger loan 
in such manner as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct for a suf- 
ficient sum to settle the balance of said debt. The cotton going out 
in our steamers will then be released, and can be used to meet present 
wants. Being relieved entirely from this debt, our agents will then 
purchase in open market and generally for cash. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance, 


Please return letter of Major Huse. 


ee: . CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 645 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 
PaRIs, June 12, 1869. 
Col. J. GORGAS, | 
Chief of Ordnance, Richmond: 


COLONEL: Your communication dated May 6, inclosing copy of your 
instructions to Superintendent Burton, was handed to me by Mr. 
Burton yesterday. I regret that it will not be practicable for me to 
furnish Mr. Burton with the funds he requires for perhaps some time 
to come. The whole question of finance for the War Department on 
this side the water-is full of difficulties. It has lately received care- 
ful attention from Mr. McRae, the agent of the Treasury Department 
for the loan, and he has manifested every desire to co-operate cor- 
dially with me to the extent of his power. After fully conferring with 
him I have addressed a letter to him, a copy of which will, I think, 
afford you the best means of understanding the true position of 
affairs. I accordingly insert it in full: 


25 GRANDE RUE, PARIS, June 11, 1863. 
C. J. McRag, Esq., 
Agent for C. S. Loan, Paris: 


Sir: In compliance with your request I have the honor to confirm in writing 
that I have made arrangements, by order of the C. 8. War Department, which 
require the sum of, say, £592,000. Of this sum £580,000 are now due, and the 
remaining £12,000 will be due in August. As the punctual payment of the above 
is very urgent and necessary to maintain the credit of the Government, I 
respectfully request you to pay the same out of the installments of the Confeder- 
ate loan. Of the £580,000 now due £65,000 are for cannon, leather, and other 
ordnance supplies, which I expected to pay cash for from the proceeds of the cot- 
ton shipped from time to time by the Chief of Ordnance. By the arrangement I 
am now making I am depriving myself of that source of funds for some time to 
come. I beg, therefore, that you will provide me with money to this amount at 
the earliest possible date. The remaining £515,000 are due to S. Isaac, Campbell 
& Co., London. As security for the payment of their account I have deposited 
with them cotton warrants representing, say, £100,000, and.8 per cent. bonds for 
$2,000,000. Upon these securities Messrs. Erlanger & Co. have advanced to 8. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. the sum of £90,000. Messrs. Erlanger & Co. have further arranged 
with S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. to take over their entire account. Please reim- 
burse Messrs. Erlanger such amounts as may be due to them on the final 
settlement of their account. The cotton warrants and 8 per cent. dollar bonds 
they will return to S. Isaac, Campbell & Co., by whom they will be given up to . 
me. These securities and all money that I may receive from any source on 
account of the Confederate States Government I will turn over to you, to be held 
until the amount of payments made for me under this arrangement shall be cov- 
ered by proceeds from sales of cotton and Treasury drafts drawn in my favor. I 
further suggest not to make any new purchases on Government account until 
these claims roe satisfied, except with your previously obtained approval. 

Iam, &c. 


It was not without careful deliberation that I determined upon this 
course. By adopting it my hands will be tied forsometime. I trust, how- 
ever, that relief will soon be afforded from Richmond. This can de done 
by providing me with drafts against the loan for the amount of the 
account assumed by Erlanger & Co. The loan is notin that favorable 
condition you doubtless consider it to be. It would not be proper for 
me in an official communication to the War Department to enter upon 
matters that relate to the Treasury Department. It will be sufficient 
for me to say that in Mr. McRae I find a clear-headed man, desirous 
of doing everything in his power to promote the interests of the Goy- 
ernment. It has been thought best by both Mr. McRae and myself 
to definitely close up all outstanding accounts, and until that is 
accomplished nothing can be done in the way of making new contracts. 
I beg to suggest that a certain definite portion of the proceeds of the 


646 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


loan be set aside on this side for the War Department. Let that be 
placed in the hands of either Fraser, Trenholm & Co. or Mr. McRae; 
then let me go on with the business here as rapidly as the funds on 
hand will permit. Such a plan would render all cotton available at 
once; for as matters now stand, Erlanger & Co. having assumed the 
account of Isaac, Campbell & Co., no matter what may be the con- 
dition of the loan, a draft against it will be perfectly good to reim- 
purse Erlanger & Co. If the Secretary of the Treasury could be 
induced to give up the entire control of whatever portion of the loan 
he may determine upon for the use of the War Department to Fraser, © 
Trenholm & Co., or Mr. McRae, I am quite certain that either one of 
them would be able to facilitate the dispatch of business very consid- 
erably. Erlanger & Co., having assumed S. Isaac, Campbell & Co.’s 
account, I shall take care that none of the proceeds of cotton are given 
to them. They must look to the loan for their reimbursement. Still, 
no one has any right, as matters now stand, to appropriate any of the 
loan, and no matter how much cotton I may receive, I cannot make 
use of it until warrants are received from the Treasury Department 
to cover the amount assumed by Erlanger & Co. It is proper for me 
to state that I have desired Mr. McRae either to audit S. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co.’s account himself, or to appoint some person to do so. 
This course seemed to me necessary, for if the examination of my 
accounts were left to be done in Richmond without at least a prelim- 
inary examination in England by a competent and duly trusted per- 
son, the result might not prove satisfactory either to the Government 
or to myself. 

I hope that the delay in Mr. Burton’s business will not be serious. 
I have already obtained from the manufacturers he expects to employ 
full estimates of the cost of the machinery for a complete establish- 
ment such as Mr. Burton has in view. These estimates I shall of 
course place at the disposition of Mr. Burton. I have also an offer 
of sale from the London Armory Company of their entire plant, now 
in successful working order. Theadvantage of making this purchase 
would be that it would save several months of delay. However, I 
presume Mr. Burton is fully impressed with the views of the Ordnance 
Bureau and will carry them out to the best advantage. It will afford 
me great satisfaction to co-operate with so competent a person, and 
one for whom I have for several years had so high a regard, as Mr. 
Burton. 

I have examined the lists of supplies required for the War Depart- 
ment and find that a large proportion of them have already been 
shipped, and I trust that they will soon be received. 

I have in two communications referred to the Crenshaw contract. 
I trust that those communications, dated April 17 and May 16, were 
received, none of the steamers by which they would be likely to have 
been forwarded having been captured. It is utterly impracticable to 
earry out this contract, and it has been a source of great embarrass- 
ment tome. Mr. Crenshaw has been provided with £55,000 by Mr. 
Mason at a time when the creditors were really clamorous. This 
money has been invested in ships over which no officer can have the 
slightest control, and which, for the want of money to purchase car- 
goes, can only be used for the benefit of the private owners. I am 
aware that there is some Government freight on board one of them, 
but this, so far from being advantageous, is quite the reverse. None 
of the small steamers calculated for coast work ought to take cargoes 

across the ocean. All that they can properly do is to carry coal for 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 647 


the voyage. The result of the contract thus far has been to provide 
the house of Alexander Collie & Co. with a capital of £55,000 in| 
steamers of which the Confederate States Government is to pay 
three-fourths of theexpense. Major Walker writes to me for another 
steamer. I have for some time been desirous of adding another, or 
even two, to the fleet, but it is impossible under present circum- 
stances. In fact, the working of the two lines seems to me impossible. 
I trust that some adjustment of the difficulty will be made in Rich- 
mond. Ihave in my letter of April 17 pointed out the impossibility 
of securing the co-operation of Mr. Crenshaw. Major Walker for- 
wards from Bermuda requisitions made on him for leather, stationery, 
and other supplies. Large quantities of leather are now en route. 
Stationery to a considerable amount has also been sent, which, though 
not perhaps of the exact pattern desired, will satisfy the most urgent 
necessities of the department for some time to come. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

CALEB HUSE, 
71 Jermyn Street, London. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


Memoranda of proposition for settlement of the debt due by the Gov- 
ernment of the Confederate States of America to Messrs. 8. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co., London. 


We propose to receive from the Government as an installment the 
sum of £100,000, payable in cotton located at Savannah, Augusta, 
Macon, and Columbus, Ga.; Montgomery, Ala.; Charleston, Colum- 
bia, Cheraw, Camden, 8. C., and Charlotte, N. C., the value of the 
cotton being calculated at 6 pence per pound for an average of mid- 
dling qualities. The same to be placed on a footing with Government 
cotton, to be entitled to same preference in transportation to the 
ports, and be delivered when called for, after reasonable notice at the 
places named, and in such proportion at each place as may be most 
convenient. The Government will remit shipments of cotton to 
Europe, paying to Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. such sums from 
the proceeds of the cotton as will liquidate balance of said debt by 
the Ist day of January next, first payment commencing on or about 
the Ist of September next. The Government will have the option at 
any time up to time of final payment to pay such sum as may remain 
due in cotton at 4 pence per pound, subject in all respects to the fore- 
going stipulations as to the cotton first proposed to be delivered. 

S. ISAAC, CAMPBELL & CO. 
WILLIAM BATTERSBY, . 
Attorney. 


RICHMOND, June- 4, 1863. 
I respectfully recommend the acceptance of this proposition. 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 
Approved and accepted. 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


It is understood the above cotton is subject to export duty. 
, S. ISAAC, CAMPBELL & CO. 
W. BATTERSBY, 
Attorney. 


648 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


COLUMBIA, 8. C., July 20, 1863. 
Mr. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

My DEAR SiR: This morning I received your note of the 15th of 
July tendering to me the place of chief of the Bureau of Conscription. 
Without a moment of hesitation I accept the place, because my duty 
is to attempt to do that I am bidden to by the authorities of my coun- 
try. While, therefore, for this reason I do not hesitate, I confess to 
you I tremble lest the habits of my past life may not have duly pre- 
pared me for the administration of so wide and delicate a portion of 
the public policy. I am encouraged by your kind commendation of 
my slight efforts in my limited sphere, and I will attempt this graver 
duty, trusting to my earnest zeal and industry to retain your approval. 
One week will serve to put my offices in shape for my successor, and 
I will have the honor of reporting in person on the Ist day of August. 
I beg you to accept the expression of my sincere appreciation of the 
evidences of personal kindness manifested in your note. 

Iam, with high esteem, very truly and respectfully, yours, &¢., 
JOHN 8S. PRESTON. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 98. \ Richmond, July 20, 1863. 


I. All white male residents of the Confederate States between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five not exempted by law, and not already 
in the service, will be enrolled. Persons liable to enrollment may be 
enrolled wherever they may be found. 

II. The first paragraph of General Orders, No. 86, current series, is 
so amended as to read as follows: 

Companies, battalions, and regiments composed of persons not 
within the age of conscription (eighteen and forty-five) will be ac- 
cepted as volunteers throughout the Confederacy, under the act of 
August 21, 1861, No. 229, for local defense and special service. 

Those persons belonging to such organizations who are of conscript 
age, and neither exempted by law nor already in the service, will be 
discharged and reported tothe Bureau of Conscription for enrollment. 

III. The following regulation will be in addition to those heretofore 
published in regard to substitutes: 

Hereafter every person furnishing a substitute in accordance with 
existing regulations shall become liable to and be immediately enrolled 
for military duty, upon the loss of the services of the substitute fur- 
nished by him from any cause other than the casualties of war. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, July 20, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Sir: The voting population of the State of Florida had never pre- 
vious to the commencement of the war exceeded 12,800; and as near 
as ascertained within a fraction of 15,000 citizens of Florida have been 
mustered into the Confederate service. When a requisition for 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 649 


troops was made from the State the Hon. J. P. Benjamin, then Sec- 
retary of War, promised, in a letter dated February 14, 1862, that 
any excess over the amount required should be credited to the State 
in any future requisition. The excess was 2,200, and therefore Flor- 
ida might claim to be relieved from the late requisition, but the faith 
of the State is pledged to sustain the Confederate Government in the 
maintenance of the war to her last man and musket and with all the 
means of the State. The pledge was solemnly made, and to the utmost 
of my ability shall be honorably redeemed. Our muskets and arms 
of every kind (except eighteen muskets) have long since been placed 
in the hands of soldiers in Confederate service; but candor compels 
me to say that I apprehend there are not in the State 1,500 men 
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five capable of bearing arms, 
excluding those whom, I regret to say, have substitutes in the Con- 
federate service. Florida contains an area of 59,268 square miles, 
which is 1,268 square miles larger than Georgia; and between the two 
there is no comparison in population. Owing to the peninsular posi- 
tion of the State and its sparse population, communication with its 
citizens throughout its area is rendered more difficult and requires a 
much longer period to effect it than in a more centrally situated and 
densely populated State like Georgia. With such an amount of ter- 
ritory and so small a population scattered over it, and with unavail- 
able militia laws, you may readily believe that it is a physical 
impossibility to raise 1,500 men in the time required—even if the 
number is in the State—unless they shall volunteer freely, as they 
should do, but which I have much reason to believe they will not. do. 
I do not ask to have the State relieved from the requisition, but I do 
ask that the time may be extended to the Ist or 10th of September, 
and in the meantime I will cause all that can be raised to be mustered 
into the Confederate service as soon as ready, and will exert all the 
power I possess to get them ready as soon as possible. 

The correspondence between the Hon. David L. Yulee, the presi- 
dent of the Florida Railroad Company, and myself has been submit- 
ted to your consideration, and in connection with it I now submit 
copies of a letter expressive of the views of your predecessor, the 
Hon. G. W. Randolph; anorder of Brigadier-General Trapier; the pro- 
ceedings of the late Executive Council, and of the trustees of the board 
of internal improvement fund in relation to the removal of the iron 
from parts of that road. The views of Brigadier-General Trapier and 
of Brigadier-General Cobb are on file in your office, and herewith I 
hand you those of General Beauregard. I knowof no man reason- 
ably claiming to be an officer of military experience, or to have 
received a military education, who has expressed an opinion at vari- 
ance with the position maintained by me that the connection of the 
two railroads alluded to, and the extension of the Pensacola and 
Georgia Railroad to Chattahoochee, are necessary to the defense of 
the State. Canthe Confederate Government obtain the iron neces- 
sary from any other source than parts of the Florida Railroad ?~ Is 
not the iron on the portions of the track of that road alluded to in 
the correspondence liable to be seized and destroyed, or used for the 
subjugation of that portion of the State, unless the troops in East 
Florida can be largely re-enforced? Has the Government troops to 
spare to re-enforce them? These are matters worthy of considera- 
tion and prompt action. It is true that Brigadier-General Finegan 
ugrees with Mr. Yulee. The simple question is, Shall what is neces- 
sary to the defense of Florida be ordered agreeably to the views 


650 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


expressed by those highest in authority, and to whom the welfare of 
the State has been confided, or shall the State be left defenseless in 
~ compliment to Mr. Yulee’s and General Finegan’s opinions? 
I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, April 3, 1862. 
His Excellency JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida, Tallahassee, F'la.: 


Str: I have been informed that the line of railroad connecting 
Cedar Keys and Fernandina is now comparatively valueless to the 
Confederacy in consequence of both termini of the road being in 
possession of the enemy. Under these circumstances I should be 
pleased to receive your views of the expediency of removing the 
iron and telegraph wire, and if you concur with me in opinion I will 
direct the general commanding in Florida to have the rails and wire 
removed. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
G. W. RANDOLPH, 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. PROVISIONAL FORCES, 
DEPT. OF MIDDLE AND EAST FLORIDA, 
No. 90. Sanderson, March 10, 1862. 


Captain Buckman, First Florida Battalion, with his company is 
hereby charged with the special duty of removing the iron from the 
track of the Florida Railroad and the Jacksonville Railroad as the 
trains on the latter shall cease running. The iron will be trans- 
ported to the junction of the Tallahassee Railroad and the proposed 
Georgia connection, the cross-ties, &c., burnt. Captain Hickman, 
assistant quartermaster, will furnish the transportation. 

By order of General Trapier: 

R. H. ANDERSON, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[ Inclosure No. 3.] 


SPECIAL ORDERS, HDQRS. PROVISIONAL FORCES, 


DEPT. OF MIDDLE AND EAST FLORIDA, 
No. 108. Tallahassee, March 18, 1862. 


Special Orders, No. 90, is hereby modified as follows: The iron from 
the Florida Railroad will not be taken up south of Callahan, and all 
the iron removed from this road will be placed at Baldwin. The iron 
from the Jacksonville road will be placed at Lake City. 

By order of General Trapier: 

R. H. ANDERSON, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


NotE.—The foregoing order is in progress of execution by Captain 
Lesley, substituted for Captain Buckman, to whom Order No. 90 was 
directed. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 651 


[Inclosure No. 4.] 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, March 13, 1862. 


RESOLUTION OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL PASSED MARCH 4, 1862. 


Resolved, That the Governor be authorized to have taken up such 
portions of the railroad iron on the Florida Railroad, when the troops 
shall have been removed from Fernandina, as the public security 
demands, and remove the same to a place of safety. 

Adopted. M. D. Papy, Wiggins, and Simpkins voted yea. 

A true copy from the minutes. Attest. 

EK. BARNARD, 
Private Secretary of His Excellency John Milton. 


E. Houstowun, Esq.: 


General Trapier having ordered the iron taken up from Fernandina 
to Baldwin, you are requested to send the trains necessary to assist 
in moving the rails as they are taken up to a place of safety beyond 
the reach of the enemy. General Trapier has authority from the 
Government. 

JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 
By E. BARNARD, 
Private Secretary to His Excellency. 


[Inclosure No. 5.] 


Hpgrs. DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, 
Charleston, S. C., July 6, 1863. 
His Excellency JOHN MILTON, 
Governor, Tallahassee, Fla.: 


Str: Your favor of the 29th ultimo has been received, inclosing your 
correspondence with Brigadier-General Finegan and Hon. D. L. Yulee 
relative to the removal of the iron from parts of the Florida Railroad 
and its appropriation for other purposes. After a careful perusal of 
the correspondence, which I have inclosed to the War Department 
for its information and consideration, I can but express my unqualified 
approval of the position you have assumed—that the connection of the 
Albany and Gulf Railroad with the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, 
and the prolongation of the latter to the Chattahoochee—are indis- 
pensable to the proper defense of the State of Florida. Where the 
required iron should come from is a question that the State and Con- 
federate governments alone are competent to decide, but your views 
on the subject appear to me to be conclusive. 

Hoping that a spirit of pure patriotism will open the eyes of all 
concerned to the necessity of prompt action in measures so vitally 
important to the safety of your gallant State, 

I remain, with high consideration, your obedient servant, 
G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
General, Commanding. 


GENERAL ORDERS, Apst. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 99; Richmond, July 21, 1863. 
I. The following schedules of prices for articles named therein, 
adopted by commissioners appointed pursuant to law for the State 


652 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of Virginia, are announced for the information of all concerned, and 
the special attention of officers and agents of the Government is 


directed thereto: 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 


RICHMOND, July 18, 1863. 


Secretary of War: 


Sir: The commissioners appointed under section 5 of the bill recently passed by 
the Confederate Congress regulating impressments, being required to agree upon 
and publish a schedule of prices every two months, or oftener if they should 
deem it proper, in accordance with the foregoing requisition we respectfully lay 
before you the following schedules of prices, marked A and B, for the ensuing 
month. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory information as to pork, 
we have postponed the appraisement till our next assessment. 

Mr. William B. Harrison was again invited to act as third commissioner, and 
it is proper to add that the schedules of appraisement received the unanimous 
approval of the commissioners. 

The following schedules present the maximum prices to be’paid for the articles 
appraised at all cities and usual places of sale, and when impressed elsewhere 
the same prices are to be paid elsewhere, less the cost of transportation to the 
city or usual place of sale to which the article would go ordinarily for sale from 
that neighborhood, or less the cost of transportation to the point at which the 
Government needs the article and wishes it to be sent, provided that in no case 
the amount deducted for transportation as above shall exceed 25 cents per bushel 
for grain and 25 cents per hundredweight for long forage, flour, bacon, iron, &c.; 
in addition to the established price of transportation, the Government to pay all 
legal tolls; and where farmers cannot procure nails for baling forage, Govern- 
ment to furnish the same at cost, which will be deducted from the established 


price of baling : 


SCHEDULE A. 


Article. Quality Description. Quantity. Price 
Wahehttee set etitenion sce tte ‘Prime eeeaseee White ..2.scescees Per bushel of 60 puunds..| $5.00 
PIOUS Aes scacccsoneins seer Good 22s 222-4 Superfine .........| Per barrel of 196 pounds..| 25. 00 
COPE, Coser cee es eee Prim6... - 2-25 W hite..: 222 cgca es Per bushel of 56 pounds .. 4.00 
Washelled cornice. o2-a.eeee olee ees a Ss dO seal shoe nal eee dO 6352 ees ee 3.95 
Wormemealie a. nseccee = eee GO0d Wa. - ca wlns|es chee cece auetemecn Per bushel of 50 pounds .. 4, 20 
WStee ceticact sean ee emir PLUMO ccoa- oo sles a eteee ee es arate yee Per bushel of 56 pounds .. 3. 20 
Cleaned oats: sc coc euss se aale ste Oss este Sel etal. eee Pose etc Per bushel of 32 pounds -. 2.00 
Wheat Ovan.. .. cts. ance stances OO Moos hee cele enorae eee cer nese Per bushel of 17 pounds -. . 50 
SHOPS 220s oe one aser see eels Ochre a calenet ae eee scene Per bushel of 22 pounds -. .70 
[Brow mi stull cc. fue seer cis eel sees OR Sees ite all sare tate coral nate ators Sere Per bushel of 28 pounds .. . 90 
Shiprstull css tere eer ee els eee dOsosc scren keen Reemoreaaa cea Per bushel of 37 pounds .. 1. 40 
Bacon Per pound 235-2252 eeneee 1.00 
RULE DOE Key aie eaiae a cls mae ees sae AO net catante tee ge Skee a cee ee meet mace WIRRena space scesi sc: 1.00 
Wand esse wis te coiwcieins Saviciow Sec fers “UO ass tale olen aitiesens eco ae eee] caelard dO 22.2.0 552 eee 1. 00 
HVOTSES Sto. Salah cssces ons First class....| Artillery, &c..-.. | Average price per head..-| 350. 00 
VIVO Gaeoncee camnece ene acta? BP ee sales ‘Washed t2 22522. -- Per pound .-2--.-- = eee 3. 00 
DOR e rene rc sot sees ee eal do Sasseeer Unwashed........|....- dO 222... 55s = see 2. 00 
Peas hiech - Miss ccctwaseweneee OOK 72% 3s seals pos ae reseanee oem ke Per bushel of 60 pounds .. 4. 00 
IBGalS feces ose ses cce oe eisels Sel eieeyee UO'eee oc: ot lecweee ae tenor cece a ecees CO 22200 - So eee eee 4.00 
Potatoes’ S255. tocar stenss eee |e (LO Seeckeee Trish hap ssbh eee Aales ces do's... AE ES eee 4.00 
Oye Sajaie’s e atsectattets aie srerate!|siomete CO rons aieias Siweebifscecsecee cscs Os. 2.20s bee See eee 5. 00 
Omniongs- 2+: ctece-sceecnaoeee Soaps GO ces encss| tosate sca s ce eae e | ances do’. 25.05.2242 5. 00 
Dried peaches ....:.......-..|.--.- O02. see os Peeled ce ccs tee 2 Per bushel of 38 pounds .. 8. 00 
OleeLees Giaen cece eental emcee do .+.-.... Unpeeled: -.-5-.2.|25 4.5 do's ae 2 2 aya 4, 50 
Dried tapplesar-s--en-snceneer|saeee dor seas. CEG Sacaogeacs. Per bushel of 28 pounds -. 3. 00 
Hay; baled f2.258% 259 2. suas fetes dO Rs ivece Timothy orclover.| Per 100 pounds ........... 3. 00 
DOP ce cascsce siesce etree laces Oa wserre ars Orchard or herd |..... RRR ese ccisic 3. 00 

grass. 

Pa eM DAL Soc acini cmiinae ec conlncae: 0 % ne sae lsat COM cccccwewsicst crac OY. 3.0. occa case eee 2.70 
Sheaf oats, baled ............]....- AO. dose hallnsesene scence cee ateelicae2 dO 2. .sec'seccedoeteneee 4,00 
Sheaf oats; unbaled’....0. 2. 23/se2 dover. el ieee sneeocasescicel eter 0 \.-petlen Jase teeters 3.70 
Blade fodder, baled..........|....-. O's Miss Fe Soe cee e meee eae ees ser dO ve.cvecns ee ne nee 3. 00 
Blade fodder, unbaled .......|..-.- dO ee | ee eee ota |aiaties 2.70 
Sbucksabaled @eecucncse- «cee qe se MOF aah dein clee meres soe tieme sae 2. 00 
Shucks, unbaled........1....|2.... Oe SO Rae eee cmatae eae 1. 70 
Wheat straw, baled..........|....- 0 jee sod! al eerie tts crm wie eros 1. 00 
Wheat straw, unbaled.......|..... CO es eooe eal eae ermine as oars cf .70 
aS DIATOM cece emcee ose | see CO. see ces 3. 00 
DO mececteteseee eee sae SUperioris.sssiacees d 4.00 
Domeitaceene vere cee asce.s First rate 5. 00 
DOwewewbaeaee tees cee i tics Good Ss aee2- 5. 00 
DO sede ee ees eee Sees oie SUPeLIOl..-= sa] aeeee d 6. 00 
DO eteer resem eae conan: First rate do 7. 00 
Sales C sc SAGE Ee al ode Good)s a. 5359. eee eee: Per bushel of 50 pounds .. 5. 00 
OAD. « cogqscs chuneaetbeanecakiecome dO 62 oaths. seer mae oe Per pound <is0c-<. 2 seen .40 
Candles..... WievaeveateKeuewls¢un- QOS sosesee AL SLOW 0-3 Risin s sel awaen GO eee soace ah Game 1,00 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 653 


ScHEDULE A—Continued. 


Article. Quality. Description. Quantity. Price. 
SWATIOPAN wise uc chsne cade onesie (OOH Eases er Cider. -2 2 --- «=.= Per vallonv.ccscecess te ts $1. 00 
EMIS EV ceciis caters osce ns e-p%|- <= 2 (OER oon Trade-.,...\. a er Oe One cadenae vtansr step 3. 00 
SUTRA ose sod de cob onsdoncca ss) Eras dO°t2 2522 Brown:-:2:..2+~-.| Per pound /...5.0 45225 228 1.00 
Molasses .-26245.-+2+--2-----fosee- Rs We Pee New Orleans ..... Per gallons 51. <c0-<-s=se-: 8. 00 
IRI: Saves JecsoonceeposeuraoaGoeee (Mise Scbebal SSAA onepoadessbocer Por pounde-sssece =o ea ete - 20 
WatleCee ee aa aoa aie vag ail sine GOs 6 RIO eee. eee ese seco ae QOt ee a eee 3. 00 
eet ee breieene = soo. -eninss-- 2-15 sen GO. pecs cas TAMGL tac ote ee slings OO ta pone te seaes asears 7.00 
PVINO@aP —o een ee enes- << e5sn0|---+- dOiceansces Manufactured ....| Per gallon ...--...---- oes . 50 
Pig iron 2. 5-.2--..--< 2 2+---5|-<++- €0.2 ine. a> No. 1 quality ..... Per ton 2252 S4ekse- ee. 125. 00 
DO eee ilocin maces Son ie =seiinsase One tenes No. 2 quality -....|.---- CG Joes poesia oma aca 110. 00 
Uy SUA SR eh Bd Sees renee eames AQ" exa ees No.3 quality’. .:..|.-.-- AO ee oan das sein teres 100. 00 
Piooni iroll..—5- -.<+-622-- 2 ~- -|--= >= CO Boegemic- |e s28 cEidenceg weed os <fuini nn GO ee tadlaeseisé Caste soc 180. 00 
Smith @1f0n ~..---- cece e=-|--2-- Ce eine te plate, and |..... WO te oe san see dees coe se 380. 80 
ar. 
UGE Gb 3 soe o6edenn saree DE Oae Eaaee do jist o-ce: Harness ...---.--- P6r DOUNG 6 esse deers = ar 2. 60 
(i) cgpe Sue BaceoReeLOe es mer aoes BU) eactioalse (OS) Bem badbadessea|asode Ome cenacet cae comme 2. 40 
HOR em ene oats Soe eiscicecia-|sa0- = overs Jae Te) PPOL ee atceteectarre [eine a GO ocbodapadssibasssdcds 2. 80 
Reetueanbloreemectcn spe ass le 21-.- dO ceeeeee Gross weight..... Perms100 pounds 4..-.--5---2- 16. 00 
DO\~ sear eral evap eee aie’ = oie Superior. ss cat. sac- Ove ee See eine? (LO SAU AAP AS ed ae 18. 00 
JOD) cic RARE CaD ees Eee Sb abe eras | ater-i- GO) Sascmoedonne «ERs ik eces ences mae ane 20. 00 
SINGH) Nene bens eee dooeeTonee aee Neh eS abe aed Pers Gadeeee tacit a eres setae ote ieee ee > eal 30. 00 
Army woolen cloth, 3-4 yard..| Good ....---.- 10 ounces per yard.| Per yard........-.-------- 4.50 
Army woolen cloth .......--.|----- Wd) Gueeooes Pro rata as_ to |...-.. (iG) Se obademDeeeorrenaca|bocerare 
greater or less 
width or weight. 
Army woolen cloth, 6-4 yard..|---.- Ge Rescue. 20 ounces per yard.|.-.-... dO ee eseenaes ss eee eee 9. 00 
Army woolen cloth ..-...-----|----- GIGEs stsas Pro rata as to |.-... Gh aah dasa cenenSrEaeons|acatsc: 
greater or less 
width or weight. 
IRNHOIG, G=Sen. ve saeec atoecc sls a= e's AO! fetus 3+ 6 ounces per yard |.-.... COA atet ce eset awee ces 3. 00 
Cotton shirting, 3-4......----]----- AO serene - 44 vards to pound |....- dOsateeescece eee sees 42 
Cotton shirting, 7-8.----- Apee|sgsbe Olean ses-= 33 yards per pound|..-..-. OX0) Bassas Gouden beberoas 50 
Cotton sheeting, 4-4-..---.--.].---- doetare ss: 3 yards per pound.|....- Cie SEAR eee ee tebe . 60 
Cotton, Osnaburg, 3-4-..--..--|.---- (adsense 6ounces per yard.|.--.- (0) cares nbaEend=baopoC - 60 
Cotton, Osnaburg, 7-8...-..--.|.---- Ose ec 8 ounces per yard.|.....d0...----------------- -70 
Cotton drills, 7-8.-.--------.-|----- CC Seneese 3 yards to pound..|..--- Tote aes same IbOGEE oo 70 
Cotton shirting stripes...--.--|----- One eciseras 3 yards to pound..|..-.- Opera tases se ae eee .70 
Cotton tent cloths -.....----.|----- dopess<2 10 ounces peryard.|.--.- Git a Rn eer ecgrcic . 87 
Cotton warps ...---..--------|----- ees wicinisrns son's 1's alee Per pound ......------.--- 1. 63 
Army shoes...........-....--|----- CLO ee ne erciciccis acts win elcistelm POG Paik ap-oees or eae eres 10. 00 
Shoemhreatc. a5) oe 6 ose seals <= os OI 2 ose bas | Sopecoeneraeaooceeer. [Por poun Giese sees 2. 00 
Wool socks for men.......-..|-.--- COM ae aise eet dey io Per pain sense eons. 1, 25 


Nene SSeS 


E. W. HUBARD. 
ROBT. GIBBONEY. 
WM. B. HARRISON. 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and drivers. 


Price 
Baling long forage.....-....-----s2---e eee neers ete e erent tees Per 100 pounds..-..-..; $0.80 
Shelling and bagging corn; sacks furnished by Government .....-..-- Per 56 pounds .....--. - 05 
Wee Me a oe in Sw nie = Se era ee cn erin wleis'geenerieccwnceswesson ss Per cwt. per mile..... . 06 
Hauling grain ........-----.-2202eceen nn eee e cee cen ence ects teense: Per bushel per mile... . 08 
Hire of two-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by | Per day.....-..-.----- 10. 00 
owner. @ 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government ...--.-----------|----- Ord 35-2652. 52552 52 5. 00 
Hire of four-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by |---.-.- dO Meas tener 13. 00 
owner. 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government. -...---------+--- Bein «Oye bs 6 cttowteara wie ieye 6. 50 
Hire of six-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by |..--- COgwense ces oe ciel 16. 00 
owner. 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government ...--- As alsa ely cts altaya Oia. -eeaeee chawm se 8. 00 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner....-----------------+----|-+++- DOs eee eee 2. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government. ....-------.+-----|----- Ope raitclge te catia 1. 25 
Hire of same; ravions furnished by owner..-.-..-----------------+-+---- Permonbhiesceccsse> -= 40. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government -.......----.-----|----- ike) fe Seta SR 20. 00 


E. W. HUBARD. 
ROBT. GIBBONEY. 
WM. B. HARRISON. 


By order; 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


654 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., July 21, 1863. 


To answer numerous inquiries, and to correct errors not uncom- 
mon, the following notice is published to all concerned: 

1. Under the recent call of the President extending the conscript 
age, all substitutions have ceased to be valid if the substitute be less 
than forty-five years old and is not otherwise exempt by law. 

2. Membership, whether as officer or private, of local organizations 
for home defense or special service confers no claim to exemption 
from Confederate service; neither does service in the militia, unless 
in case of officers actually in commission who have duly qualified. 

3. Hereafter any one furnishing a substitute will become liable in 
his own person whenever the services of the substitute are lost to the 
Government from any cause other than the casualties of war. 

4, Applications for exemption, on any ground whatever, must first 
be addressed to the local enrolling officer, who, if he has not power to 
act or is in doubt, will refer them to higher authority, with report of 
the facts. All such addressed direct to higher authority will neces- 
sarily and invariably be referred back for local examination and 
report, and the applicants will thus have uselessly lost time and pro- 
longed suspense. 

Appeals against adverse decisions by local officers will be forwarded 
by them for hearing, when any plausible ground of appeal is set forth. 

5. Commandants of conscripts will give this notice extensive cir- 
culation in the local press of their respective States. 

G. W. LAY, 
Ineut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


RICHMOND, July 21, 1863. 
Maj. Hutson LEE, 
Quartermaster, Charleston, S. C.: 

SIR: It is amatter of great importance to secure all the wool that 
can be obtained in the State of South Carolina for the purpose of 
providing clothing for the Army. In order to accomplish this object 
you are hereby directed to divide the State into suitable districts, 
designating a quartermaster in each to superintend and control the 
purchase and collection of wool therein, if there be one available 
stationed in the district, otherwise a quartermaster conveniently 
located thereto will be charged with such duties. You will instruct 
said officers to employ all proper means to secure the wool in the dis- 
tricts before its transfer into the hands of speculators, and to this 
end all other quartermasters in their respective districts will be sub- 
ject to their orders. Said officers will not resort to impressments 
whenever it may be practicable to purchase the wool at fair prices, 
not to exceed the rates fixed by the commissioners of impressments in 
said State. 

Where the wool cannot be purchased the same may be impressed 
in accordance with the instructions and forms contained in General 
Orders, No. 37, dated Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, April 
6, 1863, a copy* of which is herewith inclosed. Where details can- 
not be had, said district quartermasters will employ such additional 
force as may be necessary, but the number, name, and occupation of 
such employés must be reported through you to this department. 


See p. 469. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 655 


You are hereby authorized to issue such further instructions to 
said quartermasters as may be deemed necessary to promote the 
objects in view. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


(Letters similar to the above were sent to the following quarter- 
masters, with this difference, directing them to obtain their wool from 
their respective States, as per address: Maj. J. L. Calhoun, quarter- 
master, Montgomery, Ala.; Maj. I. T. Winnemore, quartermaster, 
Augusta, Ga.; Maj. James Glover, quartermaster, Knoxville, Tenn. ; 
Maj. L. Mims, quartermaster, care General J. E. Johnston, head- 
quarters near Brandon, Miss.) 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., July 21, 1863. 
D. H. KENNEY, Esq.: 
(Care of Engineer Bureau, Richmond, Va.) 


SiR: Having been appointed by the Chief of Engineers an agent for 
the purpose of purchasing or impressing the iron and rolling-stock 
belonging to the following roads, viz, the Alabama and Florida Rail- 
road, of Florida; Gainesville Branch, Mobile and Ohio Railroad; 
Cahaba, Marion and Greensborough Railroad, and Uniontown and 
Newbern Railroad, the Department is interested that your duties 
should be accomplished successfully, and has therefore addressed you 
this letter, that it may be shown to the military authorities in the 
various departments to which your duty calls you, in order that they 
may render you whatever aid may be requisite to enable you to fulfill 
the wishes of the Department. 

Respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., July 21, 1868. 
Hon. E. BARKSDALE, 
Member of Congress, Mississippi: 

Str: Your letter to the President of the 27th ultimo has been 
referred by him to this Department for answer. The case of Louis 
Frinkel was sent to this Department by the commander of conscripts 
and. upon an application by General Glenn. The decision of Judge 
Hancock is manifestly erroneous. The papers presented have been 
remitted to the camp of instruction, so that I can only speak of them 
from recollection. The recollection is that the substitute was put in a 
company that had never been organized and accepted in the Confed- 
erate service, and the substitute himself had since become liable to 
conscription. The only act of Congress relative to substitutes is 
embodied in this line of the conscription law of April, 1862: ‘‘That 
persons not liable to duty may be received for those who are, under 
such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War.” No 
regulation has ever permitted the captain of an unorganized company 
to consider of a matter of substitution. On the contrary, they dis- 
tinetly require the substitution to take place at the camp of the com- 
pany after examination. A substitution allowed by a captain of an 
unorganized company is simply void. Shortly after the adoption of 


656 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the act of Congress allowing substitutions the Department published 
regulations. One of these is, no persons other than those expressly 
named or properly implied in the above act (act of exemption of April, 
1862), except by furnishing a substitute, are exempt from military 
Service, in conformity with regulations already published (Orders 
No. 29, April, 1862), and such exemption is valid only so long as the 
said substitute is legally exempt (Orders No. 19, May, 1862). Again, 
in another order (September 8), ‘“‘a substitute becoming liable to con- 
scription renders his principal also liable, unless exempt on other 
grounds.” And still later (November 3, 1862), ‘‘in all cases in which 
a substitute becomes subject to military service the exemption of the 
principal, by reason of the Substitution, shall expire.” These orders 
are the form in which the regulations authorized by the act of Con- 
gress are promulgated. They form a part of the contract, or rather 
the conditions, on which the acceptance of the substitute in all cases 
are received into the service. 

Some judges, apparently catching the distemper of the time to 
relieve from the burden of the military service that class of men who 
above all others are interested in carrying through a revolution com- 
menced for the security of their rights and interests, have resorted to 
the most refined and astute discussions to dispense with these condi- 
tions. More than 50,000 persons are said to be exempt by putting in 
substitutes, and more than two-thirds of those who have been put in 
as substitutes are said to be deserters. In every State some local 
Judges seem to have bestirred themselves to withdraw from the service 
all who by any subtlety could be released. A widespread disaffection 
has been the consequence, both in and out of the Army. 

The Department has been forced to inquire into the extent of the 
Jurisdiction of local judges to determine such questions. It is well 
known to you that the writ of habeas corpus was the favorite instru- 
ment by which the Abolitionists sought to defeat the fugitive slave 
law. In some cases they decided that law to be unconstitutional, and 
discharged from the custody of the Federal officers those who were 
held for violation of it. The Supreme Court of the United States 
decided that they had no authority thus to defeat the administration 
of the constitutional powers and duties of the Federal Government, 
and that their judgments were null and void. The Department has 
been unwilling, in a time of war and with a Government only partially 
organized, to raise questions that can only be properly determined in 
the calm of peace; but it cannot shut its eyes to the facts that local 
ideas and sentiments not arising out of the broad claims of the Con- 
federacy have exerted a pernicious influence upon the organization of 
the Army and the measures of the Confederate Government for filling 
its diminished numbers to a proper standard. In this ease it has 
instructed the Bureau of Conscription to direct an appeal from this 
decision, and to employ counsel competent to present to the Supreme 
Court the just claims of the Confederacy. The startling condition of 
things in Mississippi probably has prevented the execution of these 
instructions. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[JULY 21, 1863.—For Polk to Cooper, suggesting plan for the increase 
of the Army and the accumulation of reserves, &¢., with indorsements, 
see Series I, Vol. X XIII, Part II, p. 921. ] 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 657 


[JULY 21, 1863.—For Bonham to Davis, in relation to the organi- 
zation of troops under the President’s call of July 15, see Series I, 
Vol. LITT, p. 292.] 


BRITISH CONSULATE, 
Savannah, July 22, 1863. 
His Excellency Governor BRowN, 
Marietta: 


Str: My attention has been called to your proclamation* and to 
General Wayne’s General Orders, No. 16, attached thereto, ordering 
a draft on the 4th of August from persons between the ages of eight- 
een and forty-five years, including British subjects, in each county 
which does not furnish its quota of volunteers to complete the num- 
ber of 8,000 men required for home defense. I am informed that this 
force when organizéd is to be turned over to the Confederate Govern- 
ment. British subjects, if drafted, will then be forced to become 
Confederate soldiers, a position in which Her Majesty’s Government 
have, since the commencement of the war, contended they ought not 
to be placed, and from which Her Majesty’s consuls have been 
instructed to use every means at their command to preserve them. 
Her Majesty’s Government acknowledges the right of a foreign state 
to claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits for 
the purpose of maintaining internal order (in other words, to act as a 
local police force), and even, to a limited extent, to defend against 
local invasion by a foreign power the places of their residence; but 
they deny the claim to services beyond this, and accordingly I have 
given advice in the following sense to British subjects who have 
applied to me on the subject of this draft: That militia duty is in 
general an obligation incident to foreign residence, and that therefore 
they must not object to render the service required so long as the law 
requires a militia organization for the maintenance of internal peace 
and order; but if it shall so happen that the militia after being so 
organized shall be brought into conflict with the forces of the United 
States without being turned over to the Confederate States so as to 
form a component part of its armies, or if it should be so turned 
over, in either event the service required would be such as British 
subjects cannot be expected to perform. In the first case, in addition 
to the ordinary accidents of war, they would be liable to be treated 
as rebels and traitors and not as prisoners of war; and in the second 
case they would be under the operation of a law (requiring them to 
take up arms against the United States Government) which had no 
existence when for commercial purposes they first took up their resi- 
dence in this country, and would, moreover, be disobeying the order 
of their legitimate sovereign, which exhorts them to an observance of 
the strictest neutrality and subjects them to severe penalties. For all 
local service, however, short of the service I have endeavored to 
describe, I have advised them that the militia organization is lawful, 
and should be acquiesced in by resident British subjects. Nearly all 
British subjects have besides taken an oath that they will not, under 
any circumstances, take part in the contest now raging in this coun- 
try by taking up arms on either side. I hope, sir, you will therefore 
so modify the general order in respect of British subjects who have 
certificates from me as to release them from a position which, in the 


—_—. 


* See p. 639. 
42 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


658 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


event of a draft, will certainly render them liable to all the penalties 
denounced by their own sovereign against a violation of their neu- 
trality, calling upon them at the same time to render service as local 
police for the maintenance of internal peace and order. On a former 
oceasion Mr. Molyneux advised you that the consulate was placed 
under my charge during his absence. I recently submitted my 
authority to act as Her Majesty’s consul to Mr. Benjamin, who duly 
accorded to me his approval and recognition. 
I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 
A. FULLARTON, 
Acting Consul. 


RICHMOND, July 22, 18638. 
Maj. R. P. WALLER, | 
Quartermaster, Richmond, (ae te 


Str: You will proceed without delay to Nassau, New Providence, 
and arrange for the transportation of all stores remaining at that port 
belonging to the Quartermaster’s Department of the Confederate 
States. You are authorized to pay the freight on all such stores or to 
charter a vessel of the capacity of 150 tons, to be shipped to the port 
of Wilmington, N. C. A chartered vessel, after receiving all stores 
for the Quartermaster’s Department, will be available, to the extent 
of her remaining capacity, for the transportation of public stores at 
Nassau belonging to any other department of the Government of the 
Confederate States. 

Mr. Heyliger, commercial agent at Nassau, will be requested to des- 
ignate the stores that shall be taken by the vessel in that event. 
Opportunities for you to embark are now offered at Wilmington and 
Charleston. You will communicate with Mr. Heyliger as soon as you 
arrive at Nassau. He will be requested to assist by all the means in 
his power and to forward your plans with all speed. The quick trans- 
portation of the quartermaster’s stores at Nassau is all important. If 
delay is likely to occur at Nassau for the want of a vessel, stores may 
be sent to Bermuda and thence transshipped to Wilmington. 

You are authorized to purchase all shoes and blankets, either at 
Nassau or Bermuda, that you may consider suitable for the Army, at 
any price you may think best for the interests of the Confederacy. It 
is left to your discretion to return with the stores direct from Nassau 
or to go to Bermuda to purchase such articles as you may think can 
be procured there for the Confederate States Government. You will 
in all things act to the best of your judgment for the best interests of 
the Confederacy. Expedition in executing the duty assigned you is 
of the greatest importance, and you are left entirely untrammeled to 
conclude your arrangements with this object in view. en 

In order to carry out the instructions given you above you will be 
provided with funds to the extent of $500,000 in cotton deliverable to 
your order at Wilmington or Charleston. 

In the event that you can purchase valuable quartermaster’s stores 
in Bermuda or Nassau, and find it impracticable to use your drafts 
based upon cotton at Wilmington or Charleston in payment therefor, 
you are authorized to charter a vessel for the carriage of the cotton 
from either of those places to the port at which it is desired to be 
landed on the best terms possible, as your judgment may dictate. 

The Collie steamers Venus and Hebe are owned in part by the Con- 
federate States, You will make use of these vessels in making all 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 659 


your shipments should they be in port at Nassau or Bermuda before 
you conclude any arrangements with private vessels. 

Maj. Norman S. Walker is the commercial agent of the Confederate 
States at Bermuda, to whom you will please announce yourself imme- 
diately on your reaching that place. 

A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


® 


RICHMOND, July 22, 1863. 
Mr. L. HEYLIGER, 
Com. Agent, Confederate States, Nassau, New Providence : 


SiR: Maj. R. P. Waller, quartermaster, C.S. Army, goes to Nassau 
under special instructions. He has been directed to communicate 
with you on his arrival and explain the purport of his visit. You 
will, I feel assured, give every aid to Major Waller to accomplish 
the object of his mission and hasten his return to the Confederate 
States. Should Major Waller charter a vessel of too much capacity 
for the supplies of the Quartermaster’s Department, I request you to 
fill her up with stores belonging to other departments of the Govern- 
ment. 

A.’ CV MYERS: 
Quartermaster- General. 


RICHMOND, July 22, 1868. 
Maj. NORMAN S. WALKER, 
Commercial Agent, Confederate States, Bermuda: 


Sir: Maj. R. P. Waller, quartermaster, C. S. Army, goes to Ber- 
muda under special instructions. He has been directed to communi- 
cate with you on his arrival and explain the purport of his visit. 
You will, I feel assured, give every aid to Major Waller to accomplish 
the object of his mission and hasten his return to the Confederate 
States. Should Major Waller charter a vessel of too much capacity for 
the supplies of the Quartermaster’s Department, I request you to fill her 
up with stores belonging to other departments of the Government. 

‘ A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[JULY 22, 1863.—For Ford to Magruder, in relation to raising com- 
panies of old men and boys to enforce the conscript law in Texas, see 
- Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part II, p.. 419; | 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
fachmond, Va., July 22, 1868. 

A question has been submitted to the Bureau whether the rank of 
officers of a higher grade who may be temporarily assigned for duty 
in the service of conscription will conflict with that of the comman- 
dants of conscripts and of camps of instruction. 

As the duties of the commandants, and the enrolling duties which 
may be performed within their jurisdiction by officers even of higher 
grades assigned to such special duty, are mostly of a civil nature, 
requiring experience and considerable legal knowledge on the part of 


660 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the former, and as the commissions of the commandants are perma- 
nent, the War Department has decided that mere technical rank 
will not necessarily take effect, and officers of any gerade reporting for 
assignment to enrolling duty must be subordinate to the comman- 
dants assigned to the general direction. 

Within the limits of camps of instruction organized as military 
posts relative rank necessarily takes effect. 

G. W. LAY, 
Lieut. Ool., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chef of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 174. Richmond, Va., July 23, 1863. 

6 * * * *f * * 
XIII. Maj. Thomas L. Bayne, of the Ordnance Bureau, is designated 
as the immediate representative of the War Department in all that 
pertains to the running and management of steamers under the Collie 
contract. All communications relating to this subject will be 
addressed to him, and he will act upon them, communicating directly 
with the Secretary of War in relation to the same. He will also be 
specially charged with the general management of the Government 
steamers, under the direction of the Chief of Ordnance, as heretofore. 

* * * * * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


: Avuausta ARSENAL, July 23, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: The enemy being in force on the coast within striking dis- 
tance (raid of cavalry) of this post, I conceived it important to get 
authority at the earliest moment to raise as large a local force in the 
city of Augusta as possible for its defense; hence the telegram request- 
ing such authority was at once forwarded. The answer received this 
day from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office in reply thereto 
does not meet, it appears to me, the exigencies of the case. It simply 
authorizes me to organize local companies under General Orders, No. 
86, excluding all subject to detail and including Government employés. 
The county of Richmond, including the city of Augusta, was called 
on by Governor Brown for 400 men as its full quota under the call of 
the President for the State of Georgia under the order in question. 
Of this number probably about 300 will be from the city, a force too 
small to effect anything of moment for the defense of the place. To 
induce a larger force to offer their services for the protection of the 
public works here, I conferred with the mayor of the city and several 
of the chief citizens here, who are firmly of the conviction that unless 
some inducemont be offered a larger number than that called for by 
the Governor will probably not be raised. The inducement which 
they judged sufficient to organize a force of probably from 600 to 1,000 
- men for the war, under Orders No. 86, was that such organizations 
should be guaranteed not to be removed from the city at any time 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 661 


without their consent, but to be reserved especially and exclusively 
for the defense of the city of Augusta and the public works connected 
therewith. Such only are the terms on which the citizens will be 
mustered into service under the order in question beyond their quota, 
and to insure the number to 600 or more men it will be necessary 
to include those from forty to forty-five years of age and liable to 
conscription. 

The extreme value of the city of Augusta, including the Govern- 
ment works, to the Confederacy is so apparent that it does not require 
that I should draw attention thereto. The main line of communica- 
tion through Georgia, with Augusta at one end and Chattanooga at 
the other, may be justly regarded as the vertebree of the Confed- 
eracy, or, in other-words, a vital line which cannot be touched by 
the enemy without the most deplorable consequences arising, both 
morally and financially. The State of Georgia once paralyzed by its 
center line being occupied cuts the Confederacy in two parts with- 
out a possibility of communication between them. There are public 
interests involved in the city of Augusta to the extent of not less than 
$25,000,000, besides some $15,000,000 or $20,000,000 worth of cotton in 
private hands. The Government powder works have supplied during 
the past year over 1,000,000 pounds of gunpowder, forming the main 
supply to the country, and its capacity is beyond 10,000 pounds per 
day (the amount incorporated this day). Theirloss would be severely 
felt. Most of the sulphur in the Confederacy is here stored, which 
could not be readily replaced. There are also the arsenal and machine 
and foundry works, of immense value to the country, and whose loss 
would be a great blow. The city is now virtually without a force to 
protect it and only 100 miles or less from a powerful enemy. If a 
local force cannot be raised, at least one regiment from the Army 
should be stationed as its garrison. I propose to-raise the local force 
as the most economical way of protecting the Government interests 
here, but to do this the suggestions above alluded to must be guar- 
anteed. If not, then the city and Government works must. be 
defended by a garrison from the Army to insure their safety. Poco- 
taligo is only some ninety miles on the Charleston and Savannah 
Railroad from this city, whence a cavalry raid of 1,000 or 2,000 men 
could readily be thrown forward to this place, and in a few hours 
destroy many millions’ worth of property besides the Government 
works, which could not be replaced. . 

I have at different times drawn the attention of the War Depart- 
ment to the defenseless condition of this city, and have exerted my- 
self in every way possible to have some protection to the public 
interests here without success, and in the present effort to get a local 
force organized for its defense such restrictions are imposed as will 
certainly defeat the object in view. I beg my earnestness may be 
pardoned in this matter. Being on the spot and having traveled 
much through the country, I am fully aware of the great interests at 
Stake in this section of the country. Overlooked by the enemy for a 
time, they have seen their error in operating on the extremities, and 
are now doubtless preparing to strike at the vital organs of the 
Confederacy in the State of Georgia. Augusta and Chattanooga 
should be held at every and all hazards. They cannot be lost with- 
out the loss of Georgia, and that would be fatal to the Confederacy. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RAINS, 
LIneutenant-Colonel of Ordnance. 


662 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


“ 


| First indorsement. | 


Respectfully transmitted to the Ordnance Bureau for the Honorable 
Secretary of War. 
; [Second indorsement. } 
JULY 28, 1863. 
Respectfully forwarded. 
I cannot too earnestly urge upon the Secretary of War the views 
presented by Colonel Rains. 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


[Third indorsement. | 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


This letter presents very strong reasons for accumulating a force at 
Augusta for local defense. It might be provided that Atlanta, Macon, 
and Columbus should contribute their force to the defense of Augusta 
in case of necessity. These places are within eight or twelve hours 
by railroad, and the home defenders of these cities should be held 
for their mutual defenses. 

J An hrs 


—$<>—$—$_ 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 

, WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., July 28, 1863. 

The same regulations will be observed in the payment of the tax 
imposed on overseers, exempted by the act of Congress approved 
May 1, 1863, as are required in the payment of the tax imposed on 
Dunkards, &c., laid down in General Orders, No. 82, of 1862, as follows, 
viz: That such persons ‘‘shall be exempt * * * on presenting to 
the enrolling officer a receipt from a bonded quartermaster for the tax 
of $500 imposed by act of Congress. * #* * All assistant quar- 
termasters to whom the said tax is rendered will receive and receipt 
for it, and pay the same into the Confederate States Treasury without — 
unreasonable delay. ‘The enrolling officer will receive the receipt and 
forward it to the commandant of conscripts, by whom it will be for- 
warded to the Quartermaster-General, who will charge the assistant 
quartermaster with the amount received by him.” 

This payment will of course be received by quartermasters at camps 
of instruction, as well as by any other bonded quartermasters. 

G. W. LAY, 
Lieut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, NAVY DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 24, 1863. 
The PRESIDENT: 

str: Inclosed herewith I have the honor to submit for your infor- 
mation the statements of Admiral Buchanan and Flag Officers Ingra- 
ham and Tucker relative to men for their several commands; and 
Flag Officers Lynch and Hunter are equally in want of men. 

In view of the enemy’s operations against Charleston, and his 
means of assailing Savannah, Mobile, and Wilmington, I have the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 663 
& 
honor to suggest that the deficiencies in the crews of the vessels on 
those stations be immediately supplied by transfers from the Army, 
which I doubt not can be made without, to any appreciable extent, 
impairing its strength. The vessels at these points have not the men 
to fight their own guns and men to spare for any enterprises against 
the enemy. They cannot be obtained by voluntary enlistment, and 
there is no conscription for the naval service. I doubt not that if 
Flag Officer Tucker had a few hundred seamen, such as can be found 
in the Army and as have applied for service in the Navy, he could 
organize, by night and torpedo parties, a strong means of attack in 
Charleston Harbor. 
With much respect, your obedient servant, 
8S. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy. 


[Indorsement. ] 


JULY 30, 1863. 
Secretary of War for attention and such relief as can be given. 
Prompt action is indicated by the statements contained in the inclos- 
ures (three in number*) herewith referred. 
J. D. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


MOBILE, July 16, 1863. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy, Richmond, Va.: . 
k *k * * * * * 

The vessels of the squadron are very short of their complements in 
consequence of discharges by medical surveys for disability and from 
desertions. Many of the vessels have not men sufficient to man their 
guns efficiently, and unless the Secretary of War permits the law to 
be carried out relating to transfers from the Army to the Navy our 
vessels cannot be manned. There are no men to be had at the con- 
script camps, as all the able-bodied men are at once sent to the various 
companies in the Army and are prohibited from joining the Navy. 
The War and Navy Departments have sent me copies of orders given 
to several men to report to me for duty; only one or two have reported. 
I have succeeded in procuring partially crews for the Tuscaloosa and 
Huntsville from the New Orleans refugees, but there are only two or 
three seamen among them; the others are landsmen, who, by constant 
training, have been made efficient at the ‘‘groat guns.” This is the 
sickly season here, and there is much sickness in the squadron among 
officersandmen. Insome instances nearly half the crews of the vessels 
are sick with intermittent fevers, dysentery, and other diseases. The 
hospital and receiving ship are full, and in consequence of the increas- 
ing sickness on board the iron-clads, which are always damp and 
unhealthy, I have hired a cotton warehouse to transfer the crews to 
temporarily, with a hope of checking the sickness. 

I feel it to be my duty to give you this information, for the steam- 
ers Nashville and Tennessee are progressing and may be ready long 
before we can provide crews for them. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
FRANKN. BUCHANAN, 
Admiral, &c. 


* There were three separate papers, bu’ one of them contained two communi- 
cations. 


664 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


OFFICE NAVAL STATION, 
Charleston, July 20, 1863. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: It will be impossible to obtain a crew for the Charleston here. 
Not a man can be obtained, as the blockaders hold out such strong 
inducements for men to ship. The gun-boats are short and cannot 
obtain a man, and I do not think the Army has any men—seamen. 
The ones we obtained before were very inferior. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
D. N. INGRAHAM, 
Captain, Commanding Naval Station. 


{[Inclosure No. 3.] 


CHARLESTON, July 15, 1863. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY: 


Your telegram received. Flag Officer Hunter sent us a detach- 
ment of officers and fifty men and has recalled them at this time, when 
most needed. I havereplied to him and suggested a reference to you, 
and urge upon you the necessity of their being retained here. We 
are very short of officers and men for the vessels. We shall require 
both for the Charleston and torpedo ram and yet make a deficiency. 
If you could send some from Richmond it would be desirable. Very 
much in want of men and competent engineers. 

J. R. TUCKER, 
Flag Officer, Commanding. 


[Inclosure No. 4.] 


CHARLESTON, July 19, 1863. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY: 


I informed you by telegraph yesterday that Flag Officer Hunter 
has telegraphed for the return of his detachment and of my reply 
suggesting a reference to you. This morning I received a peremptory 
order to return them, which I have done. This very much reduces 
our force. We require competent engineers, firemen, and men. 

J. R. TUCKER. 


MoBILE, July 24, 1868. 

DEAR SEDDON: The disastrous movement of Lee into Pennsylvania 
and the fall of Vicksburg, the latter especially, will end in the ruin 
of the South without foreign aid in some shape. Mississippi is very 
nearly subdued and Alabama is nearly exhausted. By winter both 
States will be overrun. The policy of Grant burning and destroying | 
all before him calculated to support life will end in starvation, and at 
an early day. We are without doubt gone up; no help can be had. 


I have ever believed that England and France would interfere tomake _ 


the separation complete on condition that slavery was abolished; not 
without. If we are overrun, slavery will be abolished and we our- 
selves destroyed. Now, I greatly prefer the former to the latter con- 
dition. So would the country. It may be that England and France 
will not interfere on any terms, but all as yet do not know that. It 
may be that they will. All efforts ought to be made to ward off the 
disastrous fate that will follow their success over us, and it is high 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 665 


time this effort was made, for I assure you that the loss of the Missis- 
Sippi River, separating us entirely from the West; their immense 
army, with power now to increase it, owing to their success, to any 
amount, while ours is not only diminished but poorly fed, will end in 
our overthrow. The failure of the Government to re-enforce Vicks- 
burg, but allowing the strength and flower of our Army to go North 
when there could be but one fate attending them, has so broken down 
the hopes of our people that even the little strength yet remaining can 
only be exerted in despair, and a slight change in the policy of Lin- 
coln would end our revolution and hopes. If anything can be done 
on any terms in Europe, delay not the effort. If nothing can be, God 
only knows what is left for us. I write you this from no other reason 
than to exhibit to you the true condition of things here. I would not 
have you to speak of this to any one except the President. You may 
show it to him if you think proper. 
Yours, truly, 
EK. 8. DARGAN. 


[JuLY 24, 1863.—For Davis to Vance, in relation to the action of 
‘‘the Union or Reconstruction Party” in North Carolina, see Series 
I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 739. ] 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Charleston, July 24, 1868. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Commanding Department: 


GENERAL: Inclosed is a copy of my order to complete the organiza- 
tion at once, although temporary, in order to place the troops, when 
called, promptly in the field. Miles telegraphs me it will not be dis- 
turbed until the exigency has passed. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


[Inclosure. | 
GENERAL ORDERS, STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
ADJT. AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 28. Charleston, July 28, 1868. 


I. The present exigencies of the service require the completion at 
once of the organization recently begun under the President’s call 
upon the Governor of this State for 5,000 troops for service within the 
State for six months from the 1st of August next. It will not, how- 
ever, arrest the enrollment of all conscripts up to forty-five, as required 
under his proclamation of the 15th July instant; but all such con- 
scripts as are in service in or about Charlestoh, or as shall be called 
into active service in or near there, in their present organization, will 
be enrolled as conscripts, but remain with their present commands 
until the exigency has passed, and will then report at the Confederate 
camps of instruction. Such as may not be called before being enrolled 
into active service with their respective commands will comply at the 
date of enrollment with the said proclamation of the President. The 
privilege of selecting the companies of the Confederate service to 
which they choose to attach themselves, the Governor is authorized 
by the President to say, will not be forfeited by such enrollment. 

II. An election for one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, and one major 
in each regiment, in accordance with the subjoined arrangement, will 


666 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


be held on the 31st instant at each beat muster ground by any two or — 
more of the company officers within the usual hours. Immediately 
after the polls are closed the votes will be counted by the managers 
at each company poll, and a report of the result under their hands 
will be immediately made to this office in Charleston. 

III. The troops thus organized will hold themselves in readiness to 
march at a moment’s notice; each man to provide himself with a 
haversack and three days’ cooked rations. 

IV. All field officers of the militia and company officers of this 
organization are charged with the prompt extension and execution of 
this order. 

The First Regiment will consist of the companies organized from 
First and Third (two companies) Regiments, Greenville District; 
Second and Fifth Regiments, Pickens District; Fourth and Forty- 
second Regiments, Anderson District; Sixth and Eighth Regiments, 
Abbeville District; Ninth Regiment, Edgefield District. 

The Second Regiment will consist of the companies organized from 
Seventh and Tenth Regiments, Edgefield District; Eleventh and Forty- 
third Regiments, Barnwell District; Twelfth Regiment, Beaufort Dis- 
trict; Thirteenth Regiment, Colleton District; Fourteenth Regiment, 
Orangeburg District; Fifteenth Regiment (two companies), Orange- 
burg and Lexington Districts; Thirty-ninth Regiment, Newberry and 
Lexington Districts. 

The Third Regiment will consist of the companies organized from 
Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Regiments, 
Charleston District; Thirty-first Regiment, Williamsburg and George- 
town Districts; Thirty-second Regiment, Marion District; Thirty- 
third Regiment, Horry District. 

The Fourth Regiment will consist of the companies organized from 
Twentieth Regiment, Sumter District; Twenty-first Regiment, Lan- 
caster District; Twenty-second Regiment, Kershaw District; Twenty- 
third Regiment (two companies), Richland District; Forty-fourth 
Regiment, Clarendon District, Twenty-fourth (one company) and 
Twenty-fifth Regiments (one company), Fairfield District; Twenty- 
seventh Regiment, Chester District; Twenty-eighth Regiment, 
Chesterfield District; Twenty-ninth Regiment, Darlington District; 
Thirtieth Regiment, Marlborough District. 

The Fifth Regiment will consist of the companies organized from 
Thirty-fourth and Forty-sixth Regiments, York District; Thirty-fifth 
Regiment, Union District; Thirty-sixth (two companies) and Thirty- 
seventh Regiments, Spartanburg District; Thirty-eighth Regiment, 
Newberry District; Fortieth and Forty-first Regiments, Laurens Dis- 
trict; Forty-fifth Regiment, Union and Spartanburg Districts; Twenty- 
sixth Regiment, Chester District. 

By order of the commander-in-chief: 

A. C. GARLINGTON, 
Adjutant and Inspector General of South Carolina. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Chattanooga, Tenn., July 24, 1568. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
War Department: 
Str: Immediately upon the receipt of your requisition of [June 6| 
for 6,000 men for local defense and special service I issued the inclosed 
proclamation, under which a large number of companies were being 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 667 


organized when the Army of Tennessee fell back from Shelbyville to 
the line of the Tennessee River, leaving all of Middle and West Ten- 
nessee within the enemy’s lines, and cutting off the companies which 
were being formed in these divisions of the State. ‘At present we 
have access only to the people of East Tennessee, about half of whom 
sympathize with ourenemy. The recent order of the President call- 
ing out all men capable of bearing arms up to forty-five years of age, 
for the regular service, leaves us only such as are over that age. 
With our territory so much diminished and the call confined to that 
class over forty-five years of age (for, since the order of the President, 
I have excluded all parties under forty-five from this service, except 
such as are exempt from conscription), I have no hope of raising the 
6,000 troops called foras volunteers within the time specified. Nor, 
indeed, can I raise that number of volunteers within the limits of 
East Tennessee at all; and under the laws of Tennessee I have no 
power to draft men over forty-five years of age for Confederate 
service. 

Previous to the act of the Legislature of 186162 men over forty-five 
years of age were not subject to military duty of any character. The 
act of that session (a copy of which I herewith inclose) authorizes the 
organization of all men between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five 
years into a military corps for State service. 

I submit the facts and the law to your consideration for such sug- 
gestion as you may see proper to make in the premises, having every 
disposition to carry out the policy of the Government, whatever it 
may be, to raise all the troops possible for the defense of our terri- 
tory and the maintenance of our cause. I shall proceed immediately 
to organize all within our lines between these ages who do not volun- 
teer for local defense, and if you can suggest any legal means by 
which they can be drafted for Confederate service, I will promptly 
enforce the order for such number as you may require. 

I shall have reported for duty by the 1st of August between 1,000 
and 2,000 men raised under this proclamation. Where will they be 
armed and who will take command of this special service corps? I 
respectfully suggest the appointment of an officer with the rank of 
brigadier-general or colonel to take command and general super- 
vision of this special-service corps of each State, and if this policy 
shall be adopted I respectfully suggest and recommend W. C. Whit- 
thorne, the present adjutant-generai of Tennessee, for the appoint- 
ment in this State. He will make an efficient officer in organizing 
and commanding the force. 

I shall be pleased to have your suggestions at your earliest conven- 
ience, so that I may carry them out to the fullest extent of my ability. 

Very respectfully, 
ISHAM G. HARRIS, 
Governor, &c., of Tennessee. 


{Inclosure No. 1.] 
PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE. 


The President of the Confederate States has made a requisition upon 
Tennessee for 6,000 troops for the term of six months from the Ist of 
August next, under the provisions of an act of Congress entitled ‘‘An 
act to provide for local defense and special service,”-a copy of which 
is hereto appended.* 


*See Vol. I, this series, p. 579. 


668 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


These troops will be mustered into the service of the Confederate 
States, but held for the defense of their own homes, and in no event 
will they be ordered beyond the limits of this State. 

This force must be composed of men over forty years of age, or such 
as from other causes are not liable to conscription, and if not raised 
by volunteering by or before the 1st day of August next, must be then 
immediately raised by a draft upon that part of the militia between 
the ages of forty and fifty-five years. 

As volunteers you will have the right to organize your companies, 
battalions, and regiments by the election of such officers as you may 
prefer. 

You will be permitted to remain at your homes engaged in your 
ordinary avocations until such emergency shall arise as to make it 
necessary to order you to the field. 

You will be armed, and while on duty under orders will be paid and 
subsisted as other Confederate troops. 

When the emergency which called you to the field shall have passed, 
you will be relieved from duty and return to your homes and ordinary 
pursuits, your pay and subsistence being stopped until you are ordered 
again to the field. 

Volunteer companies, battalions, or regiments of infantry or mounted 
men who furnish their own horses will be accepted. 

If drafted from the militia you will be placed in such infantry organi- 
zations as the authorities may deem best, and will most probably be 
continued on duty during the entire term of service. 

The muster-rolls of volunteer companies must distinctly set forth 
that the company is raised for local defense and special service within 
the State of Tennessee for the term of six months. 

You will return your muster-rolls to the adjutant-general of the 
State immediately upon the organization of a company of not less than 
sixty-four privates, with such officers as are required by law. 

If said companies are organized into battalions or regiments previ- 
ous to being mustered into service, they will elect their field officers; 
but if mustered into service as companies, the President will appoint 
battalion or regimental officers. 7 

The enemy has shown that he fears to meet our gallant and invinci- 
ble armies in the field unless he outnumbers us two or three to one. 

He has therefore resorted to a system of raids upon unarmed neigh- 
borhoods for the purpose of devastating and pillaging the country, 
destroying our resources, and laying waste our homes. 

Men of Tennessee! if you would resist these raids, predatory bands, 
and incendiaries of the enemy, organize at once and stand ready to 
repel or crush them. 

If you would protect your private property, defend your wives and 
children, your personal liberty, your national independence, and your 
lives, organize at once and stand ready to strike for them. 

Let the beardless boy and the hoary-headed father organize for the 
defense of their altars, their homes, and all that is dear to freemen. 

Let the gallant men who have been disabled by the exposure and 
hardships of the camp or the casualties of bloody fields give to these 
new organizations the benefit of their experience and example. 

Let every man who can wield a musket or draw a sword, who is so _ 
situated that he cannot swell the ranks of our Army for constant 
duty, organize at once for home defense and special service. 

While I may justly claim, without the fear of successful contradic- 
tion, that Tennessee has already furnished to the Army of the Con- 
federate States more troops in proportion to population than any State 


\ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 669 


in the Confederacy, and in proportion to numbers engaged upon most 
of our battle-fields Tennessee soldiers have bled even more freely 
than those of other States—much as she has already done in this 
struggle for national independence, I am proud to know that she is 
able and willing to do more, and that she will persevere to the end 
of the struggle, however long or bloody it may be. 

I therefore appeal to you by every consideration of patriotism, per- 
sonal interest, personal reputation, national independence, and the 
high character you have hitherto borne as citizens of the ‘‘ Volunteer 
State” to rise up as one man, organize, rally to the standard of your 
Government, and in the majesty of your power make the invader feel 
that every hilltop bristles with the bayonets of freedom and every . 
mountain pass has become a Thermopyle. 

Give him a new and stronger proof of the fact that we stand as a 
unit, deeply, solemnly, and irrevocably resolved on preserving inde- 
pendence at any and at every cost; that the march of the invader and 
the rule of despotism will be resisted at every step now and forever 
as long as there is a man or a boy in Tennessee who can pull a trig- 
ger, wield a blade, or raise a finger in defiant resistance. : 

With this spirit prevailing our whole people, under the providence 
of a just God, we will at no distant day be blessed with independence, 
peace, and prosperity. , 

In testimony thereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused 
the great seal of the State to be affixed, at Winchester, on this the 
22d day of June, A. D. 1863. 

[SEAL. | ISHAM G. HARRIS. 

By the Governor: 

ee ARV 


Secretary of State. | 
[Inclosure No. 2.] | 


AN ACT to amend an act to raise, organize, and equip a provisional force, and 
for other purposes. 


SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
Tennessee, That the white male population of the State between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five shall constitute the reserved military 
corps thereof. Said corps shall be organized and called into service, 
and shall be subject to duty upon the eall of the Governor ; and this 
organization of the reserved corps shall continue for and during the 
existence of the war now being waged with the United States. That 
all the able-bodied white male population of this State between the ages 
of forty-five and fifty-five years shall be organized under the provisions 
of this act into a military corps for the defense of the State; but said 
corps, or any portion of it, shall not be called into actual service 
until after all of the reserved corps provided by this act shall have 
been called into actual service; nor shall this corps be called into 
actual service for a longer period, at any one time, than six months, 
nor be transferred, or detailed, or drafted into the service of the Con- 
federate States. And after this corps shall be organized they may 
determine the times and places of their company, battalion, and 
regimental drills. 

* * * * * * * 


Passed March 18, 1862. 
EK. A. KEEBLE, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
EDWARD 8. CHEATHAM, 
Speaker of the Senate. 


670 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


71 JERMYN STREET, LONDON, July 24, 1863. 
Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance, Richmond: 

COLONEL: I expect to dispatch supplies for Texas at an early day. 
Will you please give orders to have 3,000 bales of cotton held subject 
to my orders; and since the ship carrying the.supplies will not con- 
tain space enough for all the cotton required for payment, if some of 
the cotton can be dispatched by sailing ship to Liverpool such an 
arrangement will facilitate my transactions. My dispatching of the 
supplies will not be delayed for the arrival of the cotton, but it will 
strengthen my hands very much to have an amount of cotton on the 
_ way to England at the same time that supplies are on the way to | 
Texas from England. I am aware of some supplies being sent by pri- 
vate contractors. The arrangements I have made will deliver the 
supplies at Matamoras at less than one half the cost of the former. 

I am, in haste, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE. 


—$—>———- 


ARMY OF TENNESSEE, 
Near Chattanooga, Tenn., July 25, 1863. 
General 8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General : 


Sir: We, the undersigned officers of the Confederate Army, being 
deeply impressed with the belief that unless the ranks are speedily 
replenished our cause will be lost, and being thoroughly satisfied that 
there is enough of able-bodied young men out of the service to accom- 
plish that object, would earnestly implore the President of the Con- 
federate States to take prompt measures to recruit our wasted armies 
by fresh levies from home. The wisdom of the Executive must decide 
whether this can better be done by calling upon the respective States 
for enlarged quotas of troops or by assembling the Congress of the 
Nation so to modify the exemption provision in the conscript bill as 
to increase the Army without interfering materially with the great 
interests of the country. The whole system of exemption is based 
upon a false assumption. It is assumed that none of the machinery 
of society, necessary for its comfort and convenience in a state of 
peace, is to be disturbed amidst the mighty upheaval of a great revo- 
lution. Thus, for example, we find multiplied rather than diminished 
rural post-offices and printing presses, which add doubtless to the 
comfort and convenience of the people, but contribute nothing to our 
suecess in arms. In like manner there is an enormous disproportion 
between the absolute wants of the people and the number of ‘‘ shoe- 
makers, blacksmiths, tanners, wagon makers, millers and their engi- 
neers, millwrights, skilled and actually employed at their regular 
vocation in said trades,” the agents and employés of the different 
bureaus, departments, railroad and telegraph companies, &e. 

We have been pained to notice that all those vocations are crowded 
which afford exemption, while the ranks of the Army are daily 
becoming thinner. To their lasting reproach upon their manhood, 
hearty vigorous young men, rather than take the field, eagerly seek 
fancy duty which could be performed by women or disabled soldiers. 

But we especially deplore that unfortunate provision of the exemp- 
tion bill which has allowed more than 150,000 soldiers to employ 
substitutes, and we express our honest conviction that not one in a 
hundred of these substitutes is now in the service. In numerous 
instances fraudulent papers were employed, in others diseased men 


-~ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. p 671 


were presented and accepted but to be discharged; in still more cases 
vicious and unprincipled substitutes were bought up but to desert at 
the first favorable moment. 

Another heavy source of depletion to the Army cannot be passed 
over. The friends of timid and effeminate young men are constantly 
besieging the War Department, through Congressional and other 
agents, to get soldiers in the Army placed upon details or transferred 
to safe places. The aggregate loss to the Army from this cause alone 
is most enormous. 

We do know certainly that the detailed and exempted men under 
forty-five exceed a quarter of a million of men; and we think that the 
Army can be increased a quarter of a million without more suffering 
and inconvenience to the country than is to be expected in such a 
life and death struggle as we are engaged in. Certainly there should 
be no choice between temporary discomfort to society and the loss of 
battles, territory, posts, garrisons, and even independence itself. 

Certainly the sum total of misery would be less, if we even resorted 
to a levy en masse and thus could drive back the invader, than by 
allowing ourselves to be beaten in detail and our soil everywhere to 
be overrun. In the vain hope of saving the people at home from tran- 
sient annoyances and privations we are endangering the liberties of 
the country. 

Lastly, we would respectfully but earnestly urge prompt action. 
With every inch of territory lost, there is a corresponding loss of men 
and the resources of war. Conscripts cannot be got from the region 
held by the Yankees, and soldiers will desert back to their homes in 
possession of the enemy. Some do so from disaffection, some from 
weariness with the war, and some to protect their families against a 
brutal foe. From these combined causes the occupation of our soil 
weakens us in men as well as in the means to feed and clothe our 
troops. ; 

Early and vigorous measures to recruit our wasted ranks may save 
us further loss of men and resources, and possibly the existence of 
the Southern Confederacy itself. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

H. D. Clayton, brigadier-general; Wm. B. Bate, brigadier- 

general, Provisional Army, C. 8.; P. R. Cleburne, 
major-general; Jno. C. Brown, brigadier-general, Pro- 
visional Army, C. 8.; M. P. Lowrey, colonel, command- 
ing Wood’s brigade; Alex. P. Stewart, major-general; 
L. E. Polk, brigadier-general; St. John R. Liddell, 
brigadier-general; J. M. Withers, major-general (signed 
by request); T. J. Churchill, brigadier-general; D. H. 
Hill, lieutenant-zgeneral; L. Polk, lieutenant-general; 
Z. C. Deas, brigadier-general; O. F. Strahl, colonel, 
commanding brigade; John C. Carter, colonel, com- 
manding brigade; Preston Smith, brigadier-general; 
A. M. Manigault, brigadier-general, Provisional Army, 
C.8.; Braxton Bragg, general, C. S. Army. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., July 25, 1863. 
His Excellency JOSEPH E. BRown, ! 
Governor of Georgia: 
Your letter of the 10th instant has been received. The difference 
between yourself and this Department upon the subject of the right 


672 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment to elect their officers depends upon 
the fact whether this regiment composes a part of the militia of the 
State of Georgia. If the regiment be a portion of the militia ‘‘em- 
ployed in the service of the Confederate States” the appointment of 
the officers is reserved to the State; otherwise not. The company 
muster-rolls of this regiment on file in the office of the Adjutant and 
Inspector General are entitled ‘‘Muster-roll of Captain ’*s com- 
pany in the Fifty-first Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, commanded 
by Col. William M. Slaughter, called into the service of the Confed- 
erate States in the Provisional Army, under the provisions of the act 
of Congress, by Governor Joseph E. Brown, from the 4th of March, 
1862 (date of the muster), for the term of three years, unless sooner 
discharged,” and the muster corresponds with this title. This shows 
that this regiment was composed of volunteers who were enlisted as 
a part of the Provisional Army of the Confederacy under the super- 
vision of the Governor of Georgia. 

The legislation of the Confederate States will very clearly exhibit 
that troops of this description have not been regarded as belonging 
to the militia. By the act of February 28, 1861, to raise provisional 
forces for the Confederate States of America, the Congress enacted: 

That to enable the Government of the Confederate States to maintain its juris- 
diction over all questions of peace and war, and to provide for the public defense, 
the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to assume control of 


all military operations in every State, having reference to or connection with 
questions between said States, or any of them, and powers foreign to them. 


The third section of the act is— 


That the President be authorized to receive into the service of this Government 
such forces now in the service of said States as may be tendered, or who may vol- 
unteer, by consent of their States, in such numbers as he may require, &c. 


The fourth section is—. 


That such forces may be received with their officers by companies, battalions, 
or regiments, and when so received shall form a part of the Provisional Army of 
the Confederate States, according to the terms of their enlistment; and the Pres- 
ident shall appoint, by and with the consent of Congress, such general officer or 
officers for said forces as may be necessary for the service. 


The fifth section provides— 


That said forces, when received into the service of this Government, shall have 
the same pay and allowances as may be provided by law for volunteers entering 
the service, or for the Army (Regular) of the Confederate States, and shall be 
subject to the same rules and government. 


Your Excellency must perceive that the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment 
stands upon exactly the same footing as the troops tendered by the 
States or volunteering under this act, and that this act contains not 
the slightest intimation that the troops received under it were received 
as State militia. There is a direct provision that a portion of the 
officers shall be appointed by the President. 

The act of Congress of the 6th of March, 1861, authorizes the Pres- | 
ident to employ the militia, military, and naval forces of the Confed- 
erate States and to ask for and accept the services of any number of 
volunteers, not to exceed 100,000, &e. The fifth section of that act 
permits the President to accept the services of the volunteers in com- 
panies, squadrons, battalions, and regiments, whose officers shall be 
appointed in the manner prescribed by law in the several States to 
which they shall respectively belong. But when inspected, mustered, 
and received into the service of the Confederate States said troops 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 673 


Shall be regarded in all respects as a part of the Army of said Confed- 
erate States according to their respective enlistments. 

The President was authorized to organize the companies into supe- 
rior organizations at his discretion and to appoint brigade and divis- 
ion officers. It was supposed that these volunteers would be raised 
through the different States, for by the act of 11th of May, 1861, he 
was authorized to receive volunteers directly without the formality 
and delay of a call upon the States. In this act there is a broad dis- 
crimination made between the volunteers and militia, and the terms 
of the act forbid the conclusion that the volunteers obtained through 
the instrumentalities of the States were to be regarded as militia 
“employed in the service of the Confederate States.” The act of the 
25d of January, 1862, under which the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment 
was called into the service; has immediate relation to the act of March 
6, 1861. The object of that act was to obtain from the States the 
complement of the troops authorized by the act of March, 1861, by 
appointment among them and requisition upon their public authori- 
ties. The conditions upon which the troops were to enter the service 
were prescribed in that act. These were that ‘‘the said troops shall 
be regarded in all respects as a part of the Army of the Confederate 
States according to the terms of their respective enlistments,” and as 
before shown they were mustered into service conformably to these 
conditions. 

Forming as they did a part of the Army of the Confederate States, 
they became subject to the authority of Congress, who were author- 
ized by the Constitution ‘“‘to make rules for the government and reg- 
ulation of the land and naval forces.” Among the rules and regula- 
tions proper on this subject are those relating to the selection and 
promotion of officers. 

The act of Congress of March 6, 1861, provided for the organization 
of the volunteer troops then called for by adopting the State regula- 
tions. ‘The acts of the fourth session of the Provisional Congress (acts 
of December 11, [1861,] January 22, and January 27, 1862) provided a 
rule. of promotion in regard to a portion of those troops who were about 
tore-enlist. The acts of the 16th of April, 1862, and 21st of April, 1862, 
made a rule applicable to the entire Provisional Army, and this rule 
was repeated in the act of October 13, 1862. The conscription acts of 
April and October have been the source from which the Army has 
been recruited for more than fifteen months. It is probable that one- 
half of those who now compose the Fifty-first Georgia Regiment have 
come into it through the agency of these acts. This regiment and 
others accepted under the same conditions are regarded by the Depart- 
ment since their acceptance by the Confederate States as a part of the 
Provisional Army, and therefore to be recruited by the agency of the 
Confederate States. The rule of promotion prescribed by Congress is 
one uniform in its operation; was adopted after the experience and 
observation of a year, and clearly embodies the judgment of Congress 
as the mode best calculated to insure the selection of competent offi- 
cers. It is unnecessary in this inquiry to undertake a definition of 
what the meaning of the term militia is. Neither the acts of Congress 
of the United States prior to the separation of the Confederate States 
nor the acts of Congress of the Confederate States have regarded as 
militia volunteers who have come into the service of the Federal Union 
or the Confederate service to form a portion of the Army upon which 
they rely for the common defense, and it would be difficult, in the 


43 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


674 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


opinion of this Department, to assign a meaning to the term that 
would properly embrace such troops. 

The postscript to the letter of Mr. Benjamin of the 16th of February, 
1861,,quoted by you, seems to refer to the original organization of the | 
troops prior to their muster and before their acceptance into the Con- 
federate service; and the practice since their acceptance, if incon- 
sistent with the opinions expressed in this letter, was probably a 
transient or casual toleration of an existing opinion without a full 
consideration of the import of the legislation of the Congress of the 
Confederate States. After a careful consideration of that legislation 
I do not feel that I have any authority to dispense with its conditions, 
however agreeable it might be to conform to the wishes of those who 
have maintained this opinion. Notwithstanding my deference to the 
views of Your Excellency, I must conform my official action to what 
I conceive the clear mandate of the law. 

With high esteem, very respectfully, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPT., 
Raleigh, July 25, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR Str: A large number of deserters, say 1,200, are in the 
mountains and inaccessible wilds of the west. I have found it 
impossible to get them out, and they are plundering and robbing the 
people. Through their friends they have made me propositions to 
come out and enlist for defense of this State alone. Shall I accept it? 
The effect on the Army might be injurious, but they can never other- 
wise be made-of service or kept from devastating the country. If 
you advise favorably, I think I can get at least 1,000 effective men. 
Please answer soon. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[Indorsement. ] 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 

There is a great necessity for some practical dealing with the crime 
of desertion, if so general a habit is to be considered a crime. 

There are from 50,000 to 100,000 men who are in some form or other 
evading duty. Probably there are 40,000 or 50,000 of absentees with- 
out leave. The accommodation of the Department to the necessity 
of the case is, in my judgment, the best policy. To allow those who 
belong to other organizations than those in which they enlisted to 
remain, to allow all persons not in the Army to connect themselves 
with new organizations, to pronounce a general amnesty, and to 
make a new departure seems to me a measure of prudence under the 
existing circumstances. I notice that desertion during the French 
Revolution was a great source of complaint. There were at one time 
12,000 on furlough, and there had been ten times that number of 
desertions. | 

[J. A. CAMPBELL. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 675 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
hichmond, Va., July 26, 1863. 

The appointment of drill-masters and enrolling officers being only 
temporary and not requiring confirmation by the Senate, their serv- 
ices can be dispensed with at any time and their appointments 
revoked. 

When the duties of conscription cease to require the services of 
any such officer, in any case of neglect of duty, disobedience of orders, 
or other misconduct, the facts will be reported to this Bureau, that 
the case may be presented to the appointing powers and the appoint- 
ment of the officer revoked. 

GoW. GAY, 
Ineut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 102. ( Richmond, July 26, 1863. 

I. General Orders, No. 36, current series, is hereby revoked. 

II. Thesuperintendent of the Niter and Mining Bureau is authorized 
to pay, from the funds appropriated for the expenses of said Bureau, 
the actual traveling expenses of officers of the same on duty, under 
orders, in lieu of any commutation for the time of rations and forage. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[JULY 26, 1863.—For Vance to Davis, in relation to state of feeling 
in North Carolina toward the Confederate Government, &c., see 
series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 740. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 103. Richmond, July 27, 1868. 


I. When the supply of salt is adequate and fresh meat is issued 
oftener than thrice a week, the salt ration will be fixed at three 
quarts to the hundred rations. 

II. Commanding officers have no authority to alter or fix the ration 
established by the Secretary of War. 

III. Quartermasters at supply depots will respect the requisitions 
made by quartermasters receiving taxes in kind for grain sacks. 

By order: 

8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | HDQRS. VOL. AND CONS. BUREAU, 
DEPARTMENT No. 2, 
No. 1. \ Marvetta, Ga., July 27, 1868. 
The undersigned having been, by order of General Joseph E. John- 
ston, in obedience to an order of the Secretary of War, placed in 
charge of the conscript service in Department No. 2, and the officers 


676 CORRESPONDENCE, ETO. 


and agencies of.the Conscript Bureau of the Government within the 
States of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi having been by the 
Secretary of War transferred and assigned to duty under me as 
superintendent of conscripts for this department, it is ordered that 
those officers and the organizations as heretofore existing within this 
department will continue their labors without change until otherwise 
ordered. The President, by his proclamation, having called out all 
men liable to duty under the conscript law to the age of forty-five 
years, all such are required to report themselves for duty to the 
enrolling officers of their respective districts or to the officers of the 
recruiting bureau. Upon so reporting they will be received and 
enrolled as volunteers. If they fail so to do until arrested they will 
be enrolled as conscripts. In addition to the camps of instruction 
established by orders of the War Department and now existing in the 
States composing this geographical department, the system of ren- 
dezvous established by the chief of the bureau of the Army of 
Tennessee will be continued. The officers engaged in the last-named 
organization belonging to the Army of Tennessee, and subject to be 
withdrawn from this bureau by the exigencies of the service, will not 
for the present be blended with the former organization. The two 
corps of officers will work in their respective spheres and under the 
orders heretofore existing. Both organizations will arrest all desert- 
ers and stragglers, receive all volunteers who tender themselves, and 
will arrest all conscripts between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. 
The commanders of rendezvous will furnish the commandants of con- 
scripts for their States with the names and descriptive lists of all con- 
seripts by them arrested and sent to the army. Each class of officers 
will respect the decisions of the other, and while engaged in the same 
labor will avoid all conflicts. Should any collisions of authority 
occur they will be referred to the common superior directing the oper- 
ations of both corps. Each organization will keep a record of its pro- 
ceedings, and will make weekly reports to the general superintendent 
of both organizations. . 

The hopes of the country depend upon the labors of this bureau in 
strengthening the armies of Tennessee and Mississippi. No higher 
motive to exertion could be presented to the patriot soldier. We have 
the population required for this purpose, and it is our duty to put it 
in these armies. Proper efforts will accomplish it and deliver our 
country from desolation and despotism. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and 
Supt. Volunteer and Conscript Bureau, Dept. No. 2. 


———— 


GENERAL ORDERS, Hpgrs. VoL. AND CONS. BUREAU, 
DEPARTMENT NO. 2, 
No. 2: Marietta, Ga., July 27, 1863. 


I. All officers acting under orders of commandants of conscripts, 
and all officers acting under orders of commanders of rendezvous, in 
this geographical department, are instructed to arrest and send to 
their respective regiments all stragglers and deserters; likewise the 
officers of both organizations will arrest all men liable to duty under 
the conscript law between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years who 
have not legal exemptions, and who fail voluntarily to report them- 
selves for service. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 677 


II. No furloughs will be granted to conscripts. Tothose who report 
themselves as volunteers a few days (not exceeding five) will be 
allowed to make the preparation necessary for entering the service. 

Ill. Those arrested as conscripts will be examined by a surgical 
board, and if received as competent will be enrolled as conscripts. 

IV. Commanders of rendezvous who have no examining board for 
conscripts may engage the services of competent surgeons or private 
physicians, who will be governed by the instructions in orders of the 
inspector-general of the army, copies of which will be furnished. 

V. Officers of the rendezvous operating in the neighborhood of 
camps of instruction, arresting conscripts, will turn them over to such 
camps; and officers of camps of instruction operating in the neighbor- 
hood of rendezvous, arresting deserters and stragglers, will turn them 
over to the nearest rendezvous. 

VI. Quartermasters and railroad officers will furnish transporta- 
tion to the officer having this order, and upon his order to such men 
as he may send to the army. 

By order of Brigadier-General Pillow, superintendent of bureau: 

JNO. C. BURCH, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


HEADQUARTERS FIRST DISTRICT, 
DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI AND East LOUISIANA, 
Columbus, Miss., July 27, 1868. 
Col. B. S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


- COLONEL: In view of the urgent necessity which now exists requir- 
ing the enrollment into Confederate service of every able-bodied cit- 
izen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, as made evident by 
the late proclamation of the President ordering said enrollment, I 
have the honor to state for the information of the department com- 
mander: 

First. That in portions of the First Military District, especially the 
northern, the State organizations are composed to a great extent of 
men subject to conscription, 2. e., between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five. 

Second. That a mutual understanding has existed, if it does not 
now exist, between the State Executive and the Confederate depart- 
ment commander, based on orders from the War Department, allowing 
the State to retain all conscripts in existing State organizations until 
their disbandment, which has enabled the State to absorb most if not 
all the conscript material in northern portion of this district, the 
conscripts claiming exemption from Confederate enrollment because 
of belonging to the nominal organizations recognized by the State as 
regiments, battalions, companies, &ce. 

Third. To facilitate the complete enrollment up to forty-five, as 
called for by the President, and inasmuch as the regimental and bat- 
talion organizations in northern portion of distriet—viz, Smith’s reg- 
iment and Ham’s battalion, classed strictly as State troops—have 
virtually disbanded, no inspecting officer having been able to identify 
them as sufficiently legal to authorize my receiving them into Con- 
federate service when turned over by the Executive through its major- 
general, I have the honor to recommend that steps be taken to cause 
such modifications as may be necessary to allow all men subject to 


678 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


conscription, irrespective of State organizations, to be enrolled as con- 
script law prescribes, directly into Confederate service, either through 
the camps of instruction or by the commanders of the various Con- 
federate military organizations, they remanding all conscripts not 
allowed to join their respective organizations to the camps of instruc- 
tion for proper distribution. 

Fourth. The commanding general will perceive the necessity which 
exists of sending a quartermaster and commissary supplied with 
funds and authorized to liquidate all claims against the Confederate 
Government, coming under these departments in Northeastern Missis- 
sippi, which have arisen under the commands of Generals Beauregard, 
Bragg, Price, and Van Dorn. I would also suggest the propriety of 
paying promptly all outstanding obligations for horses, mules, and 
supplies recently incurred. 

Fifth. The above suggestions are deemed appropriate to maintain 
unimpaired the credit of the Government among a people generally 
possessed of small means and to enable the easy procurement of sup- 
plies in the future. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
DANIEL RUGGLES, 
Brigadier-General, Commanding District. 


[JuLY 27, 1863.—For Lee to Davis, suggesting methods to promote 
an increase of the Army, see Series I, Vol. XXVII, Part III, p. 1040. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 104. Richmond, July 28, 1865. 


I. Officers of engineer troops, having been selected for appointment 
with special reference to their qualifications as engineers, will be 
respected as sueh, and their duties, when serving in the field, camp, 
or cantonment, will embrace all that are enumerated in paragraph 
III, General Orders, No. 90, current series, *‘as the duties of officers 
of engineers serving with armies of the Confederate States.” 

II. On the march engineer troops will serve as pioneers, construct- 
ing and repairing roads and bridges, and removing impediments to 
the advance of our forees, or delaying the enemy, by breaking up 
roads, destroying bridges, and otherwise obstructing his communica- 
tions. They will also be employed in making rapid reconnaissances 
and surveys of the country occupied or marched over by the army; 
preparing sketches and maps of the roads and topographical features; 
laying out camps, and intrenching military positions. During battle 
they will be held in reserve, and used as circumstances may denfand, 
either in their special duties, or as infantry. Under the command of 
their officers they may be employed in the construction of ovens for 
baking bread, and other works requiring mechanical skill, but not on 
mere police duty, or the like, unless connected immediately with thei 
own organization; nor are they to be employed altogether on mere 
fatigue service; but once instructed in the duties of the engineer 
soldier, they will be frequently employed in laying out works, and 
also in aiding and directing the labors of other troops detailed for 
their construction. 

Ill. Whenever practicable, engineer troops will be drilled and 
instructed in the duties of engineer soldiers, by battalions and regi- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ‘679 


ments—and to this end all the companies serving with an army will 
be habitually kept together; but such temporary assignments of com- 
panies to divisions or otherwise will be made by. the commanding 
‘general as will, in his judgment, best comport with the interests of 
the service. The Ordnance Department will furnish light arms to 
these troops; but until they can be supplied, infantry muskets will be 
used. Intrenching tools and other implements will be issued by the 
Engineer Department. 

IV. Each company of the engineer troops shall be provided by the 
Quartermaster’s Department with at least two wagons and teams of 
four animals each, for transportation of company equipage, intrench- 
ing tools and other implements; one ambulance or other light vehicle, 
with a team of two horses, for carrying surveying instruments, sta- 
tionery, maps, drawing-boards, and other fixtures; and twelve addi- 
tional horses, with saddles, bridles, and harness, to be used by the 
officers and non-commissioned officers in making rapid examinations 
of country, or for hauling materials needed for prompt repair and 
construction of bridges, roads, and other works. 

V. When officers of the Corps of Engineers and of engineer troops 
are engaged on the same service, the senior officer present shall control 
in all questions relating to the location and construction of defenses, 
and to engineering works generally connected with the army, unless 
for special reasons it be decided otherwise by the commanding officer; 
but should the recommendations and plans of a junior officer be 
adopted, the directions of the commander will not be communicated 
through him to the senior engineer officer, whether of the corps or 
troops, but through the usual channel of orders. Officers of the 
Corps of Engineers will not assume the command of engineer troops. 
In all cases they will be under the command of their own officers. 

By order: 

paGoOOrih, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
fichmond, Va., July 28, 1868. 

In addition to the matters set forth in the letter from this Bureau 
to the Adjutant and Inspector General of June 24, and approved by 
the War Department, for the arrest of deserters, stragglers, and 
evaders of conscription, commandants of conscripts in Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia will so arrange in 
receiving from the State authorities the portions of organized militia 
liable to conscription as to employ these forces before being brought 
to any camp or rendezvous, forthwith and simultaneously, in their 
respective districts or counties in gathering up deserters, stragglers, 
and evaders of conscription. Care will be taken in executing these 
instructions to prevent the escape of such parties into one county 
while the search is being prosecuted in another. The commandants 
will apply to the State authorities to facilitate this object by turning 
over the parties of militia, each in their respective county or district, 
simultaneously in all parts of the State. 

: G. W. LAY, 

Lieut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Ohief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conseripts. ) 


680: CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[JULY 28, 1863.—For E. Kirby Smith to Cooper, in relation to the 
eall for and enrollment of conscripts in the Trans-Mississippi Depart- 
ment, and for a meeting of the Governors of the States west of the 
Mississippi at Marshall, Tex., on August 15, see Series I, Vol. XXII, 
Part II, p. 949. | 


[JULY 28, 1863.—For Davis to Lee, in relation to measures for 
maintaining the strength of the Army of Northern Virginia, see Series 
1 VoOlOLT, Part Up 7414 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, July 28, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


I beg leave to suggest most respectfully the propriety of your for- 
bidding positively the officers of the Government engaging in specu- 
lations on private account. Many of them have been engaged in it 
here to the great detriment of the community and the public service. 
In addition to the temptation it offers for the misapplication of the 
public funds, it is corrupting in its tendencies, assists in upholding 
prices, and excites universal prejudice in the community. It should 
be absolutely prohibited, in my opinion. Pardon me. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


Hpers. VoL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, DEPT. NO. 2, 
Marietta, Ga., July 28, 1868. 
Col. BENJAMIN 8S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


Under the orders of General Johnston I am directed to superintend 
and direct the enforcement of the conscript law in Tennessee, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi. The officers of the Richmond Bureau in these 
States having been placed under my orders, I have commenced work. 
There are, I think, from 8,000 to 10,000 deserters and tory conscripts 
in the mountains of Alabama, many of whom have deserted the sec- 
ond, third, and (some of them) the fourth time. They cannot be 
kept in the army so near their homes. As fast as I catch them and 
send them to the army they desert and bring off their arms and steal 
all the ammunition of their comrades they can bring away. ‘These 
deserters and the tory conscripts, for mutual protection against my 
officers, have banded together and are as vicious as ‘‘ copperheads.” 
They have killed a number of my officers and in several instances 
have driven small bodies of cavalry, acting under my orders, from 
the mountains. It is useless to send them back to the Army of Ten- 
nessee. From Virginia they could not so easily return. By filling 
up the Alabama regiments in the Army of Virginia they would render 
the general service as much aid. I therefore apply for authority to 
send them to the Army of Virginia. The application amounts to a 
transfer of these deserters from Alabama regiments of the Army of 
Tennessee to Alabama regiments in Virginia. The President las the 
power to do this. Tennessee has nearly all passed (with her popula- 
tion) from our control. A very large portion of Mississippi has also. 
From these portions of Tennessee and Mississippi yet within our 
lines it is almost impossible to get the men out and into our army. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 681 


They hide and dodge in the thickets and swamps and mountains, and 
when hard pressed they run into the enemy’s lines to elude capture 
by my officers. 

The population of Central and Southern Alabama are nearly all in 
the Army who are liable. Thé largest portion of the population 
remaining to be gathered up are in the mountains of Northern Ala- 
bama, and, for the reasons already explained, I propose to send them 
to the Army of Virginia. You perceive, therefore, that the means of 
building up the Army of Tennessee and that of Mississippi are most 
inadequate. Indeed, without authority to draw from other sources 
than this department, I regard it impossible materially to strengthen 
those armies. I therefore ask for authority to embrace Georgia in 
the work of the bureau of this department. To gather up the tory 
conscripts and stragglers in the mountains of Alabama will require a 

considerable supporting force of cavalry. All small detachments of . 
cavalry sent into the mountains on this duty are driven out or kilied 
off. I cannot get an adequate force from General Bragg’s army. It 
cannot well be spared. Besides, to be efficient on this duty the 
detail ought to be permanent. One hundred men who have been on 
this duty long enough to understand it will do more than 300 freshly 
detailed troops. I therefore ask the orders of the Government upon 
the Governor of Alabama to turn over to this bureau one regiment 
or ten companies of mounted men of the troops called out for loeal 
defense. If I am properly supported by the Government I will clear 
out these mountains of tories and deserters. If not, my labor will 
profit the general service but little. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Pea dion: General, C. S. Army, and 
Supt. Volunteer and Conscr ipt Bureau, Dept. No. 2. 


General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant-General: 

This letter was written to pass through General Johnston, as I had 
not until this morning received your telegram. [ will forward him a 
copy advising him that by your permission I have sent the original 
direct to you. I most earnestly ask the approval of the President to 
its suggestions. Time is now of the highest importance. Georgia 
has 25,000 to 30,000 men liable to duty. She is full of able-bodied 
men, who have slipped through the hands of Government, and of 
refugees. If allowed to comprehend Georgia in my operations, and if 
sustained and properly supported by detachments of cavalry, I will 
build up the armies of Tennessee and Mississippi. If confined to the 
other States, for the reasons explained, the prospect is gloomy enough. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and 
Supt. Bureau of Volunteers and Conscripts, Dept. No. 2. 


HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY BRIGADE, 
Pontotoc, Miss., July 28, 1863. 
Lieut. Gen. W. J. HARDEE: 
* * * 6 *k *k * 
The bungling attempt to raise State troops to be mustered into the 
Confederate service in North Mississippi seems to accomplish nothing 


682 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. : 


more than furnish a poor excuse for hundreds of men to avoid con- 
scription. Companies are formed and reported, but eannot be found 
when the time appointed for muster arrives. Inthe contest for office 
and promotion the officers raising them make their companies asylums 
for deserters from every portion of the Army. The central and 
northern counties of this State and the northern counties of Alabama 
are full of deserters, who cannot be caught while these unmustered 
companies are desirous of securing their services to swell their ranks. 
S. W. FERGUSON, 
Colonel, Commanding. 


[First indorsement. ] 


Morton, August 2, 1863. 


Respectfully submitted for information of the War Department, in 
connection with my recent suggestion to revoke the order authorizing 
conscripts to remain in State service. 

J. Ko JOHNSTON, 


General. 
[Second indorsement. ] 


Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. 
H. L- CLay 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Third indorsement. | 


There was a communication from the commander of conscripts in 
Mississippi to the same effect. He stated that the militia officers were 
enrolling men subject to conscription, and that the militia troops 
were undisciplined and untrained. This was referred to General 
Pillow with a recommendation that he represent the facts to the Gov- 
ernor and invite his co-operation with the Confederate officers. 

This letter indicates the same evil, and the correction is suggested. 

J. (ARG 


—____——_ 


JULY 29, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Str: The pressing demands for funds in Europe to purchase the 
necessary supplies for this department have induced me to analyze 
the present means adopted to insure the same. The three steamers 
owned by the Government and now under control of the Ordnance 
Department will not be able to carry out between this and the Ist of 
January, 1864, the amount of cotton (7,670 bales) required to meet 
the wants of that Bureau and the Medical Department. Of the Collie 
steamers I understand there are now two on the line, and that, per- 
haps, a third may be added. They can carry about 800 bales of cot- 
ton each, and make one trip each in about six weeks; which, if no 
accident occur, will secure the delivery of about 15,000 bales of cotton 
by the 1st of January, 1864. Before any benefit can arise from this 
source the price of the steamers will have to be provided for. The 
orders for quartermaster’s supplies now outstanding in Europe, and 
for which funds should be supplied to the agent of this department, 
amount to $5,137,000, to meet which, so far as I am informed, no 
funds have been supplied him for six months. To supply this demand 
there will be required 37,200 bales of cotton, and should all the avail- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 683 


able transportation facilities of the Collie line be accorded to this 
department, half the quantity required cannot be transported between 
this date and the Ist of January next, a period itself too distant, as 
the supplies referred to are required to meet the wants of the Army 
for the fall and winter campaign. 

Beleving that the funds necessary to purchase these supplies can- 
not be furnished from the source above referred to, I beg to suggest 
that as Congress ati its last session authorized the issue of “$250, 000,000 
bonds, to be paid in cotton, with coupons attached (the interest pay- 
able in cotton or specie, at the option of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury ), that application be made to have the amount of $5,000,000 in 
these bonds issued to me, and that I be empowered to send them by a 
special agent to Europe to be sold, and the proceeds applied to the pur- 
chase of the needed supplies. If this proposition be accepted, I hope 
to be able, even at this late day, to provide for the pressing wants of 
the Army; if not, I cannot but abandon the hope of doing so. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. C. MYERS, 
Quartermaster-General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 108. Richmond, July 29, 1863. 
I. The following act and regulations are published for the informa- 
tion of the Army: 


AWN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to provide for an increase of the Quartermaster’s and 
Commissary Departments,’’ approved February 15, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the act enti- 
tled ‘‘An act to provide for an increase of the Quartermaster’s and Commissary 
Departments,” approved February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, be, 
and the same is hereby, amended by striking out the proviso at the end of the 
same, and inserting in lieu thereof the folowing: Provided, That no quartermas- 
ter, assistant quartermaster, commissary, or assistant commissary be authorized 
to employ as a Clerk any one liable to military service; and the commanding offi- 
cer of quartermasters, assistant quartermasters, commissaries, or assistant com- 
missaries may detail from the ranks under his command such person or persons 
as may be necessary for service in the offices of said quartermasters, assistant 
quartermasters, commissaries, and assistant commissaries: Provided, That only 
disabled soldiers shall be so detailed while one can be found for such service. 

Approved April 22, 1863. 

Il. To carry into effect the provisions of the preceding act, officers 
of the Quartermaster’s and Commissary Departments in the field will 
report to the commanding general of the army or department the num- . 
ber and names of the clerks employed by each, and whether they are 
soldiers or citizens. If soldiers, unless their disability be shown by 
certificates of medical examining boards, they will be promptly 
returned to their respective companies. If citizens, exemption from 
service must be exhibited, or they will be reported to the proper 
enrolling officer for conscription. 

Il. Similar reports will be made by officers of the Quartermaster’s 
and Commissary Departments at posts through the chiefs of their 
respective departments to this office. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


684 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SPECIAL Pageant ss ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 180. Richmond, Va., July 30, 1863. 
* f ** 


* * * * 


XX. On account-of the state of health of Brigadier-General Field 
he is relieved from the control of the Conscript Bureau. Col. John 
S. Preston is assigned to that duty. 

By command of the Secretary of War: 

JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


——— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., July 30, 1865. 
Lieut. Col. G. W. RAINS, 
Augusta, Ga.: 

Str: I appreciate fully the importance of defending Augusta and 
the large interests of the Government at that point, and should be 
much pleased to provide adequate local force to guard it against sud- 
den raids and limited advances of the enemy. If the men capable 
of bearing arms in a town of such size and importance can only be 
efficiently organized, they will alone suffice, in all probability, for 
the end contemplated. I am willing to extend every inducement to 
such organization which the law allows me to offer. I cannot permit 
those liable to conscription to be embraced in corps for local defense 
without violating the provisions of the act of Congress, which requires 
such to be devoted to filling the old organizations. I can, however, 
allow all others who will organize in efficient companies for local 
defense and special service under the act of August 21, 1861, to 
restrict their service to the defense of Augusta and its vicinity. Ican 
likewise assign to such organization all detailed men, whether men 
enrolled as conscripts or soldiers withdrawn from the Army. With 
the strong motives and personal interest which the citizen must have 
to defend the place, I should hope these inducements would cause a 
general organization. You are authorized to give assurance that the 
companies will be received with this restriction as to locality of serv- 
ice, and I indulge the hope that by means of it you may be enabled 
to raise at least a regiment, which, under your guidance, will either 
defend the city or hold at bay the enemy until re-enforcements can be 
received. 

Respectfully and truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


——E 


RICHMOND, VA., July 30, 1868. 
Governor Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.: 

Your letter received.* Iwill be glad to see you at your earliest con- 
venience. Let me know of your coming and you shall meet with no 
delay. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


* See Series I, Vol. LI, Part Il, p. 740. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 685 


[| JULY 30, 1863.—For Magruder to Lubbock, in relation to a call for 
10,000 men from Texas, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, p. 126.] 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
fichmond, Va., July 30, 1868. 

Commandants of conscripts will forward to the Surgeon-General 
through this Bureau complete lists of the enrolling districts in the 
several States, with the names of the officers in charge, and the post- 
office address of ‘the enrolling headquarters of the district; also the 
names of the surgeons and citizen physicians employed as members of 
the examining boards for each district. 

Wherever it is now or may hereafter become impracticable to per- 
form the duties of conscription in any district by reason of occupation 
by the enemy, or from any other cause, the Surgeon-General will be 
notified of it through this Bureau, that the employment of the sur- 
geons and physicians above enumerated may terminate. 

In general, all changes occurring under these heads will be simi- 
larly reported. 

GeowW 2 LAY, 
Ineut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gien., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


~ ————. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 31, 1868. 


General D. H. MAURY, 
Mobile, Ala.: 


Seize and retain for the Government all funds, effects, and securt- 
ties within your department belonging to the banks of New Orleans, 
especially those of the Bank of Louisiana and Louisiana State Bank. 
Funds of the Bank of Louisiana, as likewise cotton receipts and rail- 
road sterling. bonds, are believed to be in the possession of G. G. 
Steever, now in Montgomery. Apply for information to Moses Green- 
wood, at Mobile. His letter to the Secretary of State has been received 
and submitted to the President. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


HDQRS. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, DEPT. No. 2, 
Marietta, Ga., July 31, 1868. 
Colonel KEWELL, 
Assistant. Adjutant-General: 


As soon as it is possible to put in working order this upper and east- 
ern portion of the department I will turn my attention to Mississippi. 
Before doing so it will be necessary for me to be informed whether or 
not I must call upon General Bragg to furnish me with all the officers 


686 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 

I will need for Mississippi, or will your army now in that State supply 
this want in whole or in part? I also ask an order of General John- 
ston that the commanders of armies, of corps, and of cavalry situated 
in the neighborhood of my camps of instruction and rendezvous, as 
far asis practicable, furnish my officers with small details of infan- 
try and cavalry as a supporting force where needed. To give effi- 
ciency to the work of the bureau it is essential that my officers should 
be sustained if resisted. In many localities a knowledge of the exist- 
ence of authority thus to call to my assistance such foree would of 
itself obviate the necessity of its use. In other localities such sup- 
porting force will be absolutely necessary. As rapidly as possible I 
will seek to make the bureau self-sustaining. This would have long 
since [been] done if my applications had been promptly acted upon 
and granted. To do this will require time. The loss of this must be 
avoided. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and 
Supt. Volunteer and Conscript Bureau, Dept. No. 2. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, July 31, 1863. 
Col. J. W. Hinton, who is engaged under the authority of Governor 
Vance in raising State troops east of the Chowan and in counties 
contiguous, so under the control of the enemy as not to allow the 
enforcement of the conscript law, will not be interfered with in the 
enlistment of the men capable of [bearing] arms therein, and such 
men, though of conscript age, will not be withdrawn from such State 
organizations while there is such occupation of the enemy and exist- 
ing need for their presence to restrain the enemy. I cannot, however, 
under the law, exempt such men permanently from lability to con- 
seription where the withdrawal of the enemy would allow them to be 
regularly subjected to the operation of the law. ; 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., July 31, 18638. 
The Superintendent of Conscription desires to be furnished, with 
the least delay practicable, a full report of the names of all enrolling 
officers, drill-masters, and agents of conscription, with their grade, 
actual military status, military history, how and by whom appointed, 
and the antecedents on which the appointment was founded in each 
case. ° 
G. W. LAY, 
Lieut. Col., Asst. Adjt. Gen., Acting Chief of Bureau. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 687 


PROCLAMATION. 


THE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


After more than two years of a warfare scarcely equaled in the 
number, magnitude, and fearful carnage of its battles, a warfare in 
which your courage and fortitude have illustrated your country and 
attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad, your ~ 
enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inev- 
itable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that 
temporary reverses can quell your spirit or shake your determination, 
and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion in 
the vain hope that by a desperate effort success may at length be 
reached. 

You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by success. 
Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of 
yourselves, your wives, and children. They seek to destroy what 
they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your 
homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious 
cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design 
to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism 
wherever they can reach your homes, and they debauch the inferior 
race, hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the 
vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability 
to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace lest they 
should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in 
Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end 
to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion for 
conducting the war according to the usages of civilization. 

Fellow-citizens, no alternative is left you but victory or subjugation, 
slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your 
.country. The victory is within your reach. You need but stretch 
forth your hands to grasp it. For this end all that is necessary is 
that those who are called to the field by every motive that can move 
the human heart should promptly repair to the post of duty, should 
stand by their comrades now in front of the foe, and thus so strengthen 
the armies of the Confederacy as to insure success. The men now 
absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to create 
numerical equality between our force and that of the invaders; and 
when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victo- 
rious? I believe that but few of those absent are actuated by unwilling- 
ness to serve their country, but that many have found it difficult to 
resist the temptation.of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from 
whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for 
temporary attention to their affairs with the intention of returning, 
and then have shrunk from the consequence of the violation of duty; 
that others again have left their posts from mere restlessness and 
desire of change, each quieting the upbraidings of his conscience by 
persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence 
on the general result. These and other causes (although far less dis- 
graceful than the desire to avoid danger or to escape from the sacri- 
fices required by patriotism) are, nevertheless, grievous faults, and 
place the cause of our beloved country and of everything we hold 
dear in imminent peril. 

I repeat that the men who now owe duty to their country, who have 
been called out and have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented 
themselves from their posts are sufficient in number to secure us 


688 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


victory in the struggle now impending. I call on you, then, my 
countrymen, to hasten to your camps in obedience to the dictates of 
honor and of duty, and I summon those who have absented themselves 
without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed 
by their furloughs, to repair without delay to their respective com- 
mands; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and 
amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy now absent 
without leave who shall with the least possible delay return to their 
proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay 
beyond twenty days after the first publication of this proclamation in 
the State in which the absentee may be at the date of publication. 
This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused, 
or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for absence 
without leave or desertion, excepting only those who have been twice 
convicted of desertion. 

Finally, I conjure my countrywomen, the wives, mothers, sisters, 
and daughters of the Confederacy, to use their all-powerful influence 
in aid of this call, to add one crowning sacrifice to those which their 
patriotism has so freely and constantly offered on their country’s altar, 
and to take care that none who owe service in the field shall be sheltered 
at home from the disgrace of having deserted their duty to their families, 
to their country, and to their God. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at 
Richmond, this first day of August, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. 

[SEAL. | JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


By the President: 
J. P. BENJAMIN, 
Secretary of State. 


No. 107. Richmond, August 1, 1863. 


I. When conscripts have been sent to camps of instruction, or to 
regiments in the field, after being pronounced by the district examin- 
ing boards established under the law fit for military service, they can 
thereafter be discharged only in accordance with the regulations pre- 
scribed for the discharge of soldiers from the Army. 

Il. In ease there is reason to believe that any conscripts in camps 
of instruction are disqualified, the commandant will order a medical 
examination and forward a report fully setting forth the grounds of 
disability, if found to exist, through the Bureau of Conscription, to 
the Surgeon-General for his approval, and for final action by the War 
Department 

III. Regimental officers have no discretion but to receive and take 
up on their rolls conscripts duly assigned them under the provisions 
of General Orders, No. 82, of 1862, from this office. The question of 
discharge arises subsequently. 

IV. The compensation of surgeons employed under the act of Con- 
gress approved October 11, 1862, to examine persons enrolled for 
military duty will be $5 per day for each day they are actually 
engaged in making such examinations, and will be paid upon their 
certified accounts by the quartermaster of the nearest camp of instruc- 
tion. This order will take effect from the 20th of February last. 


GENERAL reek ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 689 


V. General officers who are provided with aides-de-camp allowed by 
law, should they find it necessary to accept supernumerary or volun- 
teer aides, must only receive those exempt from military service. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[| AUGUST 2, 1863.—For Johnston to Shorter, in relation to troops 
raised in Alabama for local defense, see Series I, Vol. X XVI, Part II, 
p. 136. | 


[AUGUST 2, 1863.—For Davis to Lee, in relation to measures for 
maintaining the strength of the Army of Northern Virginia, &c., see 
Series I, Vol, LI, Part II, p. 749. ] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
fichmond, Va., August 3, 1863. 
His Excellency JOHN LETCHER, 
Governor of Virginia: 

Sir: I have the honor to request that you will call out for thirty 
days from this date, for the defense of Petersburg and its vicinity, 
the militia of the second class of that city, as well as any other not 
embraced in that class. The action of the board of exemption pro- 
vided by the State law, will, of course, be recognized so far as it 
refers to exemption from military duty. 7 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[AuGcusr 4, 1863.—For Shorter to Johnston, in relation to troops 
raised in Alabama for local defense, see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part II, 
Detsd: | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 108. Richmond, August 4, 1863. 


The following acts are published for the information of the Army : 


AN ACT to provide for transportation of persons who have been mustered into the service for the 
war. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That non-commis- 
sioned officers and privates who have been mustered into service for the war, and 
to whom furloughs may be granted for not more than sixty days, shall be entitled 
to transportation home and back: Provided, That this allowance shall only be 
made once during the term of enlistment of such non-commissioned officers and 
privates. 

Approved February 7, 1863. 


44 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


690 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


AN ACT to amend ‘An act for the establishment and organization of a general staff for the Army of 
the Confederate States.” 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after 
the passage of this act the rank, pay, and allowances attached _ to the office of 
Quartermaster-General of the Army of the Confederate States shall be those of 
a brigadier-general in the Provisional Army. 

Approved March 20, 1863. 


AN ACT to prevent the absence of officers and soldiers without leave. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no officer or 
soldier of the Army shall receive pay for any period during which he may be 
absent without leave, or beyond the leave granted, from competent authority, 
according to the Regulations of the Army: Provided, That this restriction shall 
not affect the sick or wounded in hospitals. 

Src. 2. In order to enforce the requirements of the foregoing section, itis hereby 
made the duty of commanding officers of companies to state upon the muster and 
pay rolls of their companies the length of time any officer or soldier has been absent — 
therefrom, without leave of competent authority, since the previous payment, 
when the deduction of pay for such absence will be made by the quartermaster 
from the amount otherwise due the officer or soldier; and any commander of a 
company who shall fail to note such absence on the muster and pay rolls of the 
company shall be required to refund to the Government the amount forfeited by 
such absent officer or soldier, unless it shall already have been received from the 
officer or soldier so absent. 

Src. 3. Officers shall certify upon honor on their pay accounts whether they 
have or have not been absent, without leave by competent authority, within the 
time for which they claim pay; and if absent without leave, they shall state in 
their certificates the time and period of such absences. In like manner, command- 
ing officers of companies shall certify on honor on their pay accounts that they 
have stated fully and correctly on the muster and pay rolls of their companies 
the length of time each officer and soldier of the company has been absent with- 
out leave since the last payment of the company. 

Src. 4. That this act shall not be construed to relieve any officer or private from 
any other penalty to which he may be liable by existing laws or regulations. 

Approved April 16, 1863. 


AN ACT explanatory of an act entitled ‘‘An act to authorize the President to accept and place in 
the service certain regiments and battalions heretofore raised,’’ approved on the eleventh day of 
October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the second 
section of the act entitled ‘‘An act to authorize the President to accept and place 
in the service certain regiments and battalions heretofore raised,” approved on 
the eleventh day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
two, shall not be so construed as to authorize any general officer to appoint any 
of the officers of said regiments and battalions. That said regiments and bat- 
talions shall have the right within ninety days, on a day to be fixed by the com- 
mander of the brigade for that purpose, to elect such officers as volunteers have 
heretofore been authorized to elect: Provided, That this act shall not apply to 
any case where such office has heretofore been filled by election. 

Approved April 16, 1863. 


AN ACT to repeal certain clauses of an act entitled ‘‘An act to exempt certain persons from military 
service,’’ &c., approved October 11, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much of 
the act approved October eleventh, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 
as exempts from military service ‘‘one person, either as agent, owner, or Over- 
seer, on each plantation on which one white person is required to be kept by the 
laws or ordinances of any State, and on which there is no white male adult not 
liable to military service, and in States having no such law, one person as agent, 
owner, or overseer, on each plantation of twenty negroes, and on which there is 
no white male adult not liable to military service,” and also the following clause 
in said act, to wit: ‘‘And furthermore for additional police for every twenty 
negroes, on two or more plantations, within five miles of each other, and each 
having less than twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not 
liable to military duty, one person being the oldest of the owners or overseers on 
such plantations,” be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 

Sec. 2. For the police and management of slaves, there shall be exempted one 
person on each farm or plantation, the sole property of a minor, a person of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 691 


unsound mind, a femme sole, or a person absent from home in the military or naval 
service of the Confederacy, on which there are twenty or more slaves: Provided, 
The person so exempted was employed and acting as an overseer previous to the 
sixteenth April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and there is no white 
male adult on said farm or plantation, who is not liable to military duty, which 
fact shall be verified by the affidavits of said person and two respectable citizens, 
and shall be filed with the enrolling officer: And provided, The owner of such 
farm or plantation, his agent, or legal representative, shall make affidavit and 
deliver the same to the enrolling officer, that, after diligent effort, no overseer 
can be procured for such farm or plantation not liable to military duty: Pro- 
vided further, That this clause shall not extend to any farm or plantation on 
which the negroes have been placed. by division from any other farm or planta- 
tion since the eleventh day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
two: Provided further, That for every person exempted, as aforesaid, and 
during the period of such exemption, there shall be paid annually into the public 
Treasury, by the owners of such slaves, the sum of five hundred dollars. 

SEC. 3. Such other persons shall be exempted as the President shall be satisfied 
ought to be exempted in districts of country deprived of white or slave labor 
indispensable to the production of grain or provisions necessary for the support 
of the population remaining at home, and also on account of justice, equity and 
necessity. 

SEC. 4. In addition to the State officers exempted by the act of October elev- 
enth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, there shall also be exempted all 
State officers whom the Governor of any State may claim to have exempted for 
the due administration of the government and laws thereof; but this exemption 
shall not continue in any State after the adjournment of the next regular session 
of its Legislature, unless such Legislature shall, by law, exempt them from mili- 
tary duty in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to organize military courts to attend the Army of the 
Confederate States in the field, and to define the powers of said courts,” approved October 9th, 1862. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in addition 
to one military court to attend each army corps in the field, as now authorized 
by an act entitled ‘‘An act to organize military courts to attend the Army of the 
Confederate States in the field, and to define the power of said courts,” approved 
October ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, one military court shall be organ- 
ized in each of such military departments as, in the judgment of the President, 
the public exigencies may require ; to be organized in the manner and with powers 
prescribed in the act of which this is amendatory. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to continue and amend the third section of an act supplementary to an act concerning the 
pay and allowance due to deceased soldiers, approved February 15th, 1862, and to provide for the 
prompt settlement of claims for arrearages of pay. allowance and bounty due deceased officers and 
soldiers. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the third 
section of an act entitled ‘“‘An act supplementary to an act concerning the pay 
and allowance due to deceased soldiers,” approved February fifteenth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two, and to provide for the prompt settlement of claims for 
arrearages of pay, allowance and bounty due deceased officers and soldiers, be 
continued of force until otherwise provided by Congress. 

Approved May 1, 1863.* 


AN ACT to provide for the appointment of military store-keepers in the Provisional Army of the 
Confederate States. < 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President 
be authorized to appoint as many military store-keepers of ordnance in the Pro- 
visional Army of the Confederate States as may be deemed necessary, not to ° 
exceed in all eight store-keepers, four with the pay and allowance of a captain of 
infantry, and four with the pay and allowance of a first lieutenant of infantry. 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That military store-keepers of the first class so 
appointed shall be required to give bonds in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, 
and those of the second class in the sum of ten thousand dollars, when charged 
with the disbursement of funds. This act shall be in force from and after its 
passage: Provided, That no one shall be appointed under its provisions except 


* For ‘‘ Joint resolutions on the subject of retaliation,” which follow this act, 
and are here omitted, see Series IT, Vol. V, p. 940. 


692 ! CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


officers without commands, or officers or privates who have performed meritorious 
services in the field or have become incapacitated by wounds or sickness for active 
service. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to prevent fraud in the Quartermaster’s and Commissary Departments and the obtaining 
under false pretense transportation for private property. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no officer 
charged with the safe-keeping, transfer or disbursement of public moneys, shall 
convert to his own use, or invest in any kind of property or merchandise, on pri- 
vate account, or lend with or without interest, any portion of the public moneys 
intrusted to him for safe-keeping, transfer, disbursement or any other purpose. 

Src. 2. That no officer charged with the safe-keeping, transfer or disbursement 
of public moneys, or charged with or assigned to the duty of purchasing for the 
Government, or any department thereof, shall buy, trade, traffic or speculate in, 
either directly or indirectly for the purpose of gain to himself or others by resale 
or otherwise, any article of food or clothing or material of which the same is 
made, or which enters into or constitutes a part of the same, or any material of 
war or article whatsoever, which is or may be required to be purchased for the 
use of the Army or the prosecution of the war. 

Src. 3. No officer shall take a receipt in blank for any article or articles pur- 
chased by him for the Government or any department thereof; and every receipt 
shall set forth the true amount paid, and on what account; and when payment is 
made on account of property purchased, the receipt shall set forth the name of 
the person from whom such property was purchased, and the place of his resi- 
dence, the thing or things purchased, by items, number, weight or measurement, 
as may be customary in the particular case, the price thereof, and the date of 
payment. 

Src. 4. No officer who is in charge of transportation, or who is empowered to 
grant the same, shall forward by Government conveyance or at the expense of 
Government, or to the exclusion or delay of Government freight, any commodity 
or property of any kind, unless the same belongs to the Government or some 
department thereof, except as authorized by law. 

Src. 5. Any officer who shall violate any provision in the foregoing sections, shall, 
upon a conviction before a court-martial or military court, be cashiered and 
placed in the ranks as a private to serve during the war: Provided, That nothing 
herein contained shall impair the civil remedy which the Government may have 
against any officer or his sureties for fraud, peculation or misapplication of the 
public moneys intrusted to him by the Government. 

Src. 6. Be it further enacted, That any person in the employment or service 
of the Government as aforesaid, and all other persons coming within the purview 
of this act, who shall violate any of the provisions of the foregoing sections, shall 
be liable to indictment, and fined in a sum not less than one thousand dollars and 
imprisoned not less than one year, nor longer than five years, to be imposed by 
the judge or jury trying the cause, according to the course of judicial proceeding 
in force in the several States: Provided, The provisions of this act shall in no 
wise interfere with or impair the civil remedy which the Government may have 
against any of said officers or their securities or employés for frauds, peculations 
or misapplication of the moneys intrusted to them, respectively, by the Confed- 
erate States: Provided also, That all conservators of the peace, who, by the laws 
of the several States, have jurisdiction to commit or bind over offenders for 
breaches of the criminal laws of the State in which they may reside, shall have 
power to commit or bind over in a sufficient recognizance offenders against the 
provisions of this law, to appear at the next term of the district court of the Con- 
federate States, within the jurisdiction of which the offense was committed, for 
trial, in the same manner and under the same rules as if such preliminary trial 
were had before the judge of such district court, and the judges of the Confed- 
erate courts having jurisdiction of the offenses defined by this act shall, at the 
commencement of each session of their respective courts, give this act and its 
provisions specially in charge to the different grand juries. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to pay officers, non-commissioned officers and privates not legally mustered into the service 
of the Confederate States, for services actually performed. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all officers, 
non-commissioned officers and privates of any legally constituted military organ- 
ization, which may have been actually received into the service of the Confederate 
States by any general officer thereof, but were never legally mustered into sery- 
ice, in consequence of the loss of the muster-rolls of such military organization, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 693 


shall be entitled to receive pay from the time they were so received: Provided, 
The fact of their having been so received into the service, and the time they 
served, is duly proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War, under rules to 
be prescribed by him. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT to provide for the transfer of persons serving in the Army to the Navy. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons 
serving in the land forces of the Confederate States who shall desire to be trans- 
ferred to the naval service, and whose transfer as seamen or ordinary seamen 
shall be applied for by the Secretary of the Navy, shall be transferred from the 
land to the naval service: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so con- 
strued as to alter or repeal any law now in force limiting the number of seamen. “ 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


AN ACT regulating the granting of furloughs and discharges in hospitals. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That sick, wounded, 
and disabled soldiers-in hospitals shall be entitled to furloughs and discharges 
under the following rules and regulations: In places where there are three or 
more hospitals, three surgeons in charge of hospitals, or divisions in hospitals, 
shall constitute a board of examiners for the hospitals to which they belong, 
whose duty it shall be, twice in each week, to visit said hospitals, and examine 
applicants for furloughs and discharges; and in all cases where they shall find an 
applicant for furlough unfit for military duty, either from disease or wounds, 
and likely so to remain for thirty days or upward, they shall grant a furlough 
for such time as they shall deem him unfit for duty, not to exceed sixty days. 
Said Board shall keep a secretary or clerk, who shall issue all furloughs by order 
of the Board, and shall specify therein the time of furlough, the place of the resi- 
dence of the soldier, his company, regiment and brigade. 

SEC. 2. Be tt further enacted, That no further regulation shall be required of 
the soldier, and no passport required other than his furlough. 

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the said Board may recommend discharges, 
stating the ground thereof, which, when approved by the Surgeon-General or the 
general commanding the army or department to which the soldier belongs, shall 
entitle him to a discharge and transportation to the place of his enlistment or 
residence. 

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That in places where there are but two hospitals, 
two surgeons in charge of a hospital or division shall constitute a board for the 
purposes aforesaid; and in places where there is but one, the surgeon in charge, 
and two assistant surgeons, if there be two, and if not, then one, shall constitute 
a board for the purpose aforesaid, and may furlough and recommend discharges 
as aforesaid: Provided, That no furlough shall be granted under the provisions of 
this act if in the opinion of the Board the life or convalescence of the patient 
would be endangered thereby. 

SeEc. 5. [Be it further enacted,| The house surgeon in all hospitals shall see 
each patient under his charge once every day. 

Approved May 1, 1863. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


MORTON, August 4, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. PILLOW, 
Marietta, Ga.: 

Georgia is not one of the States in which General Johnston has 
authority to enforce conscription. You say that you have applied 
for authority to collect the conscripts of this State. If by this you 
mean that you have applied to the War Department, General John- 
ston was your proper channel. All your communications to the War 
Department should be made through him. 

By command of General J. E. Johnston: 

BEN. 8S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


694 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Auaust 5, 1863.—For Lee to Northrop, in relation to the necessity 
of reducing the soldiers’ rations, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XXIX, Part 
II, p. 6285. | # 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, August 6, 1868, 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: The whole matter of conscription and all other functions 
hitherto pertaining to this Bureau within the States of Tennessee, 
Mississippi, and Alabama having been transferred to the general com- 
manding Department No. 2, leaves a limited but still important scope 
for the action of the Bureau. Practically there remains under the 
control of the Bureau but four States—Georgia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and part of Virginia. The number of men liable to con- 
scription in these States is smaller in comparison to their population 
than in the other portions of the Confederacy. Almost all such are 
already in the field, and that function of the Bureau almost expires 
for lack of material, and yet requires for its execution the same extent 
of agency as if the supply were to be ten times that which is probable. 
These agencies must continue unless the same disposition be made in 
the eastern as has been made in the western States. Should that 
occur, the necessity of the Bureau and its agencies would terminate. 
At present, then, by far the gravest portions of its duties consists in 
its remedial action on the depletion of the Army by straggling, deser- 
tions, and other forms of absence. 

While the conscription will be urged with all the vigor which the 
system will admit, I will at once venture to offer for your considera- 
tion a few suggestions relative to the other branches of the duty to 
which you have assigned me. I feel assured from my own observa- 
tion that the regulations concerning volunteering will fail of the 
effect desired if permitted to remain in their present form. . The omis- 
sion of any prescribed period for volunteering is fatal to their suc- 
cess; but, besides this, serious impediments to the efficient action of 
the system are offered in the unrestricted powers given to recruit- 
ing officers, and which in practice are much abused. It is known to 
me, from the practical operation of the present regulation, that men in 
large numbers—indeed large majorities in some localities—hold back 
from volunteering until they are hunted down by the enrolling officer, 
and as a last resort accept the offers of recruiting officers who tender — 
them rewards and extended furloughs for the chance of getting the 
names on their rolls, thus delaying the volunteer beyond the con- 
script. This is extensively practiced. It frequently occurs that the 
officer gives a certificate that the man belongs to his company. If 
this is not admitted by the enrolling officer, the man is brought to the 
camp, and after the delay of an almost impracticable correspondence 
with armies in the field he may at last be forced to volunteer. 

I have seen furloughs of ninety days given by recruiting officers 
to men who held certificates six months old that they belonged to 
certain companies, and who had never been in the field. In other 
instances (and these are very common) men escape after enrollment 
and join companies and are eagerly accepted, and on reclamation 
being made, are resolutely protected and claimed as regular members 
of the companies. Very vague pretensions of right are sufficient to 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. ; 695 


effect their retention. The result of all this is that the unrestricted 
privilege of volunteering is a fruitful source of delay in entering and 
of final escape from service. In view of this, I venture to suggest, 
first, that the privilege of volunteering be restricted to those persons 
who report as volunteers to the enrolling officer within a period 
indicated by the Department; second, that all volunteers must be 
mustered in and sent forward by enrolling officers; third, that 
commanders of companies shall not receive volunteers who may have 
been liable to conscription without a certificate from the enrolling 
officer that they volunteered before enrollment, and that a copy of 
such certificate shall be forwarded to the commandant of conscripts 
for the State from which the volunteer goes; fourth, that the grant- 
ing of furloughs to volunteers before they have reported in person to 
the company be prohibited. 

I am aware that these suggestions infringe somewhat on the seem- 
ing policy of existing orders and regulations, but not to an extent 
affecting it substantially, and I feel assured will give, if adopted, 
additional vigor to the execution of that policy. 

As connected with this matter, I venture to suggest that the system 
of volunteer recruiting from persons within the conscript age by any 
authority except through this Bureau is apt to produce delay, with 
much confusion and irregularity. 

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[First indorsement. | 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 


Recruiting officers for companies in the field have done more to 
demoralize the Army than to strengthen it. They have been the 
agents of much of the abuse in the reception of substitutes. The 
views and recommendations in this paper are deserving of favor. 

J. A. CAMPBELL. 


[Second indorsement. | 


AUGUST 14, 1863. 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 


Issue a general order, first, that officers receiving volunteers from 
those liable to conscription shall in no case grant furloughs to such 
volunteers before entering on actual service for more than ten days. 
Second, every man liable to conscription volunteering before enroll- 
ment must report himself and the company in which he volunteers, 
and likewise be reported by his captain to the commandant of con- 
scripts for the State within ten days after his act of volunteering, 
otherwise he will be held subject to enrollment and assignment. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, August 6, 1863. 
General BRAXTON BRAGG and OTHER OFFICERS, 
Chattanooga, Tenn.: 
GENTLEMEN: I[ have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of 25th ultimo in relation to the important subject of filling the 


696 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ranks of our armies, which it cannot be needful to say has for some time 
past received the earnest attention of the War Department. You are 
no doubt aware that the right to call for men to fill up the armies 
of the Confederacy is limited by law and that the demand has already 
reached the limit thus prescribed. The alternative, therefore, which 
you present indicates your own conclusion that the legislation of 
Congress in relation to exemptions should be changed on that point. 
I forbear to make any further remark than that the subject was fully 
discussed in two sessions of Congress. It may, however, be remarked 
that the men who are by law exempt from conscription have been 
invited to organizations for local defense and are subject.to duty as 
militia of the States, and you have probably not failed to observe that 
the States have been called upon in one or both of these forms to 
furnish additional force. . 

I was surprised to observe the statement that 150,000 soldiers had 
employed substitutes, of whom not one in a hundred remained in. 
service. The records of the War Department do not furnish the 
means of verifying your statistics, and as the matter is one of impor- 
tance, I would be glad to know how the fact has been ascertained. 
The number of men on detached service, as shown by the field returns, 
has been observed to be great, and perhaps it may justify your term 
“enormous,” but the returns do not show for what purpose or by 
whose order they were detached, and I think it will be found that a 
very small part of them have been so separated from their companies 
by orders from the War Department. If you are correct in stating 
that the number of ‘‘detailed and exempted men under forty-five 
exceeds a quarter of a million,” you will do the Department the 
justice to remember that it has construed the exemption law very 
rigidly, and made constant efforts to reduce the number of effective 
men employed at depots and by staff officers in the field. I will gladly 
receive your aid in correcting what is believed to be an abuse in the 
employment of an unnecessary number of effective soldiers and men 
subject to conscription on duties which, to use your expression, 
‘‘eould be performed by women or disabled soldiers.” 

I concur fully in your views that the most extreme course would be 
preferable to one which left us to pe beaten in detail and our resources 
destroyed by the abandonment of one part of the country after 
another. The arguments you offer unite with many other consider- — 
ations to urge the most desperate resistance to the occupation of our 
soil by the enemy. But you will not fail to estimate the natural 
elements involved in the question, and are sufficiently informed that 
not only the number of men, but the means necessary to render them 
efficient, has a limit greatly within our desires. 

In conclusion, I would remark that the promptitude of action which 
you urge involves the best possible use of the means and powers 
we now possess. T'o assemble Congress to obtain additional legis- 
lation and to execute the laws then enacted would involve a delay 
which, in the present condition of affairs, would be disastrous. The 
recent heavy losses of arms in the west render it probable that the 
men subject to conscription and those absent from their companies, 
added to the exempts to be furnished by the States for special service, 
will be as great as the number of arms we can supply. 

It is proper, therefore, to inform you that your letter has been duly 
submitted to the President and Secretary of War. : 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 697 


Morton, August 6, 1863. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


I desire to raise a squadron of cavalry and two companies of artil- 
lery for river defense, to render the navigation of the Mississippi 
River impossible, or at least perilous. Being from Wilkinson County 
and well acquainted with that portion of the river, propose to oper- 
ate between Natchez and Tunica and facilitate the speedy organization 
of the command. I respectfully ask permission to enlist men between 
the ages of conscription for service for three years or the war. This 
organization, of course, to be subject to the orders of the department 
commander and moved to other service when, in his judgment, it may 
be required. The State will furnish me the horses. 

JONES 8S. HAMILTON. 


MERIDIAN, August 6, 1863. 
President JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


Colonel Hamilton, adjutant-general of the State, has telegraphed 
you in reference to raising a command for river defense. He is 
entirely competent to the undertaking and worthy of encouragement. 
We hope you will favor his request and plans. 

INO. Je PH DT US: 
A. M. WEST: 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, August 7, 1863. 
Hon. 8. R. MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy: 


SIR: The President has referred your letter of the 24th ultimo, 
inclosing statements from Admiral Buchanan and Flag Officers Ingra- 
ham and Tucker, to this Department. In reply I have the honor to 
say that seamen should be selected and application made for them 
from the armies with which the vessels to be manned are co-operating, 
or from conscripts to be assigned. The transfers may then be ordered; 
but distant commanders, not appreciating the exigency for seamen, 
naturally present every obstacle to the transfer of their tried soldiers. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 187. Richmond, August 7, 1863. 
* * ** * *% * * 


XX. Under the act of Congress approved March 20, 1863, Brig. 
Gen. A. R. Lawton is assigned to duty as Quartermaster-General and 


698 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


will enter upon the discharge of the duties of the office on the 10th 
instant. 
* * * *% * * * 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[AUGUST 8, 1863.—For Lee to Davis, in relation to measures for 
maintaining the strength of the Army of Northern Virginia and 
requesting to be relieved from command of said army, see Series I, 
Vol) LI Part-liy (pe 752. | 


CIRCULAR.| ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., August 8, 1863. 


Commissaries who are purchasing supplies are authorized to receive 
that portion of the tax in kind, consisting of wheat, buckwheat, rice, 
sugar, molasses, peas, beans, ground peas, and bacon, giving a 
receipt to the producer, which will be evidence that so much of his 
tax is paid. As the post quartermaster of the Congressional district 
is responsible for the tenth, after the assessor has made it known to 
him, the receiving commissary will also receipt for it to that officer. 
Upon this receipt he will be held responsible at the Treasury for the 
stores and will take them up on his returns. The foregoing does not 
relieve district quartermasters from the responsibility in receiving 
the whole tax and the obligation to furnish bags, but is intended to 
secure the co-operation of officers of the Commissary Department. 

LARKIN SMITH, 
Assistant Quartermaster- General. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 

Approved. 

By order of the Secretary of War: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[AUGUST 8, 1863.—For Flanagin to R. W. Johnson, in relation: to 
the meeting of the Governors of the Trans- Mississippi States, the enroll- 
ment of all men in Arkansas between sixteen and sixty, not subject 
to the conscript law, &c., see Series I, Vol. XXII, Part II, p. 958. | 


MARIETTA, August 8, 1863. 
Mr. A. FULLARTON, 
Acting Consul of Great Britain: 


DEAR SIR: Your* letter of 22d July reached these headquarters 
during my absence, which has caused delay in my reply. Judging 
from your communication, I am obliged to conelude that you have 
not correctly understood the objects of the Government in organizing 
the 8,000 men for home defense. You admit the right of the State to 
claim the services of British subjects resident within its limits for 
the purpose of maintaining ‘‘internal order,” and even to a limited 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 699 


extent to defend the places of their residence against local invasion 
by a foreign power. In view of this correct admission on your part, 
I do not deem it necessary to quote authority to show the obligation 
of Her Majesty’s subjects to render the service now ealled for. To 
maintain ‘‘internal order” and to defend to a limited extent ‘‘ against 
local invasion by a foreign power” are the sole objects of the pro- 
posed military organization. While the men are to be mustered into 
service for the purpose of affording them the rights and privileges of 
prisoners of war in case of capture by the enemy, and to enable the 
Government to command them without delay in case of sudden emer- 
gency, it is not proposed to take them from their homes, or to interrupt 
their ordinary avocations unless it be a case of sudden emergency or 
pressing necessity for the defense of their homes, or such localities as 
command their homes, when in the hands of the enemy. The Goy- 
ernment of the United States, in violation of the usages of civilized 
warfare, is now resorting to every means within its power to incite 
servile insurrection in our midst. It is not only selling slaves, which 
are private property, or taking them by open robbery, mustering 
them into its service, and arming them against us, but it is doing all 
it can by secret agencies to stir up and excite the angry passion of 
the mass of ignorant slaves in the interior, whom it can neither reach 
by theft nor robbery, to cause them to rise in rebellion against their 
masters, with whom they are now comfortable and happy, and to set 
fire to our cities, towns, villages, and other property. It is needless 
for me to add that in case they should be successful in inciting insur- 
rection to this point the butchery of helpless women and children will 
doubtless be the result. As a means of accomplishing this object, as 
well as of destroying public and private property, the enemy is now 
preparing to send cavalry raids as far as possible into this and other 
States of the Confederacy. These robber bands will, no doubt, burn 
and destroy property where they go, carry off as many slaves as they 
can, and attempt to stir up others with whom they come in contact to 
insurrection, robbery, and murder. It is not expected that 8,000 men 
called for by my proclamation and the general order to which you 
refer will be used against the regular armies of the United States. 
The provisional armies of the Confederate States have shown them- 
selves fully able to meet the enemy upon a hundred battle-fields, and 
to drive them back with severe chastisement wherever they have not 
had the advantage of their navy asasupport. Butitis expected that 
this home organization, while it may be but little of its time in actual 
Service, will, in case of sudden emergency, assist in repelling the 
plundering bands of the enemy which evade contact with our armies 
and make predatory incursions to our very homes for the purposes 
already mentioned, and that they will assist in suppressing any serv- 
ile insurrections which these plundering parties may be able to 
incite. Many who claim to be Her Majesty’s subjects in this State 
are large slaveholders, whose danger of loss of property and of insult 
and cruel injury to their wives and children, in case of insurrection, 
is as great as the danger to the citizens of this State, and their obli- 
gation to protect their property and their families against the local 
aggressions of the U. 8. forces is no less. While Her Majesty’s Gov- 
ernment has constantly refused to recognize the existence of the 
Government of the Confederate States, her subjects have enjoyed its 
protection; and while she refuses to hold any diplomatic relations 
with us, you, as her representative, are permitted to represent her 
interests here and to be heard for the protection of her subjects and 


700 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


their property. In this state of things, British subjects who still elect 
to remain in the Confederacy should not expect to do less than the 
service now required of them; and while free egress will in no case 
be denied them should they desire to depart from this State, less than 
the service now required will not in future be demanded, in case they 
choose to remain in the State and enjoy its protection. 

Experience has convinced the Government at Washington of its 
inability by armed force in the battle-field to combat Southern valor 
and compel us to submit to its despotic tyranny. It has therefore, in 
connection with that above mentioned, adopted the further policy of 
destroying agricultural implements, mills, and provisions wherever 
its armies penetrate into our country, with a view of effecting by 
starvation that which it cannot accomplish by the skill and courag2 
of its troops. As a further auxiliary to the accomplishment of this 
object it drives from the territory overrun by its armies the men, 
women, and children who are true to the Government of their choice, 
and compels them to seek safety and support in this and other inte- 
rior States. It thus taxes the productions of the interior States with 
the support not only of their own population and the armies of the 
Confederacy, but of a large number of refugees. 

With the blessings of Divine Providence, which, thanks to His 
name, have been so abundantly showered upon us, we are, by aban- 
doning the culture of cotton, making ample supplies for another year. 
While we are surrounded by such an enemy the British Government 
cannot fail to see and appreciate the reason why we cannot afford to 
retain and protect among us a class of consumers who produce none 
of the necessaries of life and who refuse to take up arms for interior 
and local defense, but claim the privilege of remaining as subjects of 
foreign powers, engaged in commercial pursuits, in ports with which 
their Government recognizes no legal commerce. But you insist that 
there was no law in existence requiring British subjects to take up 
arms against the United States Government when for commercial pur- 
poses they first took up their residence in the country. You must 
not forget, however, in this connection, that at that time the State of 
Georgia was, by her own sovereign consent, a component part of the 
Government of the United States, and that since that time she has, 
for just cause, withdrawn her consent to further connection with the 
aggressive States of the North, and now, with her Southern sisters, 
forms the Government of the Confederate States, against which the 
States which remain united under the name of United States are wag- 
ing a cruel and unjust war. With this change in the political rela- 
tions of the country new obligations are imposed upon the subjects of 
foreign powers resident within this and other Southern States, which 
make it their duty to aid in the maintenance of internal order and in 
the protection of their domiciles and the localities where they are 
situated when assailed by the troops of the United States Govern- 
ment or to depart from the States and seek protection elsewhere. 

Again, the commercial reasons which you say caused Her Majesty’s 
subjects to take up their residence here ceased to exist when Her 
Majesty’s Government refused longer ‘to recognize the existence of 
legal commerce between her subjects and the citizens of this State, 
and warned them of the loss of her protection if they attempted to 
carry on commercial relations with us through our ports. At the 
time English subjects took up their residence among our people for 
commercial purposes our ports were open to the commerce of the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 701 


world, and foreign governments which had commercial treaties with 
us had a right to claim for their subjects engaged in commerce the 
usual commercial privileges and protection while domiciled here. 

Now, the Government of the United States claims that it has our 
ports blockaded; and while the whole civilized world knows that the 
blockade is not effective, and that vessels enter and clear almost daily 
at our ports, the Government of Her Majesty chooses to recognize it 
as a legal blockade and to acquiesce in the paper prohibition which 
excludes English subjects with their commerce from our ports. If 
the British Government adopts the pretensions of the Government of the 
United States and holds that Charleston and Savannah are still ports 
belonging to the United States, it must be admitted that the blockade 
of these ports by the United States Government is a palpable viola- 
tion of the commercial treaty stipulations between the two Govern- 
ments, as the United States Government has no right under these 
treaties to blockade her own ports against English commerce. If 
tested by the laws of nations, to which the British Government is a 
party, it is no blockade, because not effective. Under these cireum- 
stances, if the Government of Her Majesty consents to respect the 
orders of the United States Government, which forbids British sub- 
jects to enter our ports for commercial purposes, that Government 
has no right, while this state of things continues, to claim commercial 
privileges for its subjects within the ports where it admits the exist- 
ence of a legal blockade; but it must expect those subjects to depart 
from these ports, and if they refuse to do so it has no just cause of 
complaint when the Government having possession of these ports 
compels them to take up arms to defend their domiciles against serv- 
ile insurrection or the attacks of the troops of a hostile power. 

I learn from your letter that ‘‘nearly all British subjects have taken 
an oath that they will not, under any circumstances, take part in 
the contest now raging in this country by taking up arms on 
either side.” In reply to this, permit me to remind you that no such 
self-imposed obligation can free the subjects of Her Majesty who 
choose to remain in this State from the higher obligation which, by 
the laws of nations, they are under to the State for protection while 
they remain within its limits. 

While I beg to assure you that it is the sincere desire of the gov- 
ernment and people of this State to cultivate the most friendly rela- 
tions with Her Majesty’s Government and people, I feel it my duty, 
for the reasons already given, to decline any modification of the order 
to which you refer in your communication. 

With high consideration and esteem, I am, very respectfully, your 
cbedient servant, 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 8, 1863. 
Governor J. J. PETTUS, 
Meridian, Miss.: 

Your dispatch received. In what portion of the country do you 
advise that conscription should be suspended to enable a local force 
to be raised to operate on river transportation? The purpose indi- 
cated is approved, but it must be efficiently done, and so as not to 


prevent recruiting for Army. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


102 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


HpdQRs. DEPARTMENT OF THE 'TRANS-MISSISSIPPT, 
Tittle Rock, Ark., August 8, 1863. 


His Exeellency T. C. REYNOLDS, 
Governor of Missouri: 

Str: I am directed by Lieut. Gen. E. Kirby Smith, commanding the 
Department of the Trans-Mississippi, to request you will furnish 
from your State a brigade of cavalry, to consist of two or more 
regiments. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient 
servant, 

S. S. ANDERSON, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Charleston, August 9, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. THOMAS JORDAN, 
Chief of Staff: 

GENERAL: I have the honor herewith to inclose a copy of a letter 
from Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, addressed to His Excellency 
the Governor, in reply to a letter to the Secretary of War on the sub- 
ject of arming 5,000 troops ‘‘for service within the State for six 
months.” Iam instructed by His Excellency the Governor to invite 
the attention of the commanding general to the condition annexed to 
the furnishing these arms, and to the fact that much delay will result 
from awaiting the approval of the mustering officer before the arms 
are sent to this place. It is proper, also, to state that these troops 
may not be mustered into Confederate service, as the organization 
embraces many conscripts who are allowed to remain in their compa- 
nies only until the exigency shall have passed away. The Governor 
suggests that it would be well to have the arms ordered here at once, 
so that when the troops have arrived there will be no delay in arming 
them. 

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, 

A. C. GARLINGTON, 
Adjutant and Inspector General of South Carolina. 


[Inclosure. | 


ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, July 30, 1863. 
Governor M. L. BONHAM, 
Charleston, S. C.: 


~ GovERNOR: Your letter of the 24th instant to the Honorable Secre- 
tary of War, in reference to arming 5,000 conscripts for “‘service 
within the State for six months from August 1,” has been referred to 
this Bureau. Please to cause requisitions to be addressed by colonels 
of regiments, showing the strength of the command, to Col. G. W. 
Rains, commanding C. S. Arsenal, Augusta, Ga. Requisitions must 
be approved by the mustering officer of the Confederate service. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnance. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 103 


CAMP NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, August 9, 1863. 
The SECRETARY OF WAR: 


SiR: Allow me to offer you my services, and if accepted I propose 
being the instrument that will remove at once and forever those per- 
sons—or a part of those, at least—who fill high places in the North, 
and whose object is the elevation of the negro, and, if necessary for 
their cause, would exterminate the people of the South. If, sir, you 
would furnish the ways and means that I could name the above 
object could be accomplished. 

Yours, &¢., 
R. STANTON. 

(Care of Captain Pleasants, chief of ordnance, Hood’s division. ) 


SPECIAL ORDERS, )} ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 189. ( Richmond, August 10, 1868. 


VI. The chief of the Bureau of Conscription will direct all enroll- 
ing officers on the application of any officer of the First Engineer 
Regiment to cause volunteers for that regiment to be medically 
examined, and if accepted forwarded to the rendezvous in Richmond, 
where they will be assigned to divisions of the Army and selected for 
engineer service, aS provided by the law approved March 20, 1863. 
He will further direct enrolling officers to notify promptly Lieut. Col. 
T. M. R. Talcott, First Engineer Regiment, at Richmond, or the 
nearest officer of the regiment, of all men applying to them with the 
desire to enter the same. 

* * * * * *" * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 10, 1868. 

The extreme exigencies of the service demand renewed activity and 
energy on the part of commandants of conscripts and the officers 
under their command. You will therefore proceed as rapidly and 
vigorously as possible to the complete and perfect organization of 
your enrolling officers in every district and county within your State 
not actually occupied by the public enemy. 

You will instruct your officers to pursue with increased vigilance and 
activity all legal means necessary to bring men into the service and 
to arrest and return to service all deserters, stragglers, and absentees, 
and for these purposes that they avail themselves of all such aid as 
can be obtained from the State authorities and from the patriotism of 
the people. 

It is your duty to see that your officers are active, intelligent, and 
efficient, and that you sternly repair every delinquency by instantly 
reporting it to this Bureau. A large portion of the duty of preserv- 
ing the armies is intrusted to this department. The superintendent 
is determined to have this duty performed to the full extent that the 
means provided by law will permit. 


104. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


We have no right to yield to any influence which will diminish the 
efficiency of our efforts. You will therefore demand of your officers, 
as the superintendent demands of you, that every function intrusted 
to them be rigidly and vigorously fulfilled. 

Delays in conscription, in arresting deserters and stragglers, and in 
sending them forward must not be permitted on any plea. 

You will require your Congressional enrolling officers to report to 
you in person, and together, once in each month previous to forward- 
ing your monthly report to the Bureau. 

In these conferences you will obtain all the information they can 
communicate, and give special instructions urging continued activity 
and energy. 

The result of the conferences you will state in your reports. 

It would be well to require of your Congressional officers to visit in 
person each district or county just previous to your conference. 

It is of the highest importance that this Bureau should have con- 
stant and accurate information concerning the proceedings and results 
of the enrolling service. 

You will state freely what are the wants within your command 
which the Bureau or Government may supply; what impediments 
exist to the rapid execution of your functions, and suggest remedies 
for or indicate opinions as to the means of their removal. 

Local and minute information is desirable concerning all such 
impediments. 

While reports may be unnecessaruy diffuse, they cannot be too 
minute in conveying information bearing upon the functions of this 
Bureau. 

Your attention is especially called to the following matter: 

First. The great abuse of details in Government works and with 
Government contractors. You will investigate and report minutely 
on all such details existing within your command, and whether the 
provisions of General Orders, No. 82, are rigorously enforced. 

Second. The exemptions allowed in railroads, express companies, 
telegraph companies, factories, mills, mines, &c., will be fully reported 
on, that they may be revised and regulated in strict accordance with 
General Orders, No. 82, and instructions and subsequent orders. 

Third. You will proceed under the recent call by proclamation of 
the President and under the act of Congress approved May 1, 1863, 
heretofore sent you, as rapidly as possible, keeping in view the neces- 
sary production and police of the country. 

JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


[AuGusT 10, 1863.—For agreement between Flanagin and Smith in 
relation to raising troops in Arkansas, see Series I, Vol. XXII, Part 
Il, p. 962.] 


[AuGustT 10, 1863.—For proclamation of Governor Flanagin, eall- 
ing for volunteers from Arkansas to defend the State, see Series I, 
Vol. LIT, p. 889. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 705 


AUGUSTA ARSENAL, August 10, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: fi 


SiR: I have the honor to request information relative to calling out 
the local force now being organized under your authority for the 
defense of Augusta and its vicinity. How far does my discretion 
extend in the premises, or have I any, except at the time of or imme- 
diately preceding an attack? It may happen that the threatening 
appearance of affairs may require a portion of such force to be called 
into service for the time being to guard the ferries and crossings of 
the Savannah River to prevent a surprise by a raiding column, which 
might move as rapidly as a courier through the interior of South Car- 
olina. Indeed, there being no force heretofore at this city, I have 
been compelled to call on one of the local companies above to supply 
guards at the South Carolina Railroad Depot (in obedience to instruc- 
tions from General Beauregard) to prevent improper persons leaving 
for Charleston; and this duty having taken many of its members from 
their usual employment, it would seem proper that they should be 
considered as having been regularly called into service for the time 
being and thus be entitled to the customary compensation for the 
Same. It may become advisable to call one of the cavalry companies 
into service at an early day to guard the river crossings and act as 


couriers or scouts. 


Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. RAINS, 
Colonel, Commanding. 
{[Indorsement. | 
Aveust 13, 1863. 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 

The local companies may be called into service by the President 
at discretion and for such time as he may determine. This discre- 
tion Colonel Rains, as commandant, may be authorized to exercise till 
further orders, 

J. AGRO es 
Secretary. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, NAVY DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, August 11, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, : | 
Secretary of War: 

sir: Your letter of the 7th instant has been received. On the 11th 
of May last I had the honor to call your attention to the following act 
of Congress, approved May 1, 1863: 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons 
serving in the land forces of the Confederate States who shall desire to be trans- 
ferred to the naval service, and whose transfer as seamen or ordinary seamen 
shall be applied for by the Secretary of the Navy, shall be transferred from the 
land to the naval service: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed 
as to alter or repeal any law now in force limiting the number of seamen. 

Under and by notice of this act I requested of you the transfer from 
the Army to the naval service of about 600 seamen and ordinary sea- 
men, giving their names and the companies and regiments to which 
attached, all of whom had applied to this Department for service 1n 


45 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


706 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Navy. Not one of these men have been transferred. in your 
letter before me you say: 

Seamen should be*selected and application made for them from the armies 
with which the vessels to be manned are co-operating, or from conscripts to be 
assigned. The transfers may then be ordered ; but distant commanders, not appre- 


ciating the exigency for seamen, naturally present every obstacle to the transfer 
of their tried soldiers. 


In reply to this I have only to say that I can recognize no other rule 
in applications for transfers than that prescribed by the imperative 
terms of the law. Iam, of course, anxious that transfers shall be 
made to the Navy in the manner least detrimental to the Army, and I 
will be glad to confer with you on this point; and an examination of 
the list before you will show that this consideration has not been dis- 
regarded, and that the suggestion you make as to taking men from 
the armies with which the vessels wanting them are expected to 
co-operate has been anticipated. 

Very mespegut ys your obedient servant, 
5. RB, MALLORY, 
Secretary of the Navy. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 11, 1863. 

The Secretary of War desires that through the Bureau of Conscrip- 
tion a complete military registration be made of all persons between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. Commandants of conscripts 
will forthwith inaugurate and proceed to the execution of such meas- 
ures as will most speedily and effectually attain the object proposed. 
They will cause rolls to be prepared by the enrolling officers, 
em bracing— 

Roll I. All persons hitherto accepted and sent forward as con- 
scripts, and continue it up to date of report, marking the name and 
occupation. 

Roll II. All persons who have been exempted, their occupation, the 
cause of exemption, and if by special authority it will be so stated. 

Roll II. Persons who have been detailed, their occupation, to 
whom and for what purpose detailed, and by what order; a conjec- 
tural estimate, from the best attainable evidence, of the number of 
arms-bearing men remaining out of service. You will endeavor to 
obtain from the proper State officers a complete estimate of the 
number of men sent into the field, both in Confederate and State sery- 
ice. The details of this service are confided to the discretion and 
intelligence of the commandants of conscripts. 

By command of Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandanis of Conscripts. ) 


[AuGuST 11, 1863.—For Davis to Lee, declining to relieve the 
latter from command of the Army of Northern Vi irginia, &¢., see 
Series I, Vol. XXIX, Part II, p. 639. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. (GEE 


[| AuGusT 11, 1863.—For General Orders, No. 109, Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Office, in relation to a general pardon for all offi- 
cers and men within the Confederacy absent without leave from the 
Army, &¢., see Series I, Vol. X XIX, Part II, p. 641.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., August 11, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. PILLOW, 
Marietta, Ga.: 

IGanRAL: In discharging the important duties intrusted to you in 
connection with the conscription service, by order of General J. E. 
Johnston, I wish you to bear in mind that you have been substituted 
almost entirely for the authority exercised heretofore by the Bureau in 
the general enforcement of the conscript law in the States of Ten- 
nessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, and will consequently come under 
obligation to execute the law in the fullness of its spirit and intent. 
That law requires that equitable assignment should be made of the 
conscripts drawn from each State to the various companies and organi- 
zations therefrom, wherever serving. I fear you may have supposed 
your duty was confined exclusively to recruiting the organizations in 
the armies of General Johnston and General Bragg. There are troops 
from those States serving elsewhere, especially in Virginia, and by 
the various incidents of war their numbers have been very greatly 
reduced. ‘This is especially the case with the Tennessee regiments in 
the army of General Lee, which are reduced to mere skeletons. 

A fair proportion of the conscripts from the States under your 
charge must, therefore, be assigned and sent forward to the organiza- 
tions serving beyond the limits of the departments commanded by 
Generals Johnston and Bragg. I rely with confidence both on your 
recognition of the justice and expediency of this course and on your 
ready acquiescence and compliance with these views of the Depart- 
ment. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


MERIDIAN, August 11, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, > 
Richmond, Va.: | 
Your dispatch received. Ido not advise that conscription be sus- 
pended in any portion of the State. Iask that Col. Jones S. Hamilton 
be permitted to raise a regiment of mounted men, two companies of 
artillery, to include men Hable to conscription who have not been 
enrolled that may volunteer. I ask similar authority for Brig. Gen. 
J: Z. George in Northwest Mississippi and for Capt. 8. Davenport in 
Northeast Mississippi. Nearly all the conscripts who would be enlisted 
in these regiments will be raised in districts where enrolling officers 
cannot get out the conscripts. 
JON: JoPEVrUS, 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 110. \ Richmond, August 12, 1863. 
I. The officers of ordnance duties in the Provisional Army, 
appointed under the acts of Congress of April 21 and September 


708 -CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


16, 1862, will, until further orders, be distributed into grades, as 
authorized by the latter act, as follows: Four lieutenant-colonels, 9 
majors, 65 captains, 40 first lieutenants, and 32 second lieutenants. 
Appointments to these grades will be made on the report of the Chief 
of Ordnance. Those officers serving in the field will also be reported 
by the generals commanding the army or department prior to 
appointment. 

Il. Ordnance officers on duty in the field will, as far as practicable, 
be assigned to command according to rank, as follows: Lieutenant- 
colonels to armies, majors to army corps, captains to departments 
and divisions, and lieutenants to brigades. No claim to promotion, 
however, will be recognized in consequence of assignment to any 
command. 

Ill. Two ordnance officers, not above the rank of captain, may be 
allowed as assistants to the chief ordnance officer of an army, and 
one, not above the rank of first lieutenant, to the chief ordnance 
officer of an army corps. One assistant, not above the rank of second 
lieutenant, may also be allowed to the chief ordnance officer of a 
department, when absolutely necessary, upon application to the 
chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. . 

IV. The designation of the chief ordnance officer attached to com- 
mands will correspond with the designation of such commands; as, 
chief ordnance officer of the army of ; chief ordnance officer 


of army corps; chief ordnance officer of department; 
ordnance officer of division; ordnance officer of brigade. 
By order: 
5S. COOPER, 


Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, August 12, 1868. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


My Dear Sir: As one of your officers, I beg leave to submit to 
your consideration the state of the section of Mississippi in which I 
have been detailed for duty. This portion of our country is, as you 
are aware, inhabited by very illiterate persons, and therefore a great 
leniency is due to them. A large number of persons are congregated 
in the counties of Harrison, Hancock, and Jackson who are either 
deserters or conscripts. As it will be most difficult (as I have shown 
to Lieutenant-General Pemberton in my reports to him) to arrest 
them and bring them again into the army, I would therefore propose 
that authority be granted me to reorganize all the companies from 
this section, to receive into new organizations all the deserters in this 
section, companies of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, under such 
officers as the Secretary of War and the commanding general shall 
designate, paying them their back pay, to be ascertained from the 
muster-rolls, without referring to the original commands. 

I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
WILL. WREN, 
Capt. and Actg. Asst.. Insp. Gen., Sea-coast Section, Miss. 


[Indorsement. | 


Impossible. Deserters cannot hope for more than pardon on con- 
dition of returning to their posts. 
a D. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 709 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Charleston, August 12, 1868. 
Honorable Mr. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: I desire to call your attention to a great evil, which I learn, 
in part from officers in the departments, as existing in this State and 
doubtless in other States. I allude to the great number of strong 
and able-bodied men now employed in the Quartermaster’s and Com- 
missary Departments. These men, I am informed, may be found in 
all parts of the State, who, when called upon by the enrolling officers, 
exhibit exemption papers as purchasing agents. I respectfully sug- 
gest that this business may be as well performed by men over the age 
of conscription. I have every reason to believe that many of these 
agents spend as much or more of time in buying for themselves than 
for the Government. I doubt not: that in every part of the country 
high-minded and patriotic citizens, not liable to conscription, can be 
found to make these purchases much more satisfactorily to the com- 
munity and at much less cost to the departments. I therefore recom- 
mend that the quartermasters and commissaries be ordered not to 
employ men in this business who are under the age of conscription. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


[First indorsement. ] 


AUGUST 17, 1863. 


Referred for the consideration first of the Commissary and then of 

_the Quartermaster General. 
, J. A. SEDDON, 

Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. | 


Contents noted and respectfully referred to Quartermaster-General. 
L. B. N. 
[“hird indorsement. | 
AUGUST 19, 1863. 
Read and respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 
A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster-General. 


| AUGUST 12, 1863.—For Gano and Terry to Magruder, in relation to 
difficulties attending the organization of militia in the border coun- 
ties of Texas, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, p. 159. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 111. Richmond, August 13, 1863. 


Quartermasters who are purchasing supplies, and who have means 
of transportation at their command, are directed to assist, as far as 
practicable, the quartermasters receiving the tax in kind in trans- 
porting the supplies collected from their depots of collection to the 
issuing depots of the Army. They will also permit their store-houses 
to be used for the storage of articles of the produce tax. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


710 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Vc., August 13, 1863. 

You will enforce the conscription, without exception, of all clerks 
liable to military service in the Quartermaster’s and Commissary 
Departments. 

You are authorized to grant thirty days’ indulgence, when proper. 
Inform the applicants that it is unnecessary for you to refer to the 
Bureau, which has no power to grant more. Should they desire to 
press an application for a departure from this rule on special grounds, 
inform them that the War Department has indicated that such appli- 
cations are to be made direct from the disbursing department con- 
cerned and not through this Bureau. 

JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


PROVOST-MARSHAL’S OFFICE, 
Mobile, August 13, 1868. 


Col. GEORGE G. GARNER, 
Chief of Staff, Mobile, Ala.: | 

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that in obedience to Special 
Orders, No. 500, from headquarters Department of the Gulf, dated at 
Mobile, August 9, 1863, and to instructions from the same dated 
August 10, 1863, I have proceeded to Montgomery, Ala., and there 
seized in the hands of G. G. Steever the following assets, all belong- 
ing to the Bank of Louisiana, in New Orleans, viz: Two bags of coin, 
amount unknown, and which I caused to be sealed in the presence of 
said G. G. Steever and of Major Jones, commanding post at Mont- 
gomery, Ala.; an order of Walsh, Smith & Co., dated at Mobile, 
October 8, 1862, on the Bank of Montreal, Canada, for 150 bonds of 
£225 each of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, with coupons due Novem- 
ber, 1861, and May and November, 1862, and a package of cotton 
receipts supposed to be for about 3,900 bales of cotton. All the above 
effects were by me deposited with the Farmers’ Bank of Alabama, in 
Montgomery, for which I took duplicate receipts, herewith inclosed, 
and dated August 11, 1863. Ialso inclose duplicate of the order of 
Walsh, Smith & Co., above mentioned. * 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

I remain, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. C. DENIS, 
Major and Provost-Marshal. 


[First indorsement. | 


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, 
Mobile, Ala., August 18, 1563. 


Respectfully forwarded for information of Secretary of War. 
DABNEY H. MAURY, 
Major-General, Commanding. 


* See second indorsement hereon. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 711 


[Second indorsement. ] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
August 22, 1868. 
Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. The inclosures 
referred to within were not received at this office. 
| H. L. CLAY, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


STATE OF GEORGIA, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Milledgeville, August 13, 1863. 
General S. COOPER, 
Richmond, Va.: 

My DEAR GENERAL: As there is a necessity for getting the 8,000 
men called for from this State organized rapidly, and as the rolls are 
coming in, Ihave thought that, without being officious, I could suggest 
privately, that if it be your intention to appoint generals for these 
men that if you will do so at once and direct them to come or send 
their adjutants-general to this office they could organize their 
respective commands in three or four days, as there they will find the 
rolls and the quota called for from each county, so that the appor- 
tionment of their force can be known to them at once. A Major Lal- 
lerstedt, of Augusta, who was wounded at Sharpsburg, would like a 
position of colonel of one of the regiments. He is a lawyer and I 
believe stands well. My personal acquaintance with him is slight, 
but I hear him well spoken of. As he has seen service his experience 
may be of use to you. Iam at present at Cartersville, commanding 
the State forces and covering General Bragg’s communication with 
Atlanta by the State road, but should you conclude to appoint your 
generals and send them here (Milledgeville) I will run down and 
facilitate their work with pleasure. It will give me pleasure to aid 
you in any manner that I can. 

Very truly, yours, 
HENRY C. WAYNE. 


CIRCULAR. | STATE OF GEORGIA, 
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Milledgeville, Ga., August 13, 1863. 

The numerous inquiries addressed to this office by letter and in 
person (amounting to about 150 per day), arising from the recent call 
of the President for 8,000 men from this State, renders it impossible 
for this office to give answers in each case; hence this circular for 
public information. 

I. It is useless to apply for exemptions or details in cases of physi- 
cians, teachers, blacksmiths, millers, tanners, shoemakers, overseers, 
owners of plantations, civil officers, &c., or because the parties are 
deemed useful at home. Contractors for State supplies must be 
indorsed by the quartermaster-general or commissary-general of the 
State as to the existence and importance of their contracts. Con- 
tractors of supplies for the Confederate Government must produce 
certificates of exemption from the chief of the department under 
which they have contracted. The force now being raised is intended 
merely as an organized reserve for home defense. Its service will be 
required only for and during an emergency seriously threatening the 
safety of the State. Otherwise the ordinary avocations of the people 


12 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


will not be interfered with only so far as the Confederate commander 
may deem necessary for the drill and discipline necessary to make the 
force effective. 

Il. Persons having substitutes in the Confederate Army, whatever 
may be the ages of the substitutes, are not exempt from service for 
local defense. The terms of the contract of substitution will show 
that the parties are relieved only from service in the Confederate 
Army under the conscript law, which is essentially different from 
service under the acts providing for service for local defense. 

III. Substitutes for service under the acts providing for local 
defense will not be received. 

IV. Slight irregularities in the management of a draft will not viti- 
ate and set aside the whole proceeding. If by neglect or oversight the 
names of any persons not volunteering have not been deposited for 
draft and the quota of the county remains unfilled, such persons will 
be attached to the list for further draft until the quota shall be made 
up. If from conscription, disability, or other cause the number vol- 
unteering shall be reduced below the quota of any county, the quota 
shall be supplied by draft. Reports under these heads must be made 
forthwith. 

V. After the quota of the counties are supplied, other companies 
for local defense will be accepted and commissioned. Several ten- 
ders of this kind of persons over the age of forty-five years have been 
made, and their example is commended for imitation. 

VI. Transfers will not be made now, but will be presented to the 
Confederate general who may be placed in command for considera- 
tion. 

VII. Appraisements of horses can be made by any three respecta- 
ble citizens sworn to the duty. 

VIII. Companies must be organized as the law requires into squad- 
rons, battalions, or regiments. Legions are not known to State or 
Confederate laws. Under our systems they are anomalous organiza- 
tions that must be dissolved when brought into action unless they 
number 5,000 men or more, when they can be handled as divisions, to 
which the legion in old times corresponded. 

IX. Under the laws for local defense the President has the appoint- 
ment of all quartermasters, commissaries, and medical officers. Appli- 
cations therefore for such commissions should be made to the Secre- 
tary of War. 

X. Applications for arms, accouterments, and equipments must be 
made to the Secretary of War at Richmond, the Confederate Govern- 
ment having undertaken to arm and supply all troops mustered into 
its service. 

XI. For laws providing for local defense see acts of March 6, 1861, 
August 21, 1861, October 13, 1862, Confederate Congress. 

XII. Papers throughout the State are requested to publish this eir- 
cular once and send bill to this office for settlement. 

HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 13, 1863. 
Governor J. J. PETTUS, 
Meridian, Miss.: 
The act of April 16, 1862, devoted all men subject to enrollment to 
the purpose of filling up existing companies. The act of October 11, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 713 


1862, authorized the suspension of the law for enrollment in certain 
localities and new organizations where conscription could not be 
made. Your application must be brought within these conditions to 
warrant the incorporation of the conscripts in the proposed new 
organizations. Exempts form the proper material for local defense, 
and unless Mississippi furnishes conscripts to her regiments, most 
distinguished and consequently reduced by battles, they must be 
broken up for the want of men to bear banners covered with honor- 
able inseriptions. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 193. Richmond, August 14, 1868. 
* * * * * * k 


XIV. Col. William H. Stiles, Sixtieth Georgia Volunteers, is tem- 
porarily detached from his regiment for the purpose of raising a force 
of non-conscripts for the protection of the upper portion of Georgia. 

* * * * *k * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


MOBILE, August 14, 1863. 
[Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War:] 

Sir: I feel that it is my duty to write you once more in relation to 
the conduct of the war in this part of our country. The impression 
is becoming general that the President will retain Pemberton in com- 
mand here, and it is creating alarm in some, despondency in others. 
Now, I shall express no opinion as to his military conduct. It may 
have been good; but one thing I will express: It will, in my judgment, 
produce mutiny, desertion, and bloodshed among our own troops; it 
will break down the last hope the people have of success, and it will 
be the prostration of the Administration in Alabama and Mississippi. 
Do not suppose I write from foolish whims. I write and speak from 
the great volume of public opinion, both of his army and the com- 
munity. I have written the President, also Mr. Watts, on the sub- | 
ject. I have no prejudice against Pemberton, but I do feel a deep 
‘nterest in the country, and I know that under his command the 
country will feel overthrown, and such will be the final result. If 
this letter be considered censurable I wish it borne in mind that while 
I myself may think his conduct well enough, I know that public opin- 
ion is so fixed against his eapacity to command and to administer 
military authority over the country that under his command ruin will 
follow. 

Iam, very respectfully, yours, 
EK. 8. DARGAN. 


[First indorsement. ] 
AUGUST 23, 1863. 


Respectfully submitted for the consideration of the President. 
It expresses strongly a feeling of which I have many indications as 
deeply pervading the people of the southwest. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary. 


714 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Second indorsement. | 


The justice or injustice of the opinion will be tested by the investi- 
gation ordered.* 
Js 0, 


WILMINGTON, August 14, 1863. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Comdg. Dept. of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida: 
GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose to you two letters from the 
Secretary of War, of the 11th and 12th instant, in reference to secur- 
ing at least half the tonnage of private steamers for carrying out cot- 
ton for account of the Government. I am advised here that the 
number of steamers now in Charleston is very limited, and that Mr. 
J. M. Seixas, special agent of the War Department, has already been 
in communication with most of the owners of these steamers under a 
telegram sent to him; that he feels assured of your hearty co-operation 
in all that is expressed by the Secretary of War. Under these gir- 
cumstances, I respectfully ask that you will give to Mr. Seixas the- 
assistance asked for to me and enable him to carry out the wishes of 
the War Department. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
THOS. L. BAYNE, 
Major, &c. 
[Inclosure No. 1.] 
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., August 11, 1868. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Commanding, Charleston, S. C.: 


GENERAL: The shock sustained by our credit abroad, together with 
the state of our currency here, the probability that our sea-ports may 
be cither wrested from us or more closely invested, and in view of the 
necessity for resources abroad, render it indispensable that we should 
at once export, on account of the Government, as large an amount of 
cotton, tobacco, and naval stores as, by any practicable means, we can 
accomplish. We must use for this purpose all vessels suitable for 
evading the blockade now in our ports, and unless satisfactory arrange- 
ments can be made with the assent of the owners, we have no alterna- 
tive but to resort to impressment. I have of late been endeavoring to 
effect, by arrangement with the owners of such vessels, that they 
should permanently run their vessels, taking out one-half of their 
cargoes on account of the Government on liberal freight; they to be 
furnished by the Government with entire cargoes of cotton, and to 
receive their freight in cotton as part payment of their half of the out- 
ward cargo, and so bring in such supplies as the Government will 
prescribe in payment of the balance of such half, their share of the 
cotton and the articles brought in in return therefor being estimated 
at moderate, but remunerative, market prices; the residue of the 
cargo to be brought in to be subject to something of general regula- 
tion as to the class of articles, so as to proscribe liquors or mere lux- 
uries, for example, but allowing a large latitude among useful articles 
to their own discretion. Such an arrangement, as a continuous one, 
I decidedly prefer to the necessity of impressing and running these 


*In connection with this subject, see note in brackets, under date of August 4, 
1863, and the foot-note attached thereto, Series II, Vol. VI, p. 177. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. (ies 


vessels permanently on Government account, and with all such own- 
ers as will make this arrangement I will even yet forbear from 
impressing. At the same time, to all accessible to patriotic motives 
I wish you earnestly to urge that, in addition to such arrangement, 
as a continuous one, they should in this special emergency place their 
ships for a single voyage at the entire freightage of the Government, 
the freight to be paid them hereafter in cotton to be exported by 
them. 

They could not render more efficient service to the Government, or 
exhibit patriotic zeal which would be more gratefully appreciated, than 
by complying with this earnest request. Where neither the continu- 
ous arrangement, of which I have spoken, nor this more liberal conees- 
sion of the present use of the vessels can be obtained, you will proceed, 
complying with the terms of the law of impressment, to seize all suit- 
able vessels in port and to prepare them to sail on with cargoes on 
Government account at the earliest practicable time. 

Instructions will be given to Mr. Seixas, the agent relied on to pro- 
vide cotton and other exports, to be prepared to furnish on your 
requisition, of which you will give him as early notice as you can, 
such quantities of cotton and other stores as under this mode of pro- 
cedure you can arrange to export. 

Lists of articles to be purchased and brought back as return cargo 
will likewise, as far as possible, be forwarded and articles provided 
at the ports. 

Should the Government, as is probable, not be able to furnish full 
cargoes on the return of the ships, such articles as the owners may 
desire will be cheerfully brought in on their account if provided by 
them at islands. I invoke your early attention to these instructions 
with your zealous efforts for their prompt execution. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


P. 8.—Mr. Seixas will be directed, under your instructions, to apply - 
to the owners of these steamers to ascertain if he can make an agree- 
ment with them to carry out the views herein indicated, and you will 
please lend him all the influence in your power. 

Ar: S: 


(NoTE.—Same to Generals W. H. C. Whiting and D. H. Maury, with 
the exception that in the letter to General Maury the paragraph com- 
mencing “‘instructions will be given to Mr. Seixas,” and ending “you 
can arrange to export,” and the postscript, are omitted. ) 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, August 12, 1863. 
General G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
Commanding, &e.: - 

GENERAL: I wrote you fully on yesterday of the important consid- 
eration that required the immediate export abroad on account of the 
Government of as large a quantity of cotton, &¢., as could be practi- 
cally forwarded, and of the means the Department had resolved to 
adopt to accomplish the end. This letter having been delayed by 
some mischance, I have felt so anxious to secure the due execution of 
my purpose that I have resolved to send in charge of it Maj. Thomas 
L. Bayne, who has been for some time past charged in this Department 
with the duty of supervising the running of the steamers of the 
Department and exportation of produce abroad for its account, and 


716 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to commit to him, under your supervision and direction, the execution 
of the plan and arrangements proposed in my letter. You will there- 
fore please allow him, in conjunction with the commercial agent of 
the Department at Wilmington and Charleston, Mr. Seixas, every 
facility and the aid of your influence in making arrangements and 
contracts with the owners of vessels suitable to evade the blockade, 
and only in case of their failure resort to the extreme measure of 
impressment. Iam reluctant to be reduced to that necessity, but must 
reiterate my instructions, that assent being withheld to reasonable 
arrangements required by the needs of the Government on the part of 
the owners, you will, being careful to conform to the forms of the 
law, employ the agency of impressment to secure the end proposed. 
With high esteem, most truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of .War. 


| AUGUST 14, 1863.—For E. Kirby Smith’s orders for the enrollment 
of all Government employés liable to conseription, see Series I, Vol. 
XXII, Part Il, p. 967. ] 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 15, 1863. 
The following expositions of law and orders received from the War 
Department are communicated for the information and guidance of 
officers of conscription: 
1. In regard to assessors and collectors of Confederate revenues: 


WAR DEPARTMENT, August 10, 1863. 
The SECRETARY OF WAR: e 


All collectors and assessors of the Confederate taxes who were appointed 
before the issuing of the proclamation of the President, and who are within the 
ages of forty and forty-five, are exempt. 

The clerks appointed by them are not exempt, nor should the appointments to 
be made be from those liable to enrollment as conscripts. 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


Indorsement of Assistant Secretary approved. ae 
; Secretary. 


2. In regard to agents of Quartermaster’s Department for collection 
of taxes in kind: 
WaAR DEPARTMENT, August 10, 1863. 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION: 


Such of the agents of the State or district quartermasters for the collection of 
taxes in kind whose appointment was made prior to the President’s proclamation 
for conscripts between forty and forty-five, and who are represented to be necessary 
for the performance of the duties assigned to them by the State or district quar- 
termaster, may be exempted. 

The agents hereafter to be made must be of persons exempt from conscrip- 
tion, and no person will be exempt except after a special application and upon 
an order from this Department. 

By order: J. A. CAMPBELL, 

Assistant Secretary of War. 


By command of Col. John 8. Preston, colonel and superintendent: 
P. NY PAGE 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandants ef Conseripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. TAN 


ENTERPRISE, -Miss., August 15, 1868, 


Col. G. W. Lay, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 

SiR: In a former communication to the Bureau I stated the num- 
ber of deserters, stragglers, &c., in this State, from the best infor- 
mation I could get, to be at least 5,000, and that causes were at work 
whieh I feared will greatly augment the number, and I reserved the 
statement of those causes for another communication. I proceed now 
to give it. With the administration of the Department of Mississippi 
under General Pemberton I have nothing to do, and, indeed, I may say 
that not having a sufficient knowledge of the fact, I have no opinion, 
and if I had I should not deem it proper to express it in any commu- 
nication to the Bureau. But it seems to me that I should fail in my 
duty if I did not make known to the Bureau, as a part of the history 
of the times, what is occurring here having a tendency to increase 
the number of stragglers and deserters from the Army at a time of 
all others in our history when that Army most needs strengthening. 
The people of this State, whether justly or unjustly, are most 
unanimous and bitter in their denunciation of General Pemberton, 
and protest against his being assigned to any command in this depart- 
ment. The army lately under his command, officers and men, it is 
said, solemnly declare that under no circumstances will they ever again 
organize for service under him. Some have sworn that they will band 
themselves together and by force of arms resist any effort to return 
them to the service. The people and the army seem to be in entire 
harmony upon this point. If under these circumstances the soldier 
refuses to return to his regiment, the public sentiment which, under 
other circumstances, would drive him back to the service, sympathizes 
with him and sustains him in his violation and disregard of duty. I 
see some of these men nearly every day, and I hear their declarations 
upon this subject with pain, because I believe that there is a fixed and 
resolute determination upon their part which must necessarily impair 
the efficiency of the army and may most probably lead to bloody con- 
flicts among our own people. A large meeting was held at this place 
on the 13th ultimo, and every remark that even by implecation might 
be taken as a censure of General Pemberton was received with loud 
and unanimous applause. The best and strongest friends of the 
Administration and of the cause of the South among the speakers did 
not hesitate to declare that it would never do to assign General Pem- 
berton to duty in this department, and they declared that the army 
could not be reorganized under him, but that if it were known when 
they reached the rendezvous at Demopolis they would be assigned to 
the command of some other general they would promptly rally again 
to the call of the country, and enter with renewed zeal and energy 
upon their duties, resolved to retrieve the losses that have recently 
befallen them. I repeat, that nothing but a sense of duty would have 
prompted me to write this letter, because toward General Pemberton 
I had the kindest personal feelings, and I am one of the last to con- 
demn any officer upon popular outery or to judge him by the opinion 
_ of the general public. 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 

Duke, AUGUST, 

Col. 15th Virginia Regt., Insp. Officer, Bureau of Conscription. 


718 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


BALLARD Housg, August 15, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: I accepted the position of volunteer aide on Major-General 
Stuart’s staff in the hope-of rendering some little service by making 
myself practically acquainted with the causes of the present condition 
of the cavalry and in doing what I could to aid General Stuart in his 
zealous efforts to increase the strength and promote the efficiency of 
his command. With this view I respectfully beg to submit to you 
the inclosed letter from Colonel Chambliss (whose experience, intel- 
ligence, and gallantry are so well known to the army), which con- 
tains, I-think, some valuable suggestions. The letter was intended 
solely for my own information, and if by transmitting it to the Depart- 
ment I transgress any rule of the service or of conventional propriety, 
I feel assured that a sufficient apology both to Colonel Chambliss and 
yourself will be found in my anxious wish to promote the good of the 
service. 

Tam, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. R. BOTELER. 


[Inclosure. ] 


HEADQUARTERS LEE’S CAVALRY BRIGADE, 
August 10, 1868. 
Col. A. R. BOTELER: 


COLONEL: In compliance with your request, I will briefiy touch 
upon those points which in my opinion demand the consideration of 
our authorities in advancing, recuperating, and promoting the effi- 
ciency of the cavalry service, and call attention to the causes that 
have produced the difference which now exists between its present 
condition and that of a few months ago. A great disparity exists 
between the effective cavalry force of the enemy and ours. Espe- 
cially, in view of the probability that their advantages in this respect 
may be vastly increased, it is most important that our cavalry be 
placed upon an equality with theirs. Should it be deemed compatible 
with the public interest, there is no’ doubt that at this time, particu- 
larly under a proper recruiting system projected in the different 
counties of our State especially, many valuable acquisitions to our 
now shattered ranks would accrue tous. Hundreds of details have 
been made from the cavalry of men to easy places in quartermaster’s, 
commissary, or medical departments, and no orders can force or 
invoke these detailed men to their commands when their employers 
declare it incompatible with the public service that they should be 
ordered back. Their places can be easily supplied by competent, 
erippled or otherwise, disabled soldiers. 

The superiority of the enemy’s cavalry armament, coupled with 
their better ammunition, is a point demanding prompt attention. It 
is accorded that no arm for mounted service can be compared to the 
breech-loading carbine. Dismounted fighting with the carbine on 
the part of the enemy has become very popular, and comprises the 
best share of their fighting. The inferiority of our armament and 
ammunition tends to inspire the one not at all and to make bolder 
the other. It would seem that not a very high degree of mechanical 
skill is required in perfecting the present Richmond carbine made 
after Sharps patent, or that it is not impossible to provide a suffi- 
ciency of such arms put up in the very best style of manufacture 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. T19 


abroad. Encouragement to inventors and experimentalists in per- 
fecting and putting up not only such arms but fixed ammunition, 
with a view to its preservation in wet weather and under rough hand-_ 
ling, will go far toward arresting the wholesale waste and destruction 
of powder and lead. 

The sabers issued by the Department are miserably inferior 
weapons, estimated at so low a value by the soldier, and really of so 
little account, that they are soon lost or cast away as worthless. The 
soldier will prize a good weapon, the quality of which will inspire 
him with pride for its good keeping and confidence when in contact 
with his foeman’s steel. 

The saddles issued by the Ordnance Department are dreaded, ridi- 
euled, and avoided by officers and men, and are used only through 
necessity, seldom without proving ruinous to the backs of horses. 
Though samples of the best approved saddles can be had anywhere, 
it is strange that no trees can be manufactured comparable to the 
McClellan saddles, when as much time and material is consumed in 
constructing the miserable apologies issued to the cavalry in imita- 
tion of the above-named saddles. It would seem that a board of 
suitable and enterprising officers would take pleasure in instituting 
inquiry on this subject and in arresting the useless waste of material 
in the manufacture of these Confederate saddles. 

Other parts of the cavalry soldiers’ equipments furnished by the 
Government might be greatly improved, but are of inferior moment 
to those already mentioned. Above all other considerations rises the 
question now causing much dissatisfaction and disorganization in the 
cavalry, “‘ When am I to get another horse, and how ean I buy one at 
the present prices after I have lost so many without any compensation 
from the Government?” The provisions of the bill passed by Con- 
gress allow payment for those horses only killed in action. I know 
that a majority of my most efficient men have lost from one to five 
horses, broken down by the hardships of the service, and a small 
minority of horses lost in the service are killed in action. It is with 
great reluctance that an officer can exchange or part with an accom- 
plished and experienced cavalry soldier whom he finds dismounted 
through such circumstances, and is pecuniarily unable to provide him- 
self forever and ever with horses. The good soldier of this dismounted 
class of two or more years’ experience is too valuable to be parted with, 
and some provision should be made to supply such men. Although 
there are many in this service who for various reasons should be 
transferred to other branches of the service, and there are many 
infantrymen who are applying for transfers to the cavalry, and such 
transfers would greatly recruit and strengthen us, still the objec- 
tions raised by company and field officers of the infantry render such 
exchange nigh to an impossibility. I would suggest that you call 
attention not only to the foregoing matter of this paragraph relative to 
the providing payment for horses lost by being disabled, broken down, 
exhausted, and left within the enemy’s lines, &c., but also to render- 
ing exchange a matter easier to be effected. There is a crying want 
of veterinary surgeons to be attached to and to accompany the cavalry 
to provide medicines and proper treatment in the field and camp for 
such horses. The establishment of a veterinary hospital in some 
locality secure from cavalry raids, convenient and accessible to the 
main railroad communications, where cheap sheds or coverings for 
the winter season might be erected, where surgeons and farriers might 
be appointed, with the labor of hired negroes to attend to the horses, 


720 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


would greatly enhance the efficiency of the service; would put a stop 
to straggling and lurking behind with the shadow of an excuse, and 
effectually hush the discontent arising from the necessity of having 
to retain invalid horses in the field and of making worthy cavalry 
soldiers involuntary members of the foot battalion for any length of 
time. 

The chief and main cause of the present dismembered and shattered 
state of our ranks has been the want of horseshoes and horseshoe 
nails, forges, and transportation therefor. Provide every soldier with 
shoe pouches and shoes to put in them, and fewer dismounted men 
will harass the service. A greater number of blacksmiths should be 
retained and employed in each regiment. 

Drilling is indispensably necessary to rendering troops thoroughly 
efficient. The force of cavalry now confronting the enemy is so small 
that every man is on picket or outpost duty for a majority of the time, 
and the horses are so constantly employed that a horseback drill is 
dreaded. With increased numbers we would be more upon an equal 
footing with the enemy and be enabled to withstand the various shocks 
incident to a service having so small an effective force of cavalry. 
During the late expedition into the enemy’s country many valuable 
horses were lost owing mainly to the want of shoes, which failed to 
arrive and be provided before the start. Men became dismounted, 
separated from their commands, and thus left behind from the impos- 
sibility of keeping a pace with the mounted men [had] to find places 
of safety and to congregate in masses of ‘‘Qs.” I have hastily drawn 
attention to the main causes of disorganization and dismemberment 
in this branch of the service, and in view of the vastly superior re- 
sources of the enemy and their superior strength, prompt remedies are 
imperatively demanded. 

I have the honor to be, colonel, your obedient servant, 
JNO. R. CHAMBLISS, JR., 
_ Colonel, Commanding Lees Cavalry Brigade. 


[First indorsement. |] 


AUGUST 20, 1863. 


Referred to the Ordnance Bureau. Special attention called to this 
letter of Colonel Chambliss and its strictures in matters coming within 
the functions of your Bureau. 

. J. A. S., 
Secretary. 


[Second indorsement. | 


AUGUST 24, 1863. 


Respectfully returned. 

Contents noted. A good breech-loading carbine is now making here 
in small numbers. No reliable carbines except muzzle-loaders are to 
be obtained abroad. Cavalry officers are not all agreed as to the 
value of the breech-loading carbine, and officers of great experience 
pronounce in favor of the muzzle-loading carbine. As the latter can 
be produced when the former cannot, I have ordered a model to be 
prepared, and have had it submitted to General Stuart for the criti- 
cism of his officers. As soon as its main features are settled it will 
be adopted. The cavalry saddles made here on Jenifer patent have 
only very recently been decried by officers. Until the past three 
months they were fully approved by cavalry officers, including General 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. T21 


Stuart. The McClellan tree will, however, now be used, as the gen- 
eral testimony of officers has lately been decidedly in favor of it. 
J. GORGAS, 
Colonel. 
[Third indorsement. ] 
AUGUST 25, 1863. 
Communicate the indorsement of Colonel Gorgas to Colonel Cham- 
bliss. 
ARow \e Tees 
Secretary. 


HENRY CoURT-HOUSE, Va., August 15, 1863. 
SIDNEY SMITH, Esq., 
Richmond, Va.: 

DEAR Stk: I have been intending to write to you for some time. 
My health is bad and has been for several months, and by order [of] 
the surgeons in Richmond I have been transferred to the mountain 
region with hope of restoring my health. I am, I hope, somewhat 
improved. Since I have received my leave of absence I have been 
traveling about considerably, and find to my great surprise a most 
unfortunate state of things existing in many of these upper counties. 
In parts of Bedford, in portions of Botetourt, Roanoke, Montgomery, 
Giles, Floyd, Franklin, Patrick Henry, and portions of Pittsylvania, 
&¢., the people seem completely demoralized, and this state of things 
exists to a great extent among the best citizens. They think and say 
we are whipped and are bound to be overrun and subjugated. The 
impression has very extensively obtained that our Army is dispirited 
and is deserting by hundreds; that whole regiments have [left] ata 
time; and the upper counties in North Carolina are much worse than 
those that I have mentioned, so I learn. A good many deserters are 
passing the various roads daily, and greatly increase the demoraliza- 
tion. ‘These deserters almost invariably have their guns and aecou- 
terments with them, and when halted and asked for their furloughs 
or their authority to be absent from their commands, they just pat their 
guns and defiantly say, ‘‘This is my furlough,” and even enrolling 
officers turn away as peaceably as possible, evidently intimidated by 
their defiant manner. 

They are accumulating a vast number of muskets, &c., in all this 
country, and avow that they shall be used against the Confederacy if 
there is any attempt to arrest them; and the depredations which they 
are committing are immense and outrageous. The papers are advis- 
ing and urging the people to send them off and not feed nor lodge 
them, but these gentlemen editors know just nothing about it. 

These deserters go in companies of from six to fifteen or twenty, 
and when they want anything they just demand it under threats of 
the most terrible violence; and if any citizen dares to give any infor- 
mation in relation to them, or even says anything disapprobating 
desertions from the Army, the next thing his house is burned, he 
waylaid and murdered, or beaten nearly to death. Many of these cases 
have occurred, more particularly recently. The people in many places 
are in continual alarm. 

Little or no attention is paid in these counties to the order to organ- 
ize for home defense, and but very little assistance can be had in 


46 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


122 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


arresting deserters, and consequently but few arrests are made. The 
people are afraid to do anything, and then they are so cowed and dis- 
pirited that they do not think it worth while to make any attempt in 
these matters. 

Now, I know this people, as you know I canvassed several of these 
counties getting volunteers early inthe war. They need information, 
and how shall they get it? The newspapers of the day do not 
give itto them. The papers on the whole increase the demoralization 
so far as their influence goes, but there are very few who read the 
papers at all. The price of a newspaper now is such that very few 
will pay it; consequently very few papers are read, and unless they 
were of a different character it perhaps is well that they see no more 
of them than they do. What, then, is to be done? for this country is 
gone if some[thing] is not speedily done. 

The only thing that I know of is to select speakers of suitable 
ability and of proper characters and let them go through these coun- 
ties and address the people, and give them the information about the 
country and the Army which it is clear to my mind they greatly need. 
I confess it is a most provoking state of things and should be cor- 
rected at once, and this is the only possible plan to do it that I see. 
There are hundreds of men through this country—aye, I may say 
thousands—who ought to be in the service, but there is not moral 
force enough in the country to bring them out, and from some cause 
the officers whose duty it is do not do it. 

If you think the subject worth his attention, you can show this to ~ 
General S. Cooper. 

The children are both well, and all join me in love to you. 

Very affectionately, yours, &c., 
J. HE. JOYNER. 


[First indorsement. | 


AUGUST 18, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to Col. J. 8. Preston, in charge of Bureau of 
Conscription. 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Second indorsenient. ] 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, August 19, 1863: 
Respectfully referred to Colonel Shields. 
By order of Colonel Preston, superintendent: 
C. B. DUFFIELD, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Third indorsement. ] 


CONSCRIPT OFFICE, 
Richmond, August 28, 1563. 

Respectfully returned. 

The information concerning deserters has long since been known; 
all the proper remedies so far as at my command applied, as the report 
of the district officers will show; but the burden of the writer’s efforts 
appears to be directed to the necessity of sending out informed speakers 
and to give newspaper editors information. The communication is 
therefore respectfully returned, with the answer to the Bureau that all 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 723 


the agencies under my control have long since been directed to arrest 
desertions, all with good results, but the evil continues on the increase. 
J. C. SHIELDS, 
Colonel, Commanding. 


[Fourth indorsement. ] 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
fichmond, August 29, 1868. 


The attention of the Adjutant and Inspector General is respectfully 
invited to the indorsement of Colonel Shields, showing that all the 
means at the command of this Bureau have been exerted to arrest 
and return deserters to their respective commands. 

JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


a 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, Va., August 15, 1868. 
Medical directors of hospitals will organize at each hospital station 
a board of medical officers, to be consulted by the surgeon in charge 
in all important surgical cases, or when an operation is deemed neces- 
sary; and when delay is practicable, no important operation will be 
performed without the sanction of this board. ~ 
Ss. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon-General C. S. Army. 


[AuGusT 15, 1863.—For Lee to Cooper, in relation to measures to 
compel the return of absentees to their commands, see Series I, Vol. 
XXIX, Part I, p. 647.] 


[Auaust 15, 1863.—For proceedings of a conference of the Gov- 
ernors of the Trans-Mississippi States at Marshall, Tex., see Series I, 
Vol. XXII, Part IT, p. 1004. ] - 


—_—__. 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 17, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


sir: I have assumed control of the Bureau of Conscription, have 
looked into the progress of its functions, and have endeavored to 
initiate such proceedings as in my judgment may promote its effi- 
ciency. It is my duty to ask your attention to such matters as seem 
to me to require the interposition or the sanction of your authority. 
I will do so frankly and continually as occasion demands. I have 
ordered the completion of the organization for conscription, which I 
find has not as yet been perfected in any one State. The agencies 
prescribed by law have not been brought into action, I suppose, 
mainly because they could not be furnished by the Department and 
for a variety of other sufficient reasons, such as the occupation of 
territory by the enemy, the absence of the necessity for full force in 


724 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


certain localities, the difficulty of obtaining competent officers, the 
special agencies substituted in certain cases for the general provisions 
made by law. 

In many localities the appointment of enrolling officers has not been 
complete. In others State authorities have been used for enrolling 
purposes. I have ordered the completion of the staff according to 
law and the substitution of the prescribed officers for the State offi- 
cers hitherto used. My purpose is to obtain all such aid from the 
State authorities as they will furnish, but not to substitute them for 
the proper officers prescribed. I regard it of vital importance to the 
success of the measures intrusted to this Bureau that the co-operative 
action of the State authorities should be obtained. All possible effort 
should be used for this purpose. 

I would respectfully suggest that it is of sufficient import to warrant 
such negotiations as can only be instituted by the highest authority. 
The ramifications of Confederate agencies do not reach the require- 
ments made of this Bureau. State agencies must be employed, and 
at this time that can only be done through arrangements not within 
the competency of this Bureau. As far as that competency extends, 
it will be vigorously used to obtain official aid and to conciliate the 
patriotism of the people to the same end. 

But even if successful in procuring these valuable adjuncts, it is 
my duty to state that the agencies authorized by the Government for 
conscription and for the other functions pertaining to this Bureau are 
not sufficient for the ends proposed, and that, in my opinion, the sub- 
stitution for them of the military force, as in Florida, Mississippi, 
Alabama, and Tennessee, is not a remedy, but an additional draw- 
back. The true remedy is to put additional agencies under the con- 
trol and the call of this Bureau. 

First. In addition to the allowance of one officer to each county or 
district, there should, at the discretion of the commandants, be from 
two to six disabled soldiers, as conscripts, assigned for local service; 
two of them to be mounted. 

Second. Commanders of armies, posts, garrisons, &c., should be 
required to furnish all proper aid to enrolling officers. 

Third. Negotiations should be authorized through this Bureau with 
State Executives to obtain all the aid which can be given for the effi- 
cient enforcement of the law. 

These things will contribute to the success of this Bureau, but there 
is one matter vital to it. The main cause of past inefficiency, of 
present difficulty, and of what will be certain failure, is the departure. 
from the principle of paragraph XIII, General Orders, No. 82, 1862: 
All impressments (or recruiting ought to have been added), under 
any pretense or authority whatever, are prohibited, it being the design 
of the Department to supply the Army exclusively through the 
agencies of the Bureau of Conscription. 

Had the adjuncts I have indicated been used, and this purpose 
rigorously and relentlessly adhered to, even under the glaring defects 
of the law, the conscription law would have been as smooth in its 
execution and as sure of its results as the tax law, or the election law, 
or any other customary law of the country. 

The first severe and almost death-blow was struck by the circular 
order, 8th January, 1863. The system staggered, and repeated blows 
since, in the form of recruiting for special organizations, the military 
control given in four of the States, unrestricted volunteering, &¢., have 
weakened it down to the condition of some of our cavalry corps, with 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 125 


searce strength left to brush away the vermin which now attack it in 
the form of details for railroads, telegraph offices, express offices, &e. 

Give the agencies I have indicated, and make paragraph XIII, Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 82, 1862, into a general order in the following words, 
and I will promise that in six months the military force under the 
law will be in the field: 


All impressments, recruiting, or volunteering of persons between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five years, under any pretense or authority, are strictly pro- 
hibited, it being the design of the Department, from which there will be no 
departure, to supply the Army exclusively through the Bureau of Conscription. 


While I am thus confident of the Bureau filling the intention of the 
law, it is not to be disguised that the law does not provide for the 
development of the military force of the country. Had the exemption 
act been entitled an act to aid the enemy in diminishing the number 
of men in the Army and answered its nomenclature, it could not more 
thoroughly have effected its purpose. There are many, very many, 
more persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years 
exempted from service by the act of October 11, 1862, than are sent 
into service by all the acts calling for men between those ages. 
The fragmentary remnants left by the exemption act, and the volun- 
teer and recruiting system form the material on which the Bureau is 
to act. It is called to let drop ninety-nine through the expanded and 
broken meshes of the law while it takes in secure hold of one and 
lands him in the Army, unless he be snatched away by a railroad fac- 
tory or some other supposed benefactor-of the Confederacy. 

Be rigid in the design that through this Bureau alone and exclu- 
sively every man goes into the field as a supply to your armies and 
you will find full currents flowing into them, whereas if you diffuse 
the sources all will sink to nothing before they become confluent. 

The functions of the Bureau are ramified into a minute interference 
with every civil, political, and domestic right of: the citizen, and its 
officers control those rights, and in doing so meet the most cherished 
prejudices of the people. Properly selected officers adjust the rights 
and palliate the prejudices; the first is just, the second politic and 
necessary. ; 

Military authority is established to override the right and subdue 
the prejudice. Neither can be effectually done, even though existence 
demands it at this stage of our struggle. Detach half the armies in 
the field on the service, and they will bring but a tenth of their 
numbers and will arouse the people and States to protect the balance. 
Give this Bureau as now constituted under the law the authority to 
call on the States and the military to aid its regular proceedings 
within the precincts of that law, and you will get five times the num- 
bers at half the expense and within as short atime. For these consid- 
erations crudely expressed, and others perhaps of equal weight, I 
respectfully suggest: 

First. That all recruiting and volunteering of men between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five years be prohibited except through 
this Bureau. | 

Second. That additional force be allowed to the enrolling depart- 
ment of at least twenty men to each Congressional district, to be 
composed of soldiers disabled for the field or invalid conseripts who 
ean furnish their own horses, to be received and act as cavalry and 
subject to call for local defense, to be armed and under orders of the 
enrolling officer. ‘ 


126 *  GORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Third..That commanders of armies, posts, garrisons, &¢., be 
instructed to furnish any additional temporary aid commandants of 
conscripts may require in the arrest of deserters, stragglers, &c. 

Fourth. That copies of all furloughs to men in the field be sent to 
the commandants of conscripts for the State to which the man belongs, 
and that all deserters be reported in like manner to the commandants. 

Fifth. That the States removed from the conscription jurisdiction 
of this Bureau be restored to their original condition in their relation 
to it. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 


JNO. 8. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


P. S.—I have the honor to inclose a communication received from 
the commandant of conscripts for Alabama since this letter was 
written, indicating views concurring with those stated by me and 
resulting from his experience and observation in his office. 


[ Inclosure.] 


OFFICE COMMANDANT OF CONSCRIPTS, 
Talladega, Ala., August 6, 1868. 
Lieut. Col. G. W. LAY, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a num- 
ber of letters, telegrams, circulars, and other communications—in 
particular of a telegram of the 30th of July, directing future cor- 
respondence (with certain specified exceptions) to be held with or 
through Brigadier-General Pillow. On this order I have already 
commenced acting. Permit me to express my unfeigned regret at 
this withdrawal from the immediate control of the Bureau of Con- 
scription the duties of the conscription service, after much diffi- 
culty and many embarrassments were becoming systematized and 
intelligible. I very much fear the consequences of a change. 

On this occasion I beg leave for the first time to go beyond the 
usual limits of the duties of this office in order to make some state- 
ments which should not only be laid Vefore you but brought to the 
attention of the Secretary of War. The result of the recent elections 
in this State has developed a degree of disaffection (to use the mildest 
possible term) which may lead to serious mischief. In this section of 
the State the elections have been generally carried by an opposition 
known as the ‘‘Peace Party.” It is seareely necessary to remark 
that (as the present war is on our part a struggle for peace) if a “‘ peace © 
party” has any definite meaning at all it must mean what it shouid be 
treason even to suggest. In the Congressional district from which I, 
write the present incumbent (Mr. Curry) has been defeated by a large 
majority, chiefly (from all I can learn) on account of his identification 
with the Government, and with what we have been accustomed to 
consider the established principles of the Confederacy. 

In some counties men have been elected to the State Legislature 
and to other positions of public trust who were not publicly known, 
or scarcely known, as candidates. These results are mainly attribu- 
table, as there is every reason to believe, to a secret sworn organiza- 
tion known to exist and believed to have for its objects the encour- 
agement of desertion, the protection of deserters from arrest, resistance 
to conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still more dangerous 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. - . 127 


character. This organization is believed to include some men of 
intelligence, influence, and prominent position, and there can be little 
doubt that its leaders are, and long have been, in constant communi- 
eation with the enemy. 

It is not to be supposed for a moment that the opposition above 
alluded to is entirely, or perhaps that it is even chiefly, composed of 
disloyal elements; but it is greatly to be feared that this will be the 
controlling element. 

If these considerations were exclusively political it would perhaps 
be officious or impertinent on my part to present them. But itisa 
significant fact that hostility to the conscription law has been one 
of the main elements of the opposition. It is perhaps still more sig- 
nificant that the rank and file of the paroled prisoners of the Vicksburg 
army, according to my information, contributed largely by their votes 
to the result of the election. Strength was added also to the opposi- 
tion by the host of deserters who swarm throughout the country, and 
who no doubt came forth from their lurking places on the day of the 
election wherever the polls were not guarded by military force. The 
disposition is widely prevalent among the population at home to afford 
shelter and protection to these deserters, and insidious efforts are 
making to induce the paroled men generally to refuse to return into 
service. 

In this state of affairs it is obviously of the highest importance that 
the conscription service of the country should be executed not only 
with vigor, but with discretion. 

It is my purpose, if the urgent demands of routine duty permit, to 
venture to offer to the Honorable Secretary of War some suggestions 
as the result of a year’s experience. Meanwhile permit me to add to 
the above statement of facts a simple expression of the opinion that 
much mischief has been done, and is now doing, under the system of 
‘‘recruiting” inaugurated some months ago and revived under the 
recent call of the President. 

In obedience to the instructions contained in the latter part of your 
order of the 30th of July, I inclose herewith copies of the only two 
general orders yet received from General Pillow. * 

I also respectfully inclose some extracts from a letter to General 
Pillow elicited by those orders. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. T. WALTHALL, 
Major and Commandant for Alabama. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


OFFICE COMMANDANT CONSCRIPTS, 
Talladega, Ala., July 31, 1868. 
Brig. Gen. GIDEON J. PILLOW, 
Chief Bureau of Conscription, Dept. No. 2, Marietta, Ga.: 


GENERAL: I have the honor respectfully to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of the 26th instant by Lieutenant Evans, who was 
unavoidably delayed on his return. I have also just noted in the 
Memphis Appeal General Orders, No. 1 and No. 2, issued by you. I 
have already ordered the conscription to be extended to the age of 
forty-five, in accordance with the proclamation of the President. 
* * * Permit me, general, respectfully to offer another suggestion. 
Ever since I was ordered to the conscription service it has been my 


* See July 27, pp. 675, 676. 


® 


128 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


aim to elevate the character of the conscript by endeavoring to break 
down the distinction popularly made between him and the volunteer 
by impressing upon him the feeling that there is no stigma or reproach 
properly belonging to the term “conscript,” by treating him as a sol- 
dier, and gr adually infusing into him soldierly pride and a con- 
sciousness of being on a footing of equality with other soldiers. 

The experiment “of twelve months satisfies me that this is the true 
policy, and this plan needs only the proper firmness and kindness 
combined to render it eminently successful. Nay, more; from the 
result of my own experience I am satisfied that the conscript may be 
made not only equal to any troops, but the very best troops in the 
world. 

In order to effect this, however, I have carefully instructed them 
that enrollment and reception into a camp of instruction are not in 
the nature of arrest or compulsion—unless in cases of willful refusal to 
obey the call—but merely the authorized and regular way in which 
the country calls them into the field and prepares them for active 
service. 

In view of the above facts, I fear that the use of the term ‘‘ arrest” 
in your recent orders may lead to misconception and tend to diminish 
the self-respect of the enrolled men. I respectfully throw out this 
for your consideration. I would also respectfully suggest that in 
view of the immense advantages of a few weeks passed in a properly 
administered camp of instruction, as also tested by experience, the 
conscription would seem worthy of being encouraged rather than 
volunteering, or, at any rate, that all volunteers should be required 
to pass through a preparatory training in a camp of instruction as 
required by General Orders, No. 30, of 1862. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. T. WALTHALL, 
Major and Commandant. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 17, 1863. 


You will use the utmost diligence in the effort to execute the pro- 
visions of the act of May 1, 1863, repealing portions of the act of 11th 
of October, 1862, and substituting therefor other provisions. 

While thus urging the conscription on the classes therein enumer- 
ated, you will also exercise your best discretion in disturbing as little 
as possible the police and production of the country. 

1. It is suggested, in this view, that you proceed at once to the 
indiscriminate enrollment of owners, agents, and overseers rendered 
liable by the act of May 1, 1863, deciding the merit of each ease on 
its presentation. 

2. That in cases of overseers employed and acting as such previous 
‘to 16th of April, 1863, on the plantations of non-residents, or other non- 
enumerated classes, a longer period be allowed before conscription 
for the adjustment of the police, of existing contracts, and the changes 
likely to be made by the removal of the overseer from such plantations 
to those of enumerated classes. But while time is thus given you will 
in every case enroll and order the report of the person at the period 
designated. 

3. Your attention is called to the propriety of exercising a careful 
discretion in the conscription of persons residing in localities from 
which large portions of the producing labor are withdrawn, eitner 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 729 


beeause of the nearness of the enemy or of the limited amount of 
Slave labor, and also to the cases of owners and agents engaged in 
removing and having in charge slaves brought from localities which 
have been taken possession of by the enemy. 
By order of Colonel Preston, superintendent: 
P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


BRITISH CONSULATE, 
Savannah, Ga., August 17, 1868. 
His Excellency Governor BRown, 
Marietta: 


SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excel- 
lency’s letter of the 8thinstant. I perfectly understood the intentions 
of the Government in organizing the force of 8,000 men for home 
defense, but I am obliged to conelude that you have misunderstood 
me when I admitted the right of a State to claim the services of 
British subjects resident within its limits for the purpose of maintain- 
ing internal order, and even to a limited extent to defend the places of 
their residence against local invasion by a foreign power. Such sery- 
ice might be rendered by them in the event of a war by a foreign 
power, but not in a civil war like that which now rages on this conti- 
nent. Her Majesty’s Government considers that the plainest notions 
of reason and justice forbid that a foreigner admitted to reside for 
peaceful purposes in a State forming part of a federal union should 
be compelled by that State to take an active part in hostilities against 
other States which when he became a resident were members-of one 
and the same confederacy. While acknowledging the right of the 
State, under present circumstances, to the services of British subjects 
for patrol or police duty, Her Majesty’s Government objects to any 
further extension of such service. Ihave consequently, under instrue- 
tions, felt myself compelled to advise those drafted to acquiesce in 
the duty until they are required to leave their immediate homes or to 
meet the U.S. forces in actual conflict; in that event to throw down 
their arms and refuse to render a service the performance of which 
would run directly in the teeth of Her Majesty’s proclamation and 
render them liable to the severe penalties denounced against a violation 
of the strict neutrality so strongly insisted on in that document, trust- 
ing to my interference in their behalf with the Government at Rich- 
mond under whose command they will be. In other States British 
subjects imprisoned for following this advice have already been dis- 
charged from custody and service by order of the War Department. 

Your Excellency is pleased to inform me that with the change in 
the political relations of the country new obligations are imposed on 
the subjects of Her Majesty resident in the South. I do not see why 
this should be so, seeing that they, by reason of their being aliens, 
had no voice whatever in the councils which brought about the pres- 
ent state of affairs. With regard to the protection afforded by the 
State to an alien, it appears to me to extend a little beyond the safety 
of life, a guaranty which every civilized community for its own sake 
extends to every sojourner in its midst. You need not be told that 
the law of Georgia forbids an alien to hold certain kinds of property, 


730 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and I cannot see how a thing can be protected which is not suffered 
to exist. Ihave nothing to do with British subjects who hold such 
property in violation of law, but I do protest against the compul- 
sory service in a civil war of those who have never contravened the 
law in this respect. It is satisfactory to know that the option of 
leaving the country is allowed to British subjects, and that no obstacle 
will be thrown in the way of those who prefer to do so rather than 
violate the Queen’s imperative orders by meeting in warfare the U.S. 
forees. If compelled to take this course, however, I may be permitted 
to say that the comity usually observed between foreign States is not 
very scrupulously observed. I have reason to know that many who 
have not hitherto been molested are, in consequence of Your Excel- 
lency’s proclamation, preparing to leave, not a few among them being 
mechanics worth little or no property, of whose inestimable services at 
this crisis the Confederacy will be deprived. Am I to understand 
that those already drafted may avail themselves of this alternative? 
The dispatches which I have received from the British Government 
relative to compulsory services are strong. 

I am instructed to remonstrate in the strongest terms against all 
attempts to force British subjects to take up arms. Should these 
remonstranees fail, ‘‘the governments in Europe interested in this 
question will unite in making such representations as will secure to 
aliens this desired exemption.” It has hitherto been in my power to 
report to Her Majesty’s Government that her subjects have not been 
called upon to take up arms in this war. I regret that Your Excel- 
lency’s decision makes it impossible to do so hereafter, the more so as 
the course pursued contrasts so strongly with the conduct of the 
United States Government, who have conceded the claim of bona fide 
British subjects to exemption of any military service whatever, and 
also with that of the Governors of other Southern States who, upon 
representation, ordered the discharge of British subjects forcibly 
detained in service. 

I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 
A. FULLARTON, 
Acting Consul. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., August 17, 1868. 
R. STANTON, Esq.: 
(Care Captain Pleasants, chief of ordnance, Hood’s division. ) 
Sir: Your letter of the 9th instant has been received. In reply you 
are respectfully informed that duty requires all such schemes for 
disposing of those in high position at Washington to be discouraged 
by the Department, and to be discarded by you. The laws of war 
and morality, as well as Christian principles and sound policy, forbid 
the use of such means of punishing even the atrocities of the enemy. 
Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


—————— 


[ AUGUST 17, 1863.—For Lee’s General Orders, No. 85, in relation to 
enrollment, conscription, and substitution, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part 
II, p. 755. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. OW 


GENERAL ghee ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 113. Richmond, August 18, 1868. 


I. Officers receiving volunteers from those liable to conscription 
will in no case grant furloughs for more than ten days to such vol- 
unteers before entering on active service. 

II. Every man liable to conscription volunteering before enroll- 
ment will report himself and the company in which he volunteers, 
and likewise be reported by his captain to the commandant of con- 
scripts for the State, within ten days after his act of volunteering; 
otherwise he will be held subject to enrollment and assignment. 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector Generat. 


[AUGUST 18, 1863.—For address of the Governors of Louisiana, 
Texas, Arkansas and Missouri, to the people of those States and the 
allied Indian nations, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 892. | 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, August 19, 1863. 


I. Commandants of conscripts will forthwith obtain from the edi- 
tors of newspapers published within their commands an accurate 
return of the names of the editors and all persons within conscript 
ages in their employment, and ascertain whether the provisions of 
General Orders, No. 82, have been complied with, noting the particu- 
lar employment of each individual. 

Il. Commandants of conscripts will, on the reception of conscripts 
at camps of instruction, subject them to medical examination by the 
surgeon of the camp and classify them according to their compara- 
tive ability for service in the field. Those who are fully | fitted] will 
be sent to the field. Those not fully fitted, either by defect, consti- 
tutional infirmity, or temporary disability, will be, as far as practica- 
ble, assigned to post or garrison duty. For this purpose comman- 
dants will correspond with the commanders of departments and of 
posts, arsenals, Government factories, &¢c., and ascertain if the 
assignment can be made in substitution for troops fitted for the field. 

lil. Commandants of conscripts will publish within their com- 
mands that they are authorized, on requisition by planters and manu- 
facturers properly authenticated, to assign as overseers and workmen 
invalid soldiers or feeble conscripts who may be fitted for the employ- 
ment, and on such requisition use discreetly the authority hereby 
granted. 

By command of Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 19, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 
Sir: I have the honor to inclose certain papers indicating an 
unhappy condition of things in Western North Carolina. The matter 


Low CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


is regarded of sufficient importance to warrant me in sending Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Lay, of this Bureau, tomake a personal official inspec- 
tion. I have given him full author ity to exercise the legitimate 
functions of this Bureau in the effort to correct the evil. I respect- 
fully suggest that he may be clothed with such additional authority 
as in your judgment may be adapted to the case. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


HEADQUARTERS BATTALION, THOMAS LEGION, 
Loudon, Tenn., July 16, 1868. 
Lieut. Col. W. C. WALKER: 

Str: I have this day returned from Cherokee County, N. C., hav- 
ing been sent there to bring absentees to camps. I was not able to 
bring in any by simply notifying them to return to camps. Those 
who were captured by the enemy at Strawberry Plains say they will 
not return unless they are obliged to untilthey are exchanged. Then, 
they say, they are ready and willing to return to duty. 

Also, from the best information I ‘could get, the outlaws are a terror 
to the Citizens, and especially the soldiers’ wives who arealone. ‘They 
are killing cattle, sheep, and hogs; also stealing bee-gums, breaking 
into smoke- houses, milk-houses, &e.; ; not only so, but they have killed 
Lieut. Robert Rhea—shot him in the field at home—and I learn they 
have shot several times at Captain Berry since he has been there try- 
ing to collect his company together. I learned that those outlaws 
said that neither Lieutenant Fowler nor myself should ever return to 
the command to report how affairs were going on there. As for who 
it is doing the mischief, I suppose it is deserters from different com- 
mands and some conscripts who have never been in camps. 

I do not think that a few men would be safe to try to take up those 
fellows, for there is said there are a great many of them, and I do not 
think that soldiers who live in that section would be safe, for they 
would burn up their houses and destroy their property if they did not 
get all of them. 

J. N. BRYSOR? 
First Lieutenant Co. A, Walker’s Battalion, Thomas Legion. 


{Indorsement.] 


HEADQUARTERS BATTALION, THOMAS LEGION, 
July 16, 1863. 
Examined, and from the best information I can get I am satisfied 
the statements are correct. 
Respectfully Rota are to Brig. Gen. B. R. Johnson, commanding. 
Wea WALKER, 
Tee Colonel, Commanding Battalion. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


CONSCRIPT OFFICE, CAMP VANCE, 
Near Morganton, August 13, 1863. 
Col. PETER MALLETT, 
Commandant Conscripts, North Carolina: 
COLONEL: In obedience to instructions indorsed upon inclosed 
paper I have the honor to report the state of affairs in the western 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. t30 


counties of North Carolina. I inclose also a letter from Captain 
Pearson, enrolling officer Tenth District, received on yesterday. All 
the counties on the Tennessee border are infested with deserters, 
renegade conscripts, and tories, who have collected in the mountains 
committing depredations upon peaceful citizens and unprotected 
wives of soldiers. The county of Cherokee is 200 miles from Morgan- 
ton, and the facilities for transporting and subsisting the small body 
of men under my command are very limited; and as Jackson’s bri- 
gade of Buckner’s division is in Tennessee, about fifty miles from the 
county seat of Cherokee, I would respectfully suggest that an arrange- 
ment be made by which afew companies of cavalry and infantry from 
his command may be sent to this section to operate until these bands 
of deserters, &c., are broken up. 

The enrolling officer of the Tenth District commences his enrollment 
in Clay, the extreme western county, on the 20th of August. I con- 
sider it unsafe for him to go through these counties without a guard, 
and recommend that an order be requested from the War Department 
to Major-General Buckner to send a guard to accompany him through 
the border counties and overawe any attempts at resisting the execu- 
tion of the law. I propose as far as possible to organize squads of, 
say, twenty men in each county in the Ninth and Tenth Districts and 
place them in charge of disabled officers of the Army who report to 
me for duty, and respectfully request that a supply of arms and am- 
munition be furnished me to equip them, and that Western North 
Carolina officers unfit for field duty be ordered to report to me for 
assignment as assistant enrolling officers for each county. Authority 
might be granted me to draw the arms from the C. 8. armory at Ashe- 
ville. Every county in the Ninth and Tenth Districts is infested to a 
greater or less degree with deserters, &c., and the most rigorous meas- 
ures are absolutely necessary for the preservation of order and life. 
Soldiers’ wives are constantly robbed by the villains, and great depre- 
dations are committed on the citizens. I suggest also that the atten- 
tion of the Governor be called to the matter and he be requested to 
order the immediate organization and equipment of the home guard 
composed of exempts. A small number of men actively employed 
under a competent officer in each county would go far toward sup- 
pressing troubles which will soon become very serious. The impunity 
with which deserters remain at home has produced the worst effect 
upon the conscripts, who generally refuse to obey the law, and join 
the deserters in the mountains upon any attempt being made to arrest 
them. I have two companies of about 125 men at this camp. There 
are from 50 to 100 deserters in this county within twenty-five miles, 
and the same proportion in the adjoining counties, while the counties 
of Wilkes and Yadkin have many more than this proportion. 

Though some militia officers are good men, who have aided the 
officers of conscription materially in the execution of the law, many 
are entirely unreliable and all are fast losing their influence for good 
on account of the existing state of affairs. I would urge that all offi- 
cers unfit for field service who are able to assist me be assigned at 
as early a day as possible to me. 

I have used every exertion to disseminate the President’s proclama- 
tion of pardon to deserters, and hope that it may have a good effect, 
though from present indications very few will embrace the opportunity 
to return to duty. 


134 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I have directed the enrolling officers to forward me exact informa- 
tion of the state of affairs in each county and will forward the same 
as soon as received. 

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. C. McRAE, 
Captain, Commanding. 


[Indorsement. | 


CONSCRIPT OFFICE, CAMP HOLMES, 
August 17, 1868. 
Approved and respectfully forwarded to Bureau of Conscription. 
An order for 200 muskets or rifles from the armory at Asheville is 
earnestly solicited. This, together with requisition for 500 muskets 
(now being forwarded by ordnance officer at Wilmington) and arms 
furnished by the State, will be sufficient. The superintendent’s 
attention is respectfully invited to the recommendation of Captain 
McRae, that a detachment of two companies from Jackson’s brigade 
of Buckner’s division be detailed temporarily to protect the enrolling 
officer and arrest deserters in counties bordering on Tennessee. 
PETER MALLETT, 
Colonel, Commanding Conscripts for North Carolina. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


ASHEVILLE, N. C., August 10, 1563. 
Capt. J. C. MCRAE, 
Commanding Conscripts, Morganton, N. C.: 


CAPTAIN: I am this morning in possession of information that I 
know to be reliable that the deserters and tories from Tennessee and 
counties from this State are in force, estimated 300 to 500, and are 
now in the counties of Cherokee and Henderson. In the first-named 
county they are largely in the ascendancy, and are augmenting their 
number every day. They are killing stock, disarming the citizens, 
and the militia, if they were even disposed, I don’t think would be 
sufficient to capture or entirely disperse them. It will be impossible 
for me to execute the conscription in certain counties without the aid 
of some military force. I hope that you will not think I am an 
alarmist. I spoke something about the state of affairs of this kind 
before, but refrained from giving any reports that I had heard, know- 
ing them to be exaggerated; but the above facts I know to be true 
and are in no way magnified. 

I will leave for Clay County Saturday to meet my first appoint- 
ment, commencing the 20th. I am ignorant as yet who constitutes 
the examining board for this district, and would be glad if you would 
inform me by return mail who they are. 

Doctor Baird, who lives in this county, told me that Colonel Mallett 
had sent word to him to consider himself appointed, but as he had no 
official information of it I have not recognized him as such. Please 
inform me or him, one of [us], if he is. I would most respectfully 
suggest that a force of cavalry or mounted infantry be stationed 
somewhere in the district, and be employed for the purpose of arrest- 
ing deserters. The militia is worth nothing, now that they are to be 
conscripted. Such a force is certainly needed. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
D. C. PEARSON, 
Captain and Enrolling Officer Tenth Distroct. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 735 


HEADQUARTERS, 
Wilmington, August 19, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Sir: I inclose for your consideration a letter which I have detained 
here chiefly on account of the reckless assertion that sales can be 
made at any rate, signifying that a small profit to the broker will 
cause him to lose sight of the very important question of our national 
eredit. If citizens are permitted to hawk about London the best 
bonds of the Government and sell them at 20 and 25 shillings on the 
dollar because they can make a profit by drawing bills on those funds, 
the credit of the Government would receive a serious blow, which at 
present might greatly damage us. I am sure that Mr. Enders is a 
gentleman of high character; but I wish to know what shall be done 
hereafter in the case of letters and remittances of this kind. 

Very respectfully, 
W. H. C. WHITING, 
Major-General. 
[Inclosure. ] 
RICHMOND, August 15, 1863. 
J. ALDEN WESTON, Esq., 
London: 


DEAR SIR: I wrote you the 4th per ‘‘R. E. Lee,” which I hope has 
reached you ere this. I now beg to repeat that we feel very solici- 
tous to hear of Mr. Lemmon’s safe arrival in Europe and the successful 
negotiation of our bonds. We continue to hear conflicting reports of 
the negotiability of the 15,000,000 loan, which I hope soon to have 
solved by actual report of sales. Messrs. R. T. Foster & Co. do not 
purpose to value on you until they are advised of sales, and as the 
outlay here is considerable, report of sales to enable them to reim- 
burse themselves would be very acceptable, apart from the temptation 
to increase the enterprise. Sterling can be sold at 1,400 and 1,500 per 
cent., and even if sales were made at prices materially below the 
quotation given by you a large profit would result. We are solicitous 
to continue shipments of the bonds if you can certainly sell them, 
and you see that at the rate of premium quoted you ean afford to 
sell at prices considerably lower than you at first supposed and still 
realize a handsome profit. The chief question for solution is, Can the 
bonds be sold? If so, the rate of premium which sterling is now com- 
manding will justify shipment at almost any rate at which sales can 
be effected. [await with anxiety the solution of this, and hope ere 
long to receive a favorable response. The steamers are now running 
chiefly to Bermuda, and letters for this country will reach us more 
expeditiously than via Nassau. Mr. Normans. Walker, Saint George, 
Bermuda, will forward to me if you send to him and request him to 
do so. | 

Very respectfully, JOHN ENDERS. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 20, 1868. 
Lieut. Col. G. W. LAy, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


Sir: You will proceed to make such partial inspections regarding 
the business of conscription in North Carolina, Georgia, and South 


136 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Carolina as has been orally indicated. The necessary journeys from 
point to point to execute your instructions will be made by you with- 
out further orders. Should your presence be required as a witness 
before a general court-martial here you will return from North Caro- 
lina previous to extending your journey farther south. You have 
the authority of this Bureau to revoke on the spot assignments or sus- 
pend appointments of incompetent, inefficient, or physically disabled 
persons now on enrolling duty, making in every case a full report. 
Such persons, if members of regiments, will be ordered to report to 
their military commanders in person or by letter, as their health may 
admit, and you will inform the commanders accordingly. If officers 
appointed on enrolling service are found incompetent the revocation 
of their appointment will be suggested for the final action of the 
War Department. The necessary selections or recommendations to 
replace those removed or to fill vacancies will be made by you in con- 
sultation with the State commandants, and preferably by the assign- 
ment of wounded or disabled officers and soldiers, other things being 
equal. Conscripts may be detailed if necessary. If you find persons 
not able to service with qualifications specially adapted to this duty, 
you will recommend their appointment, giving full information as to 
their fitness. It is not desirable to increase commissions outside the 
service. Your attention is specially directed to the ecndition of the 
organization in the various districts, and you will see that they are 
made complete, both as to medical boards and enrolling officers. You 
will report to this Bureau by letter as occasion may require. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


| AuGusT 20, 1863.—For Preston to Cooper in relation to procuring 
the return of absentees to their commands, see Series I, Vol. XXIX, 
Part IT, p. 654. | 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 20, 1868. 
It has been reported that a large number of arms and accouter- 
ments have been carried from the Army by deserters, stragglers, and 
the sick, and left at different points along the line of travel. 
Commandants of conscripts will direct enrolling officers to make 
diligent search for all such arms and accouterments, and take posses- 
sion of them wherever found and forward them immediately to the 
nearest ordnance depot, taking the receipt of the commanding officer 
for the same and forwarding it to this Bureau. 
By order of Col. John S. Preston, superintendent. 
P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


[AUGUST 20, 1863.—For Lee’s General Orders, No. 86, forbidding 
the election of junior second lieutenants, except by authority of the 
Secretary of War, and requiring examination of field officers whose 
competence is questioned, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 756.] 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. T37 


MARIETTA, August 21, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, : 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
25th July and to express my regret that I have been disappointed 
in what I considered a reasonable expectation that upon a review of 
the question you would permit the Georgia troops, to whom our cor- 
respondence refers, to exercise the right of electing their officers. 

It does not seem to me that the constitutional objection which I 
make to the acts of Congress which deny to the troops the right of 
election and give to the President the power to appoint the officers to 
command them is successfully met by additional quotations from the 
acts of Congress to show the intention of Congress. I have not called 
its intention into question, asI think it quite clear that it intended to 
confer the appointing power upon the President, but I have called in 
question its right under the Constitution todo so. With all due 
deference, I cannot see how the power of Congress to pass a statute 
can be established by quotations from the statute showing what Con- 
gress did enact, but not what its powers were. 

I cannot admit that the distinction which you attempt to draw 
between volunteers and militia has any substantial foundation in law 
or fact, or that the length of time for which they are called into 
Service affects the question. It is very clear from the letter of the 
Constitution that the militia of a State may ‘‘be employed in the 
Service of the Confederate States,” in which case Congress has power 
to provide for governing them, but even this power is made subject to 
the right of the State to appoint the officers to command them. It 
matters not what Congress may choose to eall the arms-bearing peo- 
ple of the State, who in fact are her militia. When Congress asks 
the State to permit the President to employ them in the service of the 
Confederate States, and he makes requisition for them and the State 
organizes and tenders them, they may be called the armies of the Con- 
federacy or the Provisional or Regular Army, or by any other name 
which Congress may adopt, but neither their existence, their identity, 
nor their character is changed by the name. The arms-bearing peo- 
ple of a State are her militia, and when the President, under the 
authority of the act of Congress, makes requisition upon the Goy- 
ernor of a State for them to repel an invasion, and they are tendered 
as organized and officered by the State and accepted with their State 
officers and State organization, they are, without regard to the terms 
used by Congress to designate them, the militia of the State “ employed 
in the service of the Confederate States,” nor does the fact that the 
State tenders them as drafted men or as volunteers or for a longer or 
Shorter term affect their character or their identity. Suppose a State 
is invaded or there is a sudden insurrection, and the President, by 
virtue of an act of Congress, requires the Governor to call out the 
whole militia of the State for ten days to repel the invasion or sup- 
press the insurrection and every man in the State volunteers, does 
the fact that they are not drafted, but volunteer, destroy their charac- 
ter of militia and convert the whole militia of the State into an army of 
the Confederacy, and thereby give the President the power to appoint 
all the officers and take from the State this right which she has care- 
fully reserved in the Constitution? If not, how is the principle 
changed in ease the eall is for one month, one year, or three years, 
instead of ten days? When thus tendered by the State, for what 


47 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


738 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


length of time must they ‘be employed in the service of the Confed- 
erate States” before they lose their character of militia of the State, 
and how long must they serve before the President may, without 
usurpation, deny to the State her reserved right to appoint the officers 
and assume to do it himself? Must it be for one month, one year, 
two years, three years, or what other period? 

Under the act of Congress the President called on me as Governor 
of this State for troops to serve for twelve months. They were fur- 
nished, and the State’s right to appoint the officers and to fill all 
vacancies was neyer questioned. Other calls were made for troops 
to serve for three years. These were promptly responded to, and 
among others the Fifty-first Regiment was tendered and accepted, 
and the right of the State to appoint the officers expressly admitted 
upon the record, with no qualification and no denial of her right to 
fill vacancies. Again the President has lately, through you, made 
requisition upon me for 8,000 troops for six months for home defense, 
to be used in case of emergency and in repelling raids, &e. These 
men are expected to be most of their time at home, attending to their 
ordinary business of producing supplies, &c. But the act of Congress 
says when they volunteer and are accepted they shall form part of 
the provisional armies of the Confederate States. It will take nearly 
all the men remaining in the State between eighteen and forty-five to 
fill this last requisition. Part of them will be volunteers and part 
drafted men. Now, if all these six-months’ men, twelve-months’ men, 
and three-years’ men have been converted into armies of the Confed- 
erate States in the sense in which the Constitution uses the term (Ido 
not mean the sense in which Congress uses it), and no part of them 
are militia ‘‘employed in the service of the Confederate States,” what 
has become of the militia of Georgia? Nearly the whole arms-bear- 
ing people of the State between eighteen and forty-five are in the 
service of the Confederate States, the larger number of them organ- 
ized by the State and tendered to and accepted by the Confederate 
Government with their officers appointed by the State, and you now 
deny that any part of the militia of Georgia are ‘‘employed in the 
service of the Confederate States,” or that the State has the right to 
appoint a single officer to command them.” Again I ask, How did 
Georgia get rid of her militia, and where are they? 

They are, in fact, all employed in the service of the Confederate 
States. She has expressly and carefully reserved the right, when they 
are thus employed, to appoint all the officers to command them. You 
do now so employ them, but you deny her right to appoint even one 
of the lowest officers who is to command them, and you justify this 
by quoting from the acts of Congress to show, not the power to take 
from the State this plain constitutional right, but that it was its inten- 
tion to do it. I have never denied the intention, but I can never 
admit the power. I look upon it as a clear usurpation, which finds no 
justification either in the Constitution or in the plea of necessity 
which is usually resorted to in such eases. 

In my last letter I referred to the opinions of your predecessors in 
office, and of the Attorney-General, which are all reputed to concur 
in the view I take of the question, and requested you to correct the 
error if I had fallen into one, and to inform me what had been their 
ruling upon this point. As your reply passes this part of my letter 
in silence, I understand the fact to be admitted that Iam fully sus- 
tained in the view I take of the rights of the State by the opinion of 
the Attorney-General and the opinions and practice of the different 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. _ 139 


distinguished gentlemen who have successively filled the position you 
now occupy. I deeply regret that you have felt it your duty to over- 
rule the opinions of such able and distinguished statesmen as those 
Just mentioned upon a question involving a principle so vital to the 
rights and sovereignty of the States, when the denial of these rights 
of the States can only increase the power and patronage of the Presi- 
dent, but cannot, for the reasons given in my former letter, result in 
practical benefit to the public service. If your process of reasoning 
be correct, that the right of the States to appoint the officers no longer 
exists, when it can be shown by reference to the acts of Congress that 
it intended to confer this power upon the President, then the Consti- 
tution is of no binding force and Congress has power, by the use of 
a term or the change of a name, to abrogate the most sacred rights of 
the States and confer them all upon the President. But I need not 
trouble you with further remarks, as I perceive your decision is made 
up, doubtless, after conference with the President, and it is determined 
that you shall enforce your construction. The President has the 
power in his own hands, and I am obliged for the present, reluctantly, 
to acquiesce in what I consider a great wrong to thousands of gallant 
Georgia troops and a palpable infringement of the rights and the 
sovereignty of the State. 

I will only add that this letter is intended more as a protest against 
your decision than as an effort to protract a discussion which it seems 
can be productive of no practical results. 

I am, dear sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


7 


[AUGUST 22, 1863.—For General Orders, No. 114, Adjutant and 
Inspector General’s Office, placing the permanent posts and depots 
established by the Quartermaster’s Department under the special 
control of the Quartermaster-General, &¢., see Series I, Vol. XXX, 
Part IV, p. 529. | 


GEORGIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, 
; Marvetta, Ga., August 22, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I inclose a statement of the probable available military force 
of Georgia composed of those who, from their age, profession, occu- 
pation, &¢., are not subject to conscription under existing laws, and 
ask to be authorized to raise a regiment or battalion for the Confed- 


erate service for the war from the various classes, conditions, &c., 


enumerated, except from among those who have been actually 
enrolled and then detailed for specific purposes. Having had some 
correspondence with the Department on various subjects, my name 
may not be unknown. | 

As major of the Twenty-first North Carolina Troops I served in 
Virginia in 1861-62, until my health became such that I was induced 
to resign and to return to the discharge of my professional duties. 
Now having recovered from my disease, I desire to re-enter the serv- 
ice, and whilst ready to take any post to which I may be assigned, I 
think that, from my position and character, and from the exigencies 
of the times, I may succeed in raising a regiment provided I can get 
the necessary authority. Whilst I do not ask permission to receive 


T40 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


conscripts, thinking perhaps that neither the laws nor the necessities 
of the service would warrant it, yet if the Department chooses to give 
me that authority my labors would doubtless be much facilitated. 
Testimonials as to my character and efficiency as an officer are on file 
in the Department. Should the authority solicited be granted, I trust 
that as long a time as possible for organizing the regiment will be 
given me. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. M. RICHARDSON, 
Professor of Mathematics, Georgia Military Institute. 


[Inclosure. ] 


An estimate of the probable available military force of Georgia. 


Per county. 


Judges of inferior courts -_....-..----------------------~-----=--7 25a 5 
Justices of the peace .-..._-... 2.255). eee eee} See 16 
Aviits 202 Sos ee oy Le en edie Se 16 
Clerks, sheriffs, tax receiver, and ordinary ----------------------------. 3 6 
Militia officérs 220 0 ed BO Le ee a 30 
Executive, legislative, and judicial officers other than those mentioned _- 3 
Ministers of religion...-..-.. .2------+---4e5-9ec, 2 ee a 10 
Physicians and apothecaries-.-_-------.--.---------------------- ------- 10 
Manufacturers of and workers in leather. --.-.-.------------------------- 10 
Millers, blacksmiths, wagon-makers, &¢ ---.--.--..--------------------. 3 10 
Postmasters and mail contractors. J =... = 522222225922 25- == 10 
Overseers for minors and ‘widows_.--.1.-..2.) 22-2-o0---2. > 722 eee 5 
Factory hands, railroad employés, telegraph men, salt boilers, miners, 
Government contractors, &c_i...---.- - 7222-5 eee eee 2 40 
Newspaper men-_---- Ko ok LD Se ee eee 3 
Teachers ine. cc be cee cede ee ele oes ahaa ee oo ee 3 
Men with substitutes... (0.205 2f2. 5.25 2509 2 60 
Able-bodied men Over 45.000) ei) ol. oll Ls Cee ee ee 100 
Able-bodied youths between 16 and 18 ..-. ------------ (4.5.60 125 
TOtalo eo a ee ee 462 
Number of counties in the State -.......-.i.---¢.1-.-- 45--25 1) 132 
Total ayailable military force of State _.....------------7== i iv 60, 984 
Deduct 30 per cent. for the infirm, ‘&c.....------.---------------+------> 18, 295 
Able-bodied’men at home. 2200-2.) 4. ee ie 2 42, 689 


Nearly the same result may be arrived at thus: The number of 
young men between eighteen and twenty-one is nearly equal to the 
number of men over forty-five, so that the number of men of arms- 
bearing age is about equal to the voting population. 


In 1860 the voting population of Georgia was about--------.-------- --- 110, 000 
Increase since, 5 per cent.__- 2s... -6-. 1. --+-45-+ 2-22-55 2-9 + 5, 500 
Number of those having substitutes ---...---.--------------------------- 7, 920 
Young men between 16 and 18._.._.--..--.-.------------- ----------=--== 16, 500 
Total: oS pet LEE EE Pt aR EGE eo SPRAY SE ee oe 139, 920 
Number sent to the field (about) -..--.--.---.-------------------------= 80, 000 
Remaining at home... 2.5 e532 eee oe oo ee . §9,920 
Deduct 30 per cent. for the infirm, &c----------------------------------- 17, 976 
‘A Hle-bodied men ‘at home. ie ee es ec ee 41,944 


By those acquainted with Georgia this estimate of her military 
strength still available will not be considered too great in its aggre- 
gate. Some of the county officers, &c., enumerated are doubtless 


% 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. TAl1 


over forty-five, and are not able-bodied, but the deduction of 30 per 
cent. is supposed to be enough to cover all cases of disability whatever 
be their cause. 
JOHN M. RICHARDSON. 
MARIETTA, GA., August 22, 1863. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Charleston, August 22, 1868. 
His Excellency Governor Z. B. VANCE: 


GOVERNOR: I am officially advised by the commandant of con- 
scripts for this State that in the districts of Pickens, Greenville, and 
Spartanburg there are banded together large numbers of deserters 
and evaders of conscription, who are armed and resolute in their pur- 
pose to resist all attempts to bring them to subordination. My advices 
are also that this disloyalty and disaffection is equally, if not more, 
extended in those counties of your State lying adjacent to the dis- 
tricts named, and that those persons have across the lines concerted 
means of communication looking to their common protection. This 
condition of affairs calls for prompt measures, and in view of the 
necessity which rests upon the commanding general of this depart- 
ment to direct all his resources and energies to meet the advance of 
the external enemy, I have felt it my duty to assume the correction, so 
far as may be in my power, of an evil which internally so seriously 
threatens our cause. I have therefore ordered to those districts a 
company of mounted men of State troops, well armed, who will scour 
those districts and rid them of the presence of those lawless persons. 
This company will be sustained in their efforts by such other forces 
as the necessities of the case may from time to time require. 

I foresee, however, that their presence and efforts may to a great 
extent serve but to drive these persons beyond the line, where they 
will fraternize in more formidable numbers, and where they may 
quietly remain until the withdrawal of my forces shall permit them 
again to return to this State. This induces the necessity that I should 
earnestly solicit of you concert of action, and the initiation of like 
measures in your counties with the view to simultaneous and con- 
certed action. In the course of ten days the company which I have 
ordered forward will be on the ground. 

May I ask to this matter your earliest attention, and that I may be 
advised how far and in what manner your co-operation can be had. 
The greatest secrecy and promptness seem to me desirable. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. © 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Columbus, Miss., August 23, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Your communication of the 11th instant reached me at this place, 
organizing the working forces of this bureau in Mississippi. Your 
instructions in regard to the distribution of conscripts shall be strictly 
obeyed. It is proper; however, to say that since the loss of the larger 
portion of Tennessee, and with Mississippi partly occupied by the 


T42 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


enemy, and all thrown open to raids by river, I do not see where the 
men are to come from to build up the armies having regiments from 
these States in them. An additional source of embarrassment arises 
out of the numerous State organizations of cavalry in this State under 
orders from the Governor, which are mainly made up of men liable to 
conscript duty. This class of men run into these State organizations 
to avoid conscription for the infantry service. They come in under 
orders from the Governor, and in their opposition to entering the Con- 
federate service they are sustained by their officers. To disintegrate 
these organizations and sift out the conscripts is a difficult work and 
would produce great dissatisfaction. I therefore respectfully sug- 
gest that the best thing which can be done under the circumstances 
would be to receive these organizations as they are into the Confeder- 
ate service if they will take that service for the war. To do this will 
require your special authority. If you approve of the measure I ask 
your order giving me authority in all such cases. ‘There are also a 
number of outside organizations of cavalry companies in different 
parts of the State which have not been mustered into any service. ‘The 
anthority should embrace them. If I had authority over the whole 
subject of organizations, I would permit no new ones except on the 
enemy’s lines, and I might succeed in getting the many non-conscripts 
in these State organizations into the service. All these organizations, ~ 
however, take up and diminish the population which is the only source 
of supply for filling up the Army. If, therefore, I am to send con- 
scripts from this conscript department to the Army of Virginia (which 
is right and proper) you perceive at once that to the extent I do so it 
diminishes the means left to build up the armies of Tennessee and 
Mississippi, and I renew my application to be allowed to draw upon 
Georgia. Last week, and before your communication came to hand, 
I ordered all the conscripts in the Knoxville camp to the Tennessee 
regiments in the Virginia army. 

I also applied through General Johnston for authority to send 
deserters from General Bragg’s army (who will not stay in that 
army, many of them having deserted two and three times) to the 
Army of Virginia. These deserters are from the mountain region of 
North Alabama, and when these are from 8,000 to 10,000, including 
tory conscripts, it is useless to send them to Bragg’s army. They are 
armed and banded together and I anticipate great difficulty in getting 
them out of their fortresses. In about ten days I will have com- 
pleted the organization of this State. If an organization similar to 
the one I am now spreading over this department were extended 
over the other States and the work pushed with proper energy, our 
armies could be rapidly built up to double their present strength and 
kept up. 

Some days since I addressed you a very brief communication indi- 
cating the defects in the system adopted by the conscript law. ‘The 
defects are in the law, not in the organization of the Conseript 
Bureau. The law was passed upon the supposition that when enrolled 
those liable to conscription would obey the order of the Government 
to enter the service, but this we know they will not do. This being 
the case, the law does not provide an adequate force of officers and 
supporters to execute the law and bring the reluctant population into 
. the Army. No living man ean take hold of the present conscript 
organization, and with its agencies place the conscript population into 
the Army; but by organizing the supernumerary officers of our 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 743 


armies and combining them to work in accord with the conscript 
organization this defect is in a great measure remedied. ari 

My experience in this branch of the service and my former success 
ought to leave no doubt as to the correctness of these views. They 
have been practically carried into effect in this department, and are 
concurred in by all the generals commanding itsarmies. Thesame sys- 
tem ought to be extended over all the States, thus giving harmony to 
the service and embracing the labor necessary to keep up the armies 
in the field. Thus combining the recruiting and conscript service and 
the labor of gathering up the stragglers under the same organization, 
and directing its energies by the same head, our armies could be kept 
full and men would cease to desert or straggle, knowing that there 
was an organization covering all the States with a net-work, making 
it impossible for them to stay at home. 

I trust, sir, you will pardon the liberty I have taken in making 
these suggestions. Though not called for by your communication, 
they relate to the same subject, and my conviction of their importance 
induces me to lay them before you at the risk of incurring your dis- 
pleasure. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Supt. Vol. and OConscript Bureau, Dept. of Tenn., Ala., and Mass. 


[Indorsement. ] 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


The rule that deserters shall be returned to their commands, under 
existing circumstances, is impracticable, and the attempt to enforce it in 
all cases is injurious. 

The recommendation of General Pillow to send the deserters. to 
another and more distant army is, in my opinion, judicious. 

J. A. CAMPBELL. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 115. Richmond, August 24, 1863. 


I. The following schedules of prices for articles named therein, 
adopted by commissioners appointed pursuant to law, for the State of 
Virginia, are announced for the information of all concerned; and the 
special attention of officers and agents of the Government is directed 
thereto: 


RICHMOND, August, 20, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: The commissioners appointed under section 5 of the bill recently passed 
by the Confederate Congress, regulating impressments, being required to agree 
upon and publish a schedule of prices every two months, or oftener, if they should 
deem it proper, in accordance with the foregoing requisition, we respectfully lay 
before you the following schedules of prices, marked A and B, for the ensuing 
month. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory information as to pork, 
we have postponed the appraisement till our next assessment. 

The following schedule presents the maximum prices to be paid for the articles 
appraised at all cities and usual places of sale, and when impressed elsewhere the 
same prices are to be paid elsewhere, less the cost of transportation to the city or 
usual place of sale to which the article would go ordinarily for sale from that 
neighborhood, or less the cost of transportation to the point at which the Govern- 
ment needs the article and wishes it to be sent, provided that in no case the 
amount deducted for transportation as above shall exceed 25 cents per bushel for 


144 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


grain and 25 cents per hundredweight for long forage, flour, bacon, iron, &c.; in 


addition to the established price of transportation, the Government to 
legal tolls, and, where farmers cannot procure nails for baling forage, 


ment to furnish the same at cost, which will be deducted from the established 


price of baling: 


SCHEDULE A. 


Articles. 


Unshelled corn 
Corn-meal 
IVOsscecsee RAS App ae baas 3 
Cleaned oats 
Wheat bran...:2....-.--.: 
Shorts 
Brown Stull: 72232226 ees..: 
HID ISbUthee owe. eee ieee: 
IBACOIS settee eee tLe 


Se es 


ewer eee ee mee eee 


ween ree we ee ee ee ee ee 


Dried peaches 
Dots... thee Sra eee 


Dried apples. ass ss8e-5-5 | 


Hayabaled sacs: Seep ce 

DO Ass he le cee 
Hay, unbaled 
Sheaf oats, baled ........ 
Sheaf oats, unbaled 
Blade fodder, baled 
Blade fodder, unbaled. --. 
Shucks, baled 
Shucks, unbaled 


W heat straw, baled....-.. : 


Wheat straw, unbaled -.. 
ABtULALS ox boat on fo te Eee 
LOS eS Pee es 


Bloom iron 
SHilgh saron ss. se oe 
Railroad iron 
Meathertssenee ey ees 


Army woolen cloth, 3-4 
yard. 
Army woolen cloth 


teen ae 


Army woolen cloth, 6-4 
yard. 


ce 


ay all 
overn- 


Quality. Description. Quantity. Price. 
Prime esse see White or red......... Per bushel of 60 pounds..| $5. 00 
Good eee as Superfine ............ Per barrel of 196 pounds..| 25.00 
IPrum@nsceee ee White or yellow...-... Per bushel of 56 pounds .. 4.00 

Bee do. i... 0)... do uk. 1. ors lo Be eee 3. 95 
(GOOM peice Je scehe satogee ta aoe ek eee Per bushel of 50 pounds... 4. 20 
PTIMO mess eel oer eee a eee eee Per bushel of 56 pounds.. 3. 20 
se ioe DO 255-2 oc}. conde elon see. snide: | MOP DEBHOLOE oe are an 2. 00 
(POOR Sat coveted ccc aiis wa SE des ose oe Per bushel of 17 pounds .. - 50 
see dO\.--2-- 2/207. 02 01205... 02. ee ere hel tena -70 
by Boss dO .2- - es]. ees ies eedadae eee | On bushel of oe penmaeee - 90 
Bs ane GO ©. os clan ete a nes eteenenaeee-| OP DUahel Otis? poamanes 1. 40 
eS do .........|. Hog round: ...2.- i227) Per pound sees eee 1.00 
BLS oe i) ns SMM NT ease 1.00 
Spgs Cn Sonn ae ea ee 1.00 
First class....| Artillery, &c........- Average price per head...| 350. 00 
Fair ormerino | Washed ............- Pér pound 3-22 eee 3. 00 
Scere do... -.....| Unwashed i. 5..-27"/-2tdo ooee ee 2. 90 
Good, f22.5. Saati oe eee Per bushel of 60 pounds . 4.00 
soG/ae GO 22), «ci, =|, 2 es weg eens Seeleactos neal 0 ee ee oe 4.00 
tA es: G0 eax tg Trish iA US kee eee 00 5+. sence eee 4.00 
Saeee do, 3.2.05.) Sweet .5.2) ac¢-ce ee ceele aon sO lee oe oer 5. 00 
ae GO 2.2. See] os cone DLE eR eee Be Ol cee oO eres cre 5. 00 
Re do ........| Peeled................| Per bushel of 88 pounds -. 8.00 
eee do'-..-....| Unpeeled 22!05-. (22. |e -d6 20. 2 4.50 
at do .....-..| Peeled ......-....4-...| Per bushel of 28 pounds - 3. 00 
Pao ae GQGn. a ~| Timothy or clover ....! Per 100 pounds ......-.-.. 3. 00 
eae AGC estes Orchard or herd grass-|....- dO ...s-\:, -e= ee 3. 00 
Geta it re Me PRI me RE eee ee 2. 70 
vie GO ose 2k] L eee de be ew Galea te tlie g OE One 4, 00 
eae a Fe eee be ME SS 3.70 
SoAGs GO nce eee ic ccs nova tannws a taeteebelaele es OO Leeann 3. 00 
aS are: GO 222. cei]. ses a lesieobete de see Fle oes S0LO peepee nnn 2.70 
Seis se On ee nee rm 2. 00 
Aga! d0 foi 222d db lb. de 2 1.70 
ade GO ose Veco cee secss ccmeweenc|soe e-Al@ eee eee 1.00 
ree On err memeMe (ek - 70 
Shee do <.....-.| Interior...............| Per head per month .seee8 3. 00 
Superior): 2 cie6- CUI eS a mpmeiier = =alaaeae dO’... 22 esac eee 4.00 
Sirs Gre berm see OS aatee cee ek See ae do 2... .s2Seee eee 5, 00 
Good, Recast." INGar' cities s.< S55 45. 2a) case do . sss.3 {22a 5. 00 
Superioresse | se dO 25.25 Bact cee see dO 222.34 eca eee 6.00 
Hirstirate.!-..|22-.: GO isedak vaca ahh Otel ete dO... -.2 ae 7. 00 
(FOOG eae nee ane meee: eee Per bushel of 50 pounds -.. 5. 00 
Saar dQ. a2 ee ct ede e cet cesses: .| Per pound. laa - 40 
SreNeroke 00: 2-5. anf Dallow |. co cebes labo s)ci0 200.2 sea pate eer 1.00 
Soeee 40 .....00..| Cider... 2. -22+2+.-+-.) Per gallon... ... ne 1.00 
a eats do 2: 2....0) Trade’ Sof. 01225 2a SAO CSR 3.00 
Seer do. ...2-. 4) Brown - 23 ...5.s:0- -.-.1 Per pound ..). 22a 1.00 
eiaetate do ........| New Orleans .........| Per gallon’... ... 2a 8. 00 
Siene CO... oan see se nctcee dee senseless] ber pound .2e..e een . 20 
ace AQ sees ces] ENO o 5s: osicig's esate blades dO caaciece een 3. 00 
See dO 22:2... .2) Trade &. 22. eS Fek Le Ge 209. Gee 7.00 
Zcisiee do ........| Manufactured ........| Per gallonj23-0-.2.9aeeeeen - 50 
er do ........] No.1 quality /:...2~...| Per ton -...-.:5.22) . eee 
eh 0 -'....22,| No.2 quality: o.......))...:d0 ..... 1.005 eee 
bi oe dO ...2520:/6N0. 3 quality 2221021 2 doo. Jo. fed ne 

GO '.'h9: MA adings os bickat tegen ah aes 00 ». .t .3.0) ede 180. 09 
Pies do .........) Round plate and bay. .|.-.-.do ¢..-.-.:.2i0seeeeee eee 
ere EO ooo. Soe s| eo scinn seine ss oes espe chee de ven os cee on nee 
peu doo... 25. a) Harmmess 5.7. 520270. Per pound.22.. 05 eee 2. 60 
GE GO sz & i g22 (Bole seat ee er ak uals do wie. beeen 2. 40° 
gar OO so etna) OU DDOR cs sre aes ema Oriole utes LO 2 oOo 5 ee ee 2. 80 
npecre do ........| Gross weight ......--.] Per 100 pounds ...........| 16.00 
HUperiorss2cse| eae COPiaete erie ec. tells eee do J... 5... eee 18. 00 
Wiest rate JG 2) cee aceeee ae ede toca se do ...-2. 1.2 eae 20. 00 
PAI 6 orice. § wala wen eame eee beets oaks Per head: ..c.0.::: pees eeeeee 30. 00 
(GOOd 2 ce aance. 10 ounces per yard....| Per yard ..2..0..5.ceseceen 4. 50 
veaees do ........| Pro rata ag'to greater |.....:......'J...s¢. eaee cee 

or less width or 
weight. 

See do ..........(.20 OURCEes Per Vard..-.| Per yard...-<-ssescsameeee 9. 00 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 745 


SCHEDULE A—Continued. 


Articles. Quality. | Description. Quantity. Price. 

Army woolen cloth ...... Good! = s.ch 2. Provrataiasitos greater: | ves oshasscsNiesdts $e? curser: eetes 

or less width or 

weight. 
LE Et? (eae Sais dO 2385s 2 6 ounces per yard..... Her yard wv. nccsss Poee a $3. 00 
Cotton shirting, 3-4 ......|..... Ki eee aes 44 yards to pound.....|..... dO eesti ee asses es 42 
Cotton shirting, 7-8 ...--.|..... dOp ae ess 3% yards to pound..-...|....- Onis alice she's Pees 50 
Cotton sbeetings, 4-4...../..... (i Ko htesees SL 3 yards to pound......|..... AOR Seaes sea ee . 60 
Cotton, Osnaburg, 3-4....|..... Oysee ees 6 ounces per yard..... SE Je Ove seh weetiaee aise . 60 
Cotton, Osnaburg, 7-8 ....|..... SA Paap es 8 ounces per yard.....|..... DO va itt cHs3 5 heat wil) 
Cotton drills, 7-8 .........|..... GON eses 3 yards to pound.....-|..... DON. Yon toes Beate aa . 70 
Cotton shirting, stripes..|..... DOs ns ala wees Ore aes tess cee eee ae. COs ane cores c wegean ate . 70 
Cotton tent cloths -....../..... DOR fay 10 ounces per yard....|..... dO aceesate ce sac tenes . 87 
Cotton Warps... /.252-2-<cho.... ONS ase aeoee Dees wena te ooo ns Per: ponds. orien cee 1. 63 
EAE Y AOE Oe oe Foe e e's ely Oa Ot eke ihc tauiee Sena nahi cs eke ec ee PeMmipaln ce esesss ce one res 10. 00 
MINOO CNTR 226. 52's ce duals CL Es te PA, [Ae i <7 pe ae Rae ‘Per pound=s sss yes eee 2.00 
Wool socks, men’s .......|..... GO Terai slaitat woke isc hee recieus: = EOP Dalleeenns ceases 1. 25 
Pee gles ek csp as. © First rate..... Wagon, &6 .2,;..s-0.- Average price per head ..| 300. 00 


-On the above enumerated cotton cloths, pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 


In assessing the average value of ‘first-class artillery and wagon horses at 
$350,” we designed that the term should be accepted and acted upon according to 
its obvious common-sense import. In other words, that horses should be selected 
and then impressed accordingly as their working qualities and adaptation to 
army service, together with their intrinsic value, would warrant a judicious pur- 
chaser in considering. them as coming within the contemplation of the commis- 
sioners when they assessed the average value of such horses as the Government 
needed at $350. But cases might arise, however, when the public exigencies 
would be so urgent as to demand that all horses at hand should be impressed. 
Yet under ordinary circumstances, when family or extra-blooded horses or brood 
mares of admitted high value are impressed, we respectfully suggest to the Sec- 
retary of War to have instructions forwarded to the impressing officers to pro- 
pose and allow the owners to substitute in their stead such strong, sound, and 
serviceable horses or mules as shall be considered and valued by competent and 
disinterested parties as first-class artillery horses, or first-rate wagon mules. 

The term ‘‘average value per head” was used in contradistinction to a fixed 
and uniform price for each horse or mule. We supposed that in impressing a 
number of horses or mules, whether owned by several persons or one individual, 
that some might be estimated at $250, or even at less, and others at different 
advanced rates, according to their worth, up as high as $450, or above that 
amount—thus making an average value or price for a number of good, sound, 
and efficient horses $350 each, and mules $300 each. 

In illustration of our views we will add that a horse with only one eye sound 
might in all other respects be classed as a first-rate artillery horse, yet the loss of 
one eye would justly and considerably curtail his value. So a horse from ten to 
eighteen years of age might be deemed in all other particulars as a first-class 
artillery horse, but of course however efficient or able to render good service for 
a year or so, yet his advanced age would justly and materially impair his value. 
Any horse, however he may approximate the standard of a first-class artillery 
horse, must, according to deficiencies, fall below the maximum price; and as few 
comparatively exactly come up to the standard, and therefore are entitled to the 
maximum price, so of course in all other instances the price should be propor- 
tionately reduced as imperfections place them below the standard of first-class, &c. 

EK. W. HUBARD, 
ROBERT GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and drivers. 


Quantity and time. | Price. 


doallir longiforags,. 3th ost dri 2 283 ce% | Si dad sah aye gee a Per 100 pounds.....-. $0. 30 
Shelling and bagging corn; sacks furnished by Government......... Per 56 pounds: ....... . 05 
PRRs anne Mowe Oe Peace ree oe ee LSU A) Ee ae Per cwt. per mile..... . 06 


BEDNAR TALUS Si 2y 2's fo Sa bw ee Pe Ee SE Si ox of cian 48 je ae ee el Per bushel per mile... 03 


746 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and drivers—Continued. 


Quantity and time. | Price. 
Hire of 2-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner.) Per day.----.--------- | $10.00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government. ...---.----------|----- dO... Sate eee 5. 00 
Hire of 4-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner.|....- do .s-s54-2eseereee 13. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government...--- PS 3, Hears eee (lo .222:22eeeeeeeee 6. 50 
Hire of 6-horse team, wagon and driver; rations turnished by owner.|-- --- GO. cn 2 ee eee 16. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government. --.---.--...-----|----- do .2csedae eee ee 8. 00 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner.......-------------------|----- AO. ..204) 0 eee 2. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government. .-..-------------|----- do ..25.0 eee 1. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by. owner.-...-.--------------------- Per monthe-s-=2 42 4u. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.......-----------|----- Gee Been Cte Sees 20. 00 


E. W. HUBARD, 
ROBERT GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 
By order: 
Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. - 


ATLANTA, August 24, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


Major Cummings has shown me the substance of his report to the 
Commissary-General. May I beg you to call for and read it. ‘There 
are a great many wild cattle in lower Georgia. Florida cow-drivers 
cannot be had in that country, nor do the people care to sell cattle 
for currency at present prices. I beg to suggest that you order 
details from the force under Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb to drive them 
out immediately and pay the people very liberal compensation for 
them. Under the impressment system and compensation allowed, 
the people are curing their meat. I think the commissaries should 
be instructed to get and put up the prices of provisions to a point 
that will satisfy the people. I beg you look over the ground and con- 
sider this matter. 

JOS. E. BROWN. 


AUGUSTA ARSENAL, August 24, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, , 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: I have been requested by the companies raised at this place 
for local defense, several of whom forwarded their muster-rolls to the 
Governor of this State, to ascertain if such action places them on a 
different footing from those whose rolls pass through my hands direct 
to the War Department. The Governor of Georgia made a call on 
the State for the local troops required by the President, requiring the 
companies thus formed to forward their muster-rolls to his office at 
Milledgeville, whence commissions would issue by him and the com- 
plete organizations then turned over to the Confederate service. This 
call of the Governor states that forty-four rank and file would be 
received as a company, and many having this number or something 
beyond it tendered their services accordingly. Under General Orders, 
No. 86, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, current series, each 
company is required to have (foot) not less than sixty-four rank and 
file. This difference between the State call and the orders above 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 747 


alluded to causes a detention in the organization for the defense of 
the city, it not being clearly understood how far the Governor’s 
authority in the premises extends, and whether it be intended that all 
the muster-rolls should pass through my hands or through the Gov- 
ernor’s. I have stated to the parties that the companies who have 
tendered their services through the Executive of the State would be 
accepted by the Government whenever the number reached that pre- 
seribed in General Orders, No. 86; but I could not state what would 
be the course of action on those of a less number. The Governor has 
commissioned the officers of several of the companies accordingly who 
have forwarded their muster-rolls to his office, whilst others have 
sent their rolls to this office. Will all the officers be reeommissioned 
by the Confederate Government, or is it expected that the Governor 
should commission them alone? Also, will the companies of this city 
and vicinity all be received into the Confederate service on the same 
footing which have been raised under the act for local defense? That 
is, Shall those first organized and drafted under the call for 8,000 men 
from Georgia, and raised in the city of Augusta and its vicinity, be 
included into the local force raised here in addition thereto? As 
they constitute an important portion of the local force for the defense 
of this city, it is very desirable that they be considered as a part of 
the local force for its special defense, and hence received on the same 
terms as the others, to be retained at Augusta and not subject to be 
ordered to other places. The commissions issued by the Governor 
appear to be State commissions requiring the officers to be subject to 
his orders, if I understand them properly, although mustered for 
Confederate service. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. KAINS, 
Colonel, Commanding. 


HEADQUARTERS CONSCRIPTION, 
Macon, Ga., August 24, 1868. 
Col. JOHN 8S. PRESTON, 
Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va:: 


COLONEL: By a decision of the superior court of Georgia, many 
persons who have substitutes in the service have been made lable 
by reason of the age of the substitute being called for by the Presi- 
dent. It will be impossible to conscript these parties unless an order 
is issued to the commanding officers of regiments, battalions, &c., 
to furnish promptly a full list of substitutes in their commands, 
giving the regiment, company, date of enlistment and age, and the 
name and post-office of the persons for whom they were substituted. 
Please have such an order issued immediately. ; 

I am, colonel, your obedient servant, 
CHARLES J. HARRIS, 
Lneutenant-Colonel and Commandant of Conscripts, Georgia. 


[First indorsement. ] 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 31, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to the War Department with the request that 
the suggestion of Colonel Harris: be complied with. I respectfully 
ask attention to my letter of the 20th of August on the same subject. 
JOHN 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


148 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Second indorsement.] 


| SEPTEMBER 2, 1863. 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 


The abuses that have been detected in the matter of substitutes 
render this inquiry a proper one. Publish an order requiring a 
report as recommended. 

By order: 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, MISSISSIPPI, AND ALABAMA, 
Columbus, Miss., August 24, 1863. 
Col. BENJAMIN S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


My work of organization for Mississippi will soon be completed. 
The greater portion of the men gathered up and to be sent to the 
army of General Johnston will pass into the army while it occupies 
its present position by Meridian. Many men belonging to the Army 
of Tennessee must also be gathered up, and will likewise reach that 
post. Others, particularly conscripts, will reach Meridian destined 
for camp at Enterprise to await distribution. To give proper direc- 
tion to these men so concentrated at that place, a distributing office 
for these men, to give orders for the proper distribution and for trans- 
portation, becomes necessary, and I respectfully request that General 
Johnston order one established and place in charge of it an intelli- 
gent officer, charged with the duties above indicated and such others 
as may be proper in the judgment of the general. A similar office 
for distribution of men in the army will be necessary at Morton. 

With great respect, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and Supt. of Conserapts. 


[Indorsement. ] 


The commandant of the post at Meridian would be the proper 
officer, as the duty suggested by General Pillow is one of the legiti- 
mate duties of commandants of posts. 

Respectfully, 
J. D. BRADFORD, 
Major and Assistant Inspector- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 


Richmond, Va., August 25, 1868. 
General J. EK. JOHNSTON, 
Commanding, &c.: 


GENERAL: The letter of General Pillow, with inclosures and your 
indorsement commending it to my special attention, has been handed 
to me by the officer to whom you intrusted it. It has received my 
earnest attention, and will, probably, after conference with Colonel 
Preston, now in charge of the Conscript Bureau, constitute the basis 
of arrangements to give greater promptitude and efficiency in the 
enforcement of conscription. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. TAY 


Graver difficulties, however, exist in connection with this subject 
than are probably recognized by General Bragg and yourself. You 
look at it naturally with almost exclusive view to the speedy recruit- 
ment of your army, and for that essential end do not hesitate to press 
with more haste and less formality of examination and allowance of 
exemptions than are required by the terms of the law. General Pil- 
low, whom I am gratified to see securing the confidence and support 
in such high degree, both of his generals and of the Governors of the 
surrounding States, with the machinery and action employed by him, 
not unfrequently is compared to the press gang, sweeping through the 
country with little deference either to law or the regulations designed 
to temper its unavoidable rigor, without detracting from its legal 
force. You are not aware of the extent and frequency of the remon- 
strances, indignant and bitter, which, during the former exercise of 
Similar powers, came up to the Department from various quarters. 
The action of the Department is bound to be more regular and meas- 
ured, respecting the legal rights of exemption and disability, not less 
fully than enforcing the claims of the country for military service. 
The contrary course, persisted in for any length of time, while it may 
secure at once a larger number of recruits, will probably cause in the 
end a degree of dissatisfaction and positive opposition that may 
reverse the public feeling of the country and operate most disas- 
trously to the Confederacy and the cause. 

Hence, while under the exigency of the present time I accord to 
General Pillow the power exercised by him, originating in the discre- 
tion of commanders as a military necessity, I must regard it as tem- 
porary, and not to be permanently continued under the sanction of 
the Department without regulations to temper his action. 

There are peculiar reasons, of a character political more than mili- 
tary, which make me hesitate to embrace the State of Georgia within 
the authority heretofore allowed. Further inquiry will, however, be 
made on this point, and I shall be- better prepared in a few days to 
determine on the expediency of such extension. Meantime General 
Pillow had better confine his operations to the States in which he is 
already operating. 

With high regard, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 25, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have considered the matter referred to this Bureau in the. 
letter of General Pillow, addressed to the Adjutant-General, and the 
papers and indorsements accompanying. The proposition is to abol- 
ish the system instituted under the laws of Congress and to replace 
it by a system of military enforcement under the direction of General 
Pillow. The allegation on which the proposition is made is that the 
existing legalized system is inefficient for the purposes for which it 
was established by reason of ‘‘the want of an adequate number of 
competent officers and supporting forces.” The recommendation is 
that the supernumerary officers of the Army be organized ‘‘to work in 


150 CORRESPONDENUE, ETC. 


accord with the conscript organizations.” No plan is submitted for 
‘supporting forces.” 

The point to be decided is whether the existing legal system, 
strengthened by the addition of competent officers and supporting 
forces, may not be as efficient as the substitution proposed by 
General Pillow. It is certainly more consistent with established law, 
and in view of the policy and requisitions of that law I regard it as 
more consistent to the ends proposed, that of supplying and main- 
taining the armies of the Confederacy. For adjusting the rights of 
citizens, for maintaining the internal police and production of the 
country, and for sending into the field persons liable to military 
service, the recommendations made by this Bureau within the last 
thirty days, if allowed, will be speedy and efficient. They will reach 
also to a remedy for improper and unnecessary details which abstract 
large numbers from the field. For the arrest and speedy return of 
the vast numbers of stragglers, deserters, and other absentees, as I 
have heretofore suggested, large additional authority and force will 
be necessary for the procurement of efficient results. The plan of 
General Pillow, while it proposes to act in accord with the conscript 
system, is, to the extent of this latter function, an entire displace- 
ment of the authority of the Bureau and a proposition to place it in 
his hands; in a word, to abolish the Bureau as it now exists and give 
the whole matter into the hands of General Pillow. Or, if to work 
‘‘in accord with the conscript system,” it is a naked proposition to 
make General Pillow superintendent and give him added powers and 
forces to execute its functions. If such be the decision, then General 
Pillow will be ordered to take charge of the Bureau, and the super- 
numerary officers of our armies, with supporting forces, will be placed 
under his command, and, in the words of Governor Harris, ‘‘ the jur- 
isdiction of General Pillow’s recruiting bureau will be extended 
throughout the Confederate States.” Governor Shorter, Governor 
Brown, Generals Johnston and Bragg in effect recommend the same 
thing. With great diffidence I dissent from this weighty authority— 
first, because I think the plan is not warranted by law; second, 
because I regard it as at variance with the policy of the law; third, 
because I believe the conscript system, with the additional powers and 
forces asked for by General Pillow, will be more efficient than the 
plan proposed. 

It is due to myself as superintendent to say that these conclusions 
are not induced by a desire to hold that position. I would infinitely 
prefer to go into the field or on other duty, with my present rank, 
rather than to hold that rank and remain in charge of this Bureau. 
I am contented in it solely because I believe I can serve the country 
in administering its duties. If the Department regards it better for 
the public service that an officer so highly recommended as General 
Pillow for the peculiar duties of this Bureau should be placed in 
‘charge, I am ready, most cheerfully, to give it up and be assigned to 
other less responsible and humbler service. 

In the original system of conscription prescribed by General Orders, 
No. 82, 1862, the matter of arresting deserters, stragglers, and other 
absentees is not contemplated or provided for. It was subsequently 
gradually engrafted on the system, beginning with General Orders, 
No. 7, 1863. 

The organization was quite sufficient for the duties first prescribed 
if rigorously administered, but the immense, almost incalculable, 
increase of deserters and other absentees, and the want of correspond- 
ing expansion of the powers and addition to the agencies of the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 751 


Bureau, render it impossible, with present means, to execute the 
extraneous duties. It is therefore fairly worthy of consideration 
whether the additional means necessary be given to the existing 
organization or whether the service requiring them be transferred 
to some such organization as proposed by General Pillow. | If General 
Pillow’s plan is adopted to the full extent proposed, my opinion is 
that before the Ist of January more than one State will by law pro- 
hibit its execution within their limits, and that in many localities 
such armed resistance will be made to it as will require more men for 
its execution than are the objects of its search. Ten armed men in 
the mountain fastness, sustained as they are by the sympathies of 
the people against the appearance of military force, will require fifty 
of General Pillow’s men to arrest them. 

The countless applications for authority and commissions, with 
plans annexed, to arrest deserters, expanding progressively from a 
small swamp in the Carolinas or a close valley in Virginia to the area 
of the Confederacy will all fail if based solely on the military power 
of the country. The sole remedy is the due execution of the law, 
aided by the civil arm of the States, and that arm properly sustained 
by the military force of the Government. The powers of the Confed- 
erate Government are not equal to the correction of this evil. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


HDQRS. VOL. AND CONS. BUREAU, DEPARTMENT NO. 2, 
Marietta, Ga., August 7, 1868. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General : 


The great defect in the conscript system is the want of an adequate 
number of competent officers and supporting forces. By organizing 
the supernumerary officers of our armies to work in accord with the 
conscript organization this defect would be in a great degree remedied. 
That system is in full operation in this conscript department. Includ- 
ing paroled prisoners from Lieutenant-General Pemberton’s army, 
Lieutenant-General Johnston’s army can be run up to 60,000 men and 
General Bragg’s to 40,000 by Ist of November, if allowed to draw 
upon Georgia to the extent of filling the regiments from that State. 
If directed by the Government the same working forces could fill the 
Georgia regiments in the Virginia army. A large additional cavalry 
force can be organized in Middle and West Tennessee by that time. 
These armies united could go to the Ohio: River and hold that line. 
To effect these results the compulsory system, viz, the conscript 
service, is essential. Men will volunteer for the cavalry, but not for 
the infantry army. A similar organization to that adopted through- 
out this department extended to Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
and Florida, viz, combining supernumerary officers from General 
Lee’s army with the existing conscript organization in those States, 
would build up that army in like proportion. I do not want the 
service, but the country will be lost without extraordinary effort is 
made. We have the population; they can be put into the Army. It 
only requires proper effort with a: proper organization. 

Respectfully, 
GID) a PILLOW. 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, ce. 


152 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[First indorsement. ] 


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE, 
August 8, 1863. 


I concur fully in the views of General Pillow, and recommend their 
adoption. Butif they are not fully carried out it is important to 
this army that his jurisdiction be extended over the territory recently 
added to this Department, in which a large number of men can be 
had, especially in Georgia. 

: BRAXTON BRAGG, 

General, Commanding. 


[Second indorsement. | 


Morton, August 16, 1863. 


I earnestly recommend the adoption of General Pillow’s suggestion. 
The importance of quickly recruiting this army is so great that I 
transmit these papers by an officer. 

J. EK. JOHNSTON, 


General. 
[Third indorsement. } 


AUGUST 25, 1863. 


Referred to the Consecript Bureau for consideration and report or 
conference. I have answered General Johnston leaving the subject 
for consideration. 

J. Awe 


Secretary. 
[Inclosure No. 2.] 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Chattanooga, Tenn., August 8, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON: 


Str: Allow me [to] suggest respectfully that the importance of 
bringing to the field at once all stragglers, deserters, and conscripts 
cannot be overestimated. Under the defective system created by the 
conscript law, recruiting is necessarily entirely too tardy to meet the 
emergencies and absolute necessities of the public service. A rem- 
edy for this evil I am satisfied may be found in extending the juris- 
diction of General Pillow’s recruiting bureau throughout the Confed- 
erate States, and giving it the supernumerary officers of the several 
armies with an ample supporting force. General Pillow has experi- 
ence in this branch of the service, and I know of no man who would 
equal his efficiency in it. Give him the authority and the means and 
he will recruit your armies to a high point of efficiency. If it is 
deemed inexpedient to make the jurisdiction of his bureau coextensive 
with the boundaries of the Confederacy, it is certainly a matter of 
the highest importance that it be extended over the State of Georgia, 
where there are a very large number of men, citizens of that State 
and other States, who should by all means be put into the service at 
once. The men now out of the Army cannot be brought to the field 
by orders. It requires systematic effort and force to bring them. 
Give General Pillow the authority and the force necessary and it is 
the work of a few months to put the whole population (subject to 
military duty) in the field, while under the old system the work of 
years will fail to accomplish so fully. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours, &ce., 
ISHAM G. HARRIS. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 153 


[Inclosure No. 3.] 


MARIETTA, GA., August 10, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: General Pillow has read to me his statement to you, 
with the indorsement of General Bragg and the letter of Governor 
Harris. While I do not entirely concur with the general as to the 
capacity of Georgia to fill up her regiments, I am satisfied that much 
may be done by energy, activity, and the use of a sufficient force. 
One objection to the present system is that the local enrolling officers 
too often have their personal favorites and are too often influenced 
to neglect duty and leave men not enrolled who are subject. The 
plan suggested by General Pillow removes this difficulty to a great 
extent by sending into such localities men to enforce the act who are 
not subject to the local influences which often control local enrolling 
officers. Again, there is a considerable army of refugees in this State 
and a large number of persons detailed to work at different occupa- 
tions which could be as well attended to by persons not subject to 
conscription. The present system does not seem to reach either of 
these classes; the system proposed would, I trust, reach both. 

While my views of the conscript act are well known to you and 
have undergone no change, the law has been acquiesced in by this 
State, and as that is now the plan adopted by the Government to 
recruit the Army, I am quite sure if we expect to save the country 
from ruin it will become necessary to execute it or some other system 
with more energy and activity than has heretofore been employed. 
Our position would seem to be a critical one, and I fear that nothing 
short of early and heavy re-enforcements to the Army can save us 
from the most unfortunate calamity which can befalla people. There 
are now vast numbers of stragglers who are not arrested by the present 
enrolling officers, and the evil seems to be increasing daily. 

So far as Iam able to learn the paroled men who lately composed 
Lieutenant-General Pemberton’s army, whether justly or not, have so 
completely lost confidence in him that but a small portion of them 
will obey his call and return. If they are again to be commanded by 
him it will be necessary to adopt means to get them back, and I 
fear great difficulty in its accomplishment. It may be deemed inap- 
propriate for me to allude to this. My excuse is that the condition of 
the country is such as to require the utmost frankness, and as I know 
the fact to which I allude to exist, and feel satisfied that without the 
return of these men to duty we are in extreme peril, I feel that I 
should not discharge a duty which I owe to you and to the country 
were I not to communicate it. I have no charge to make against 
General Pemberton. He may be a good general. But as I have seen 
a great many of the officers and men who were under him at Vicks- 
burg and have conversed freely with them, and have never yet found 
a single one of them who has confidence in him, I feel that the Gov- 
ernment ought to be advised of the existence of a fact known to and 
regretted by the whole country. Without some change to inspire the 
troops with confidence, General Pillow or any one else who attempts 
to carry them back will need a heavy and an active force. 

Trusting that such measures may be adopted as will fill up our 
depleted ranks in the shortest time possible. 


Iam, very truly, yours, &ce., 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 
48 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


154 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


P. §._In addition to the reasons mentioned in this letter, I suggest 
that the use of the supernumerary officers of the Army by General 
Pillow supply an apparent defect in the laws and greatly augment 
the effective enrolling force, which makes his system a net-work cov- 
ering his whole department and making it very difficult for a person 
subject to do service under the act to escape. 

J. a, 
[Inclosure No. 4.] 
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Montgomery, Ala., August 13, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 

Srr: General Pillow has read me a letter addressed to the Adjutant- 
General upon the defects in the execution of the conscript law and 
the organization of a bureau with a competent roll of officers and 
supporting force for a successful administration of the law. This 
subject is one which has caused me much anxiety, and I am well sat- 
isfied that General Pillow has discovered the true reason why the 
conscript law has not yielded the troops to re-enforce our depleted 
armies. Upon reflection I am thoroughly convinced that the plan 
of organization recommended by him is the only one which promises 
such timely results as are needed to save the armies of General Bragg 
and General Johnston. 

With the wonderful energy with which General Pillow has unre- 
servedly consecrated his powers of body and mind in this important 
department of the Army, if allowed the full latitude of his plan I 
doubt not he will accomplish all which he proposes. The favorable 
results of his administration in Tennessee and North Alabama give 
assurance of this expectation. I sincerely hope that, at least so far as 
concerns the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Mississippi, he may 
be empowered to the fullest extent of territory and resources of offi- 
cers and men to clear the country of stragglers and deserters and 
conscripts whose places are now in the field. And looking to the 
broader sphere of usefulness in which his services might be secured, I 
believe that if his bureau was extended even to cover the Confed- 
eracy he has the experience and administrative skill, as I know he 
has the energy, to make his plan of operation of unequaled advan- 
tage to the Army of Virginia. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. GILL SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama. 


Macon, Miss., August 25, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 

Two regiments, three battalions, and some unattached companies of 
mounted men volunteered and were organized in a district of country 
declared by Lieutenant-General Pemberton to be beyond the reach of 
the conscript officers upon the assurance that they should not be 
conscripted or their organization interrupted. They volunteered for 
State service; are now in active service under the orders of Confed- 
erate officers. Any effort to conscript these commands will be attended 
with total demoralization of the men and the loss of the services of a 
great many. I suggest for the good of the cause that these commands 


remain as now organized. 
JOHN J. PETTUS. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 155 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
fichmond, August 26, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: On the 21st of June last my predecessor called your attention 
to the amount of requisitions issued from this department and 
remaining unanswered, owing to the fact that requisitions from other 
bureaus have been preferred and marked special. From a statement 
received from the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, dated the 
22d instant, there remained in his office requisitions not signed 
amounting to $35,191,350.77. Of this sum $34,570,366.77 were requi- 
sitions in favor of the officers of the Quartermaster-General’s Depart- 
ment, leaving the sum of $620,934 in favor of all the other bureaus of 
the Department of War. Add to the former sum requisitions issued 
since the 22d instant, amounting to $13,066,824.41, and which still 
remain in your office, thus showing that there are requisitions unpaid 
amounting to $47,637,191.18. If this state of things is to continue it 
is apparent that the effect must be to render the operations of my 
branch of the public service inefficient, if it does not paralyze it alto- 
gether. Under these circumstances I deem it my duty to invite your 
attention to the facts above stated, and to request that some definite 
action may be taken which will secure to this department the payment 
of the funds already requested and in future insure its full proportion 
of the funds required according to the ratio which this office holds 
under the appropriation as authorized to be issued monthly by the 
Treasury Department. It is suggested at the Treasury Department 
that the most effectual and equitable measure of relief is for the War 
Department to withhold entirely all further special requisitions until 
those now in the Treasury should be signed. | 

I respectfully submit this plan as the only one that occurs to me by 
which this Bureau can be relieved of its present embarrassment with- 
out injury to any other branch of the public service. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 26, 1868. 
Governor J. EK. BRowy, 
Atlanta, Gta.: 


Directions have been given to use the means indicated in your dis- 
patch and hasten the delivery of the beeves referred to. The com- 
manding general has already acted in accordance with your views, 
and expressed concurrence when shown to him. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


MARIETTA, August 26, 1863. 
Mr. A. FULLARTON, : 
Acting Consul of Great Britain: 


DEAR SiR: In your letter of the 17th instant, new before me, you 
conclude that I misunderstood you when you admitted the right 
of the State to claim the services of British subjects resident within 
its limits to defend, to a limited extent, the places of their residence 
against local invasion by a foreign power. You are pleased to say 


756 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


that such service might be rendered by them in the event of a war by 
a “foreign power,” but not in a civil war like that which now rages 
on this continent. Then you still admit that by the laws of nations 
Her Majesty’s subjects resident in this State may be compelled to 
render the service now required; in other words, to defend the places 
of their residence against local invasion by a foreign power. And it 
follows, you being the judge, that the claim now made upon Her 
Majesty’s subjects for service is in accordance with the laws of 
nations, if the Confederate States, of which Georgia is one, are at war 
with a foreign power. But in your attempt to escape the just conclu- 
sion which results from your admissions you virtually deny that the 
United States is a foreign power, and claim that Georgia is still a 
component part of the Government of the United States. You have 
probably been influenced in your persistence in this error by the for- 
bearance of the Government and people of the Confederate States in 
permitting Her Majesty’s consuls to remain among us in the exercise 
of the functions of a position to which they were originally accredited 
by the Government of the United States. As it is no part of my pur- 
pose to enter into an argument to convince you that the United States 
is a hostile power foreign to Georgia, I will dismiss this part of the 
controversy with the single remark, that if your pretensions be cor- 
rect, your appeal for the protection of British subjects resident within 
this State should have been made to the Government at Washington 
and not to me. You are pleased to inform me that you have felt 
compelled to advise those drafted to acquiesce in the duty until they 
are required to leave their immediate homes or to meet the U.S. 
forces in actual conflict; in that event to throw down their arms and 
refuse to render a service the performance of which would run 
directly in the teeth of Her Majesty’s proclamation, &e. 

It is worthy of remark that the language you employ is “to leave 
their immediate homes or to meet the U. S. forces in actual conflict.” 
Your advice, then, to British subjects, if I correctly understand it, 
is that when the U. S. forces attack the immediate locality of their 
homes, or their own houses, they are not to defend them as required 
by the laws of nations against such local invasion, but they are to 
throw down their arms and refuse to fight for the protection of their 
domiciles. In reply to this, it is my duty to inform you that I can 
neither be bound by your pretensions that the United States is not a 
power foreign to Georgia, nor can I admit the right of Her Majesty 
by proclamation to change the laws of nations and insist upon main- 
taining her subjects here and exempting them from the performance 
of the duties imposed upon them by the laws of nations. When the 
troops now drafted have been turned over to the Government of the 
Confederate States to be held in readiness to repel local invasion, if 
they should, upon the approach of a hostile force, follow your advice 
and throw down their arms, that Government will have the power to 
pardon for such conduct, or to strike their names from its muster- 
rolls if it chooses to do so; but if an attempt should be made by the 
enemy upon the immediate locality of their homes while I control 
and command the forees to which they are attached, and they should 
be guilty of conduct so unnatural and unmanly as to throw down 
their arms and refuse to defend their domiciles, they will be promptly 
dealt with as citizens of this State would be should they. be guilty of 
such dishonorable delinquency. 

In another part of your letter you take occasion to say that you do 
not see why the change in political relations of this country has 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. (57 


imposed new obligations upon the subjects of Her Majesty, as they 
had no voice in the councils which brought about the present state of 
affairs. With the same reason you might say that you cannot see 
why the laws of nations require British subjects in any case to defend 
their domiciles when located in a foreign country against the local 
invasion of another foreign power when they had no voice in the 
councils which formed the government in which they are permitted 
to reside. I insist that British subjects, resident within its limits, 
though they had no voice in the formation of the new government, 
owe the same service to it when established which they owed before 
its formation to the government whose power oriyinally extended over 
its territory and embraced their homes; and that they are bound to 
conform their conduct to the new order of things or to seek homes 
and protection elsewhere. But I am informed by your letter that, 
with regard to the protection afforded by the State to an alien, it 
appears to you to extend little beyond the safety of life. And as the 
laws of Georgia forbid an alien to hold certain kinds of property, you 
cannot see how a thing can be protected which is not suffered to exist. 
Upon this first point I need only remind you that our courts are at all 
times open to aliens belonging to friendly powers for the redress of 
their wrongs, and that the same protection is extended to their per- 
sons and all the property they legally possess which is enjoyed by 
citizens of this State. 

I trust a re-examination of the laws of your own country would sat- 
isfy your mind upon the other point, as you will there find that the 
laws of Great Britain forbid an alien to hold ‘‘ certain kinds of prop- 
erty,” and it is the boast of that Government that it protects aliens 
who reside within its jurisdiction. The laws of Great Britain in 
reference to the right of aliens to hold certain kinds of property 
while domiciled in that kingdom are certainly not more liberal to the 
citizens of Georgia than the laws of Georgia are to the subjects of 
Great Britain. 

While I am unable to perceive the justice of your complaint in the 
particulars last mentioned, it is gratifying to know that there is no 
law of nations or of this State which throws any obstructions in the 
way of the removal of any British subject from the State who is not 
satisfied with the privileges and protection which he enjoys. You 
remind me, however, that not a few of them are mechanics, of whose 
inestimable services at this crisis the Confederacy will be deprived in 
ease of their removals. These mechanics have no doubt remained in 
this State because they felt it their interest to remain, and in refer- 
ence to them this State will very cheerfully adopt the rule which 
generally controls the British Government. She will consult her own 
interests and will exempt from military service for local defense such - 
mechanics who are aliens as choose to remain and will be more sery- 
iceable in that capacity. : 

I reply in the affirmative to your inquiry whether aliens already 
drafted may avail themselves of the alternative of leaving the State 
in preference to rendering the service. While an alien will not be 
permitted to evade the service by leaving the State temporarily during 
the emergency and then returning, his right to leave permanently when 
he chooses will not be questioned. I do not insist that an alien shall 
remain here to serve the State, but I contend that while he chooses to 
remain under the protection of the State he is bound by the laws of 
nations and of this State to obey her call to defend his domicile against 
insurrection or local invasion. 


158 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - 


This, I apprehend, is all that is intended to be claimed by your Gov- 
ernment in the instructions which you quote. While the British Gov- 
ernment has a right to demand that its subjects shall not be detained 
here against their will and compelled to take up arms on either side, 
it certainly would not place itself before the world in the false posi- 
tion of insisting on the right of its subjects to remain in another State 
contrary tothe wish of the government of such State, and to be exempt 
from the service which, by the common consent of nations, such State 
has a right to demand. 

You conclude your letter by informing me that my decision con- 
trasts strongly with the conduct of the United States Government, who 
have conceded the claim of bona fide British subjects to exemption 
from any military service whatever. 

As the United States Government is the invading party in this war, 
and can but seldom need the services of British subjects to defend 
their domiciles, which are scarcely ever subject to invasion, as it has 
no right under the laws of nations to compel them to bear arms in its 
invading armies, as it is not in a condition to be compelled to econo- 
mize its supply of provisions, and as it is reported that it has by the 
use of money drawn large numbers of recruits for its armies from the 
dominions of Her Majesty, in violation of the laws of her realm, it may 
well afford to affect a pretended liberality, which costs it neither sacri- 
fice nor inconvenience. But you say that my decision also contrasts 
strongly ‘‘with that of the Governors of other Southern States, who, 
upon representation, ordered the discharge of British subjects forcibly 
detained in service.” In a former part of your letter, when speaking 
of the advice given to British subjects to throw down their arms in 
case they should be required to meet the U. 8. forces in actual conflict, 
you use this sentence: ‘‘In other States British subjects imprisoned 
for following this advice have already been discharged from custody 
and service by order of the War Department.” Excuse me for remark- 
ing that these two sentences contrast so strongly with each other that 
I am unable to understand why it became necessary for the War 
Department to interfere and discharge British subjects imprisoned in 
other States for throwing down their arms and refusing to fight, if the 
Governors of those States had, upon representation, in all cases ordered 
the discharge of British subjects forcibly detained in service. 

Trusting that my position is fully understood by you, and that it 
may not be necessary to protract this DISSn estou, I am, with high con- 
sideration and esteem, 

Very respectfully, your obedient porous 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


HDQRS. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPARTMENT OF TENNESSEE, &°©., 
Columbus, Miss., August 26, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Inclosed you will please find copy of correspondence between myself 
and Major-General Gholson, of Mississippi State service; also copy 
of letter from myself to the Governor of this State.* I received no 
reply to my letter to the Governor, but General Gholson’s letter may 
be considered as giving the Governor’s position and as replying to my 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 759 


applications. You will perceive from my communications to both of 
these officers that I have sought to carry out the orders of the Depart- 
ment without producing irritation and without conflict of authority. 
But from the position assumed by the Governor, viz, ‘‘that the State 
cavalry is exempt from conscription,” it is manifest that an immense 
number of men liable to conscription will escape the Confederate 
service altogether. 

These cavalry organizations of State forces are principally com- 
posed of conscripts who entered that service to keep out of the infan- 
try. The country is full of floating companies of cavalry without 
having been mustered or received by the State authorities; all claim- 
ing to be parts of the State force, and taking shelter from conscrip- 
tion in these organizations. If these organizations, ormere aggregations 
of numbers, are all to be exempted, then I do not know where I am 
to find men to fill up Mississippi regiments of infantry now in the 
service. . 

The whole matter is respectfully submitted to the Government for 
its decision and such action as it may judge proper. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, and 
Supt. Department of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. 


P. S.—Just received letter from Governor Pettus. Herewith please 
find an official copy. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


HDQRS. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPARTMENT NO. 2, 
Columbus, Miss., August 26, 1868. 
Major-General GHOLSON: 


I acknowledge the reception of your dispatch of the 25th instant by 
courier. You say ‘‘the State cavalry now in the service was organ- 
ized under authority of the War Department. * * * The Gov- 
ernor informs me that they are not subject to conscription,” &e. By 
reference to paragraph II, page 17 of the printed pamphlet (a copy of 
which I handed you), you will perceive that the Secretary of War in 
that order of July 20, 1863, says that ‘‘companies, battalions, and reg'- 
ments composed of persons not within the age of conscription (eight- 
een and forty-five) will be accepted as volunteers * * * for local 
defense and special service; those persons belonging to such organi- 
zations who are of conscript age, and neither exempted by law nor 
already in the service, will be discharged and report to the Bureau of 
Conscription.” This general order of July 20, 1863, evidently 
embraces both cavalry and infantry. If the cavalry mentioned by 
you as State force was raised by orders of the War Department 
(which I do not question), the orders of the same authority of subse- 
quent date directs those men who are subject to conscription in all 
such organizations shall be discharged. In military authority the 
last order is the one to be carried into effect. I am therefore unable 
to perceive the justness of the Governor’s conclusion, ‘‘that this 
State force is not subject to conscription where the members of the 
organizations are within the conscript age.” If the view taken of 
this matter by the Governor is concurred in by the War Department, 
I shall, with pleasure, give such orders as will prevent any interfer- 
ence with those State cavalry forces by officers of this bureau, and I 
will at present direct all officers of this bureau to abstain from such 


760 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


interference until the decision of the Department upon this point is 
made known. In the meantime, before the latter can be issued, it 
will be necessary for me to know what companies, battalions, and - 
regiments of State cavalry are comprehended in the Governor’s State 
forces so claimed as exempt from conscription. I have information 
of the existence of many companies and some battalions afloat in dif- 
ferent portions of the State all claiming to be State forces and raised: 
under the call of the Governor for local defense and special service, 
all of whom claim exemption from conscription, but many of whom 
have never been received or mustered by State or other officers. You 
will perceive, therefore, that unless I am furnished with a list of those 
State cavalry organizations that it will be difficult for me to shape 
orders that will protect these State forces from conscription without 
likewise exempting a very large number of floating cavalry organiza- 
tions which have not been received or mustered by State authorities, 
and thus giving shelter to a very large number of conscripts who are 
greatly needed to fill up the many reduced Mississippi regiments in 
our armies. I therefore respectfully request that you will furnish me 
with the list of State cavalry organizations claimed by the Governor 
as exempt from conscription at your earliest convenience. 
Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Supt. Bureau for Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. 


{Inclosure No. 2.] ° 
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Macon, Miss., August 25, 1868. 
Brig. Gen. GIDEON J. PILLOW, . 
Superintendent Volunteer and Conscript Bureau: 


GENERAL: Your communication to His Excellency Governor Pettus, 
without inclosure, as stated, in relation to supposed conflict between 
the Confederate and State military authorities in relation to con- 
scripts, &c., is at hand. The Governor directs me to say that he 
supposes Major-General Gholson has shown him a copy of the com- 
munication which you intended to inclose in your note, and I am 
directed further to say that the State authorities have no intention to 
embarrass the efforts of the conscript officers to recruit the Army, 
but on the contrary to render to them the assistance in their power. 
No interference on the part of the military authorities of the State 
will be permitted with the men of conscript age subject to conscript 
duty, but exempts under the Confederate conscript laws are by the 
militia laws of the State made subject to militia duty, and it is 
not understood under what authority conscript officers act who give 
details to exempted conscripts so as to defeat the positive enactments 
of the State Legislature. Men of conscript age are either conscripts 
or exempts; if exempts they owe military duty to the State, and no 
simple enrollment or detail to remain at home can be permitted to 
defeat the claim which the State has upon its citizens for their 
Services. 

The conscripting the State organizations will be attended with great 
confusion and much risk of totally demoralizing the men, and His 
Excellency is not informed as to any orders which in his judgment 
require you to do so. These troops were organized at the request of 
the Confederate commanders of this department and placed under 
their command. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 761 


Lieutenant-General Pemberton, in order to save confusion or conflict 
on this subject, established a line including Coahoma County, thence 
‘through Panola, Oxford, Pontotoc, and Itawamba Counties to the Ala- 
bama line, north of which General Pemberton determined was beyond 
the reach of conscript officers, and men of any age were permitted to vol- 
unteer in the State service, with the assurance in so doing, and placing 
themselves in the service and coming within our lines, they should 
not be conscripted or their organizations interrupted during the period 
of their enlistment; and so with quite a number of companies that 
have been organized since that time under a call from the Governor 
and General Johnston for troops to serve from three to twelve months. 
If an effort is made to conscript these commands total disorganization 
will be the result and the services of a large majority of the men lost 
to the country. Iam therefore directed to request of you a copy of 
the orders under which you are acting in this matter, and to request 
you to suspend any further action in regard to the men actually in 
Service until the President can be heard from upon the subject. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
| JAS. H. RIVES, 
Arde-de- Camp. 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Raichmend, August 26, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have the honor to inclose a report from Colonel August, 
inspecting officer of this Bureau in the State of Mississippi. With the 
report is the act of the Legislature of Mississippi to ‘‘aid in strength- 
ening the Confederate Army.” I respectfully suggest that it is worthy 
of consideration to attempt to have similar acts passed by the other 
States of the Confederacy. Indeed, if still further provisions could 
be procured by the legislation of the States, so as to bring into active 
operation the whole civil and military force of the State to aid the 
purposes intended, it would add immeasurably to the efficiency of this 
Bureau. I will assume to instruct commandants of conscripts to 
endeavor to obtain Executive recommendations of such measures. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


{Inclosure. | 


ENTERPRISE, MIss., August 10, 1863. 
Col. G. W. Lay, 
Asst. Adjt. Gen., Bureau of Conscription, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: Inclosed you will find a report,* made out by my direction, 
showing the operations of the conscript department in this State from 
its organization to the first day of this month, a period of one year. 
A copy with some explanatory notes will be forwarded you in a few 
days by Major Clark. You will perceive that the number transferred 
to the Army bears but a small proportion to the whole number enrolled. 
After deducting the number discharged by law by reason of their 
avocations, it will be seen that nearly one-half of the remainder were 
discharged upon surgeon’s certificate. This is easily explained by 


* Not found. 


762 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the fact that: persons who are certain of being discharged on account 
of physical infirmity never fail to present themselves to the enrolling 
officer, while great effort is required to get up those who have no such 
hope or expectation. The report shows that the number of conscripts 
carried to the Army without being passed through the camps of 
instruction is 157. It is very certain that the number thus carried 
was very considerable, but the officers sent on recruiting service have 
failed to report except as to the above number, and without these 
reports there is no mode of ascertaining the real number. The num- 
ber of detailed men is not large, and the details seem in all cases to 
have been proper and made in conformity to the rules prescribed by 
the Bureau upon that subject. The number of stragglers and desert- 
ers arrested and sent to their regiments appears to be large, and cer- 
tainly show that the officers have been vigilant in the performance of 
that part of the duty assigned them. But large as the number seems 
Iam satisfied, from information derived from a variety of sources, 
that there are this day in the State not less than 5,000 deserters, strag- 
glers, and men improperly absent from their regiments; and this, too, 
notwithstanding the fact that the Legislature of this State at its last 
session passed an act making it the duty of the sheriff of each county 
to arrest every straggler, deserter, or other absentee, &c., and making 
him liable to indictment for a failure of duty, and upon conviction 
subjecting him to fine and imprisonment. This law has been pretty 
much a dead letter, and if known delinquencies have occurred under 
it, or if sheriffs have been known to fail in their duty under it, there 
has been unfortunately no courts held in the State in which prosecu- 
tions could be instituted against them. 

I inclose a copy of the act. It will be seen that its provisions are 
very ample for the object designed, and had it been faithfully exe- 
cuted the State would have been cleared of deserters and stragglers 
and the Army would have been greatly strengthened. Besides, men 
would have been slow to desert with the certainty of speedy appre- 
hension staring them in the face. I regret to be compelled to say 
that causes are operating in this State which will in a short time swell 
rather than diminish the number of absentees from the Army. This 
subject, however, I shall reserve for another communication, which 
will be forwarded in the course of two or three days. Enrollments 
have been very much on the increase here for some days past. The 
tax of $500 upon overseers has been paid in a great many instances, 
and if the tax was designed at all as a revenue measure it is to be 
regretted that it had not been put at $1,000 for the exemption and 
then an annual tax of $500. This amount would have been just as 
freely paid. 

Since I have been in this State I have endeavored to procure infor- 
mation from every source. I have not confined myself to the officials, 
but have sought information from well-informed persons wherever | 
have met them, and have mingled and talked freely with them. After 
leaving this place I spent some time in Brandon and Jackson. At the 
latter place I called upon the Governor and the adjutant-general, but 
I could learn nothing of the military condition of the State from the 
adjutant-general’s office. The records are so very meager that I could 
not ascertain the number of regiments, batteries, &c., furnished by 
the State, nor could I learn what was the militia force of the State 
before the war. I requested the adjutant-general to try and procure 
this information for me, and I shall write to him for it if I do not see 
him before I leave here. Iam satisfied, however, from all the infor- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 163 


mation I can get, that there are now in this State not less than 15,000 
persons liable to conscription. The enrolling officers seem to be very 
fully impressed with the importance of their duties, and are display- 
ing in the performance of them, so far as I can observe, proper energy 
and zeal. If they could have the hearty co-operation of the sheriffs 
of the State under the late act of Assembly the work might be very 
speedily accomplished, whereas the whole labor is now devolved upon 
the officers connected with the conscript department, numbering only 
thirty-five, including the commandant of conscripts, for the whole 
State. I shall endeavor to have some means instituted by which the 
sheriffs can be made to render the aid required by law. I go every 
day to the conscript office to observe the operations of the depart- 
ment, and give my advice very freely to the commandant when he 
asks it upon any question coming before him; but since the depart- 
ment here has been placed under the control of General Pillow and 
the commandant has been referred to him for orders and for the con- 
struction of the laws, I have limited myself simply to observing what 
is done and by giving my advice when it has been asked. There are 
a number of questions now pending here awaiting the decision of 
General Pillow. He is expected here in a few days. When his 
decision is made known, if it should be in conflict with the decisions 
of the Bureau, I will report the cases in order that such action may be 
taken in them as they may require. 
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
A ale PU GUST, 
Colonel and Inspecting Officer, Bureau of Conscription. 


[First indorsement.] 
AUGUST 29, 1863. 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 

Two reports of Colonel August upon the subject of recruiting and 
conscription in Mississippi.* There are matters of much importance 
treated of in these reports. 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


{Second indorsement. | 
AUGUST 29, 1863. 
Respectfully submitted for the information of the President. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[Third indorsement. | 


Read and returned. The suggestions are worthy of consideration. 
J. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


AN ACT to aid in strengthening the Army of the Confederate States. 
“ x * “i * 2 rx 


Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the 
sheriff of every county in this State, by himself or his deputies, dili- 
gently to inquire into the number of persons permanently or tempo- 
rarily residing in his county subject to the conscription laws of the 
Confederate Congress, and within the ages called for by the Con- 
federate military authorities, without being entitled to any exemption 


* For other report see p. 717. 


764. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


under the exemption act of said Congress. All such conscripts he shall 
enroll, transmit their names, and require them forthwith to report for 
military service to the proper Confederate officer; and he may and 
shall have authority, if necessary, to arrest such persons, and adopt 
the measures he may deem needful to insure the execution of his 
orders and the delivery of such conscripts to the proper Confederate 
officer or camp of instruction. 

Sec. 3. Be wt further enacted, That it shall also be the duty of said 
sheriff to arrest every straggler, deserter, or other absentee without 
leave from the Confederate Army who may at any time be found 
remaining in or passing through his county, and he shall in all cases 
be vigilant and active in their detection, pursuit, and capture. He 
shall examine leaves of absence and furloughs of officers and men 
belonging to the Confederate forces who may be in his county, and 
require their return to duty on or after the expiration of the time. 
He shall have authority to demand and inspect the papers of any 
person belonging to the Army who may be in his county at any time, 
and in ease of the refusal, failure, or inability of such person to 
exhibit satisfactory papers accounting for his absence from duty, the 
said sheriff shall immediately arrest such absentee and have him 
reported to his proper commander, and as soon aS may be delivered 
to his order, or to the officer in command of the nearest military post 
of Confederate troops. 

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That in the execution of the duties 
of his office and the enforcement of the authority with which he is 
hereby invested, the said sheriff may, if necessary, imprison stragglers 
and deserters from the Ar my in the jail of his county, and may employ 
agents and guards when requisite to keep or deliver any of his pris- 
oners as heretofore directed; and in such eases he shall be allowed - 
his proper expenses, for which it shall be the duty of the Governor to 
make requisition upon the auditor, who shall issue his warrant there- 
for upon the treasurer of the State.. 

Src. 5. Be wt further enacted, And that in case of neglect or failure 
by any sheriff, in any particular, to perform his duty, he shall be 
liable to indictment, and on conviction shall be fined not less than 
$100 nor more than $1,000, and be imprisoned not more than two 
months at the discretion of the court. 

SEc. 6. Be it further enacted, That each of said sheriffs shall in his 
county be authorized to call for any assistance to the extent of the 
posse comitatus of the same whenever necessary for the execution of the 
duties hereby imposed; and if any party thus summoned by him fail 
or refuse to render the required aid, such person shall be subject to 
the same penalties declared by law in cases of refusal to respond to 
the lawful summons of a sheriff in the forcible execution of his office. 
If resisted, any of said sheriffs will when necessary call upon the 
nearest military commander and request the aid of a detachment of 
troops sufficient for the enforcement of his authority in his county 
under this act. 

SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the clerks 
of the circuit and probate courts, the probate judge, members of the 
board of police, justices of the peace, and constables in each county 
to give prompt information to the sheriffs thereof of any conscripts, 
stragglers, or deserters from the Army, to aid him at all times in the 
execution of his office; and in his absence any of the civil officers 
shall arrest such conscripts, stragglers, or deserters as may be found 
in his county and deliver such prisoners to said sheriff or to the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 165 


proper Confederate authority; and for this purpose any of said civil 
officers shall have power to command the posse comitatus of his 
county. If any of said county officers shall neglect or fail in the 
execution of the duty hereby enjoined, he shall be subject to indict- 
ment, and upon conviction shall forfeit his office, and may be further 
fined or imprisoned at the discretion of the court. Said civil officer 
shall be allowed by the Governor reimbursements of his reasonable 
expenses in obeying the requirements of this act. 

Src. 8. Be it further enacted, That every sheriff shall take the 
receipt of the proper officer of the Confederate Government for every 
conscript, deserter, straggler, or absentee without leave whom he may 
arrest and deliver to such officer, and shall be entitled to $5 for every 
such person delivered by him to such Confederate officer; and the 
auditor shall issue his warrant therefor on the production of such 
receipt; and such sheriff shall also be entitled to receive from the 
State treasury the actual expenses incurred by him in the arrest and 
delivery of such conscripts, stragglers, deserters, or absentees without 
leave, for which the auditor shall issue his warrant on the production 
to him of a detailed account of said expenses, sworn to by the sheriff 
or deputy sheriff by whom the said expenses were incurred. 

Src. 9. Be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect and be 
in foree from and after its passage. 

Approved January 3, 1863. 


[AuGusT 26, 1863.—For Vance to Seddon, in relation to deserters 
in western counties of North Carolina who defy the local militia, &e., 
‘see Series I, Vol. X XIX, Part Il, p. 676. | 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, August 26, 1868. 


His Excellency Governor M. L. BONHAM: 


GOVERNOR: I have received your letter informing me that large 
numbers of deserters and evaders of conscription are banding together 
in your State for armed resistance, and asking my co-operation in 
suppressing them. I fully concur with you in the opinion that this 
condition of affairs calls for prompt action. I have accordingly 
directed my adjutant-general to order the commanding officers of the 
militia for Jackson and Transylvania Counties to order out their 
commands and to co-operate with the State troops of South Carolina. 
I herewith inclose you a copy of the order.* 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


_—— 


RICHMOND, VA., August 27, 1868. 
Governor J. J. PETTUS, | 
Macon, Miss.: 
Directions have been given not to interfere with the organizations 
of the mounted men to which you refer in your dispatch of the 25th 


instant. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


*Not found. 


166 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. ° 


RICHMOND, VaA., August 27, 1868. 
Governor J. J. PETTUS, 
Meridian, Miss.: 7 . 
The Secretary of War has assurance that the enrollment can be 
effected in the river counties generally. Under these circumstances 
the local defense organizations must be restricted to those not subject 
to conscription. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


RICHMOND, VA., August 27, 1863. 


Hon. J. M. Howry, 
Oxford, Miss.: 

DEAR SiR: Your letter of the 25th ultimo,* brought by Colonel 
Looney, was laid before me a few days ago. I am glad to have 
received such full information as to your views concerning the affairs 
of the country, and shall always be gratified to hear from you. The 
disasters in Mississippi were both great and unexpected tome. I had 
thought that the troops sent to the States, added to those already 
there, made a force large enough to accomplish the destruction of 
Grant’s army. , That no such result followed may have been the effect 
of mismanagement or it may have been that it was unattainable. An 
investigation of the causes of the failure is now in progress, though, 
as the misfortunes have already come upon us, it would afford me 
but little satisfaction to know that they resulted from bad general- 
ship and were not inevitable. Recent events near their own homes 
have calculated to produce in some minds the feeling of gloom you — 
speak of, but I have not yet seen cause to waver in the conviction to 
which I have frequently given expression, that if our people now 
Show as much fortitude as we are entitled to expect from those who 
display such conspicuous gallantry in the field, we shall certainly 
beat the enemy and secure our indépendence. As some weeks have 
elapsed since your letter was written, and the progress of the enemy 
has not been such as was apprehended, I trust that the people of the 
State have in a measure recovered from their depression. The recital 
of your losses during the war pains me; but the firmness with which 
you bear them and the zeal in the country’s behalf which characterizes 
you and all the members of your family are what'I had expected, as 
the loyalty and true-heartedness of the women of the land, upon 
which you remark. I beg you to present my compliments to Mrs. 
Howry, with assurances of my admiration for her patriotic devotion. 

With many thanks for the kind and friendly tone of your letter, 
and with the best wishes for your welfare, 

I am, very respectfully and truly, your friend and fellow-citizen, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. - 


[AUGUST 27, 28, 1863.—For correspondence between Davis and 
Vance, in relation to forces for the defense of Weldon and Wilming- 
ton Railroad, and the non-arrival of troops called for in J une, 1863, 
see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 759.] 


* Not found, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 167 


JOINT RESOLUTIONS in relation to the increase of the Army of the Confed- 
erate States. 


Whereas, the Confederate Government demands the services of all 
persons subject to conscription to fill up the ranks of our regiments 
now in the field, and our State taxed to its utmost to furnish troops 
for State defense; and whereas, there are large numbers of able- 
bodied men connected with the Army of the Confederate States on 
service as clerks, agents, &c., of post or district quartermasters or 
commissaries, or otherwise employed than in active military service; 
and whereas, our Army has been greatly reduced on account of the 
numberless details of soldiers to labor in Government workshops 
and other places and upon railroads, performing such work as can 
be and is usually rendered by slaves— 

First. Be a resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the State of Alabama in General Assembly convened, That in the 
opinion of this General Assembly public sentiment and the exigencies 
of the country require that all able-bodied men in the service of the 
Confederate States as clerks, or employed in any other capacity in 
any of the quartermaster or commissary departments of the Govern- 
ment, should be put in active military service without delay, and 
that their places be filled with soldiers or citizens who are unfit for 
active military service. 

Second. Be wt further resolved, That this General Assembly are of 
the opinion that the details of soldiers from the Army to labor in 
workshops, foundries, and other places, and upon railroads, have 
been entirely too numerous, and in many instances useless, and that 
in the opinion of this body slaves should be required by the Confed- 
erate States to take places of all those soldiers who are detailed to 
labor in the places herein mentioned, when it can be done without 
prejudice to the service, and that prompt and efficient measures 
should at once be adopted to effect these purposes. 

Third. Be w further resolved, That this General Assembly ear- 
nestly calls the attention of the President and Secretary of War of the 
Confederate States to this subject as requiring immediate and ener- 
getic action on the part of the Government. 

Fourth. Be a further resolved, That this General Assembly recom- 
mend to Congress such a modification of the exemption law as will 
correct the evils herein named, and thereby increase the strength of 
our military force. | 

Fifth. Be wt further resolved, That in view of the fact that the 
Government of the United States has determined to put in the field 
negro soldiers, and are enlisting and drafting the slaves of the peo- 
ple of the South, this General Assembly submits for the considera- 
- tion of Congress the propriety and policy of using in some effective 
way a certain percentage of the male slave population of the Con- 
federate States, and to perform such services as Congress may by 
law direct. | 

Sixth. Be a further resolved, That the Governor transmit a copy 
of these resolutions to the President of the Confederate States, the 
Secretary of War, and a copy to each of our Senators and Represent- 
atives from this State in the Confederate Congress, 

Approved August 29, 1863, 


768 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., August 29, 1863. 
Prof. JOHN M. RICHARDSON, 
Marietta, Ga.: 


Sir: I have received your application for authority to raise a bat- 
talion or regiment in Georgia. In reply, you are respectfully informed 
that no authority can be given to recruit any who are liable to con- 
scription, whether enrolled or not. The only class from whom com- 
panies can be formed are those strictly non-conscripts, and no special 
authority is given or required to raise corps composed of such mate- 
rial. Any one is free to try the experiment, and if a company be raised 
it will be accepted. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., August 29, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I have the honor toinclose a report from the commandant of con- 
seripts for South Carolina. I fear that itis as truthful as it is graphic. 
It certainly exhibits a most unhappy condition of things among a peo- 
ple heretofore perhaps the most loyal. In other States the condition 
is worse, if possible. I am using all the agencies within the control 
of this Bureau to meet the case. I have addressed an appeal to Gov- 
ernor Bonham to exert the whole executive power in aid of my officers. 
These officers are devoted, intelligent, and active. I would respect- 
fully suggest a communication direct from yourself to the Governors 
of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, asking their 
active co-operation with the efforts of this Bureau, especially in plac- 
ing at its disposal the civil authorities and the militia force. I am pre- 
paring some suggestions for their recommendation to the Legislatures. 
The matter appears to me grave enough for the active interference of 
higher authority. I hope in the course of a few weeks to be able to 
visit in person the different localities for the purpose of supervising 
temporarily the organizations in progress under the instructions of 
this Bureau. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. 8. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[First indorsement. ] 


Referred to General Lee. 

In connection with the papers sent you this morning, permit me to 
ask your attention to the inclosed likewise. Some decisive measures 
are essential to arrest this fearful evil. 

Je. Ay cee 


[Second indorsement. ] 
HEADQUARTERS, 
September 15, 1863. 
Respectfully returned. 
These men seem to be in combination with those in North Carolina. 
General Hoke with troops has been to the latter State in the hope of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 769 


breaking up that gang. Captain Boykin’s cavalry has been sent by 
the Governor of South Carolina to the disaffected region in South Car- 
olina. I understand arrangements have also been made for calling 
into service men not within conscript age and placing them under the 
direction of the Conscript Bureau for the performance of the duty 
herein contemplated. I do not know that anything more can be done 
at present. 
R. E. LEE, 


General. 
{Inclosure. | 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Columbia, August 25, 1868. 
Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, 
Superintendent of Conscription: 
COLONEL: In your communication of the 17th instant my attention 
is called to a letter from Maj. A. W.G. Davis, of Greenville, addressed 
to President Davis, giving information as to the great number of 
deserters in that district. The statement is regarded by you as per- 
haps ‘‘somewhat exaggerated for want of accurate information,” and 
I am ordered to direct ‘‘ Major Ashmore to make a proper investiga- 
tion.” I regret to say there is too much reason to believe that the 
statement of Major Davis is not exaggerated. From Major Ashmore 
I have a report on the subject under date of August 7, somewhat in 
detail, a copy of which I inclose and ask your attention to the same. 
I also inclose copies of two other communications from Major Ash- 
more of dates 16th and 17th instant on the same subject. This con- 
dition of things is not confined alone to the district of Greenville. In 
Pickens and Spartanburg the same is found—the disaffection being 
very much limited to the mountainous portions of those districts along 
the North Carolina line. oon 
From the districts named, and indeed from these very localities now 
infested with deserters, were raised some of the best companies in 
service from this State. The people, however, are poor, ill-informed, 
and but little identified with our struggle. They have therefore been 
easily seduced from their duty. The mountain coverts have furnished 
concealment from those sent to effect their arrest. The success of 
one in securing immunity from service has emboldened .others, and 
the evil has gone on increasing until there can now be found few 
families which have not a husband, a son, a brother, or kinsman, a 
deserter in the mountains. The tone of the people is lost; it is no 
longer a reproach to be known as a deserter; all are ready to encourage 
and aid the efforts of those who are avoiding duty, and to refuse 
information to and thwart and even resist those who seek to make 
arrests. The desertions from General Evans’ brigade on its route 
from Charleston to Jackson a few months ago largely increased the 
number in these districts. Of that brigade one regiment, the Sixteenth 
South Carolina Volunteers (Colonel McCullough), was made up almost 
exclusively of companies from these districts. They had been nearly 
two years from home; had but recently closed an arduous campaign 
in North Carolina; were ordered to Charleston, where they hoped to 
remain. ‘The order to go forward to the west was the signal for a 
general desertion. These took their arms with them, intending, as I 
am satisfied, to return to their commands after a hurried visit to their 
families. But finding among their friends and throughout the country 


49 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


770 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


a change of tone, a weariness with the war, a readiness to counsel and 
encourage desertion, they have with but few exceptions remained at 
home. And now from other regiments others are coming out; letters 
are written from home giving deplorable pictures of the destitution of 
families. Some few persons of property and some social position are 
advising and inducing new desertions, and I am informed that it is 
not uncommon for squads of ten or fifteen to come in from the army, 
having made their way across the country on foot, and generally 
bringing their arms. 

On the North Carolina side the desertions from General Clingman’s 
brigade are, I am informed, daily increasing their numbers. This 
condition of affairs has brought its obvious results. Lawlessness 
pervades the country; the lives and property of the well affected are 
endangered; the necessities of mutual protection has thrown them 
into bands; resistance to arrest is organized; they know their leaders, 
and have their signals of danger and of distress. 'To meet this state 
of affairs I have felt the utter inadequacy of the ordinary agencies at 
my command. To attempt to organize and equip men for this special 
service would involve much delay. The conscripts liable under the 
late call are yet in the districts, nearly all being members of the 
recently organized State regiments, but the using them would be 
attended with difficulties and embarrassments not to be readily over- 
come. Of course calls upon the commanding general at present are 
out of the question. In this emergency I have thought it proper to 
appeal to His Excellency Governor Bonham. I am gratified to add 
that he has evinced the liveliest appreciation of the magnitude of the 
evil, its importance as affecting the success of our cause, the honor 
of the State, and the internal welfare of our people, and the necessity 
for immediate and vigorous measures. He promptly tendered me the 
aid of a company of mounted men under Captain Boykin, which has 
been in service as State troops for the past twelve months, and with 
the consent of the commanding general under whom they have been 
on duty at Georgetown, orders were at once extended to Captain Boy- 
kin to report for duty under my direction. He also did me the honor 
*to accede to my suggestion of communicating to Governor Vance his 
action in the premises and to ask of him the institution of measures 
on the North Carolina side and the acting in concert with our efforts. 
The company of Captain Boykin will report in a few days with sev- 
enty men. This company I propose to order to Greenville District to 
take their position in the heart of the disaffected region and there 
remain until the country shall be cleaned of its malcontents. Tothe 
strength of this company I propose to add as many as may be needed, 
selecting them from the number of those who have volunteered for 
cavalry service and who can mount and equip themselves. I will 
also organize such conscripts as are now under my control at the 
camp of instruction, to which accessions may soon be had from the 
districts, with the view of using them as an infantry force in the event 
that the resistance to arrest shall assume the shape of an organized 
rebellion. 

Having communicated all that I think it necessary now to bring to 
your attention, I respectfully ask the benefit of any suggestions that 
may oceur to you. 

I have the honor to be, very truly, yours, 
C. D. MELTON, 
Commandant of Conscripts for South Carolina. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 71 
[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


HEADQUARTERS CHIEF ENROLLING OFFICE, 
FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Greenville, S. C., August 7, 1862. 
Maj. C. D. MELTON, 
Commanding Camp of Conscription: 

MAJorR: In addition to the’ consolidated report from these head- 
quarters sent you this day, I beg leave to submit the following fact 
showing the condition of things within this command for the month 
of July just closed: 

On the 29th of June I assumed the responsibilities of the command 
to which, under the order of the Conscript Bureau, you assigned me. 
As soon as it was practicable I visited each of the local enrolling 
offices (Greenville, Anderson, Pickens, Spartanburg, and Union) and 
established my headquarters at the center position, Greenville. For 
the want of books and the repeated change of enrolling officers I 
found more or less confusion in the mode and manner of keeping the 
rolls and records of each of the local offices, and offered such sug- 
gestions for the systematizing and order of business as my own 
limited experience and information enabled metodo. I have not 
since had the opportunity of visiting the several posts to ascertain 
whether any improvement has been made. The conscription of per- 
sons liable to military duty up to the age of forty years has been 
nearly perfected, but a large number, as will be seen by my con- 
solidated report of the local officers, particularly from Spartanburg 
and Pickens, have not reported for duty and are now declared desert- 
ers by law. In addition to these a very large number of deserters 
from different commands in the armies of the Confederate States have 
been reported for arrest, making in the aggregate 502 deserters. From 
information obtained from many citizens of the highest respectability 
it is known that a large number of deserters, not yet reported to the 
local enrolling officers from any official source, are within the bounds 
of this command, swelling the aggregate in all probability to several 
hundred more. They have taken refuge in the mountain fastnesses 
and passes of the districts of Greenville, Pickens, and Spartanburg, 
and are confined chiefly to these three districts. 

On the 13th of July I issued an order in the character of an earnest 
appeal urging them to return to their duty, a printed copy of which 
is herewith annexed,* the only effect of which has been to excite their 
ridicule and contempt, with the exception of some four or five indi- 
viduals who have been furnished, or are to be, with transportation to 
your headquarters. This large body of deserters are spread over a 
large frontier border of over 150 miles, every foot of which is a moun- 
tain country and much of it almost inaccessible. They are banded 
together in tens, twenties, and thirties, are bold, defiant, and even 
threatening. I have made two excursions to endeavor to see some of 
their leaders, but have not been able to obtain an interview with any 
one of them. They have spies and signals to indicate the approach 
of strangers, and are armed, many of them with Government arms 
with which they deserted, and are all with weapons such as fowling 
pieces, revolvers, &c. Ihave visited, and had to call on me at these 
headquarters, a very large number of the best and most loyal citizens 
of the country, who with united voice say that nothing but force can 
avail anything in bringing these deluded men back to their duty. 


* Not found. 


Ue CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


They are unfortunately sustained in their conduct by many persons 
who have been heretofore regarded as good and loyal citizens, and 
who, if they do not proclaim. hostility to our cause, urge that it is 
lost because of the speculations and extortions so ampant throughout 
the land, and which, as it is alleged by them, has been the cause of 
our disasters in not supplying the Army and victualing our fortified 
posts. This argument is unfortunately too true, and cannot be met 
by a denial. They swear by all they hold sacred that they will die at 
home before they will ever be dragged forth again to do battle for 
such a cause. In aword, if one-tenth part of the information lodged 
with me be reliable, and I do not believe that it is exaggerated in the 
smallest particular, there is a most lamentable and fearful condition 
of affairs in the mountains of Greenville, Pickens, and Spartanburg. 
Their chief points of rendezvous in Pickens are the mouth of Brass 
Town Creek, on Tugaloo, the passes west and northwest of Tunnel 
Hill, Cheohee, bordering the Jocassee Valley, and Table Rock. Almost 
every intermediate pass and valley, however, is occupied by a desert- 
er’s cabin, who on the approach of a stranger flies to the rocks and 
ravines where, taking his perch, he sees and observes all that is going 
on, safe from the eye of his pursuer (if pursued) until a eall or halloo 
from wife or child assures him of safety. In Greenville their chief 
points are at Ceesar’s Head, Potts’ Cove, Solomon’s Jaws, Turnpike, 
Saluda Gap, on the headwaters of the Tye ger, Howard’s s Gap, and Hog- 
back Mountain, as well as all intermediate points. In Spartanburg 
they seem to have no special rendezvous in the mountains, but occupy 
their farm-houses in the valleys and on the hills, and by a well- 
arranged system of signals give warning of the approach of danger. 
On an island in Broad River, just where Spartanburg and Union unite, 
contiguous to York, it is alleged that some | sic] or more occupy it each 
night. The island can only be approached in bateaux and flats, and 
common rumor asserts that this party is fortifying the same. This I 
can searce believe, and have no authentic information on the subject. 

I have had no means or resources at my command to encounter, 
overcome, and suppress this condition of things. No personal influ- 
ences can or will have any effect. I have not been able to mount and 
put in service a single wounded or disabled soldier to arrest these 
parties except the few recommended for detail to your headquarters 
who furnish their own transportation (horses) free of charge. Hiring 
a horse is next thing to impossible, and utterly so at less than from 
$5 to $7 per diem. The demon of gain and the love of filthy lucre has 
seized the hearts and souls of our people, until like an atmosphere it 
permeates everybody, everthing, and every place. 

I honestly and conscientiously believe if the tramp of the enemy’s 
cavalry were heard in every farm-yard throughout the land, in every 
tan-yard, shoe shop, mill, cotton factory, wool-carding machine, store 
yard, salt depot, and slaughter pen, and they were to come with purses 
in their hands instead of drawn swords and loaded weapons, they 
could and would command whatever they wanted (but from a few 
self-sacrificing persons), provided they would pay the prices demanded 
and be permitted to depart without harm or molestation. 

In view of this alarming condition of affairs here I have com- 
menced and shall continue to detail from amongst the conscripts 
between forty and forty-five years of age, recently called for by the 
President, a number of men in each enrolling district, of the most 
determined and fearless character, who will mount themselves suffi- 
cient to meet the exigency; and I have strong hopes of securing or at 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. U73 


least driving from their hiding-places the whole body of deserters 
now prowling and skulking within the borders of this command. I 
shall not be able to put this force to work (unless it be a few individ- 
uals) earlier than the 20th of August, instant, or the 1st of September, 
the period fixed by order for them to report for duty as volunteers or 
conscripts. 

I should have stated in the foregoing part of this report that sev- 
eral bands of deserters work on their farms together, traverse the 
country with traveling thrashing machines, and congregate at. still- 
yards and houses where quantities of liquor are distilled by them, and 
Swear vengeance against any one who approaches with the intention 
of molesting them. ‘The true and loyal citizens are afraid to turn out 
and aid the officers, as not only their lives, but the destruction of 
their homes and property is boldly threatened if they dare to give aid 
and assistance to the authorities in arresting them and punishing 
these offenders. 

See Sergt. J. P. Pool’s report accompanying this.* 

Respectfully submitted. 

JNO. D. ASHMORE, 
Ma. and Chef Enrolling Officer, Fifth Cong. Dist. of S. C. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


HEADQUARTERS CHIEF ENROLLING OFFICE, 
FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Greenville, S. C., August 16, 1868. 
[Maj. C. D. MELTON: | 


MaAJor: Lieutenant Elliott and Sergeant Pool report that they were 
twice fired on last week in the mountains of Greenville while quietly 
riding in the road engaged in a reconnoitering expedition to ascertain 
the whereabouts of certain bands of deserters. They further report 
that a heavy log building northeast of Greenville Court-House, located 
in the vicinity of Gowensville, has been loop-holed and prepared for 
defense. Serious depredations upon the property of loyal citizens 
have been perpetrated within the last few days by prowling bands of 
deserters who are constantly on the increase. A number have arrived 
this last week from the Twenty-second South Carolina Regiment, who 
have walked across the country from Augusta. 

I have ordered. Captain Hawthorne to make a requisition on you for 
powder, shot, and buckshot and to report at these headquarters to 
take command of a detachment of conscripts which I am now engaged 
in detailing and getting ready to suppress this lawlessness and secure 
the deserters. You will please furnish him some forty or fifty rounds 
of the same for double-barreled shotguns to the number of forty. 
Nothing but prompt and determined action can save us from ruin in 
the mountains of Pickens, Greenville, and Spartanburg. I have 
ordered Captain Hawthorne to bring a swivel or 6-pounder to demol- 
ish a block-house. There is nothing left for us now but a determined 
front and to fight it out. By demolishing this building we may save 
the effusion of blood and so alarm these lawless men as to drive them 
out of the country and back to their duty. I deeply deprecate the 
necessity, but there is no alternative. 

Iam, with great respect, &e., 
JNO. D. ASHMORE, 
Ma). and Chief Enrolling Officer, Fifth Cong. Dist. of S. C-. 


* Not found. 


TTA CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 3.] 


HEADQUARTERS CHIEF ENROLLING OFFICE, 
FIFTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
Greenville, S. C., August 17, 1863. 
[Maj. C. D. MELTON: | 


Magor: I fortunately met Captain Hawthorne and Captain Southern 
here this morning. I have advised the former to report to you in 
Columbia to-morrow and make requisition for powder, shot, &c., to 
break up the bands of deserters in this district, who are committing 
serious depredations and threatening the citizens with violence, and 
with bringing in the enemy’s forces to invade us. Captain 8. accom- 
panies him at my request, and can give you a fearful account of the 
actual condition of things in our mountains. They cannot well be 
exaggerated, and our whole people are asleep to the dangers that sur- 
round them. On yesterday I prepared the papers that he will present 
you. Onthis morning three additional reports of depredations and 
threatened violence of a most aggravated character are brought me. 
I am powerless and helpless to control it. I find that the conscripts 
are nearly all afraid to engage in the service to arrest them, as the 
torch and knife is freely threatened by these reckless and lawless 
men, if they do. I think and respectfully urge that you place a 
detachment of men under the command of Captain Hawthorne taken 
from a distance. If something is not done, and that speedily, we are 
given over to the control of lawlessness and crime. Nothing but ° 
severe remedies can control the disease. The numbers of deserters 
are increasing daily. Just across the line of Greenville, in Spartan- 
burg, on Saturday night, a Mr. Wright’s house was burned to the 
ground, as it is alleged, by deserters. Another rendezvous, near 
Lester’s factory, about twelve miles south of east from this place, 
has been established, and Mr. Lester informs me to-day that they 
have threatened to burn him up. I repeat, major, that nothing but 
severe measures will do now. We must meet force by force. At 
this last rendezvous they are said to be thirty strong. Captain 
Southern informs me that they have elected officers and are regularly 
organized in the mountains, where every woman and child is a watch. 
and guard for.them. The sound of one horn is answered by a dozen, 
which warns them of approach. I earnestly urge that Hawthorne be 
supplied with all that is necessary, and that he may report here for 
duty by the evening of the 20th instant. 

I am, with great respect, &c., 
JNO. D. ASHMORE, 
Maj. and Chief Enrolling Officer, Fifth Cong. Dist. of S. C. 


HEADQUARTERS, 
Morton, Miss., August 30, 1863. 
Brigadier-General PILLOW, 
Superintendent of Conscripts, &c.: 


Sir: After carefully reading your letter to General Cooper General 
Johnston concludes that there is no necessity for forwarding it. Of 
the four points on which you request orders General Johnston has 
control of the latter three and can issue the orders you request. In 
relation to the first point there are too few cases under it to require a 
final application to the War Department about it. The desertions 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 75 


_ from infantry to cavalry can be corrected by the enforcement of exist- 
ing orders by commanders in the field. The statements contained in 
your letter on this head are too general for action. If you will be 
more specific and give information where deserters are to be found 
proper orders will be at once issued. 

Your communication to General Cooper is respectfully returned. 

By command of General Johnston: 

BENJ. 8. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[Inclosure.] 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
~ Columbus, Miss., August 28, 1868. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General Confederate States: 


You are aware of the fact that for the present we have lost the 
population of Tennessee and large portions of Mississippi for building 
up our armies. Thus curtailed in our territory and population, we 
must gather in hand all the men which it is possible to put into the 
service to fill up our reduced infantry regiments. The late call for 
troops for local defense and special service has brought out large 
numbers of cavalry organizations—two-thirds of which I think are 
conscripts. Then, again, I meet with bodies of cavalry partly raised 
under authority of the Secretary of War, granted last winter and 
spring, in different parts of the country. All these organizations and 
parts of organizations absorb the conscript population and decrease 
the sources of supply from which we must draw to fill up the old 
regiments. In addition to this loss of men, the fact of the existence 
of such cavalry organizations in all parts of the country where there 
were men to be found (that service being universally preferred) keeps 
alive the aversion to the infantry service, and is a serious obstacle to 
all successful efforts to increase the infantry arm of the service. The 
embarrassment arising from these causes is one of much greater mag- 
nitude than the Government supposes. It is only when brought into 
practical conflict with these influences, existing far and wide in this 
conscript department, that they can be seen and felt. Indeed it is 
the chief obstacle in my way to successful effort in building up the 
infantry. In all the organizations under the late call for troops for 
local defense I have not heard of a single infantry company being 
formed. It is almost impossible to get the conscripts out of these 
organizations. These troops are strongly opposed to it. The officers 
throw all the obstacles in the way they can, and the State executive 
officers naturally sympathize with both. 

Again, desertion of the infantry to join the cavalry service is an 
evil of such magnitude as to demoralize the infantry and endanger 
its very existence. I think that fully two-thirds of the commands of 
Generals Roddey and Chalmers are composed of deserters from the 
infantry. In one case a captain of General Johnston’s army with 
nearly his whole company have abandoned that army and gone into 
Roddey’s command, and he and nearly all his company are now with 
Roddey. The men of General Brage’s army and General Johnston’s 
are constantly sloughing off, going to their homes, and after staying 
there a few days are joining the cavalry. If the evil is not cured the 
cavalry will swallow up the infantry arm of the service. Nothing but 
the most stringent orders of the Government will put a stop to this 


176 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


evil. I have in vain recently and formerly tried to get these men 
back. I have no right to give any orders to those cavalry com- 
manders. The representations of those evils that I make have failed 
to bring out these men. The twentieth paragraph of Regulations is 
explicit enough, but I have no means of following up these deserters 
in large cavalry commands to bring them out. To correct all these 
evils and existing sources of embarrassment I respectfully suggest 
for the consideration of the Department the necessity of the following 
orders: 

First. To revoke all authority heretofore granted to raise cavalry 
commands not yet organized, except from within the enemy’selines. 

Second. To prohibit the existing cavalry organizations from receiy- 
ing conscript recruits for ninety days. 

Third. To allow me to exercise my judgment to take out of exist- 
ing local organizations of cavalry the conscripts, or to receive the 
existing organizations, including conscripts and non-conscripts, for 
the war. 

Fourth. A positive order requiring cavalry commanders to cali for 
company reports designating all men belonging to infantry com- 
mands, and to restore to the infantry arm all deserters from the 
infantry arm, except those who have come from within the enemy’s 
lines. 

Orders upon these points would greatly aid the effort to build and 
keep up the infantry. 

The position I occupy as superintendent of the conseript and vol- 
unteer bureau of this department makes me responsible to the Goy- 
ernment and country for the success of its efforts to build up our 
armies. This being so, is it not proper for me to control the influ- 
ences which mar my success and the elements of strength which must 
be brought into action in strengthening our armies? I therefore ask 
that in addition to the orders above suggested you will give me con- 
trol over the whole subject of organization, subject to the com- 
manders of these departments or of the War Department. If I do 
not wisely exercise the discretion, it is easy for you to suspend the 
authority or to displace me. I do not desire the position I am in. 
The service is most distasteful to my feelings. I want to be in the 
field; but if I cannot get a command, and am required to occupy my 
present position, remove the obstacles to my success which I point 
out and sustain me with your confidence, and I am willing to be 
responsible to the Government for success. Otherwise, success could 
hardly be expected. I am persuaded, sir, that you will perceive the 
justness of this position and will grant this application, and I ask an 
order to that effect. 

Presenting these views to Major Spann, who has authority to raise 
a regiment of cavalry, and he being satisfied with their correctness, 
he promptly determined to abandon the effort, although he had sev- 
eral companies organized, and with unselfish patriotism proposed to 
visit Richmond with this dispatch and to explain these views more 
fully to you. Major Spann’s visit to me was official, for the purpose 
of obtaining authority to prevent my officers from interfering with 
the completion of his organization. I declined to do so, and have 
convinced his judgment of the propriety of the views I have herein 
submitted. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Supt. Department of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippr. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. TU7 


Respectfully submitted for consideration of General Johnston, and 
through him to Secretary of War. 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army. 


[ AUGUST 30, 1863.—For Smith to Magruder, in relation to a propo-— 
sition of Colonel Sulakowski to raise troo ps in Bur ope for the Confed- 
erate service, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part IT, p. 189.] 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 116. Richmond, August 31, 1863. 

I. Generals or other officers commanding departments, armies in 
the field, posts, or garrisons will cause all deserters, stragglers, or 
other absentees from duty, and all persons liable to military service 
found within their lines and not belonging to their command, to be 
forthwith arrested and turned over to the nearest enrolling officer, 
whose duty it shall be to forward such absentees to their proper com- 
mand, or, in case of conscripts, to assign them to service in the army 
nearest to his post, according to his discretion. 

II. Under instructions from the Bureau of Conseription an enrolling 
officer will be attached to each military department to carry out the 
purposes indicated in paragraph I. 

III. Overseers entitled to exemption will be exempted from military 
service for one year, when the owner of the slaves of whom the over- 
seer has had charge shall present to the enrolling officer the receipt 
of a quartermaster for the amount of the tax imposed in such cases 
by the act of Congress approved May 1, 1863. Officers of the Quar- 
termaster’s Department are directed a0 receive and receipt for money 
thus paid. Z 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


- RICHMOND, August 31, 1863. 
Governor J. E. BRown, 
Milledgeville, Gia.: 


We are advised that a formidable force of the enemy is advancing 
on East Tennessee. Cannot the local troops organized by you be 
thrown to aid? 

J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ooo 


[| AUGUST 31, 1863.—For Smith’s order in relation to the enrollment 
of troops in Texas, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, p. 194. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 118. Richmond, September 1, 1863. 
I. All officers of the Quartermaster’s Department serving at posts 
or depots wili report immediately to the Quartermaster-General their 


178 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


location, the character of the duties discharged by them, and by whose 
order they were so assigned. 

II. The principal quartermaster at each post or depot will likewise 
report the names of all quartermasters serving thereat. He will also 
examine carefully into the occupation of each officer, and will desig- 
nate such as can be spared for service elsewhere. 

III. The chief quartermaster of each separate army will forward to 
the Quartermaster-General, at the earliest practicable day, a complete 
list of all his subordinates, stating specifically the regiment, brigade, 
division, or corps to which each may be attached, or when engaged on 
special duty, the character thereof. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


NITER AND MINING BUREAU, 
Selma Office, September 1, 1868. 


The great difficulty in procuring coal for the use of the service has 
induced me to order the following report from the engineer attached 
to the Bureau to be printed. It is respectfully submitted for the con- 
sideration of ordnance and other officers in charge of arsenals and 
foundries: 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, NITER AND MINING BUREAU,, 
Selma, Ala., August 24, 1863. 
WILLIAM RICHARDSON HUNT, 
Major, &c., in charge of Iron and Mining 
of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina: — 

Masor: In-reply to your communication stating the general complaint of iron 
founders ‘‘ that most of the pig metal furnished ordnance depots upon requisition 
is so hard as to be unfit for foundry purposes,” I beg to state the following facts 
bearing upon the production of pig metal in the blast furnace, and upon the 
process of remelting it in the cupola: 

It is admitted by all conversant with the subject that crude or pig metal is 
soft in proportion to the quantity of carbon combined with it. This is true, pro- 
vided that other substances, not unfrequently found in the ore, and having so 
strong an affinity for the metal as to resist the action of the blast furnace, do not 
remain combined with it and counteract or neutralize the effect of the carbon. 
When this occurs to such a degree as to cause the iron to be uniformly ‘‘ white,” 
itis unfit for foundry purposes; but there is no furnace in the district under your 
charge using ore so marked in this respect as to be condemned. 

The generally accepted evidence and test of the degree of carbonization of pig’ 
metal is in the size of the crystal, as exhibited in the fracture, in connection with 
- the depth of color known as ‘‘ gray.” In general terms, the larger the crystal and 
the darker the shade of color the softer will be the metal. The type of this class 
of metals is the ‘‘ Scotch pig,” so highly prized not from any innate quality, or 
that intrinsically it is a superior metal, but that its excess of carbon admits of its 
mixture with metals that, used alone, would baffle the skill of the founder and 
resist the hardest steel. In fact, it is a fixed measure of carbon, by which the 
skillful founder regulates all his operations. 

In the reduction of iron ore in the blast furnace the degree of carbonization of 
the metal, other things being equal, is in exact ratio to the mechanical division 
of the ore and the time its particles remain in atomic contact with the coal while 
at a comparatively low temperature. Subsequently, however, a large proportion 
of the carbon absorbed in the upper part of the furnace may be, and frequently is, 
subtracted in the lower part, unless the fluid or semi-fluid metal be protected from 
contact with the oxygen of the blast by sufficient fluid cinder. Nor is the metal 
safe in ignorant hands even after it has reached this point. It may be materially 
injured in the ‘‘ pig-bed” by excess of moisture in the sand, even should it not be 
so wet as to cause a ‘‘ boil,” and still more by that pernicious practice of many 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. TF9 


furnace men, the rapid cooling of the pig with water, and then ‘“‘ racking ” them 
So as to expose their entire surface to the atmosphere while at a bright-red heat. 
The subtraction of the carbon is evidenced by the thin enamel of white iron sur- 
rounding the pig, and the rapid cooling by the smallness of the crystals, caused 
by the agitation of the mass so long as it remains sufficiently fluid to admit of 
position among its particles. If the fracture shows a dull or ‘“ dead-gray,” not- 
withstanding the crystals may be small, it is still a soft iron, as may be proven 
with a chisel or file. If I may beallowed the expression, it appears in a measure 
to have lost its hold upon or affinity for the carbon, without actually parting 
with it, and when metal thus treated is run through the cupola in the ordinary 
manner, it comes out hard; but with proper treatment it may be made not only 
ope its original carbon, but to take up more, and consequently to become 
softer. 

I will explain: Ordinarily the cupola is heated ; then charges of coal and iron 
are put in alternately until it is filled, and a full, strong blast is put on very 
shortly after. Founders not unfrequently boast of the short time in which they 
can ‘‘ bring down the iron” after they begin to charge. The result is that the 
change of temperature is very sudden, the metal flows in a melted state from 
high up in the cupola down through‘the mass, in small streams or globules, and, 
not having the cinder to protect it from the action of the blast, as it has in the 
blast furnace, the excess of oxygen seizes the carbon of the iron, and it actually 
consumes or burns up, while any sulphur or other degenerating substances in the 
coal combines with the iron. 

If rather a full bed of coke or charcoal be placed in the cupola after the ordi- 
nary preliminary of drying and heating, and the charges thereafter follow 
regularly, but rather more slowly, than is the usual practice—the object being 
not to smother the fire—barely sufficient air being admitted at the top hole and 
tuyéres meanwhile to ignite the mass, and it be allowed to remain in this condi- 
tion for several hours, the metal not only undergoes a process of annealing, but 
one somewhat analogous to ‘‘cementation.” It will take up or absorb carbon 
from the coal, while if the fuel used contains sulphur it will be expelled. 

The blast should be soft and diffused, barely sufficient to bring down the metal 
as drawn into the ladle—it will come down too fast under a strong blast—and 
from pig ordinarily too hard for foundry purposes used by itself, sound, sharp, 
soft castings may be made. 

There appears to be an opinion prevailing among iron founders that charcoal 
cannot be used advantageously in the cupola, and I have even heard the assertion 
that its successful application was impossible. It is not generally known that 
charcoal was the fuel first used for this purpose, that in many countries it alone 
is still used, and that where stone coal and coke have superseded it, it was simply 
as a measure of economy. The first cost was less, they require less skillful manipu- 
lation, and the melting capacity of the cupola was increased. To these were 
sacrificed the quality of the iron, for the reason that with an unobstructed market 
‘Scotch pig” could always be obtained at comparatively a small advance upon 
the cost of other metal, and with this at hand the required amount of carbon 
lacking in other stock could be supplied at will. 

Under the existing state of affairs the supply of No. 1 pig metal is so limited, 
and will not be increased until ironmasters become better acquainted with fur- 
nace operations, and more deeply impressed with the advantage, as well as impor- 
tance, of a more perfect and thorough preparation of their ‘‘ stock,” that iron- 
founders will be compelled to resort to the process above indicated. In fact, it is 
probable that the supply of stone coal, and consequently of coke, will be so 
reduced, or required for rolling-mills, that the use of charcoal for foundry pur- 
poses will become an absolute necessity. , 

To produce the best results with this fuel, the cupola should be from one-fourth 
to one-third higher than those generally in use for coke. The advantage of the 
softness of the blast has been sufficiently dwelt upon, but I will add that the 
quantity of air required is simply enough to support combustion to a degree that 
will raise the temperature just above the tuyéres to the melting point of iron. 
Any excess will harden the metal, cut the charcoal away, bring the charges down 
too rapidly, and require a larger quantity of coal to sustain the burden. Three, 
four, or more tuyéres are better than one or two, and they should be large and so 
directed as to distribute the blast as perfectly as possible, and as low in thecupola 
as admissable without encroaching upon the hearth. 

My opinion is that it is not advisable under any circumstances to retain the 
metal in the cupola after itis melted. When a large quantity is required for a 
single casting, it is far preferable to draw it off, pour it into a suitable ladle, and 
protect its surface with braise, or fine charcoal, until it is let into the mold. 


780 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


By giving the increased height to the cupola and charging as directed, from 
three to four hours in advance, but little longer time will be required to make a 
run, after the first tapping, than would be occupied with coke used in the ordi- 
nary way, and by giving that time, the same weight of metal may be brought 
down, not only without any difficulty, but improved in quality, instead of having 
deteriorated. 

With thirty pounds of charcoal I have melted 100 pounds of Nos. 2 and 3 cold- 
blast iron, mixed in about equal proportions, in a cupola not specially adapted to 
the purpose; and, by way of experiment, have, with seventy pounds of coal, 
brought down the metal so highly carbonized that it deposited the carburet of 
iron, or the kish of the blast-furnace, in the ladles and about t»e runner of the 
molds and filled the air with its glistening particles. 

Castings from iron thus surcharged with or having an excess of carbon will not 
be sound. The cohesive attraction between the particles of metal is impaired or 
destroyed, and there will be cavities throughout the entire piece, lined with crys- 
talized carburet, and not unfrequently containing detached crystals, or lamina of 
the same substance. 

Any degree of carbonization may be obtained, in a cupola of sufficient height, 
by varying the charge of coal.the time given to the annealing process, and by 
regulating the blast which controls the descent of the charges. 


Respectfully submitted. 
R. B. GORSUCH, 


Engineer and Inspector of Mines and Furnaces, 
under Niter and Mining Bureau. 


WM. RICHARDSON HUNT, 
Major of Artillery, in Charge of Iron and Mining of 
Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. 


AuaustTa, GA., September 1, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON: 


They could not be compelled to go out of the State, but I believe 
many of them would go if they had arms. They are generally with- 
out arms. If you will have 5,000 guns sent to me at Atlanta I will 
order transportation and supplies to such as respond to my eall. I 
think I ean get the men. They will consist of regiments, battalions, 
and companies. Who shall command them? Shall I assign them a - 
commanding general for the time, or do you claim that as a right? 
Send reply to this place. 

J. KE. BROWN, 
Governor. 


[First indorsement. | 


SEPTEMBER 2, 1863. 


Respectfully submitted for the information of the President. I 
should be pleased to receive instructions on the subject of the officers. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement. | 


The question depends on the character of the troops. If militia, I 
have no power to appoint the commander or other officers; if troops 
of the Confederate States, I have no power to delegate the appointing 
power. 

JEFFE’N DAVIS. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 781 — 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 1, 1863. 
Maj. A. H. McLaws, 
Inspecting Officer for Georgia: 

SIR: You will proceed, upon conference with the commandant of 
conscripts for the State of Georgia, to make such partial inspections 
regarding the business of conscription in the State as have been 
orally indicated. The necessary journeys from point to point to 
execute your instructions will be made by you without further orders. 
You have the authority of this Bureau to revoke the short assign- 
ments or suspend the appointment of incompetent, inefficient, or 
physically disabled persons now on enrolling duty, making in every 
case a full report of your action and the reasons therefor. Such per- 
sons, if members of regiments, will be ordered to report to their mili- 
tary commanders in person or. by letter, as their health may admit, 
and you will inform the commanders accordingly. Ifofficersappointed 
on enrolling service are found incompetent, the revocation of their 
appointment will be suggested for the final action of the War Depart- 
ment. The necessary selections or reeommendations to replace those 
removed or to fill vacancies will be made by you on consultation with 
the commandant for the State, and preferably by the assignment of 
wounded or disabled officers and soldiers, other things being equal. 
Conscripts may be detailed if necessary. If you find persons not 
liable to service with qualifications specially adapted to this duty, you 
will recommend their appointment, giving full information as to their 
fitness. It is not desirable to increase commissions outside the service. 
Your attention is specially directed to the condition of the organiza- 
tion in the various districts and counties, and you will use your 
endeavors to complete such organization whenever defective, both as 
to medical boards of examination and enrolling officers. You will 
put yourself in communication with His Excellency the Governor of 
the State and Major Lee, now raising a force for arresting deserters, 
to be employed under the command of this Bureau, inviting their 
co-operation in the execution of your instructions whenever their aid 
may be requisite. You will report through the commandant for the 
State to this Bureau by letter as occasion may require, reporting in 
detail the condition of the service, how far the agencies of conscription 
are successful in securing for the Army all the conscript material of 
the State, and in the general execution of the law; how far the organ- 
ization for the business of conseription is incomplete from an insuffi- 
ciency of enrolling officers for the districts and counties, or the want 
of medical boards of examination, and suggesting appropriate reme- 
dies for such other defects as your inspections may bring to your 
notice. You will also see that the details granted under the various 
orders from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office are not so 
employed as to be evasive and a refuge from active service in the 
field. Complaints are frequent that the details in the express com- 
panies and factories are excessive, and in many instances illegally 
granted. ‘To this whole subject of details your attention is specially 
ealled. Any other abuses that may be brought to your notice will be 
duly reported. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. 8. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


782 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPARTMENT OF ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Columbus, Miss., September 1, 1863. 
Col. BENJAMIN S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 


The report of Captain Flemming of the condition of the country 
and demoralization of the population and the number of deserters 
who infest the coast having been laid before me and carefully consid- 
ered in connection with the operations of this bureau, I feel it my 
duty to state that I have extended the organization of this bureau as 
far into that region as I consider it safe and prudent so to do. I 
have a rendezvous at Columbia and an outpost at Monticello, on 
Pearl River, and with his knowledge of the country he says I have ~ 
gone as far as it is safe to do in that direction with a ‘‘post.” His 
estimate is that there are from 3,000 to 5,000 men in that region, 
of whom he thinks 500 are deserters. The only means of reach- 
ing those men and of breaking up the demoralizing trade which 
they are carrying on with the enemy would be to direct Col- 
onel Logan with his command of cavalry to move as if on a recon- 
naissance down upon the coast; being there, to spread over the 
country and move out east, sweeping and bringing outall that he can 
gather. He would probably in this way bring out from 300 to 500 
deserters and conscripts who ought to be brought to the railroad and 
turned over to the army, or be sent to the army of General Bragg. 

The cavalry force (two regiments) originally ordered to my support 
were so reduced in numbers as to constitute a very inadequate sup- 
porting force for so extended an organization. I have one company 
of itat Columbia and oneat Monticello. Thesecompanies number only 
about forty men; they cannot leave their posts for so distant service 
and if they could they would, united, be entirely too weak for the 
movement. If General Johnston thinks proper to order the move- 
ment, I have given Captain Flemming orders to proceed with the 
command and to direct its route, &c. My organization is about com- 
plete. I could use to great benefit to the service additional officers. 
I have not received as many officers from General Johnston’s army as 
the order should have brought me. Only 218 have reported, when 
according to thenumber of regiments and battalions in his army Lought 
to have received over 300. My organization would be more efficient 
with more officers. From what General Bragg said to me on the eve of 
my departure for this State I expected a larger detail from him than has 
come. However, in a very few days more, when the work shall have 
fairly begun, the men will pour into General Johnston’s army in great 
numbers. I learn already that the trains are going down pretty well 
erowded. Many men will run back into the army to escape arrest by 
my officers. 

I am satisfied that there will be much confusion at Meridian, and 
many escape unless a distributing office is established there and 
a regiment put on duty to receive and distribute those sent forward 
without admixture with the crowd at depot. ° 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 

Brig. Gen., C. S. Army, Supt. Volunteer and Conscript Bureau. 


One rendezvous reports as the work of six days 114 men returned 
to the army. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 783 


[SEPTEMBER 1, 1863.—For Magruder’s call upon Texans to organ- 
ize in view of impending danger, see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part I, 
p. 198. | i 

MorTON, September 2, 1868. 
General S. COOPER, 
Richmond: 

There are several bodies of troops in the northern part of the State 
which were called out by the Governor. They have never been 
mustered into C. 8S. service, and their status is uncertain, in conse- 
quence of which they are inefficient. I suggest that they be imme- 
diately reorganized under Confederate law and taken into Confederate 
service. Many companies are in process of formation under authority 
from Richmond; they remain in process of formation and harbor 
deserters and others avoiding military service. I earnestly suggest 
that such authorities be withdrawn. 

: J. EK. JOHNSTON. 


OFFICE OF INSPECTOR OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Salisbury, N. C., September 2, 1863. 
Col. J. S. PRESTON, 3 
Superintendent of Conscription: 

SIR: When the conscript service was organized the direction that 
among its duties should be embraced that of collecting and forward- 
ing deserters and skulkers by the use of force was doubtless based on 
the supposition that such characters would be found lurking about 
singly, unarmed, acting in no concert, and supported by no local 
public opinion or party. Even for such work our means at command 
have been inadequate in many parts of the country, and whatever 
auxiliary force time may prove to be available under the special 
efforts indicated in my letter of July —, approved and adopted by the 
War Department, cannot be expected to accomplish more than to 
meet the condition of things above described. 

The utter inadequacy now of any force that we can command with- 
out potential aid from armies in the field will become apparent when 
it is realized that desertion has assumed (in some regions, especially 
the central and western portions of this State) a very different and 
more formidable shape and development than could have been antici- 
pated. It is difficult to arrive at any exact statistics on the subject. 
The unquestionable facts are these: Deserters now leave the Army 
with arms and ammunition in hand. They act in concert to force by 
superior numbers a passage against bridge or ferry guards, if such 
are encountered. Arriving at their selected localities of refuge, they 
organize in bands variously estimated at from fifty up to hundreds at 
various points. These estimates are perhaps exaggerated in some 
cases. The patrols sent out from the conscript guard and bringing 
back a few prisoners each report that they have only captured these 
by surprise, and have been compelled to make good their retreat in 
returning by circuitous routes to avoid arrangements made to inter- 
cept them by superior force. His Excellency Governor Vance credits 
official information received by him, that in Cherokee County a large 
body of deserters (with whom I class also those in resistance to con- 
scription) have assumed a sort of military occupation, taking a town, 
and that in Wilkes County they are organized, drilling regularly, and 


184 3 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


intrenched in a camp to the number of 500. Indeed, the whole num- 
ber of deserters in the latter county is said to be much larger. The 
reports of our patrols indicate 300 or 400 organized in Randolph 
County, and they are said to be in large numbers in Catawba and 
Yadkin, and not a few in the patriotic county of Iredell. These men 
are not only determined to kiil in avoiding apprehension (having just 
put to death yet another of our enrolling officers), but their esprit de 
corps extends to killing in revenge as well as in prevention of the 
capture of each other. So far they seem to have had no trouble for 
subsistence. While the disaffected feed them from sympathy, the 
loyal do so from fear. The latter class (and the militia) are afraid to 
aid the conscript service lest they draw revenge upon themselves and 
their property. 

The present quiet of such lawless characters of course cannot be 
expected to continue, and the people look for a reign of marauding 
and terror, protection against which is loudly called for. Letters are 
being sent to the Army stimulating desertion and inviting the men 
home, promising them aid and comforts. County meetings are declar- 
ing in the same spirit and to hold back conscripts. As desertion 
spreads and enjoys impunity, in the same proportion do the enrolled 
conscripts hang back from reporting where there is not foree enough 
to compel them, and the more dangerous and difficult becomes the 
position of our enrolling officers. All this trouble is of very rapid, 
recent growth, and is intimately connected with—indeed, mainly 
originates in and has been fostered by—the newly developed but 
active intrigues of political malcontents, having the Raleigh Standard 
for their leader, and, it is said, a majority in the capital itself. The 
resolutions of the several county meetings, central and western, have 
evidently issued from the same mint, the common stamp being that 
North Carolina has not received due justice or credit, that she has 
done more than her share, and that her people ought to contribute 
no further. I allude to the political aspect only to show that there 
is danger of marked political division and something like civil war 
if the military evils reported be not at once met by strong measures 
of military repression. Such appears the calm opinion, without panie, 
of loyal and substantial men, and such are my own impressions from 
observation. They all think the evilis spreading, and such are likely 
to find themselves in a bad position in some regions—for the balance 
of physical force is on the wrong side, the loyal having contributed 
most freely to the Army, even their sons still in early boyhood and 
not liable to serve. So far it does not appear that men of political 
weight have come forward publicly to any great extent to meet the 
intriguing demagogues on their own arena and prevent the ignorant 
masses from following their lead in ovine style. A reference to the 
faithful reports of Colonel Mallett, the vigilant State commander of 
conscripts, will show that he has been anticipating such evils, though 
- their rapid increase has surpassed expectation. 

In considering the remedies to be applied but two appear feasible 
of sufficient promptness to be effective—the one consisting of detach- 
ments of troops by the nearest local commanders, the other in like 
detachments from the larger armies depleted by desertion and 
demanding re-enforcement. 

The nearest local commanders on whom I have the authority of the 
Secretary of War to call for aid are General Whiting (whose troops are 
mainly about Weldon and Wilmington, at a great distance for detach- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. » T85. 


ment to the districts where most needed) and Major-General Buckner, 
if he be still posted near the western frontier of this State. To the 
former general I have written that, learning how largely he has 
detached to Charleston, I did not suppose it feasible now to procure 
any force from him, but urgently requested him to aid the conscript 
service by designating a military commandant to take post at Raleigh, 
and recommended that our present State commandant of conscripts 
be clothed with the additional authority. To General Buckner I 
will write a representation of the state of things as soon as I can 
procure official and authentic information after arriving at Morgan- 
ton or Asheville. I have conversed with Governor Vance as com- 
mander of the militia and home guards organized by State legislation. 
Of the first class of force he remarked that it had been practically 
well-nigh absorbed by the new levy, and at all events he did not con- 
sider it well adapted for the sort of work now demanded. In regard 
to the second, he stated that its organization had proceeded slowly, 
and that what had been accomplished was in counties other than those 
where the service in question is required. Hence, I have received 
from him the impression that although he is earnest in the purpose of 
aid, he does not expect to be able to furnish it to any great extent yet 
awhile. I hope to meet His Excellency again at Asheville. The State 
Legislature has passed a law against harboring deserters, which may 
help us somewhat, though doubt is expressed if its terms are broad 
enough for practical effect. I will communicate it hereafter. Your 
attention is invited to the inclosed proclamation* addressed to the 
public at large by Colonel Mallett at my instance. He had already 
instructed his subordinates in a like sense. All other details of our 
efforts to invigorate the conscript service here I reserve for a future 
report. Assuming that it is of vital import to crush out without the 
least delay the evils I have described as threatening to develop indefi- 
nitely, I am led by the foregoing exhaustive discussion to tender 
boldly, though reluctantly, an unpalatable conclusion. It is that 
the sort of success demanded by the crisis can only be attained by a 
prompt detachment of effective force (say two or three selected regi- 
ments of fidelity) from the main army which suffers most from deser- 
tion and evasion of service, and which it is to be hoped can best 
spare the remedial agencies. Such a force should proceed to occupy 
the infected districts, surround the traitors, bring the disloyal to pun- 
ishment, fortify the loyal, and decide the wavering. The adoption of 
this plan, if practicable, may be rendered more palatable by the 
reflection that its rejection will probably involve a loss of numbers at 
least equal to those proposed to be detached under a system which 
would secure not only their own return, but that of large re-enforce- 
ments in, say, probably five or six weeks. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEO. W. LAY, 
Lneutenant-Colonel and Inspector. 


P. S.—I have advised Colonel Mallett not to send away for the 
present any conscripts whose fidelity may be trusted for the home 
service. 


* Not found. 


50 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


786 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[First indorsement. } 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 7, 1863. 


Respectfully referred to the War Department for information. 
Please order the paper returned. 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[Second indorsement. ] 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


The condition of things in the mountain districts of North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama menaces the existence of 
the Confederacy as fatally as either of the armies of the United 
States. This report does not state the danger as so imminent as it 
has been stated in a number of letters that have been received at this 
Department. 

Respectfully submitted. 

J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[Third indorsement. } 
SEPTEMBER 8, 1863. 

Respectfully submitted for the information of the President. 

J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 
[Fourth indorsement. } 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 

The orders to Brigadier-General Hoke anticipate the proposed 
remedy.* It might be advantageous to correspond with Governor 
Vance and inform him of the traitorous efforts made to induce deser- 
tion and the agents at work to effect it. 


Jee 
GENERAL eure ApbDJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
INO wy: Richmond, September 3, 1863. 


I. In any case where the exigencies of the Army compel impress- 
ment or purchase for its use of the whole of any one article, or all 
articles of the planter’s production, taxed in kind, the post quarter- 
master of the district will transfer to his district collector the assess- 
or’s estimate, to be collected in the money value only, at the rate of — 
purchase or impressment, as the case may be. Before making such 
transfer the post quartermaster of the district will credit the pro- 
ducer upon such estimates with the amount of such articles as he 
may have paid in kind, and indorse thereon the circumstances under 
which the transfer is made. 

II. Controlling and post quartermasters of districts will keep and 
report their accounts relating to tax in kind separate and distinct 
from all others. 

III. Producers are required to deliver the wheat, corn, oats, rye, 
buckwheat, rice, peas, beans, cured hay and fodder, sugar, molasses 
of cane, wool, and tobacco, in such form and ordinary marketable 
condition as may be usual in the section in which they are deliv- 


*In this connection, see Vance to Seddon, and indorsements thereon, Series I, 
Vol. XXIX, Part II, p. 676. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. T87 


ered—cotton ginned and packed in some secure manner, tobacco 
stripped and packed in boxes. 

IV. Where post quartermasters of districts intrust agents with dis- 
bursements, care must be taken that receipts and accounts be stated 
in the name of the post quartermaster. 

V. Quartermasters and commissaries Serving with troops may 
receive the tithe tax, when authorized to do so by the chief quarter- 
master or chief commissary of the army in which they are serving. 
The names of such authorized officers will be reported to the Quarter- 
master-General. 

VI. Where producers offer to pay their tithe tax to officers author- 
ized to receive it, it is obligatory upon the latter to receive the prod- 
uce, and to pay the excess of transportation over eight miles at the 
rates prescribed by State commissioners under the impressment act. 
In each case they will receipt to the post quartermaster of the district 
for the produce. Upon this receipt the receiving officer will be 
responsible for the quantity which he will take up on his property 
return. ‘The receipt given to the producer will only be evidence that 
so much of his tax is paid. In all such receipts the name of the pro- 
ducer and his county will be stated. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, NORTH CAROLINA, 
Raleigh, September 3, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON: 


My DEAR SiR: When at Richmond a great portion of my complaint 
to President Davis was the presence of such a number of Virginians 
and Marylanders in our State filling the offices which were local and 
permanent in their character. Each one of these officers has with 
him a brood of his own countrymen avoiding conscription and making 
themselves generally very obnoxious to our people. The President 
promised readily to have them removed, and asked me for their 
names. I gave him the names of five or six of those who were most 
obnoxious, among them that of a Dr. Covey, medical director in this 
city, and Captain McCoy at Salisbury, who had resisted the civil 
authorities and otherwise outraged the feelings of our people. Neither 
those men nor any others have been disturbed, and I infer from recent 
proceedings that it is expected of me to prefer charges against them. 
This I shall of course decline to do. I don’t desire the punishment 
of these men (though some of them deserve expulsion from the serv- 
ice), but only ask that they be removed and natives of the State put 
in their places. Is this unreasonable? At a time when I am striving 
with all my power to apologize for these appointments and to reconcile 
our people to the Administration, to be refused such a small conces- 
sion to policy and good sense fills me with disgust. My dear sir, why 
isit done? Where so small a matter—and eminently proper one at 
that—would give satisfaction to a people, why not do it? I returned 
from Richmond with high hopes and a comparatively easy heart, and 
tried to satisfy the discontented by assuring them that there would 
henceforth be the most cordial understanding between the State and 
Confederate authorities, and that the President had promptly promised 
to remove all obnoxious officers from this State. Not one has been 
removed. If I have not sufficient influence with the President to 


788 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


secure the removal of one man, even for reasons of policy, for God’s 
sake let me know it. I get disheartened at being so often foiled in 
my efforts to do something to quiet discontent, and I pray you to 
have these things remedied if in your power. 
Very respectfully, yours, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[SEPTEMBER 4, 1863.—For Price’s proclamation, calling upon the 
people of Pulaski County, Ark., to volunteer for the defense of Little 
Rock, under pain of arrest and compulsory service, see Series I, Vol. 
XXII, Part I, p. 991. | | 


RICHMOND, September 4, 18638. 
Governor J. E. BROWN,- 
Augusta, Ga.: 

Your telegram of the Ist submitted to the President. He replies: 
‘Tf militia, I have no power to appoint the commander or other offi- 
cers; if troops of the Confederate States, I have no power to delegate 
the appointing power.” Arms will be sent to Atlanta, as desired. 

J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, SOUTH CAROLINA, 
| Charleston, .S. C., September 4, 1863. 


His Excellency Governor M. L. BONHAM: 


GOVERNOR: In compliance with your instructions I have the honor 
herewith to inclose a statement of the numbers of regiments, and their 
strength, which have been organized to meet the call of the President 
for 5,000 troops for local defense and special service in this State for 
the term of six months. It will be seen from this statement that four 
regiments have been organized, showing in the aggregate 4,178 men. 
Owing to the defective enrollment of troops in the Sixteenth Regim ant 
South Carolina Militia, and a failure to organize the troops called for 
in that regiment into companies, the organization of the remaining 
regiment has not been completed. 

Five of the companies have been organized and their rolls returned 
to this office. Orders have been issued for a new enrollment, which 
is now nearly completed, and within a week I hope to be able to issue 
orders in the organization of another regiment by the election of field 
officers. It is confidently expected that the requisition of the Presi- 
dent will be fully met by these new levies. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
A. C. GARLINGTON, 
Adjutant and Inspector General of South Carolina. 


[Inclosure.] 


ist Regiment, Col. 'T. B, Roberts ...¢. 32 Se 1,002 
2d° Regiment, Col. William Fort 62.22. Gey ee 9 ee 2 ee 1, 035 
4th Regiment; Col. J. H. Witherspoon’ -a22.222- 0... 2... 7 ee 1,045 
5th Reciment, Col. J. H. Williams ici. We. fio. - 21 1,096 

PART OP ALO tiie oe Ui hs sere o aig oak Di Meee Ce od cals hd = 4,178 
Organized companies of 3d Regiment... .(2 0 42--@..--- 4-+- 45 ae ee 483 


A. C. GARLINGTON, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, South Carolina. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 789 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 5, 1868. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury : 


Str: By letter just received from Maj. Gen. D. H. Maury, com- 
manding at Mobile, I am requested to appoint some proper person, or 
authorize him to appoint a proper person, to receive some cotton and 
money of the Bank of Louisiana, seized recently at Montgomery. He 
also states that he had that day received information of large addi- 
tional assets of the same bank, which he expected to secure. As these 
funds are appropriately to be handed over to and taken charge of by 
your Department, it seems to me expedient and right that some per- 
son should be appointed, or at least recommended, by you to receive 
and take care of the assets referred to. I prefer that the appoint- 
ment should be made by yourself, and upon being apprised of the 
person selected will promptly give General Maury the information, 
with orders to turn over the assets to him. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


ee 


[SEPTEMBER 5, 1863.—For Smith to the people of Arkansas, Loui- 
siana, and Texas, with regulations governing the formation of corps 
for defense, see Series I, Vol. XXII, Part IT, pp. 995, 996. | 


PROCLAMATION. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
September 5, 1863. 
To THE ARMS-BEARING PEOPLE OF GEORGIA: 

Thus far you have experienced but little of the horrors of war; and 
while you have been obliged to dispense with luxuries which you might 
have otherwise enjoyed, you have suffered comparatively little priva- 
tion except the loss of friends on battle-fields in other States. Now a 
powerful army, commanded by one of the most unscrupulous of the gen- 
erals of the enemy, is advancing upon your northwest border, threat- 
. ening to violate your homes, lay waste your fields, destroy your cities, 
desecrate the graves of your fathers and the altars where you worship 
the living God. If the enemy is successful, you must flee from your 
native country, and as outcast paupers wander in foreign lands, or you 
must submit to tyranny with chains of oppression the most galling that 
ever were worn by an enlightened people. Let no one hope to escape 
by mean abandonment of our cause in the midst of our troubles or by 
swearing allegiance to a Government that has wantonly shed so much 
precious Southern blood and laid his friends and relatives cold in 
death. Our noble dead slain by the enemy would rebuke such das- 
tardly conduct from their bloody graves. Let none hope to save their 
property by favoring a reconstruction of the old Union or by any 
reunion with our wicked and heartless invaders. All such dreams are 
worse than delusions. Three-quarters of a century of experience has 
proved that no covenant, agreement, or constitutional compact will 
bind the people of the Northern States as communities longer than it 
is their interest to observe the obligation. It would take all the prop- 
erty of the South to pay the immense war debt of the North and to 


790 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


satisfy Yankee cupidity in possession of unrestrained power. Recon- 
struction is nothing but submission, and submission plunges us into 
the deepest degradation and the most abject poverty and misery. If 
there be any who favor such means to secure peace, let them remem- 
ber the sentiment of the great Carolina statesman. It is the peace 
which the kite gives to the dove, the wolf to the.lamb, Russia to 
Poland, and death to its victim. If we prefer to die free rather than 
slaves, we must put forth our full energies in this crisis of our fate. 

Georgia has never failed to respond to every call made by the Presi- 
dent for troops from the commencement of the war to the present day, 
and she has in every case when a call was made for volunteers tendered 
more than the number required. In response to the late eall for 8,000 
men for local defense, I shall have the gratification to tender to the 
President over 15;000, without counting the drafted men. The draft 
was only necessary in a few localities to compel each county to do its 
just part, when some had tendered three times the number required, 
and to compel a few men to enter service who could not otherwise be 
induced todoso. The result has been a triumphant vindication of 
the character and volunteer spirit of the State. There yet remain in 
our beloved State, including the organizations for home defense, over 
40,000 men able to bear arms in an emergency. If but half this num- 
ber will re-enforce the Confederate army now on our border, we can 
drive the enemy out of East Tennessee and free our State from threat- 
ened invasion. 

Georgians, you who remain in this State owe this to the gallant men 
who have left their homes and gone to distant fields to meet the foe. ° 
You owe it to the orphans of the immortal dead who have lost their 
lives in your defense. You owe it to the noble women of Georgia, 
who, with hearts full of patriotism, have, by their untiring energy, 
clothed the naked and contributed millions of dollars to the support. 
of our cause, and who, like guardian angels, have ministered to the 
comfort and soothed the agony of the sick and wounded of every 
State who in their passage over our territory have come within their 
reach. You owe it to your own wives and children, to the families of 
our soldiers now in the service in other States, and to unborn poster- 
ity. Will you not rise in your might and put forth all your manliness 
for this glorious consummation? 

Having been asked by the authorities at Richmond to eall out the 
Home Guards to assist in the emergency, I invite their attention to 
the accompanying order of the adjutant and inspector general of the 
State and direct that it be promptly obeyed. 

Men of Georgia, who have stout hearts and strong arms, when you 
leave your farms and your merchandise to assist in driving the vandals 
from our borders, the remembrance of the fate of New Orleans, Nash- 
ville, and other places which have surrendered to the enemy must 
unalterably fix your determination that they shall not occupy Georgia 
territory and tyrannize over Georgia citizens, and must nerve your 
arms for the contest and impel you to strike for the preservation of 
your homes, the protection of your property, the purity of your wives 
and daughters, and the transmission of your liberties to the latest pos- 
terity. Dark clouds hang around us, and we are passing through a 
trying ordeal, but truth and justice are on our side; and if every man 
will put his trust in God and do his whole duty, our cause will triumph 
and we shall not only conquer a peace, but we shall establish constitu- 
tional liberty, without which our struggles will have been in vain. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 191 


GENERAL ORDERS, STATE OF GEORGIA, 
ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 24. Atlanta, Ga., September 5, 1868. 


In conformity to the foregoing proclamation of His Excellency the 
Governor of this State, I am directed to issue the following orders: 

1. All volunteer organizations for home defense whose prescribed 
limits embrace Atlanta, or any part of the State between that point 
and the Tennessee River, are hereby ordered to report immediately, 
at either Kingston, on the State road, or at Atlanta, as may be most 
convenient, to the commanding officer of the C. 8S. Army at those 
points, except the Floyd County Legion, which is now in camp on 
special service, and the companies in Rabun, Habersham, Towns, 
Union, Fannin, White, Lumpkin, Gilmer, Walker, Chattooga, and 
Dade, which will await special orders, as their services are considered 
indispensable at their homes, holding themselves in readiness to obey 
orders at a moment’s warning, and drilling twice a week until the 
present exigency is passed. 

2. Every man who has a shotgun or rifle fit for use will bring it, 
and each man will bring with him either a blanket or other covering, 
and will leave home with provisions enough to carry him to the places 
of rendezvous named above, and to serve him one day after his 
arrival. 

3. In counties where almost the entire population have volunteered, 
only a number as large as the quota required from the county will be 
called upon to respond to this order. More may come if they choose 
to do so, but those who remain will hold themselves in readiness to 
assist in repelling any raid that may approach their neighborhood. 
In these cases the commanding officers will collect the whole force 
_and select from them for the present the most able-bodied soldiers of 
their command. 

4, The remaining companies in the State whose boundaries of serv- 
ice do not embrace the upper portion of the State are invited to vol- 
unteer for this particular service, and other persons not members of 
the companies, who are able to bear arms, are invited to join them 
and aid in repelling the enemy. Under the law none of the home 
organizations can be compelled to go out of the State; but if asked to 
do so it is not doubted but that they will promptly volunteer to cross 
the line if they can better defend Georgia on Tennessee soil. Those 
who may volunteer to cross the line will lose none of their rights by 
so doing, and will be permitted to return as soon as the exigency 
shall permit. 

5. Infantry companies will supply themselves with the best means 
of transportation they can procure to the nearest railroad depot, from 
which point they will be transported to the place of rendezvous, as is 
usual in such cases, on the certificate of the commanding officer. 
Cavalry will march by the most direct roads usually traveled. 

6. The captain of each company is authorized to make details of 
such men who, in consideration of the public interests, and their effi- 
ciency in rendering service to the community, are most necessary at 
home; provided, that the number detailed to remain at home shall 
not exceed in any case one-sixth of the company. 

7. Drafted men attached to companies will be required to go with 
them, unless prevented by bodily infirmity absolutely disqualifying 
them for a short term of service. Drafted men attached to companies 
who may refuse from any other cause to obey this order will be 
arrested by the commander of their company and compelled to serve. 


192 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


8. Companies organized for the local defense of cities, factories, 
workshops, or iron-works will remain at their positions and drill 
twice a week, awaiting orders, as such points are most likely to be 
first attacked by the raids of the enemy. The companies at them 
will at all times hold themselves ready for action at the shortest 
notice. 

9. Companies throughout the State not called into service by this 
order or volunteering under it will drill at least once a week. From 
this drill only ordinaries will be exempted on account of business in 
their offices which is necessary to the protection of the estates of 
deceased soldiers. They will be expected, however, to turn out when 
threatened by a raid in their vicinity. 

10. While in service under this order both officers and men must 
expect to endure some hardships. The quartermaster’s and commis- 
sary departments, however, will do all in their power for their comfort 
and health, and contribute as far as in them lies to make the service 
agreeable and pleasant. It would be well, though, for every man to 
look to his own probable wants as much as he can without needlessly 
burdening himself with baggage. 

By order of the commander-in-chief: 

HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 5, 1863. 


In pursuance of instructions received at this Bureau from the Sec- 
retary of War, you will forthwith proceed to obtain correct returns 
of all persons detailed, employed, or engaged in the quartermas- 
ter, commissary, medical, and ordnance departments within your 
command. 

You will also procure the return of all white males engaged in the 
service of railroad companies, express companies, telegraph compa- 
nies, and Government contractors, with the age and office and duty 
of each. 

In this report it is intended to include all officers and soldiers, 
stating whether disabled or not; all conscripts, and men liable to con- 
seription, and men not liable to conscription. You will state with 
particularity the duty on which each man is employed, and make your 
report as distinct as possible, the object of the Secretary of War being 
to ascertain the number of persons thus employed, and to correct 
abuses. To this end, your remarks on the report are specially 
requested. 

By command of Colonel Preston, superintendent: 

‘ . N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


(To Commandants of Conscripts. ) 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 198 


QUARTERMASTER’S OFFICE, 
San Antonio, Tex., September 6, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, ; 
. Secretary of War: 


SiR: On the 11th of March last I had the honor to address you a 
communication relative to my duties, from which I beg leave to resub- 
mit the following extract: 

Quartermasters, commissaries, ordnance officers, and medical purveyors have 
made requisitions upon me for large amounts of stores to come from Mexico. I 
have none other than quartermaster’s funds, and of these but $1,000,000 at first. 
* * * Ido not feel authorized to make estimates upon the chiefs of the Army 
bureaus at Richmond, except upon the Quartermaster-General. I respectfully 
recommend, therefore, that you make, or cause to be made, a requisition on the 
Treasury for an amount_that will cover the purchase of cotton and its transpor- 
tation to the Rio Grande, to pay for the supplies to come from Mexico for the 
next six months, say for ordnance, commissary, and medical stores. 


In another communication, of date June 8, I recalled this subject to 
your notice in the following language: _ 

I had hoped before this date to have been in receipt of a reply to my communi- 
cation to you of the 11th of March. As yet, however, no reply has been received. 
* * * Itrust it will not be overlooked by you that I am not only procuring all 
the quartermaster’s supplies for this district to be drawn from abroad, but also, 
under General Magruder’s Order No. 28, of February 22, all the subsistence, ord- 
nance, hospital, and medical stores required to be obtained from the foreign mar- 
ket. For the stores I cannot estimate on those bureaus, having no official connec- 
tion with them; nor upon the Quartermaster-General, because such supplies do 
not pertain to his service. Therefore in my communication to you of March 11 I 
requested you to require from those bureaus, and cause to be remitted to me, 
funds to cover the supplies obtained and ordered by me for their respective sery- 
ices. I trust this has been done to an adequate amount, say, $2,000,000. 


I have received no reply to these applications, to which I again beg 
leave to solicit your attention. I have continued to supply cotton in 
large quantities to pay for purchases for these several branches of the 
service, paying for the cotton and transportation out of the quarter- 
master’s funds. The necessities of the service and General Magru- 
der’s orders will no doubt justify this diversion of those funds, but of 
course it leaves me that much short of the means which should be 
applied to the service of the Quartermaster’s Department. For the 
subsistence and service of Brigadier-General Bee’s command upon 
the Rio Grande alone I have been and am furnishing 500 bales of 
cotton per month. 

In the hope that you will cause my disbursements for these supplies 
to be refunded, I send by my agent, Judge C. Upson, my blank 
receipts, to be filled up and delivered by him for such amount as you 
may cause to be turned over to me on this account. 

I have the honor, sir, to be your obedient servant, 
S. HART, 
Major and Quartermaster. 


_ [SEPTEMBER 6, 1863.—For Bonham to Beauregard, in relation to 
the six-months’ troops from South Carolina being ordered into the 
field, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 297. ] 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 119. fichmond, September 7, 1863. 
[. All officers and agents of the Quartermaster’s, Commissary, and 
Conscription Departments will render all assistance in their power in 


794 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


collecting arms abandoned or left by stragglers in the hands of 
citizens. 

II. Arms thus collected will be turned over to the nearest ordnance 
officer, who will receipt for the same, and upon proper vouchers pay 
any reasonable expense actually incurred for transportation. 

III. Medical inspectors will be recommended by the Surgeon- 
General, and being approved, will be announced in orders from this 
office. 

IV. As heretofore required in General Orders, No. 64, of 1862, 
respecting the hides of beeves, commissaries of subsistence in the 
field and at depots will transfer the hides of all slaughtered sheep to 
officers of the Quartermaster’s Department, who will receive and 
preserve them to be tanned. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


COLUMBUS, Miss., September 7, 1863. 
Brigadier-General CHALMERS: 


Unless the infantry arm is built up our country will be utterly 
ruined. That arm is now too weak to act as a supporting force for 
the cavalry. The country is flooded with cavalry organizations and 
the whole population want to go into new cavalry organizations. 
While these continue it is next to impossible to get the infantry 
ranks filled. There is no officer in the service for whom I entertain 
a higher regard, or for whom I would go farther than yourself, but 
your own judgment and knowledge of the condition of the country 
must satisfy you of the necessity of at once stopping all new cavalry 
organizations. : 

I am ordered to conscript and take out of existing organizations all 
conscripts; but you can receive ten existing cavalry companies, con- 
scripts and all. 

Give my officers all assistance in your power. It is a high, patriotic 
duty. 

GIDEON J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier- General. 


PROCLAMATION BY GOVERNOR VANCE. 


Whereas, a number of public meetings have recently been held in 
various portions of the State, in some of which threats have been 
made of combined resistance to the execution of the laws of Congress 
in regard to conscription and the collection of taxes, thereby endan- 
gering the public peace and tranquillity as well as the common cause 
of independence which we have so solemnly engaged to defend; and 
whereas, it is my sworn duty to see all the laws of the land faithfully 
executed, and quiet and order maintained within our borders: 

Now, therefore, I, Zebulon B. Vance, Governor of the State of North 
Carolina, do issue this my proclamation commanding all such per- 
sons to renounce such evil intentions, and warning them to beware 
of the criminal and fatal consequences of carrying such threats 
into execution. The inalienable and invaluable right of the people to 
assemble together and consult for the common good, together with 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 795 


its necessary concomitants, the freedom of speech and the press, are 
secured to you, my countrymen, by the most sacred compact. They 
Shall never find a disturber in me; yet you will remember that the 
Same instruments which guarantee these great rights also limit you 
to the exercise of them within the bounds of law, and impose upon 
me the solemn duty of seeing that these bounds be not transgressed. 
The Constitution of the Confederate States and all laws passed in 
pursuance thereof are the supreme law of the land. Resistance to 
them by combination is treason, and without combination is a high 
crime against the laws of your country. Let no one be deceived. So 
long as these laws remain upon the statute book they shall be executed. 
Surely, my countrymen, you would not seek to cure the evils of one 
revolution by plunging the country into another. You will not 
knowingly, to the present desolating war with the common enemy, 
add the horrors of internal strife and entire subversion of law and 
civil authority. You must not forget the enviable character which 
you have always maintained as a sober, conservative, and law- 
abiding people; nor would I have you to forget the plain, easy, and 
constitutional method of redressing your grievances. Meet and 
denounce any existing laws if you think proper; you have that right, 
and instruct your Representative in Congress or the State Legislature, 
as the case may be, to repeal them. Yourown chosen servants made 
those obnoxious laws; they can repeal them if such are your instruc- 
tions. If you regard them as unconstitutional, our supreme court 
sits ready to decide upon all cases properly brought before it. Its 
decisions are final in the State of North Carolina, and shall be exe- 
cuted while the power remains in your Executive to enforce any law. 
There is no grievance to redress and no proposition to be made but 
can be most beneficially effected in the way our fathers marked out 
by the ballot box and the other constitutionally appointed means. In 
times of great public sensibility like the present any departure from 
this legal channel is revolutionary and dangerous, and tends to the’ 
division and distraction of our people. 

It is my great desire, and I hope that of all good citizens, that our 
people should remain united, befall us what may. Should we triumph 
in the great struggle for independence, let no feelings of revenge, no 
bitterness mar the rejoicing of that glorious day. Should we fail, 
and come short of that great object for which we have struggled so 
long and bled so freely, let not our strifes and domestic feuds add _ to 
the bitterness of defeat. Attempts suddenly to change the existing 
order of things would only result in bloodshed and ruin. I therefore 
implore you, my countrymen, of all shades of political opinion, to 
abstain from assembling together for the purpose of denouncing each 
other, whether at home or in the Army, and to avoid seeking any 
remedy for the evils of the times by other than legal means and 
through the proper constituted authorities. Weare embarked in the 
holiest of all causes which can stir the hearts of patriots—the cause 
of liberty and independence. We are committed to it by every tie 
that can bind an honorable people. Multitudes of our bravest and 
best have already sealed it with their blood, while others, giving up 
all earthly possessions, are either languishing in dungeons or are 
homeless wanderers through the land, and all have felt in a greater 
or less degree the iron hand of war. A great and glorious nation is 
struggling to be born, and wondering kingdoms and distant empires 
are stilled with listening hope and admiration, watching this greatest 
of human events. Let them not, I pray you, be shocked with the 


196 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


spectacle of domestic strife and petty malignant feuds. Let not our 
enemy be rejoiced to behold our strong arms and stronger-devotion, 
which have often made him tremble, turned against ourselves. Let 
us rather show that the God of liberty is in His holy temple, the 
hearts of freemen, and bid all the petty bickerings of earth keep 
silence before Him. Instead of engaging in this unholy and unpatri- 
otic strife, and threatening to resist the laws of the land and endanger- 
ing the peace of society, let us prepare diligently and with hopeful 
hearts for the hardships and sufferings of the coming winter. Heaven 
has blessed us with abundant crops, but thousands of the poor are 
unable to purchase. Let us begin in time and use every effort to 
provide for them and secure them against suffering. And let us 
exert ourselves to the utmost to return to duty the many brave but 
misguided men who have left their country’s flag in the hour of 
danger, and God will bless us and our children, and our children’s 
children will thank us for not despairing of the Republic in its darkest 
hours of disaster, and still more for adhering to and preserving amid 
the fiery trials of war conservative sentiments and the rights and 
civil liberties of the young Confederacy. 

In witness whereof Zebulon B. Vance, your Governor, captain- 
general and commander-in-chief, hath signed these presents and 
caused the great seal of the State to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Raleigh this 7th day of September, A. D. 1863, 
and in the year of American Independence the eighty-eighth. 


[SEAL. | Z. B. VANCE. 
SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 

No. 213. Richmond, September 8, 1863. 

* * * * * * * + 


Ill. The Bureau of Conscription is authorized to raise and equip in 
each of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and 
Virginia, one battalion of six companies of mounted men who furnish 
their own horses, and who are not liable to conscription, to be under 
the orders of the Bureau, for the purposes of conscription, the arrest 
of deserters, and for local defense, mustered for one year. Compa- 
nies to elect their officers; the field officer to be assigned from the 
officers belonging to the enrolling service. Companies not to exceed 
100, rank and file. 

* 


*k * * * * * 


By command of the Secretary of War: 
} JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


e 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 121. Richmond, September 9, 1863. 


I. Paragraph 1064 of the Army Regulations (107 of the Regulations 
of the Quartermaster’s Department) is amended to read as follows: 

Officers are entitled to pay from the date of the acceptance of their 
appointments, and from the date of promotion: provided, that dis- 
bursing officers, who are required to give official bonds, shall forward 
the same, always duly executed, with their letters of acceptance, and 
that their acceptances shall take effect only from the date of the 
approval of the bonds by the War Department. But in no case will 
an officer be assigned to duty and receive pay until he has received 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 197 


his appointment. Notifications of the receipt and approval of said 
bonds will be forwarded to officers through the chief of the bureau to 
which they belong. 

II. All officers of the Quartermaster-General’s and Commissary- 
General’s departments (except such as hold commissions in the 
Regular Army of the Confederate States) appointed prior to the 
commencement of the present session of Congress (January 12, 
1863), and whose bonds, prior to the date of this order, have not been 
filed in and approved by the War Department, are hereby dropped: 
provided, that on satisfactory evidence that such failure has not been 
the result of gross neglect, the commanding general may grant the 
officers concerned a short leave of absence to make and forward their 
bonds, and shall report this fact to the Quartermaster-General. 

III. No application for the revocation of the above order in any 
individual case will be entertained by the War Department. If a 
vacancy be occasioned in any brigade or regiment, or at a post, appli- 
cation will be made for a new appointment, in conformity to Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 8, 1863; and the appointee, in accepting his position, 
will be held strictly to the requirements of preceding paragraph I. 

IV. Officers of the Quartermaster-General’s Department whose 
appointments bear date subsequent to the 12th day of January, 1863, 
and who have not filed bonds, duly executod, will be allowed a fur- 
lough for such time, not exceeding sixty days, as may be necessary 
to enable them to execute their bonds. 

V. Commanding officers will be careful to recommend for appoint- 
ment as disbursing officers only such persons as furnish reasonable 
assurance of their ability to execute the bonds required by law. 

VI. All letters of appointment hereafter issued will be accompanied 
by a notification to the appointee that his official bond must be 
returned with his acceptance, and that the latter will take effect only 
from the date at which said bond is approved. — 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


ATLANTA, September 9, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, : 
; Secretary of War: 

Str: I had the honor to meet your letter of August 25 in Mont- 
gomery, when on my way to Atlanta in obedience to the summons 
of the court of inquiry. 

Let me beg you to reconsider the opinion you express that I ‘‘do 
not hesitate to press with more haste and less formality of examina- 
tion and allowance of exemptions than is required by the terms of 
the law.” I have little, if ever, been called upon to enforce the con- 
seript law. Finding that law almost a dead letter in my command, I 
proposed to you to intrust me with its enforcement. You did so, and 
I placed General Pillow at the head of that service in what was then 
my command. He has just completed his arrangements to gather 
conscripts, stragglers, and deserters in my present command, and 
there has been no time yet for appeal to me from his action, so that I 
have had no opportunity to disregard the law. 

Hoping that on re-examination you may change your opinion of me 
in this matter, 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
J. E. JOHNSTON. 


798 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[SEPTEMBER 9, 1863.—For Davis to Brown, in relation to the organ- 
ization of local defense men, and complimenting the State of Georgia 
“for this additional evidence of the patriotism of her people,” see 
Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 523. ] 


RICHMOND, September 10, 1863. 
General HOWELL COBB, 
Atlanta, Ga.: 


You have been selected to superintend the organization, &c., of the 
troops offered by the Governor of Georgia for local defense, with a view 
to forming such organizations into battalions, regiments, brigades, 
and divisions. It will be your first duty to obtain from the adjutant- 
general of the State the muster-rolls of the several companies. Such 
of the men who tender for the State at large should be organized as 
one class; those who tender for the defense of a district or section of 
the State should be organized as another class, and those for a town 
or other locality will have to be accepted with their organization and 
be directed to report to some officer or post through whom or which 
they would receive orders and instructions. It is hoped by the Pres- 
ident that you will be able to command a large number of these 
troops for service against the army now threatening to invade East 
Tennessee; and it is his desire that you should as promptly as possible 
assemble the men available for this purpose and proceed to prepare 
them and place them in position for efficient action. In some por- 
tions of the State, as represented by the Governor, nearly the whole 
arms-bearing population are enrolled for service. In such eases it 
would be well to apportion the calls for service so as to leave at home 
for the purposes of civil government, industrial pursuits, &c., a num- 
ber equal to that which necessity demands. An apportionment was 
made by the Governor of the number required from each county; 
where the number of volunteers exceed the quota the number which 
had been called for would furnish a guide to you in making your ealls. 
There are also persons who, from their pursuits, are habitually 
required at home. These it would be well to employ only for short 
periods, it being, however, understood that for an emergency all 
should be called out and the ordinary system of relief resumed when 
circumstances will permit. : 

You are aware that the right attaches to companies to elect their 
company officers, and that the field officers of all who organize them- 
selves into battalions or regiments before acceptance into service are 
also entitled to election. | 

Very respectfully, &c., 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 10, 1863. 
It is believed by the superintendent that the agencies of conscrip- 
tion now in operation are sufficient for the prompt, energetic, and 
complete administration of General Orders, No. 82, 1862, Adjutant 


\ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 199 


and Inspector General’s Office, and all subsequent orders and instruc- 
tions strictly concerning the enrollment, assignment, and forwarding 
of conscripts. While cases of doubtful interpretation or application 
of the law will continually arise and must necessarily be referred for 
adjudication to this Bureau, it is confidently assumed that comman- 
dants of conscripts are now provided with due authority and force 
sufficient to meet all demands of conscription. More fully to ascer- 
tain this the circular of August 10, 1863, was issued, and a system of 
inspection has been instituted, by means of which all deficiencies will 
be supplied. Commandants are expected and required to use all 
their agencies with the utmost vigor. The conscription must be 
pushed to its full legal scope, and with increased activity. Enrolling 
officers must be kept up to the work. The country looks to this 
department to furnish fresh material to meet the constant depletion 
of its armies. In no case and under no circumstances will the com- 
mandants be performing their duties if they retain without reporting 
inefficient enrolling officers. 

Assuming, then, that the organization for conscription is complete, 
and that every officer will do his duty in that department, your 
attention is now specially directed to those other grave functions 
imposed upon you. The chief one is that of arresting and returning 
absentees from the armies. This now is the great duty of every 
officer of this department, of every State authority, and of every citi- 
zen of the Confederacy. 

I. You will forthwith proceed to organize a mounted military 
force of such material as you can obtain, to be composed of non- 
conscripts, exempts, and other persons not liable to military service, 
who may volunteer for twelve months’ service under the orders of 
this Bureau, to serve in the State in which they are raised. The 
principal duty will be that of arresting absentees and in repelling 
local invasion. You will as far as practicable enlist men who will 
furnish their own horses. The companies will be allowed to elect 
their own officers. The battalion will be under the command of an 
officer assigned by this Bureau. You will as early as practicable 
report your opinion on the probabilities of raising this foree. It will 
be mustered in and armed as cavalry, with sabers and carbines. Con- 
seripts will not be admitted into the organization, but may hereafter 
be assigned to that service by special order from this Bureau. 
Prompt attention to and activity is demanded in this matter. When 
the organization is complete and reported, special instructions will be 
given. 

II. You will require the local enrolling officers to engage actively 
in their respective districts in efforts to procure men for the service, 
and to forward them forthwith to your camp of instruction, giving 
transportation. When reported at camp, you will instantly put them 
on some duty until sufficient numbers arrive for the organization of a 
cavalry company, according to regulations. On receiving that num- 
ber you will order the organization and report to the Bureau the 
names, in full, of the officers elected. 

IfI. Under this order you are authorized to raise six companies, not 
to exceed 100, rank and file, each. 

By command of Col. John S. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


800 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WaAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 10, 1863. 


Maj. J. C. Johnston, commandant of conscripts for the State of 
Kentucky, is authorized to establish his camp of instruction at any 
point he may select west of Wytheville, in Virginia, and east of 
Knoxville, in Tennessee, for the enrolling and reception of conseripts 
from Kentucky and Tennessee east of Knoxville. He is authorized 
to move his camp into or on the borders of Kentucky whenever any 
portion of that State is held by the armies of the Confederacy. All 
conscripts from Tennessee will be sent to Colonel Blake, commandant 
of conscripts for that State. All conscripts from Kentucky will be 
assigned, according to their selection, either in the armies of Tennes- 
see or Virginia. Major Johnston will give special attention to the — 
arrest, detention, and forwarding of stragglers, deserters, and absen- 
tees. He will confer on this subject with the generals commanding 
in the districts nearest to his camp of instruction. Frequent and full 
correspondence, giving information to the Bureau, is desirable. 

By command of Col. John S. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


HEADQUARTERS GEORGIA STATE LINE, 
Cartersville, September 10, 1868. 
General S. COOPER, C. 8. Army, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond : 


GENERAL: I had the honor yesterday to telegraph you as follows: 


I have directed the six-months’ contingents coming here to the support of Gen- 
eral Bragg to report to Col. W. H. Stiles, Sixtieth Regiment Georgia Volunteers, 
now here on detached service, to raise a force for the defense of upper Georgia. 
Will you approve, or, if not, will you assign our officers to command them? 


These troops are a portion of the 8,000 men recently called for from 
this State for six months. Their muster-rolls are being sent in to the 
office at Milledgeville, but, as is the case with raw troops, they are 
slow in the matter, and many of them, after sending them in, desired 
to organize themselves into battalions or regiments. My instructions 
from the Governor were not to have them transmitted to Richmond 
until all were in. These men coming here report their officers and 
strength to Colonel Stiles, and every precaution will be taken to pro- 
tect the Government against future improper claims. The threaten- 
ing movements of the enemy in this vicinity induced the ordering out 
at once of a portion of the force to aid the State troops in guarding 
the railroad and the bridges on its line and in giving General Bragg 
any further aid he might require. I was officially notified on Sunday 
last by General Wheeler, then covering our flank, to look out for an 
attack on the road at any time, and my instructions have been 
repeated since to be on the alert. This will explain to you in part 
the necessity requiring the presence of these contingents. Having 
been mustered into the Confederate service, I regarded Colonel Stiles, 
a Confederate officer, aS a proper person to command them, my own 
special command and duties, moreover, not permitting me the time 
to attend to them personally, and Colonel Stiles having kindly volun- 
teered to me his assistance. By confirming Colonel Stiles in his com- 
mand, as reported to you, or by assigning another Confederate officer 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. SOL 


to command them, confusion and expense will be avoided and saved, 
as, with a proper staff, he can provide readily for their wants. 
I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, 
HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Commanding. 


[SEPTEMBER 10, 1863.—For Vance to Davis, reporting riotous con- 
duct of Confederate troops passing through North Carolina, and the 
resulting correspondence, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part I, pp. 763-768. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 122. Richmond, September 11, 1863. 


I. Commanding officers of regiments, battalions, &c., will, immedi- 
ately on receipt hereof, cause to be made out and forwarded, through 
proper channels, to Col. J. S. Preston, chief of the Bureau of Con- 
scription, a complete list of all persons held as substitutes in the Army, 
in their respective commands. This list will embrace the regiment, 
company, date of enlistment, and age of each substitute, with the 
name and post-office of the principal. They will also, in the same 
manner, furnish a monthly roll of all deserters and absentees without 
leave. This will be arranged according to the county and Congres- 
sional district to which the parties belong, and will set forth the time 
and place of desertion in each case. 

II. All officers charged by commanding generals with the duty of 
arresting and returning deserters and absentees will report to the 
commandant of conscripts in the respective States to which such offi- 
cers are sent, and will co-operate generally with enrolling officers in 
the discharge of the duties assigned to them. 

III. The following act of Congress is published for the information 
of all concerned: 

Every person, not subject to the Rules and Articles of War, who shall procure 
or entice a soldier of the Confederate States to desert, or who shall purchase from 
any soldier his arms, uniform, clothing, or any part thereof, shall, upon legal con- 
viction, be fined, at the discretion of the court having cognizance of the same, in 
any sum not exceeding three hundred dollars and be imprisoned not exceeding 
one year. : 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 11, 1868. 
Col. G. W. RAINS, 
Augusta, Ga.: 

Str: Your letter of the 24th ultimo has been received. I am too 
imperfectly acquainted with Governor Brown’s action in regard to the 
troops recently raised in Georgia to infer his intentions, and he has 
not as yet explained them nor sent on the muster-rolls. From what 
you state it is probable he wishes to secure to the troops raised in the 
State the character of militia to be officered by him, and not that of 


51 R R—SERIES IV, VOL Il 


802 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Confederate troops for local defense raised under the acts of Con- 
gress. This would in a measure be effected by having the number 
less than prescribed if organized under the law of 1861. Or he may 
design to secure the organization into battalions or regiments before 
the troops are tendered and accepted by the Confederate Government, 
in which event the field officers would be elected instead of being 
appointed by the President. To what extent he may proceed in his 
line of policy I canonly conjecture. I fear he may cause some embar- 
rassment by the line of action preferred by him; but with the patri- 
otic spirit he has manifested, and the success he has had in raising 
troops, he will have strong ground to appeal to the Department to give 
sanction to his proceedings so far as the law will allow. There is no 
doubt, however, that under the acts of Congress companies preferring 
it may organize independently of the Governor, and, either singly or 
organized by themselves into battalions or regiments, offer them- 
selves for acceptance to the Confederate Government. This whole 
matter of the organization of the local troops in Georgia has been 
intrusted by the President to General Howell Cobb, and full instrue- 
tions have been forwarded him. He will divide them into the troops 
enlisted for service throughout the State; those for districts, and those 
for towns or neighborhoods. The former will be formed into brigades 
with brigadier-generals to command them; the others will report to 
commandants of posts, &¢. 

You had better address him and receive full explanations and 
instructions. 

Respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, September 11, 1863. 
HENRY C. WAYNE, 
Adjutant and Inspector General: 


Please communicate with General Howell Cobb, at Atlanta, who is 
charged with the organization, &c., of troops being raised in Georgia. 
He will either accede to your suggestion, or send an officer to com- 
mand the six-months’ contingency. If neither, you can turn them 
over to the command of Colonel Stiles. 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Marietta, Ga., September 11, 1863. 
His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, 
Charleston, S. C.: 


Stir: Yours to His Excellency Governor Brown upon the subject of 
aid from the troops of this State was only received here this morning. 
I deeply regret to have to say that the Governor went up to his country 
place a few days ago, after a trip to Augusta and Milledgeville, quite 
bilious. He is now two days behind time, and from a letter from him 
of the 9th I fear he is sick. I expect him hourly, if not sick. I have 
also to regret that, from my knowledge of the situation here, the 
pressing nature of the campaign on the northern border leaves but 
little ground to hope for aid from this quarter. 

I should also mention the fact that the troops raised under the late 
call were, under the act of Congress, for local defense and special 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 803 


service. The troops were given the privilege of prescribing in their 
muster-rolls the section of country they will engage to serve in; all 
prescribe a limit within this State, and therefore could not be forced 
to go out of it. Moreover, they are mostly old men, boys, and business 
men, who are so situated that it is not likely they would volunteer for 
such a campaign. 
I will refer your letter to the Governor on his arrival. 
Yours, &¢., 
HERBERT FIELDER, 
Aide-de- Camp. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Charleston, September 11, 1565. 
General BEAUREGARD: 


SiR: In answer to a paper which General Garlington informs me 
has been referred to me, but without any remarks from yourself, I 
recommend: | 

First. If the Sixteenth South Carolina Militia be disbanded, that 
the Eighteenth, at Summerville, which has its six-months’ company 
already organized, be also disbanded as a militia regiment, and that 
neither be disbanded before Tuesday next. This I deem important 
to secure the organization of the six-months’ troops. 

Second. That the officers of companies now under Colonel Magrath 
in the Sixteenth Regiment be ordered by you to report on or before 
Monday next, the 14th instant, to the adjutant and inspector general 
of the State with all men of their companies, and with a full list of 
all who belong to their companies, whether in the city or out of it, 
between the ages of forty and fifty, in order that they may be organ- 
ized into companies for the Third Regiment of six-months’ troops as 
called for by the President. 

Third. The First, Colonel Roberts, and the Fifth, Colonel Williams, 
of the six-months’ troops, have been ordered to this place in accord- 
ance with your request, and I have also recommended that they be 
retained in the city on account of the want of camp and garrison 
equipage for them, they being from the interior and unaccustomed 
to exposure in this climate. 

Fourth. The company of the Eighteenth South Carolina Militia 
belonging to the Third Regiment of six-months’ troops is now at 
Summerville, and should be ordered to remain there on duty in charge 
of the place, and if necessary a part or all of one of the two regiments 
ordered here might be ordered to remain there also. 

Fifth. Under the instructions from the Secretary of War the con- 
scripts are to remain with the six-months’ troops to which they belong 
till this emergency has passed. Such is the case in all the other regi- 
ments and should be in this. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
| M. L. BONHAM. 


[Indorsement. | 


Hpg@rkSs. DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, &C., 
Charleston, S. C., September 11, 1563. 
The within suggestions are approved. General Jordan will ascer- 
tain how far the fifth suggestion can be carried into effect. 7 
7 G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
General, Commanding. 


804 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[SEPTEMBER 11, 1863.—For Smith to Davis, inclosing copy of the 
proceedings of a conference held at Marshall, Tex., &c., see Series I, 
Vol. XXII, Part I, p. 1003. | 


RICHMOND, VA., September 12, 1863. 


His Heccellenty JOSEPH EK. BROWN, 
Milledgeville, Gas 


Str: By telegram of the 9th instant* I had the honor to acknowledge 
the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo, and to express to you 
my deep sense of gratitude to yourself and the State of Georgia for 
the promptitude with which so many of her patriotic sons have organ- 
ized for defense against the threatened incursion of ourenemy. The 
organization of this force will depend on the character of the troops. 
It would seem that those who tender for service in the State should 
properly form one class to be organized into brigades or divisions, 
according to numbers. Those who propose to serve within certain 
districts “and in certain towns or places should form a second and 
third class. The first class appears to me to be the only one for 
which brigade commanders would be required, as they only could 
ever meet and do duty together in large bodies. Those composing 
the other two classes should have some general supervision to insure 
efficiency and expedite answers to calls for service. Your suggestion 
in reference to General Wofford has been referred to General Lee, in 
whose army General Wofford commands a brigade, which has been 
temporarily detached. 

I concur in the view taken by you that where nearly the whole 
arms-bearing population have offered for service the calls should be 
partial, and that persons who cannot be taken from home for a long 
time without embarrassment to the State government and to the people 
should not be so taken, except in cases of great emergency. I have 
ordered instructions to be prepared accordingly and sent to General 
Cobb, who has been directed to attend to the organization of the troops 
raised for local and special service. It will give me pleasure to receive 
any suggestions you may think proper to make and to give them 
prompt and respectful attention. 

With renewed assurances of my thanks for your prompt action and 
gratifying success, 

I remain, very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


RICHMOND, VA., September 12, 1863. 


His Excellency JOSEPH EK. BROWN, 
Milledgeville, Ga.: 


GOVERNOR: In view of the present posture of affairs, and of your 
familiarity with the feelings of the people and the requirements of the 
military service upon your northern border, I should be glad if you 
can find it convenient to visit me. In conversation we may be able 
to concert more effectually than through letters measures which will 
increase the strength of the army and the security of the State. Please 
accept my congratulations upon the prompt and zealous manner in 


*See Series I, Vol. LII, Part II, p. 523. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 805 


which the people of Georgia have responded to my late eall for addi- 
tional troops. The spirit they have shown is most gratifying, and is 
worthy of the kinsmen of men who have displayed such gallantry in 
action as the troops of Georgia have exhibited on many hard-fought 
fields. 
Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[SEPTEMBER 12, 1863.—Ior Cockrell to Cooper, recommending meas- 
ures for strengthening the division of troops from Missouri, and 
indorsements thereon, see Series I, Vol. LII, Part I, p. 524. | 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., September 13, 1863. 


General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond: 


The army having retired from East Tennessee left the conscript 
branch of this bureau without protection. The officers and camps are 
now in Georgia. My organizations in Alabama and Mississippi were 
and are completed, and I have no field of labor for these officers. I 
applied for authority in my communication of August 7 to extend 
the organization over General Bragg’s department, embracing those 
portions of West Virginia and North Carolina lying west of Blue 
Ridge and Northern Georgia. General Bragg in his indorsement 
urged that those portions of his department be ineluded in this con- ° 
script department. Not being able to engage the officers who have 
retired from Tennessee on duty, I have felt it was proper to order 
Colonel Blake to proceed to Richmond and report to the Secretary of 
War for instructions. I have explained to Colonel Blake the charac- 
ter of the organization of this bureau that you may judge of its effi- 
ciency. Itis a complete net-work of organization which is spread like 
a map all over those portions of the States in our possession, and with 
an active corps of officers with supporting forces of cavalry will soon 
sweep the country clean of deserters and conscripts, and must, to the 
exhaustion of the population, rapidly build up our armies. This 
organization, you will perceive, is equal to the work to be performed. 
Practically its success has been felt by immediately strengthening 
the army wherever it has been put into operation. Several thousand 
men have already been added to each of the two armies, viz, of Ten- 
nessee and Mississippi, although it has just been put into operation. 
One single rendezvous, that of Selma, reports 1,344 men returned and 
added to the army. One other, Tuscumbia, reports 554 men for the 
month of August. These two rendezvous are the only ones whose 
reports I have received. The others have not, in consequence of my 
being constantly in motion, been received. 

I have directed Colonel Blake to explain to you fully the working 
of the bureau. If all the States east of the Mississippi River were 
under a like organization, and those in the Trans-Mississippi Depart- 
ment under a similar organization, there would be no difficulty in 
keeping our armies as strong as needed, while the very existence all 
over the country of such an organization, with power to promptly 


806 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


arrest and return to the Army all deserters, would put an effectual 
stop to desertion itself. It is only by such an organization that the 
great evil of desertion, which is now an alarming evil so demoraliz- 
ing to the Army, can be cured. Men would not leave the Army when 
they knew they could not stay at home. This organization would 
very soon satisfy the deserters and their friends at home that the 
only place they could stay would be in the Army. Let this organiza- 
tion be adopted and the generals in the field enforce a more rigid 
discipline, and my life for it, the evil of desertion is cured, and the 
Army everywhere will be made as strong as the wants of the Govern- 
ment may require. If the Government would direct this organiza- 
tion to be extended over the States east of the Mississippi and appoint 
an efficient officer to take charge of the organization in each State, so as 
to give the proper aid to the officer over the whole, when the organiza- 
tion is completed the Department of War need have no further appre- 
hensions of disaster for want of men. We have the population and 
the system will put them into the field, and all the resistance which 
now threatens such serious consequences in disaffected sections would 
soon cease, and in its stead a ready acquiescence in the necessities of 
the service by the whole country. 

I am, sir, so deeply interested in the struggle, and my convictions 
of the correctness of these views so clear, and my experience in this 
branch of the service so thorough, that I trust you will pardon the 
freedom with which I have pressed these considerations on your 
attention. In a’ personal interview I could explain everything much 
more satisfactorily than I can possibly do here; but if the views are 
worthy of consideration and adoption by you, I shall request to be 
allowed to visit and explain more fully to the Department everything 
desired. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Superintendent Bureau, Department of Tennessee, &e. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 

Richmond, Va., September 14, 1868. 

General J. EK. JOHNSTON, / 
Atlanta, Gia.: 


GENERAL: I have just received your letter of the 9th instant asking 
my reconsideration of an opinion expressed in a previous letter with 
reference to your mode of executing the conscript law. I had so little | 
purpose of reflecting censoriously upon yourself and your action that 
on first reading your letter I thought your citation by extract must be 
mistaken, and that you had misunderstood as intended for yourself 
what had really reference to General Pillow, the efficient agent 
employed by you. On reference to a copy of my letter, however, I 
find the citation correct, and that in the connection the language is 
applicable directly to yourself and to General Bragg. While through 
inadvertence, or the haste of writing amid the business of the office, 
I have so expressed myself, it is certain that what I had in mind in 
characterizing the course of conscription and the views in respect to 
it taken by General Bragg and yourself, as hasty, &c., was the method 
and rapidity of execution adopted by General Pillow, when formerly 
trusted with duties similar to those again, from approval by you, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 807 


reposed in him. I thought it natural to expect, under the urgency 
existing for the recruiting of the armies, a similar line of conduct 
would, with your sanction, be adopted by him. I was not disposed to 
censure, nor disinclined to allow, such action, in view of the aims at 
once to be accomplished by it; but I certainly thought that it would 
be executed, as it seemed to me formerly it was by General Pillow, 
with less formality and attentive observance of the limitations and 
exemptions of the law than I would consider appropriate on the part 
of the Department. An allowance is always made in the popular 
mind for more urgency and rapidity of action on the part of military 
commanders in the field than would be readily accorded to the regu- 
lar administration of any branch of the service by the Department. 
In this view I appreciated the zeal, energy, and promptitude of Gen- 
eral Pillow’s action, and thought, as I still think, it expedient to resort 
to it under pressing exigencies of the service, but should expect to 
place it, if permanently continued, under more precise regulations. 
I regret to have been betrayed into any inadvertency of expression 
which implied censure either of yourself or any other, and I have 
pleasure in expressing the confidence that I feel that there will be no 
willful disregard of the law on your part or, in all probability, on that 
of General Pillow, but only with the latter such mistakes as are insepa- 
rable from the mode and promptitude of his proceedings. 
Very truly, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


HEADQUARTERS, 
Atlanta, Ga., September 14, 1863. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 


GENERAL: I have to-day entered upon the duty of organizing the 
State troops ordered to this point by Governor Brown. I have taken 
steps for organizing all the troops ordered by Governor Brown to 
report to the Confederate authorities, though I await an answer to 
my telegraph on this point before taking decided action in the mat- 
ter. The troops are rapidly assembling, and I hope within a short 
time to complete the organization. Until I receive your instructions 
forwarded by mail I can only take preliminary steps. I have had an 
interview with Governor Brown, who manifests every disposition in 
his power to aid me in the business, and I have no doubt there will be 
cordial co-operation between the State and Confederate authorities. 

I am, general, very respectfully, yours, &e., 
HOWELL COBB, 
Brigadier-General, Commanding. 


[SEPTEMBER 14, 1863.—For Seddon to Vance, in relation to disaffec- 
tion of North Carolina troops in the Army of Northern Virginia, and 
inclosing a letter from General Lee, see Series I, Vol. XXIX, Part 
ERD. 7235 | 


[SEPTEMBER 14, 1863.—For Bonham to Seddon, in relation to put- 
ting the six-months’ troops into the field, see Series I, Vol. XXVIII, 
Part II, p. 363. | 


808 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CIRCULAR. | : CONFEDERATE STATES or AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 14, 1863. 


As it has been reported to the Bureau that many fraudulent sub- 
stitute papers purporting to be discharges from the following regi- 
ments, &c., are in circulation, commandants of conscripts will direct 
their enrolling officers in every instance where discharges from any 
of these commands are presented to forward the papers to this office, 
that the matter may be thoroughly investigated, and if fraud has 
been practiced that it may be exposed: 

Ninth Louisiana, Battalion Louisiana Zouaves. 

Tenth Louisiana, Montgomery True Blues, artillery company, Cap- 
tain Andrews. 

Colonel Dunn’s Thirty-seventh Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. 

By command of Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[SEPTEMBER 16, 1863.—For orders of Governor Flanagin, calling 
into service the militia of certain counties: in Arkansas, see Series I, 
Vol. LITT, p. 896. | 


RICHMOND, VA., September 16, 1863. 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida: 

Str: Your favor of August 18 has been received, and the important 
topics discussed in it have received from me the attention due not 
only to your high official position, but also to your patriotic and thor- 
ough-going devotion to the cause in which we are engaged. I have 
heretofore written to you of the inability of General Lee at this junc- 
ture to spare the Florida brigade from his army. I trust, however, 
that means will be adopted to preserve its integrity as a brigade, and 
that, re-enforced by recruits, it may continue to add to the history of 
our arms. Your views and suggestions as to the preference to be 
given its well-tried and veteran officers over new aspirants are not 
only sound but strictly in accordance with the law known as the 
conscription act and the policy to which I have endeavored to con- 
form. You speak with a just sense of the impropriety of the employ- 
ment of able-bodied men in positions in the Quartermaster’s and 
Commissary Departments, which could well be filled by those whom 
the casualties of war have rendered unfit for field duty. My own 
attention has been long since strongly called to this subject, and 
finding that suggestions as to the advantages of a substitution of 
these latter for the former met no proper response, orders have been 
issued for this purpose, and a searching investigation instituted 
which it is trusted will have good results. General Orders, No. 105, is 
inclosed.* 

In regard to the appointment of district assessors, collectors, and 
their agents, the same general rule was intended to be applied, 
although in the appointment to the higher and more important posi- 
tions mental qualifications more than mere physical ones must be 


See p. 683. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 809 


consulted. The law and the instructions issued to chief quartermas- 
ters in regard to the appointment of agents and other subordinates 
employed in the collection of the taxes were imperative, and any 
appointments to those situations of persons qualified for field service are 
unauthorized, and if pointed out will be remedied. The earnest and 
searching manner in which you have taken up the whole question of 
posts held by incumbents who should be in the ranks is but another 
proof of the zeal which you everywhere manifest for the success of 
the Confederate cause. And this is still further made evident in the 
correspondence laid before me by you in regard to the removal of the 
iron on the Florida Railroad. You need, of course, sir, no assurance 
from me that that correspondence does not derogate from your high 
position, but it is gratifying to me to be able to say to you that in this 
time of our trouble, when so many are disposed to withhold from the 
Confederate Government the means of success, you should occupy 
the high standpoint of strengthening its hands by all the means in 
your power, and of nobly disregarding all considerations except the 
common weal. In this you are not only the Governor but the repre- 
sentative of the people of Florida. 

I think, sir, that the action of the War Department may avoid some 
obstacles interposed to prevent the accomplishment of a work which 
we both deem necessary for the proper defense of Florida, while at 
the same time this action may notin its practical workings differ very 
widely from the policy you prefer. The Secretary of War has 
approved the route selected by the Engineer Bureau as combining the 
greatest advantages, that route being the railroad connection east of 
the Alabama River. This, I understand, is sanctioned by your own 
judgment. Satisfied of the necessity of this connection, the Secretary 
of War wishes to build it with least delay and embarrassment practi- 
cable, and in pursuance of this purpose proposes to use for its con- 
struction iron impressed or otherwise obtained by the Confederate 
Government in such manner as will not subject it to the imputation 
of fostering a railroad enterprise at the expense of the Florida Rail- 
road. However groundless and unjust such a charge might be, it 
would seem well to avoid anything which might serve to irritate the 
popular mind of East Florida in opposition to the removal of the iron 
from the Florida Railroad. The use of iron for the general purposes 
of the Government rendered necessary by military exigencies cannot 
excite so active and partisan a spirit of opposition as if employed in 
building this connection, and it is desired to execute this measure, so 
unpalatable to those whose interests were involved, with as little 
harshness as may be. It is hoped your discretion may reconcile them 
to it in the form presented, and that your cordial support and patri- 
otic firmness may repress any undue opposition, should such be offered. 
I trust that this plan adopted by the Secretary of War may meet your 
full approval. I again beg leave to renew the assurance of my 
esteem. 

Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


RICHMOND, VA., September 17, 1868. 
J. W. HARMON, 
Secretary of the Confederate Society, Enterprise, Miss.: 
Sir: I have received your letter of the 22d ultimo, inclosing a copy of 
an address to the people of the Confederate States, calling upon them 


810 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to unite in an effort to restore and maintain the par value of the cur- 
rency with gold by forming societies of citizens who will engage to sell 
and buy only atreduced prices. Theobject of the address is most lauda- 
ble, and I sincerely hope for it great success in arousing the people to 
concerted action upon a subject of the deepest importance. The pas- 
sion of speculation has become a gigantic evil. It has seemed to take 
possession of the whole country, and has seduced citizens of all 
classes from a determined prosecution of the war to a sordid effort to 
amass money. It destroys enthusiasm and weakens public confi- 
dence. It injures the efficiency of every measure which demands the 
zealous co-operation of the people in repelling the public enemy, and 
threatens to bring upon us every calamity which can befall free men 
struggling for independence. The united exertions of societies like 
those you propose should accomplish much toward abating this evil 
and infusing a new spirit into the community. I trust, therefore, 
that you will continue your labors until their good effect becomes 
apparent everywhere. Please accept my thanks for the comforting 
tone of your patriotic letter. It is a relief to receive such a-commu- 
nication at this time, when earnest effort is demanded, and when I 
am burdened by the complaining and despondent letters of many who 
have stood all the day idle and now blame anybody but themselves 
for reverses which have come and dangers which threaten. 
Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


ATLANTA, September 17, 1863. 
| (Received 18th.) 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond, Va.: 


The Home Guards are responding nobly. I think 7,000 to 8,000 
will be ready for service in a short time. I shall need 3,000 stand 
more of arms. Send them at once. I think a major-general should 
be appointed immediately to be ready to take command by the time 
the organization is completed. You requested me to make nomina- 
tion. I respectfully ask that General Henry R. Jackson be appointed 
major-general to command the whole force. So far as I can learn, 
this is the general wish of the troops and of the people of the State. 
As the representative of these people I tender my thanks for your 
expression of appreciation of the response of the State to your eall; 
and will in turn highly appreciate your action if you will gratify the 
wish of those who have made the patriotic resolve. Please say by tele- 
graph whether you will make the appointment. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


I fully and cordially indorse the above recommendation for the 
appointment of General Jackson to the command mentioned. 
HOWELL COBB, 
Brigadier- General. 


CARTERSVILLE, September 17, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
| Secretary of War: 
Does Special Orders, No. 213, to General Howell Cobb, include the 
entire force in Georgia for local defense, of any other than those 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 811 


ordered to Atlanta by the Governor? Do they embrace the force 
which by your authority of the 6th of June I proceeded to raise be- 
tween Atlanta and Tennessee line, which, under Executive call, met 
at Kingston, and which General Wayne, adjutant-general of the State, 
has turned over to my command? 

' W. H. STILES. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 18, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SiR: I have the honor to transmit the inclosed papers. I handed 
them to the President unofficially before sending them to you, for the 
purpose of verifying by their incidental information a verbal state- 
ment I had made to the President and General Lee as to the numbers 
in certain regiments in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. The main purpose of Major Melton’s communication I 
indicated in the draft of a general order I submitted yesterday. 
These letters are in answer to my request to Major Melton for his 
views concerning the matter treated of. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, , 
JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[Inclosure. | 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 17, 1863. 


His Excellency President DaAVIs: 


My DEAR Sir: I regard the matter I submitted to you yesterday of 
sufficient importance to warrant me in asking the ten minutes required 
for your perusal of the accompanying papers. I will endeavor, by 
carefully drawn instructions, to mitigate the evil complained of and 
apprehended. ri 

The irregularities on the part of the military authorities are, of 
course, not within the scope of my official action. Coming to my knowl- 
edge officially, as they necessarily must, I regard it my duty to eall 
attention tc them. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
? JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[First indorsement. | 


SEPTEMBER 17, 1863. 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 

To assign or permit volunteers to join a company so as to raise it 
above the maximum prescribed by law is a military offense which 
should be decisively noticed. 

New companies cannot be organized of men liable to conscription, 
except as provided in the sixth section of the act of April 16, 1862. 

Those who, being liable to enrollment, may anticipate it by volun- 
teering can only select companies which were in service at the date 
of ‘‘conscription” act and which are not full at the time the selection 
is made. 


812 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The instructions given in relation to the six-months’ men will be 
examined. As my memory serves, the intent was to have all enrolled 
who were subject that they might be assigned to companies, but to 
leave them in their present organizations until the emergency should 
cease or their term of service expire. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


[Second indorsement. | 


Has the proposed order been sent in by Colonel Preston? Let me 
have it if it has. 
J. A. SEDDON, 


Secretary. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 


1. The privilege of volunteering since April 16, 1862, is confined to 
those who are not of the age of conscription, or those who have not 
been enrolled as conscripts. 

2. All persons who have been temporarily exempt from the oper- 
ation of conscription or whose exemption was withdrawn by the repeal 
of the law under which they enjoyed exemption (overseers and own- 
ers of slave property) are under the control of the commander of 
conscripts. 

3. The recruiting of conscripts under General Orders, No. 82, and 
the instructions for the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office of 
January, 1863, was subject to the conditions contained in Orders, No. 
82, that such officers must report to the commandant of conseripts in 
their respective States, receive instructions from him, and assemble 
these conscripts at such point as he may designate. Conscripts 
enrolled without reporting to such commandants will be deemed to be 
enrolled for general service, and shall at any time be transferred on 
their own application, or on the application of commandants of ¢ rps 
needing conscripts, to such corps. 

4. A controversy on this subject arose last winter between Ge eral 
Beauregard and Colonel Weems, commandant of conscripts of Ge regia. 
Colonel Weems was then informed: 

There is no direction to the commanding general of a department or of an army 
to apply to this Department for a permission to detail officers to make enroll- 
ments. He may do so under Orders 82 without such a permission. But the 
action of those officers is to be regulated by instructions from the commandant of 
conscripts, and they cannot make any disposition of the conscripts without his 
consent. The object of the privilege conceded to the commanding general was 
not that he might appropriate a greater number of conscripts than others, but 


only by superior energy and activity that he might obtain his quota with more 
rapidity than otherwise. 


). The mode of redress under the law and orders of the Depart- 
ment is then clearly provided by reference to the orders before quoted. 


? 
Colonel and Superintendent. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Columbia, September 12, 1863. 
Col. JOHN S. PRESTON, 
Superintendent of Conscription: 
COLONEL: The inquiry is herewith submitted whether the privilege 
of volunteering ‘‘ before enrollment” as conscripts shall be extended 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 813 


to those persons who have heretofore been exempt as “‘overseers” and 

‘owners” and who are now ordered into service, as also to those who 
are now ‘in the State six-months’ regiments and who will be ordered 
into service when those regiments are disbanded. 

In this connection I submit for your consideration the inclosed tab- 
ular statement of the volunteers who reported to my enrolling officers 
under the President’s recent call and the companies and arms of 
service selected by them, an examination of which will present to 
you some data which may influence your judgment on the inquiry 
submitted. 

Before directing you to the particular points presented in this state- 
ment, let me say that in the call of the President, extending to all the 
privilege of volunteering ‘‘ before enrollment,” orders were issued from 
these headquarters on the 27th of July requiring those who desired to 
volunteer under this call to report to the enrolling officers of their 
respective districts by the 20th of August, indicating the companies 
selected, and go forward by the 1st of September. This order was 
operative as well upon those who belonged to the six-months’ State 
troops as upon others. I[ was, however, instructed by you, under date 
of 10th of August, ‘‘to allow all persons in the six-months’ troops to 
~ remain in their organization for the present.” 

This induced the issuing of an order on the 12th of August counter- 
manding my order of July 27, so far as it affected those who were mem- 
bers of these State regiments. The number, therefore, who reported 
as volunteers under my order was much restricted, fully seven-eighths 
of those liable to conscription being members of those regiments. Of 
those who did report as volunteers a large number belong to those 
regiments having reported prior to the issuing of my order counter- 
manding as to them the previous order. The lists sent up by my enroll- 
ing officers of volunteers who reported under this call foot up an agegre- 
gate of 1,053. Of this number you will see by the tabular statement 
that 808 selected companies on the coast in this State; 245 selected 
companies not in this State. You will also note the following particu- 
lars, that 298 (nearly one-third) selected the cavalry service, and of 
these 289 selected companies on the coast; that 127 selected companies 
in Colonel Keitt’s Twentieth Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, a 
regiment long since overflowing in numbers; that 57 selected Colonel 
Aiken’s Sixth South Carolina Cavalry, a regiment all of whose com- 
panies were organized since April 16, 1862. 

You will further notice that of the 245 who selected organizations 
beyond the State 94.volunteer for Jenkins’ brigade, already by far 
the strongest of the South Carolina brigades in Virginia, the highest 
number to any other brigade in Virginia being 18. 

This statement we may fairly assume as presenting the ratio in which 
the men now called out will distribute themselves if left to their option. 
If, therefore, the privilege of volunteering be given them, with no other 
restrictions than those imposed by existing orders, we may rest assured. 
of these results: First, that these men will go, nearly to a man, to com- 
panies on the coast; second, that a very large proportion will go into 
cavalry service ; third, that a large number will go to companies organ- 
ized since April 16, 1862 (chiefly to Aiken’s Sixth South Carolina Cav- 
alry, and to companies recently formed and to others which are now 
forming on the coast); fourth, that the veteran brigades of McGowan, 
Kershaw, Jenkins, and Evans, to whom these men all rightfully belong, 
will receive comparatively few. 


814 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Many causes contribute to this tendency of men when left to their 
own choice—the desire to be in one’s own State, if for no other reason 
than its proximity to home; the impression that the cavalry is the light- 
est arm of the service, at the same time the healthiest and least exposed 
to the casualties of war; the popularity of regiments whose ranks are 
full, and the disinclination to go to those whose ranks have been reduced 
by battle or disease. 

To attempt a remedy for this by a denial of the privilege of volun- 
teering would, I think, be altogether unadvisable. Four-fifths of the 
men will go forward promptly when ordered. They will feel it an act 
of injustice if they are to be forced forward as conscripts, and to 
avoid the ignominy, as they regard it, they will evade the enrolling 
officers and the camps of instruction by every possible means, before 
enrollment and after enrollment, and will go, nolens volens, to com- 
panies of their choice. And to the correction of this evil existing 
-orders are wholly inadequate, for while it may be declared that these 
men shall not go to companies of their choice, there is no order pro- 
hibiting commanders of companies from recruiting and mustering 
them in, and none requiring them, if received, to be surrendered on 
requisition to the camp of instruction. 

The remedy will be found, I respectfully submit, in such orders as 
will advertise the men before they go forward that if they go in vio- 
lation of orders they will be reclaimed and returned to the camp of 
-instruction. Nothing but this, held over them in terrorem, will com- 
pel their conformity to orders. In my orders of July 27 I attempted 
to reach the evil by myself assuming to impose a restriction of this 
kind, but recruiting officers boldly told their men that the command- 
ant of conscripts had no control over volunteers, that he had no 
authority to make reclamation, and that such reclamation would not 
be respected. 

I respectfully suggest, after careful consideration of all the cireum- 
stances, that the right to volunteer ‘‘ before enrollment” shall not be 
denied to the men now ealled out, but that it shall be subject to the 
following restrictions: First, limiting the right to companies in serv- 
ice at date of April 16, 1862, and to companies reorganized under act 
of April 16, 1862, and only to such of those companies as are not 
already full; second, forbidding captains to receive and muster in 
persons of conscript age without a certificate showing that they 
reported to an enrolling officer as volunteers and selected companies 
of the classes permitted; third, declaring that if any one shall go for- 
ward to any company and be mustered in contrary to orders it shall 
be the duty of the commandant of conscripts to make requisition for 
him and the duty of the captain and his superior commanding officers 
to return him to the camp of instruction; fourth, requiring conform- 
ity with such orders and regulations as may be imposed by the com- 
mandant of conscripts of each State for the enforcement of these 
orders. 

The necessity for immediate action in the matter will excuse me in 
asking to it the earliest possible attention. 

I have the honor to be, very truly, your most obedient, 
C. D. MELTON, 
Commandant of Conscripts, South Carolina. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 815 


[Inclosure.] 


Tabular statement showing number of persons volunteering under President’s call 
and the organizations and arms of service selected by them August 20, 1863. 


ORGANIZATIONS IN THE STATE. 


20th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel Keitt__.............._-- 127 
Palmetto Battalion Light Artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel White _______. .__- 88 
Charleston Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Gaillard__.. ___._____________.. : 63 
perertmemnariiilery. Colonel Kredericks. -.-:._...,----- 2 nnd e nine. 59 
Petros, mmrantry, Colonel Butler os. 220 = ee 42 
21st Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel Graham ______________- 38 
7th Battalion South Carolina Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson _____. 28 
Premremeraeniagor Manieaulian fe ees coe ba as oo ta ly 19 
25th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel Simonton________..___- 14 
Bee tere iiiery Captain CaAtKer so. 2 ook ee eo ee 12 
Batsnuon sharpshooters, Major Abney ._... 5... 22: 222.2. ele et 10 
Meararauat Nhs errs Pewee li TEM HIE) Poet ph Stipes ee ee UE) ou 19 
3d Regiment South Carolina Cavalry, Colonel Colcock _..._......._--_._-- 47 
4th Regiment South Carolina Cavalry, Colonel Rutledge __..._....______-- 106 
5th Regiment South Carolina Cavalry, Colonel Dunovant -.._._____._.___- 36 
6th Regiment South Carolina Cavalry, Colonel Aiken ___..________.______- 57 
Tucker’s South Carolina cavalry, Captain Tucker..............._.......-- 43 

Poti Loorpali zations On GOastie a2. 06260200 b2uet deh. eu. eda es. 808 


ORGANIZATIONS NOT IN THE STATE, 


Peeiera WP Onmsne (OMA ViroInia wo Lt eee eee 94. 
Premereeyatn Urigade, (re0rgiaw. o-oo.) ket lee 78 
Meneraliais.s brigade, MIssissippil. os). 6 le eke kl ‘ 18 
Sonera ymcGowan © Wrigade ny eins 22.02. Lo. ese ee ge lec ceed 18 
General Kershaw’s brigade, Virginia_-__. TU SA pie on see SPR 17 
Creneray Mameanit's brigade; Tennessee ..........-.-+..-..--2--22 es. ---- 11 
General Hampton’s brigade, cavalry, Virginia ..._........2__...._-.------ 7 
Pie ee eC CaOt OAV Ar Vary rolsias..)). te ee 2 

TNO ys ge lls pals 28 V1) ale SES Be NORRIE ee ne Ane eT aoe ee mer sik (need 
MET PaETO TC TLG SLC Mio. fe. Oe oe ee ee ee cee ee nat aee 808 
Pema iseteteis tO 1 the State. 22 ae a ee 245 

OE SLETS. Sh0 5 SEC ay. op ioe elon | oa.) 4, pop bere hoe oh . 1,053 
EMMI EPEC SO UALC( Scout ok et eas eg ea wag ie yah es 341 
Mirautcy 10t in the State -. 2-222 l ool. La. Beit flea MSS ha nn ALA Be a ades 236 

eh ceeee ns ee sy ah Si al tigd aren Pele esi el play eye Byes 577 
Cavalry in the State_.___-. PI RRS Re 9 <p” tel iN er I ce te ee 289 
DEM tE LO UAL Are. oe a we eee eae See en eee 9 

rierarem paneteetes: 4S WT) etl tee Ad) eee, tek i Ors ee ee 298 
EEE UA COG 2 Sy yi Ue ee yee 178 


[Sub-inclosure No. 3.] 


COLUMBIA, September 12, 1868. 
Col. JOHN S. PRESTON: 


DEAR Sir: The importance of the matter submitted in the accom- 
panying communication will excuse my urgent request that you will 
give your earliest attention to it. I have not yet ordered out the 
‘“overseers” and ‘‘owners” who have heretofore been exempt for the 
reason that to do so under existing orders would defeat the declared 


816 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


purpose of the conscription act as to the distribution of the men 
called out. The points submitted are the same made in my sugges- 
tions on ‘‘volunteering” sent you on your assuming charge of the 
Bureau. I have waited hoping that the Adjutant-General would 
place within my power a remedy for the evil, and have forborne to 
order these men out before such orders were received, knowing that 
whether allowed to volunteer or not they would scatter hither and 
thither without control on my part, without regard to existing orders, 
without reference to the exigencies of the service, without, indeed, 
any restrictions beyond their own inclinations. The data necessary 
to give you a proper understanding of the case could not be earlier 
obtained; the delay, if it shall lead to a correction of the evil, will 
be amply compensated. 

It must be borne in mind that this is the last levy; the country 
eannot bear a further extension of the conscription. If the veteran 
brigades are not now to be refilled they can never be. They have a 
right to the men now called out, a right under the very terms of the 
conscription act, and, I respectfully submit, have a right to such orders 
as will force these men into their ranks. 

In this connection I beg your attention to the inclosed communica- 
tion of Major Perryman, chief enrolling officer for Charleston. I 
know not to what extent are the abuses of which he speaks. I have 
reason to believe that they exist to avery large extent. The regiment 
of Colonel Keitt has been for a long time filled to repletion; at one 
time was said to number 1,600. It comes within my knowledge that 
from the ‘‘excess” of this regiment one new company of cavalry has 
been formed, commanded by Capt. EllisonS. Keitt, witha full comple- 
ment of new officers, and within my information that others have 
been formed or are now in process of formation from the same regi- 
ment. I also learn that in the Charleston Battalion the same end is 
obtained by subdivisions of companies. Capt. T. Y. Simons informed 
me that his company had been so subdivided and a new company 
formed, with new officers, the ranks of both to be filled up by reeruits. 
The like subdivisions have been made in White’s battalion of light 
artillery, whereby the number of companies have been increased from, 
I think, four to ten. From one company of this battalion (Captain 
Johnson’s) was formed a hew company under Captain De Pass, and 
from the two still another company under Captain Richardson, the 
original company being thus the parent of two others. The Rutledge 
Mounted Riflemen has also given birth to a new company. Fergu- 
son’s battery has also sent out the nucleus of a new company under 
Captain Calhoun, which is now recruiting and fitting up as Company 
No. 2 of Ferguson’s battery. 

In the cavalry service the like thing has been going on. I send 
you an advertisement for recruits for a light battery to be attached 
to Colonel Keitt’s regiment—a new organization out and out—pub- 
lished here under my nose. 

It may occur to you as needing explanation how so large a number 
of conscripts go to companies already full and to companies organ- 
ized since the 16th of April, 1862, in violation of paragraph XII, 
General Orders, No. 82, of 1862. The solution is in this: That whilst 
this order prohibits the men from volunteering in such companies, 
there is no order prohibiting the captains from receiving them and 
none requiring them when received to be surrendered on requisition 
to the camp of instruction. ‘‘Preferring charges” would be useless, 
for whilst the charges are being investigated the evil is going on; 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 817 


moreover, perhaps every captain in the department would be amen- 
able to such charges, and the commanding general might not escape, 
he having knowledge of and permitting these irregularities. 

I write unofficially, because I have had necessarily to speak of mat- 
ters of which I am not officially informed. 

I trust that you will be able to give me a reply at an early day, for 
until a reply is received I do not wish to order out these men, and I 
feel that there should be no longer delay. 

I have the honor to be, very truly and sincerely, yours, 
C. D. MELTON. 


{Inclosure No. 1.] 


ENROLLING OFFICE, 
Charleston, August 27, 1868. 
Maj. C. D. MELTON, 
Commandant of Conscripts: 


MaJor: I beg your immediate attention to the evasion of section 13, 
act of April 16, 1862, as well as paragraph XII, General Orders, No. 
82, of 1862, whichis being practiced in thisdepartment. This evasion 
is unjust to the old commands, who have nobly borne the main burdens 
of this war as well as the most of the numerous battles in Virginia. 
The evasion is conducted in this manner: Permission is given to 
officers to recruit for companies which are already full, or nearly so, 
and the service being near home and the prospect of immediate con- 
seription hanging over them, recruits are easily obtained. When 
these companies are run up above the maximum, as allowed in act of 
April 16, 1862, detachments from the various companies of a regiment 
are formed into a company and the formula of elections is held, thereby 
creating more officers unauthorized by law. I earnestly hope that 
this injustice will not be allowed and that this communication be 
referred to the Department at Richmond. I would say that the army 
in Virginia will receive no conscripts if this unjust and pernicious 
system will be allowed. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
W. W. PERRYMAN, 
Major and Enrolling Officer, Second Cong. Dist. of S. C. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


Volunteers for a light battery to be attached to the command of 
Col. L. M. Keitt. 


I have been authorized by General Beauregard to raise a light bat- 
tery to be attached to the above command in service in this depart- 
ment. All persons who will be compelled to go into service have the 
opportunity of selecting their companies until the 20th of August. 

This popular branch of the service affords peculiar advantages, to 
wit: Less exposure and picket duty than any other branch, &e. 

The usual bounty will be given for recruits. All persons desirous 
of joining, besides those who have already joined, will report to F. H. 
Elmore at the enrolling office, Law Range. 

D. B. DE SAUSSURE, 
First Ineut., First Regt. S. C. Regular Infantry. 
Aveust 14. ) 


52 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


818 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


RICHMOND, September 19, 1868. 
Col. W. H. STILEs, 
Cartersville, Ga.: 


The order was intended to include all local organizations formed for 
the Confederate service under Confederate law. Militia proper are 
not embraced. 

J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CARTERSVILLE, GA., September 21, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Your telegram bearing date the 19th instant is received, and as I 
have not succeeded in making myself understood by telegraph you 
will pardon me, I trust, for attempting to explain myself more fully 
by letter. 

On the 6th of June, in answer to my application for authority to 
raise a force of non-conscripts for the defense of upper Georgia, you 
did me the favor to address me the following telegram: ‘‘ Raise under 
the law for local defense and special service and of non-conscripts 
as Many companies and regiments as you can.” 

A week later, when on a visit to Richmond for the purpose, you gave 
me full instructions under your hand on the subject. Subsequently I 
received from the War Department Special Orders, No. 193, detaching 
me temporarily from my command ‘‘for the purpose of raising a force 
of non-conscripts for the protection of the upper portion of Georgia.” 
On my return to Georgia I proceeded to raise the required force, and 
some fifty companies were at my instance started between Atlanta 
and the Tennessee line. About this time, the President having made 
a requisition on the Governors of the Confederate States for a similar 
force, Governor Brown was called on for 8,000 men from Georgia. 
The conflict of the two agents of the Government for the accomplish- 
ment of the same object threatening to operate injuriously to the 
interests of the service, I instructed all the companies I had raised 
to forward their muster-rolls through Governor Brown, all of which 
you find most fully explained in my communication of the 23d of 
July. When the force in this portion of the State was raised (the 
enemy under Rosecrans having crossed the Tennessee line into Geor- 
gia; in fact, invading the very counties in which a part of this force 
was raised) the Governor of Georgia called the companies into the 
field, and General H. C. Wayne, upon my voluntary offer to take 
charge of them, immediately turned over those in this immediate 
section to my command, and I have had them picketed out at various 
points to protect that great thoroughfare, the Western and Atlantic 
Railroad, and prevent incursions of the enemy by raids. Matters 
were in this state when I saw in the papers the following order: 


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 213. Richmond, September 8, 1863. 
* * * * * * * 
XXXII. Brig. Gen. Howell Cobb is assigned to the duty of organizing at 
Atlanta, Ga., the militia and such of the local force from that State as have been 
ordered to that point by His Excellency the Governor of Georgia for service in 
the Confederate States. 
By command of the Secretary of War: 
JNO. WITHERS, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 819 


Upon this I telegraphed you to know whether General Cobb was 
intrusted with the organization of the entire force raised for home 
defense (a construction of which the order does not, it seems to me, 
admit), or whether the force which I was ordered by you “‘to raise for the 
defense of upper Georgia,” and which it cannot be denied I was greatly 
instrumental in doing, and which had been thus turned over to me by 
Adjutant-General Wayne, was to be included under the authority 
granted to General Cobb. This is the point I designed to ascertain 
and which the telegram I have this day received from you does not 
sufficiently explain, viz: ‘‘The order was intended to include local 
organizations formed for the Confederate service under Confederate 
law. Militia proper are not embraced.” Be pleased to inform me 
what are to be my relations to that foree—at least that portion of it 
raised between Atlanta and the Tennessee line—whether after having 
received authority to raise the force; whether after having been 
greatly instrumental in raising it, and being prevented only from fear 
of a conflict with Governor Brown, to the injury of the service, in 
successfully accomplishing the object; whether I am to be intrusted 
with any command over it, or whether you have no longer any need 
for my services in this line? This is what I particularly desire to 
know and is the object of this communication to ascertain. 

Very respectfully, 
WILLIAM H. STILES, 
Colonel Siatieth Regiment Georgia Volunteers. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 

DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marvetia, Ga., September 21, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 

Secretary of War: 


I inclose you herewith a copy of the field organization of this 
bureau for Alabama and Mississippi. You will perceive that the 
organization spreads over these States a net-work of organization, 
like a map, making it absolutely certain that men who ought to be in 
the service cannot long escape duty. Cast your eye over the extent 
of our territory and you will at once perceive how inadequate is the 
working force of the conscript organization to coerce the reluctant 
population of the country to enter the Army. To restore stragglers 
and deserters who are scattered and hid out all over this wide extent 
of territory to the Army, and to gather up the scattered conscripts, who 
are in most sections banded with the deserters, and are all armed for: 
mutual protection, requires such an organization in every State in the 
Confederacy. These officers need aad must have support to enable 
them to overcome resistance. For this latter purpose, viz, of sup- 
porting my officers, I have raised and mustered into the service for 
the war, of conscripts and non-conscripts, ready in equal numbers, 
about twenty companies, whom I have armed with arms I have had 
gathered up in the country and taken from deserters. This was done 
under the authority of your indorsement on the application of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Lay, acting chief of conscription, copies of which 
were furnished me through General Johnston about the time I entered 
upon the duty of organizing this bureau. These companies are all 
now actively engaged in this bureau in Alabama and Mississippi. 
This force is inadequate for the service scattered over those large 


820 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


States, but assisted as they are by other forces of cavalry detailed by 
the commanders of departments, they meet present wants, except in 
the mountain region of Alabama, where there are not less than from 
6,000 to 8,000 deserters and tory conscripts, who are as vicious as 
copperheads and resist whole companies of cavalry supporting force, 
and in several instances successfully. From this region (twelve 
counties) all my supporting force from General Bragg’s army have 
been withdrawn by the active operations of the army in front of this 
position. Upon the examination of the inclosed programme of my 
field organization you will perceive a working force adequate to the 
work to be done, viz, to sweep over all parts of those two States and 
bring into the army the great number of deserters and conscripts. 
The deserters and absent men from the armies of Tennessee and Mis- 
sissippi constitute one-half of each of those armies. I speak from the 
field report of those armies and therefore with accuracy. You may 
hence judge of the importance of this branch of the service and of 
the magnitude of the work to be performed by this bureau. The 
same working forces adequate to the work of gathering the vast mass 
of deserters can and do gather the scattered conscripts. ‘The con- 
script law and the organization under its provisions can do but little 
in this great labor, spreading all over [this] vast territory. It was 
this conviction, explained to General Bragg, that induced this organi- 
zation. It is a necessity of the condition of our armies and of the 
country. If the organization were extended over all the States the 
armies could be kept together and held up to any strength which the 
wants of the service might require. Without some such organization 
our armies will be virtually disbanded. The two organizations, that 
of the conscript and that of the supernumerary officers, together act- 
ing in harmony, all arresting deserters, stragglers, and conscripts, 
with rendezvous so arranged and located as to cover over all parts of 
the country, will, beyond all doubt, cure desertion and build up the 
armies as long as we have a population as a source of supply. 

I had prepared the field programme some days since, intending to 
send by Colonel Blake, but having no other officer at hand com- 
petent to the duty indicated in your indorsement on Honorable Mr. 
Lyon’s letters, and deeming that the more important service, I 
ordered him on that duty. If this organization is to be extended no 
further than is now done, the organization being now completed, I 
can place over the organization of each State an officer capable of 
carrying on the work, and I desire to take the field. I am willing to 
work wherever my services are deemed most important by the Gov- 
ernment. And if the Government should order the organization 
' extended over all the States, making those east of the Mississippi 
River one department, and those west of it another department, and 
desired my services to do it, I would cheerfully undertake it; but 
being kept so long out of the field and thus left in rank entirely 
behind everybody, it would deprive me of all hope of future rank and 
command, upon which my usefulness would in a great measure depend. 
Would it not be unjust to hold me in the position? Subject to these 
remarks and the determination of the Government on them, I apply 
to be permitted (as I have no command) to raise me a command of 
cavalry. If you will order General Bragg to let me have Colonel 
Biffle’s regiment, General Johnston to let me have one other old regi- 
ment of cavalry from his army, and allow me to use Colonel Richard- 
son’s newly raised regiment, which now reports to me, I will organize 
them into a brigade and proceed at its head to West Tennessee, and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. §21 


in a short time I will bring out a division of cavalry 5,000 strong. 
This is a perilous service, but if I can be allowed to command the 
force I may bring out I will take the risk. If you grant this appli- 
cation please send me the necessary order for arms, &c. I am sure 
Generals Johnston and Bragg will approve the measure. The convic- 
tion of the importance of this communication is my apology for its 
length. 
With great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, ce. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


Field organization of Volunteer and Conscription Bureau under 
Brigadier-General Pillow in Alabama: 

Rendezvous at Decatur, with outposts at Courtland and Somerville; 
at Guntersville; at Tuscumbia; at Fayetteville, with outpost at 
Pikeville; at Lebanon; at Camden; at Montgomery; at Selma; at Pol- 
lard; at Troy; at Mobile; at West Point, Ga.; at Marion; at Blounts- 
ville; at Livingston; at Dansborough; at Gadsden, with outposts at 
Cedar Bluff, Jacksonville, and Ashville; at Carrollton; at Tuscaloosa, 
at Eutaw; at Eufaula; at Jasper; at Newton; at Clarksville. 

Talladega camp of instruction, with outpost at Elyton. 

NotTe.—At each rendezvous and outpost there is a field officer with 
subordinate officers and supporting force of cavalry and necessary 
staff officers. The supernumerary branch is separate and distinct 
from the conseript branch, both branches acting under the same 
orders and on the same duty, but in different fields of labor. This 
results from one class of officers being permanent under act of Con- 
gress, and the other class being temporary, being detailed from the 
Army, both branches reporting to me and both carrying out the prin- 
ciples of the conscript act and the orders of the Adjutant-General in 
enforcing the conscript law, and both gathering stragglers and 
deserters, thus supplying the defects in the conscript law and the 
organization under it by the supernumerary organization, consisting 
of officers detailed from the Army. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, &e. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


Field organization of Volunteer and Conscription Bureau under 
Brigadier-General Pillow in Mississippi: 

Rendezvous at Columbia, with outpost at Monticello; at Augusta, 
with outpost at Ellisville; at Brandon, with outpost at Hillsborough; 
at De Kalb, with outposts at Carthage, Philadelphia, and Decatur; at 
Macon, with outposts at Louisville, Kosciusko; at Columbia, with 
outposts at Starkville and Greensborough; at Okolona, with outposts 
at Houston and Pontotoe; at Aberdeen, with outposts at Cotton Gin 
and Fulton; at Grenada, with outposts at Carrollton, Charleston, and 
Oxford; at Pittsborough; at Paulding, with outpost at Raleigh. 

Camp of instruction, Enterprise. 

Notr.—At each rendezvous and outpost there is a field officer with 
subordinate officers and supporting force of cavalry and necessary 
staff officers. At each of the rendezvous there is also one company of 
infantry stationed as guards for the men brought in. More than one- 
half of the cavalry supporting force was raised by this bureau and is 


822 - GORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


composed of companies consisting of conscripts and non-conscripts. 
The supernumerary branch of the bureau is separate and distinct 
from the conscript branch. The supernumerary branch is a unit and 
placed under the charge of Colonel Dowd, who reports tome. The 
conscript branch remains as it was before reporting directly to me. 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier- General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, &c. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 124. Richmond, September 22, 1863. 


I. Potatoes (sweet) gathered under the tax law by commissaries and 
quartermasters at or within reach of places where hospitals are located 
will be transferred (invoices and receipts being given) to the medical 
officers in charge of the hospitals, to be cared for and secured against 
the influences of frost, &c., for the use of the sick; or farmers, when 
the hospitals are more convenient of access than the depots, may 
deliver their potatoes (tax in kind) to the medical officer in charge, 
- taking receipts, which will be acknowledged by the tax agent. 

II. The pay of surgeons (private physicians) employed under Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 82, Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, of 1862, 
is increased to $6 per diem until further orders. 

III. Assistant medical directors and assistant medical inspectors 
not being authorized, the titles will not be used. 

IV. The extra pay allowed soldiers detailed for duty as commissary- 
sergeants by the act of Congress approved May 1, 1863, will be paid 
upon the muster and pay rolls of the companies to which they belong 
by the quartermasters charged with the duty of paying troops. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 22, 1868. 


Commandants of conscripts for the several States will report as soon 
as practicable, and at the utmost before the 15th of October next, the 
number of men exempted from military service in the Confederate 
States, the causes of such exemptions, the number detailed in their 
States before assignment, and the number of assignments. As accu- 
rate a report as possible will be made and a copy retained for a wpb SS 
extension of a report upon the same matter. 

By order of Col. John 8. Preston, superintendent: 

P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CIRCULAR. | BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, September "98, 1868. 
For the purpose of detecting the parties engaged in signing fraudu- 
lent papers, and of ascertaining the names of principals whose sub- 
stitutes have become liable to service on their own account, the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 823 


Adjutant and Inspector General has called for the necessary reports 
from commanders of regiments, &e., of the Army. 

To assist, as far as possible, in accomplishing the desired result, 
the commandants of conscripts for the different States will direct the 
enrolling and other subordinate officers under their command to for- 
ward to this office, through the proper channels, without delay, every 
substitute paper presented to them. They will make every effort to 
collect all the papers that have been issued, whether previously passed 
upon or not, and will thoroughly canvass their respective districts for 
this purpose. Early attention and vigorous action are demanded. 
‘The parties furnishing the papers should be furnished with certifi- 
cates by the enrolling officer, bearing on their face the fact that such 
papers have been taken from them, and for what purpose. These 
certificates should be renewable at stated periods. After investiga- 
tion, the discharges will be returned as correct, or the parties ordered 
to be enrolled as conscripts. Every effort will be made by the Bureau 
to conduct the investigation with the least possible delay, that the 
matter may be satisfactorily and definitely settled. It is not intended 
to interfere violently with any principal whose discharge has been 
recognized as valid, but an examination of the papers is absolutely 
necessary for the formation of an intelligent and correct opinion con- 
cerning the extent of the frauds, and for the detection of the parties 
engaged therein. 

By order of Col. John 8: Preston, SONA aia 

PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant puta General. 


MARIETTA, REULeT DER 25, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your two very 
kind and complimentary letters of 12th instant, and to return my 
thanks for the manner in which you have been pleased to allude to 
the prompt and patriotic response made to your late call by the people 
of this State, and for your expression of approbation of my individ- 
ual efforts to serve our noble cause by furnishing the troops required 
of the State. Georgia has never failed to respond to your eall for 
volunteers, and I trust she never may while this cruel war is waged 
upon us by our unnatural enemies. While I highly appreciate your 
kind invitation to visit you, that we may confer about the best means 
for the defense of the State, I regret to inform you that heavy press 
of office business will deny me that pleasure for the present. As the 
late splendid victory which the army under the command of General 
Bragg has won upon the bloody fields of Chickamauga—‘‘the stream 
of death”—has driven the enemy from the soil of this State, an inter- 
view is less important than it might otherwise have been. There are 
several matters, however, upon which I should be very happy to have 
the privilege of a personal exchange of opinions, and I trust it may 
be in my power at no very distant day to meet you in Richmond. 
The organization of the Home Guards into regiments progresses finely 
under Maj. Gen. Howell Cobb. I shall continue to render him all 
the assistance in my power. I know of ten regiments which have 
. responded to my late call and are now in camp, most of them near 
this place. Part of these have not embraced the upper part of the 
State in their muster-rolls, but they have waived that and responded. 


824 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Other organizations in other sections of the State await a call within 
the limits which they have undertaken to defend. . 

In this connection I beg to call your attention to the fact that the 
men who compose these organizations in this State are the reserved 
population, and nearly all belong to the productive class. Their 
crops will soon be ready to gather, and their wheat must be sown at 
the proper time or we cannot expect a harvest next summer. In my 
humble judgment the provision question is now the great question in 
this struggle, and it is a matter of the utmost importance that the 
agricultural interests be stimulated in every way possible. Again, at 
the end of six months for which these troops have volunteered it may 
be very necessary to get them to extend the time of service. I there- 
fore respectfully suggest and urge that they be sent back to their 
homes at the earliest day when the enemy ceases to threaten the early 
invasion of the State, with orders to hold themselves in readiness to 
respond at a single day’s notice to a call for service in case of future 
invasion or in imminent danger of it. This would produce a very 
fine effect, and would cause them in future to respond with alacrity 
and promptness. Many of them fear that they are to be kept con- 

‘stantly in service for six months, and feel that in that event their 
home interests would be ruined, and they would fail to make a crop 
next year. If General Bragg’s victory is as complete as it is now 
believed to be, I trust you will direct General Cobb to disband them 
immediately, subject to his call when again needed. Let them under- 
stand that the Government is determined to keep good faith with | 

_ them and make citizen soldiers of them; in other words, soldiers only 

in emergencies, and my opinion is they will continue to volunteer; 
otherwise at the end of their term they will refuse to re-enlist. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH EK. BROWN. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 26, 1863. 
Hon. Couin J. MCRAE, 
Commissioner, &ec., Paris: 

Sir: After longer delay than I had anticipated, resulting from the 
engrossing duties cast by recent events on the President and the 
Department, the plan which in my last I suggested as likely to be 
adopted, to remedy the embarrassment resulting from the conflicting 
demands and dissensions of the several purchasing agents of the 
Department abroad, has been consummated. With this you will 
receive a copy* of an arrangement proposed, at the instance of the 
President, by Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, to the Secretaries of 
the Treasury and Navy and myself, and approved by all, for the future 
management of the financial disbursements of each abroad. By that 
you will observe you are made the sole agent for the disposition of 
securities, and likewise empowered, in case of need, to make appor- 
tionment of funds at command among the different agents of this 
Department. It is not intended to dispense with the general direction 
and control by the Department here of the funds which it may have 
at command (whether obtained by drafts from the Treasury, or by 
the exportation and sale of cotton abroad), but when funds may not 
have been appropriated by such drafts, or by specific instructions, or 
when superior pressing needs may, in your judgment, exact some 


* Not found as an inclosure. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 825 


modification or diversion of funds so appropriated, to repose in your 
sound discretion the duty of either apportioning them, or of tempo- 
rarily changing the directions which may have beén given from here. 
There are few persons to whom I, as the head of this Department, 
would have been willing to impart this power; but knowing the diffi- 
culty, at this distance, of anticipating the changing state of our finan- 
cial affairs, and the most pressing need of the different agents, I 
congratulate myself on having one to whom I can satisfactorily confide 
the duty of judging and meeting the varying contingencies. Ido not 
doubt the wishes expressed from here, or shown by the different 
requisitions made, will always have from you due consideration and 
compliance, and that deviation from them will always be dictated by 
controlling considerations, which would have, doubtless, changed my 
own judgment. So entirely satisfied am I to rest the matter on your 
discretion, that, but for some impediments caused by existing legis- 
lation here, I should commence the new arrangement by at once send- 
ing you the whole amount that the Treasury can spare me in one 
draft, and by directing the proceeds of all cotton sent by the Depart- 
ment to be placed by Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. to your credit, 
the whole to be apportioned by you among the agents of the different 
bureaus, according to your judgment of the most pressing demands. 

As you are aware, however, the appropriations of Congress are not 
made directly to the Department, but for the disbursements of the 
several bureaus, and consequently the drafts have to be made on each 
separately, out of its peculiar appropriation. This applies, too, to 
the proceeds of the cotton forwarded, for, Congress not having made 
any appropriation for the purchase of cotton generally by the Depart- 
ment, the purchases have been made for each bureau with the funds 
provided out of its specific appropriation. This state of things, while 
it explains the necessity of the several drafts, and the different cred- 
its required on the cotton, will likewise enforce the propriety, as a 
general thing, of maintaining to the respective bureaus the funds 
belonging to each, since any diversion is like transferring an appro- 
priation from one bureau to another, which requires, aS you will 
recollect, the authority of the President himself. 

Under the apportionment which has been made here of the funds 
at present to be commanded from the Erlanger loan between the 
different departments, some £262,500 have been placed at the disposi- 
tion of this Department. I have directed an apportionment of this 
amount to be made among the different bureaus of the Department 
according as I conceive their existing needs, and each will send you a 
draft for its quota, which you will dispense to the respective agents 
as their transactions may require. The cotton forwarded having 
been purchased, as explained, with the funds of the respective bureaus, 
will, when sold by Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., or when sold by 
special contractors, as in the case of Messrs. Collie & Co., if there be 
a balance on account, be placed. to your credit, to be applied to the 
transactions of the agents of the bureaus by which the respective lots 
have been purchased and sent. 

Abstracts of all contracts which have been made by the respective 
bureaus will be forwarded to you, and the orders sent to the different 
agents will, from time to time as received by them, be submitted to 
you, and thus you will have at a glance all the liabilities and needs of 
the Department, and control over the funds to meet them. 

In one respect some deviation from this system is inevitable. Run- 
ning steamers to the islands, the expenses incurred by them have to be 


826 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


met there by drafts, and sometimes it happens that special purchases, 
for which the bureau ordering cannot wait a return from Europe, 
have to be made there. To meet these, drafts have to be drawn there 
either by Mr. NormanS. Walker, at Bermuda, or Mr. Heyliger, at Nassau 
(commercial agents and likewise depositaries of the Treasury), on the 
cotton forwarded to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. These drafts it 
is necessary should be honored, and you can direct Messrs. Fraser, 
Trenholm & Co., according to the advices forwarded them of the 
purposes for which they are drawn, to charge them against the proceeds 
of the cotton sent by the respective bureaus. There is the less objec- 
tion to this, as the drafts on account of the steamers are in the nature 
of charges for forwarding, and purchases, when made at the island, 
are only for pressing necessities. 

Among the liabilities of the Department, those accruing, or which 
may be contracted for steamers, are most embarrassing to adjust. 
These steamers are indispensable to convey cotton (our surest reliance 
for funds abroad), and they are used for all the bureaus. Yet, from 
the manner in which the business originated and has grown up, all 
the steamers (except under the Collie contract, which was made 
directly by Mr. Mason for the Department) appear to be owned or 
contracted for by the Ordnance Bureau. The expenses, too, have, in 
the first instance, to be borne out of the funds of that Bureau. For 
the present the matter must rest so, as until Congress meets no 
change can be made; but I shall endeavor to rectify it by requiring 
the other bureaus here participating to make some allowance to the 
Ordnance Bureau in replacement of its funds, and I merely mention 
it to show that if you have to apportion proceeds of cotton sent, some 
account ought to be taken of these charges in favor of the Ordnance 
Bureau. The steamers are much needed, and, as funds allow, many 
more ought to be acquired. 

I commend this especially to your consideration. If I had at com- 
mand twenty of a proper class I could probably render the Depart- 
ment independent of all foreign loans; and even aid the Treasury in 
rectifying the expansion of its paper currency here. 

I am anxious that the engagements made for the Collie steamers 
should be carried out, both because the faith of the Department is. 
pledged and because I am satisfied it must result to the decided 
advantage of the Department. 

I regretted to perceive in an extract sent to me from a communica- 
tion of yours to the Secretary of the Treasury that you had miscon- 
ceived its character and effects. Had Major Huse carried out instrue- 
tions he received, and aided instead of thwarting the enterprise, the 
Commissary Department would, through its agency, at this time have 
been relieved from its most pressing anxiety for subsistence stores. 
That Bureau (the Commissary-General’s) relies mainly on that line of 
steamers, and is so well satisfied, both of the energy and ability of the 
contractors and of their means, that it will direct the larger portion, 
if not the whole, of its quota of the Erlanger loan to be applied by 
Mr. Crenshaw to the execution of that contract and the forwarding of 
supplies. The Quartermaster-General, too, regards it with favor, and 
looks to it to materially aid in the conveyance of stores for his use. 

I feel satisfied of the character and energy of Mr. Crenshaw, and 
am only solicitous that the faith of the Department be observed with 
him. I wish, however, all the steamers of the first class for running 
the blockade that you, with our limited resources, can manage to 
purchase or to engage on fair terms to take out cotton for the Depart- 
ment. ; ; 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 827 


_ Of the securities redeemed by you there are $2,000,000 of 8 per cent. 
bonds which, having been drawn and charged in the Treasury against 
the Ordnance Bureau, belong to that Department. They have been 
ordered back here, as Colonel Gorgas informs me. That, I think, 
would be a mistake. There is no occasion to expose them to the 
risk of being lost or destroyed when, in all probability, before long 
you may be able to dispose of them on terms far better, in view of 
the value of exchange, than they would command here. If not sent 
forward, I recommend their retention, to await further orders and 
contingencies. 

I feel sanguine that the darkest hour of our trouble has passed, 
and that with coming victories, following on the glorious deeds of 
Chickamauga, there will be full assurance of our credit and final 
triumph. . 

Very cordially, yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


—————_ 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 125. Richmond, September —, 1863. 


I. Information having been received of repeated misconstructions 
and violations of paragraph XII, General Orders, No. 82, 1862, it is 
reiterated that no persons liable to conscription will be permitted 
under any circumstances to volunteer in regiments, battalions, or 
companies organized since the 16th of April, 1862, except such as 
were organized under the provisions of the act of Congress of that 
date, entitled ‘‘An act further to provide for the public defense.” 

Il. No authority exists for organizing new companies out of com- 
panies or portions of companies now in service. 

III. It shall be the duty of commandants of conscripts, on informa- 
tion of persons being received into companies contrary to the provis- 
ions of this order, to make immediate requisition for such persons on 
the officer commanding, and on failure of the officer to return the 
persons so received to the camp of instruction, the commandant 
shall report the matter, with the facts of the case, to the Bureau of 
Conscription, to be decided by this department. 

IV. No officer commanding whose company reaches the maximum 
allowed by regulations shall be permitted to receive recruits, either 
as volunteers or in any other form. 7 

V. No officer commanding shall accept or muster in persons of con- 
script age, unless such person shall first exhibit a certificate approved 
by an enrolling officer, stating that he has volunteered and selected 
his company, which company is allowed to receive recruits. 

VI. The Bureau of Conscription is charged with the establishment 
of such regulations as will enforce this order. 

VII. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 122, September 11, 1863, is 
so modified as to read as follows: 

Commanding officers of regiments, battalions, &c., will immedi- 
ately on receipt hereof cause to be made out and forwarded through 
proper channels to Col. J. S. Preston, chief of the Bureau of Con- 
scription, a complete list of all persons received as substitutes in the 
Army in their respective commands. The list will embrace the regi- 
ment, company, date of -enlistment, and age of each substitute, with 
name, post-office, and date of enlistment of the principal. It will 
also state whether the substitute is now serving, or has died or been 


828 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


killed while in or discharged from service, or whether he has deserted, 
with the date and circumstances of death, discharge, or desertion. 
They will also, in the same manner, furnish a monthly roll of all 
deserters and absentees without leave. This roll will be arranged 
according to the county and Congressional district to which the par- 
ties belong, and will set forth the time and place of desertion in each 
case. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 126. Richmond, September 28, 1863. 


I. In order to avoid all difficulty with respect to payment of officers 
absent from their commands, and who have not received commis- 
sions or letters of appointment, it is ordered that all such officers 
shall, before leaving their companies, be furnished with a transcript 
from the muster-rolls, or a certificate in lieu thereof, as may be con- 
venient, setting out the full name, rank, and date thereof of such 
officer, and that he is borne on the muster-roll as such. These 
transcripts or certificates will be signed by the commanding officer. 
of the regiment and company, and will be equivalent with the pay 
officer to the commission or letter of appointment referred to in para- 
graph I, General Orders, No. 121, of 1863. This provision, however, 
is not designed to dispense with the requirements of General Orders, 
No. 28, paragraphs IJ and III, current series. 

II. Paragraph I, General Orders, No. 116, Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office, is so modified as to read as follows: 

Generals or other officers commanding departments, armies in the 
field, posts, or garrisons will cause all deserters, stragglers, or other 
absentees from duty, and all persons liable to military service, found 
within their lines and not belonging to their command, to be forth- 
with arrested and turned over to the nearest enrolling officer, whose 
duty it shall be to forward such absentees to their proper com- 
mands; or in case of conscripts, to assign them to service at the dis- 
cretion of the commandant of conscripts of the State. 

By order: | 

8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


RICHMOND, September 28, 1868. 
Maj. RICHARD P. WALLER, 
Quartermaster, C. S. Army, Nassau, New Providence : 


Str: Your letter of the 10th has just been received. That of the 
18th ultimo came to hand after some delay. Your recent communi- 
cation to Lieutenant-Colonel Cone, in charge of the depot at this 
point, has also been submitted to me. In all of these you represent 
that with proper facilities in the way of funds you can purchase at 
Nassau, on reasonable terms, valuable army supplies, to wit, some 
25,000 or 30,000 blankets, 20,000 to 25,000 pairs of shoes, and a large 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 829 


quantity of flannels and grey cloth, besides other material of less 
importance. 

I would not select Nassau under ordinary circumstances as a point 
at which to make purchases, and I do not propose that you shall 
go upon the market further than the pressing necessities of the serv- 
ice require. Europe, of course, offers better terms, but in view of 
the approaching cold weather, the great scarcity of stores here, and 
the unfortunate loss of the valuable cargo of the steamer Hebe, I 
am constrained to resort for the present to the nearest point of sup- 
ply to save time. You will therefore arrange to purchase supplies 
to the extent of the means promised, giving the preference to such 
articles as are most needed—blankets, shoes, and heavy material for 
overcoats. 

I have delayed a few days writing to you that I might give you 
positive assurance of the early receipt of some cotton. Major Winne-. 
more reports nearly 1,000,000 pounds of cotton purchased for you, 
one-half of which is now in Wilmington and the balance can be 
delivered there at any time on the call of Mr. Seixas. Major Bayne, 
the officer in charge of the sea transports, engages to deliver to you 
at Nassau within thirty days from this time 500 bales, and 500 more 
as soon thereafter as possible, not exceeding sixty days from this 
time. I also forward an order on Mr. Heyliger for the proceeds of 
the 300 bales sent out some time since on account of this Department. 
The funds thus received will enable you to purchase the supplies you 
have mentioned, and should you even be confined to the cotton prom- 
ised from here, you will have the means to replace more than double 
the cargo of the Hebe. To save, what is so important, time, 
you will use your best endeavors to purchase immediately on the 
receipt of this, and.on the faith of the cotton to be sent out, the sup- 
plies needed. You will find no difficulty, I understand, in procuring 
freight to Wilmington should no facilities offer in a Government 
steamer. If compelled to ship. by a chartered vessel, stipulate, if you 
ean, for the payment of.freight here, out of your reserved cotton, at 
6 pence per pound, and so economize your funds. 

In shipping cotton to you I have to rely entirely upon the space 
allotted to the Government in private vessels. All cotton carried by 
the Collie Line is consigned by the terms of the contract under which 
the steamers run to Collie & Co., of England, and the Government 
steamers proper are devoted exclusively to the service of the Ord- 
nance and Medical Departments. 

I desire that you will make immediately upon the receipt of this a 
report, somewhat in detail, of what you feel confident of accomplish- 
ing, stating the character and quantity of supplies at Nassau, the 
market price thereof, and other matters that will enable me to judge 
fully of the condition of things with you. [ will then instruct you 
further respecting your return, or a visit to Bermuda. As under this 
arrangement the Government has the outward risk on the cotton and 
the inward risk on the cargo, prices should not be materially in 
advance of those ruling in England. Be particular to furnish me 
with full information touching the manner in which shipping is con- 
ducted, both on Government and individual account, so far at least 
as the same may affect in any way the interests of this department. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


830 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., September 28, 1863. 


The Congress of the Confederate States will meet on the first Mon- 
day in December. Rigid examinations into the administration of the 
conscription laws by the agencies of this Bureau will be ordered. 
The minutest information will be demanded. Circulars have been 
issued, calling for reports from commandants concerning various 
specific matters and on the general subjects of their duties. Inspect- 
ing officers have been sent to investigate the condition of the com- 
mands, and the results of the operations within them, and as far as 
practicable to ascertain and remedy defects which may exist either in 
the system or its administration. Up to this time the returns of such 
information as has been called for by this Bureau, and will be 
demanded by Congress, have been extremely meager. In view of the 
grave public interest dependent on accurate information relative to 
matters intrusted to this Bureau, the superintendent now requires of 
the commandants of conscripts of the States of Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, as early as practicable, and 
not later than the Ist day of November, to make full and minute 
reports concerning all matters submitted to them since the Ist of May, 
1863. Care will be used to embody these reports in plain and easily © 
intelligible forms, suitable for reference to and file in the War 
Department; and copies will be kept for future current additions or 
emendations. Attention is called to the matter: 

First. Number of exemptions under the law, and the number of 
each class, with their localities. 

Second. Number of details, and the purposes of the details. 

Third. The police and production of the country, and the number 
of exemptions granted connected with these purposes, and the number — 
of overseers exempted on payment of the tax. 

Fourth. The matter of circulars of 11th and 19th of August and 
oth of September, 1863. 

Fifth. A full report of substitutes received at camps of instruction. 

Sixth. Howmany conscripts have been enrolled, how many exempted, 
the causes of exemption, and how many have been placed in the field. 

Seventh. Exact condition of the service, embracing names, rank of 
officers, and number of persons engaged on conscript service, and 
the arrest of absentees, &e. 

The superintendent expresses full confidence in the diligence, 
ability, intelligence, and patriotism of commandants, and cannot too 
strongly impress upon them the importance to the public service of 
their earnest attention to the matter of this circular. Much is left 
to their discretion, and it is hoped they will execute the duty without 
the necessity of further instruction. 

By command of Col. John S. Preston: | 
P. N. PAGE, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 28, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. PILLOW, 
Marietta, Ga.: 


GENERAL: I have received and considered your recommendation 
that deserters from Alabama regiments: in General Bragg’s army be 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. Sst 


sent to the Army of Northern Virginia. Much depends upon the 
circumstances of the several cases. Those who have been assigned 
from conscript camps to companies under General Bragg, and have 
returned to their homes while still recruits, may with propriety be 
transferred to companies serving at a distance; but, as a general 
proposition, it would be injurious, and even offensive, to have the 
army made a general receptacle for offenders. Under the limitations 
indicated above transfers as proposed are approved. ‘These views 
have the sanction of the President. 
Respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, 


———_——_- 


HEADQUARTERS STATE TROOPS, 
Atlanta, September 28, 1863. 
General 8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 


GENERAL: I have organized, armed, and put in the field five regi- 
ments and two battalions of infantry, three regiments and three 
battalions of cavalry, and two legions composed of both infantry and 
cavalry with a battery of artillery attached to one of them. A few 
companies yet remain unattached and others are expected to report 
within a few days. The imperfect reports which have been made 
from these organizations render it impossible to state their effective 
strength; it will not, however, fall far short of 5,000 men. You are 
aware that only those companies whose territorial limits include 
Atlanta and the points between here and Chattanooga, have been 
ordered out, whilst a few others have responded to the call of the 
Governor and volunteered to go beyond their territorial limits and 
have accordingly reported here at this time. The whole number 
returned on the muster-rolls to the Governor approximates 15,000. 
From my experience in organizing these troops I think it unsafe 
to rely upon a larger number than 10,000 when the whole force of 
the State is called into the field; indeed, it is more apt to fall below 
that number than to exceed it. The reason of the falling short of 
the effective force is manifest. 

First. The detail of one-sixth of the companies authorized by the 
Governor is of itself a very great reduction. I do not allude to it 
in any spirit of complaint, for I regard the measure both prudent 
and wise for the reasons given by the Governor. 

Second. The large number of infirm men, who have to be discharged 
almost as soon as they arrive. 

Third. The large number, especially among the drafted men, who 
have failed to report when called out. Efforts are being made to get 
these men into camp; with what success remains to be seen. 

I confess that I have been disappointed in thestrength of this force. 
At the time I telegraphed the President on the subject of arms I con- 
fidently looked for a larger number of troops. I have found great 
difficulty in organizing these troops into regiments, from the infinite 
variety of territorial limits which different companies had selected. 
To have followed literally your instructions of putting in the same 
regiment or battalion those who had selected the same limits would 
have resulted in the organization of numberless small battalions. 
You will observe that Governor Brown in his call for these troops 
had fixed the minimum number of a company at forty, rank and file. 


832 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC, 


To have changed it after the men had organized their companies and 
reported at their places of rendezvous would have created great dis- 
satisfaction with the troops and given mortal offense to the Governor, 
who seemed to be making every effort to respond efficiently to the call 
of the President. Under these circumstances I determined to receive 
these companies organized as they were, and to avoid the evil, as far 
as practicable, by having nothing smaller than regimental organiza- 
tions. To do so Ihave thrown into the same regimenu companies hav- 
ing different territorial limits, and by personal appeals have induced 
the most of the companies to waive their territorial limits. Though 
attended with difficulty, and requiring personal addresses to the men, 
I have succeeded in almost every effort I have made. Hence it is 
that I am enabled to report that all the troops who have arrived at 
this point are now in regiments or large battalions, soon, I hope, to be 
raised to regiments. To have respected throughout the territorial 
limits of the different companies would have been in effect to have 
made these State troops utterly useless, except for the most strictly 
local defense. As an army organization they would have been an 
incubus; as it is I have been able to respond, as I informed you by 
telegraph, to the only call which has so far been made upon me by 
General Bragg. In a few days I hope to have an efficient force of 
3,500 men, under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry R. Jackson, at 
Rome, and other points in that section of the State deemed important 
by General Bragg to be garrisoned. The remaining portion of the 
State force which has been organized is rendering good service at this 
point and in different sections of the State, particularly between here 
and Chattanooga, in arresting and returning to the Army stragglers 
and deserters. | 

The question of calling out the remaining portion of the State troops 
is respectfully submitted for your consideration. But for the fact 
that their territorial limits do not embrace either this point or the 
region of active operations, I should have called them out as soon as 
I discovered that the number now called out would fall so far below 
our calculations. If I could see them in person, which is impracti- 
cable, I might induce them, as I have those here, to give up their 
limits. Without this we have no use for them at this time, unless we 
should call for those who include Savannah, and by sending them to 
that point be enabled to withdraw that number of the force there, to 
re-enforce General Bragg’s army. 

On the subject of brigade and division organizations I beg leave to 
submit that, in my opinion, there never will be at any one time in the 
field a sufficient number of these State troops to require any division 
organizations. I would also submit for your consideration that in 
lieu of brigade organizations it would be better to make a territorial 
division of the State into two districts. A brigadier-general for each of 
these districts, with a major-general commanding the entire force, is 
all that would be required to handle the whole force in the most effi- 
cient manner. It might occasionally and temporarily devolve the 
duties of a brigadier-general upon some senior colonel. If active 
operations should be going on in only one district, both brigadier- 
generals could be ordered for duty to that district, and one be placed 
in command of the infantry and the other of the cavalry; whereas, 
if active operations should be going on in both districts, each could 
remain in his own district, and, with the assistance of experienced 
colonels, handle the troops of his district without difficulty. When 
you reflect upon the embarrassments growing out of this question of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 833 


territorial limits, which the law unfortunately permitted, you will see 
that the difficulties I encountered in making regimental organizations 
will be greatly increased when itis attempted to throw these regiments 
into brigades. The solution of this difficulty, to my mind, is easy 
and natural by the adoption of the suggestion I have made, to sub- 
stitute a division of the State into two military districts for State- 
troop purposes. 

I ask your indulgence, general, to submit two other matters in con- 
nection with the subject of State troops, which should receive the 
early and earnest consideration of the Government, if this force is to 
be relied on in the future for active and efficient service. 

First. These territorial limits should be abolished. It is unfortu- 
nate that such an idea was ever acted upon. The men would have 
volunteered as readily for the whole State as for restricted limits; if 
not, it would have been better to have obtained a smaller force by 
draft. I cannot too strongly impress upon your mind the importance 
of doing away with these limits. They are the fruitful source of 
trouble and can possibly do no good. ; 

Second. The temporary character of these troops, being called out 
only for six months, is another embarrassment to be overcome by 
Some new legislation. By the time they are efficiently organized for 
the field their term of service will expire, and if unconditionally dis- 
banded will render necessary another organization of them when 
again called into the field. I am aware that such is the character of 
these troops that they should not be kept permanently in the field. 
Indeed, they should be kept there as short a time as possible; yet the 
organization should be permanent, so that their services, when needed, 
could be commanded at once without incurring the trouble and 
inconvenience of new organizations at each recurring emergency. To 
effect this object I suggest that Congress should enact that all men 
between the ages of sixteen and sixty should be called into the mili- 
tary service of the country; those between eighteen and forty-five 
to be placed in the permanent Confederate Army, as is the case at 
present, the others to be a reserve force to be called into active sery- 
ice when the emergency requires it and to be employed in their own 
States, respectively. This would not materially change the present 
status of men or the character of their service, but would render this 
reserve force far more reliable and efficient. I enter into no details, 
but submit simply the outline of a programme. 

I am, general, very truly, yours, | re 
HOWELL COBB, 
Major-General, Commanding. 


RICHMOND, September 28, 1863. 
Maj. T. L. BAYNE, 
In Charge of Steamers, Richmond, Va.: 


Stk: I forward herewith an order on Mr. Heyliger, in favor of 
Major Waller, quartermaster, now at Nassau, for the proceeds of the 
300 bales of cotton shipped some time since to that point on account 
of this department. As you have assured me that 500 bales should 
be delivered at Nassau on account of the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment within thirty days from this date and 500 more in not exceeding 
sixty days from this time, I have so.informed Major Waller, and have 
requested Mr. Heyliger to turn over to him the proceeds thereof. As 


53 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


834 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the loss of the Hebe with her cargo, made up almost exclusively of 
quartermaster’s stores, and the approaching cold weather have greatly 
increased the necessities of this department, you will please take 
such steps as will secure the delivery at Nassau, at the earliest practi- 
cable day, of the cotton referred to. 
A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[Inclosure. ] 


| RICHMOND, September 28, 1568. 
Mr. L. HEYLIGER, 
Agent Confederate States, Nassau, New Providence: 


Sir: Major Bayne informs me that 300 bales of cotton were shipped 
on account of this department not long since to Nassau. Should the 
same not have gone forward to Europe, you will please deliver, on the 
receipt of this, the proceeds thereof to Maj. Richard P. Waller, 
quartermaster, now at Nassau, that he may purchase supplies essen- 
tial to this department. If the cotton has even gone on, aS no one 
has been yet designated to receive the proceeds there, under the new — 
arrangement agreed upon by the different departments, you may be 
able to draw for the same yourself. In that event you can give Major 
Waller the benefit of the fund. 

Major Bayne has also assured me that at some early day, within the 
next thirty, he will place at Nassau 500 bales of cotton on account of 
this department and 500 more in the course of sixty days from this 
time. You can dispose of the proceeds from both of these lots in 
favor of Major Waller also, and I will thank you to extend to him all 
the facilities you can in connection with his operations, as the 
approaching cold weather and the unfortunate loss of the Hebe make 
it of the utmost importance to obtain without loss of time the sup- 
plies he has been instructed to buy. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 127. Richmond, September 29, 1863. 


In view of the importance of pressing the home production of niter, 
the workmen in exposed districts will be called from their work for 
local defense only in cases of extreme military urgency, and then only 
by the general commanding the district by an order to the officer in 
charge. 

In the niter districts lately overrun the workmen will be returned 
to their work, and all reasonable facilities for resuming operations 
will be extended by military officers. | 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUABTERS STATE TROOPS, 
Atlanta, September 29, 1868. 
General 8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 
GENERAL: I submit for the decision of the department the proper 
mode of filling vacancies in the companies and regiments of the State 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 835 


troops. Governor Brown insists with great earnestness that all vacan- 
cies should be filled under the State laws. He discriminates between 
these troops and those in the regular Confederate service, and claims 
that vacancies, including field officers, should be filled by election, as 
required by the laws of the State. Whilst Iam utterly opposed to all 
elections in the Army, and regard them as the fruitful sources of 
trouble, I would recommend, if consistent with the President’s view 
of the law, that the concession should be made and the vacancies be 
filled under the laws of the State. It is an evil, I know, but perhaps 
a lesser one than a conflict with the State authorities on ‘the point. 

The services of these troops is temporary as at present organized, 
and the evil can be borne with. If, however, the recommendation I 
Lave made of making this org anization a permanent one should be 
adopted, I should consider it ‘important for the service to ee rid as 
far as possible of all elections. 

As the question is constantly arising I should be pleased to receive 
instructions on the subject at an early day. 

I am, general, very respectfully, yours, &c., 
HOWELL COBB, 
Major-General, Commanding, &e. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, DEPT. OF STATE, 
Richmond, September 30, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: I return herewith the telegram inclosed to me in your note of 
this morning. I can conceive no reason why the property of a neu- 
tral within our territory should enjoy higher exemption from impress- 
ment than the property of our citizens. I understand that impress- 
ment is only resorted to when the necessities of the public defense 
require the use of private property, and that a fair price is given for 
such property whenimpressed. Under these circumstances it appears 
to me quite inadmissible that a neutral should pretend to claim any 
special exemption, and such appears to have been the opinion of the 
British Government, even with regard to the destruction of neutral 
property when necessary to prevent the enemy’s capture of it. For- 
eign residents under the law of nations are not entitled to any higher 
protection during war than the subjects of the belligerent within 
whose territory they reside. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. P. BENJAMIN, 
Secretary of State. 


[Inclosure. ] 


SAVANNAH, September 30, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Having been notified by the military authorities here of their inten- 
tion to impress a quantity of timber, the property of citizens of France 
and Bremen, whom I represent, I request you to order them by tele- 
graph to desist from such a proceeding. 

A. FULLARTON. 


836 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 128. Richmond, Va., September 30, 1863. 


I. The following schedule of prices for articles named therein, 
adopted by commissioners appointed pursuant to law for the State of 
South Carolina, are announced for the information of all concerned, 
and the special attention of officers and agents of the Government is 
directed thereto: 

II. Schedule of prices established by the Board of Commissioners 
of the State of South Carolina, under the act of Congress of the Con- 
federate States ‘‘to regulate impressments:” 


a) 
~ 
Articles. | Description. Quantity. Price. 
= 
oC 
Apples, dried...... Good. | Peeled ......--.--2..seeneeeeen sence Per bushel of 28 pounds...| $3. 00 
TD as Seherenacicel aac do <-| Unpecled es sesemecerietie en eia siete ee 0 pose ew cnccue sae 2.00 
INS Ap SSAA BER ESEOS Ree 0). 2|-oW ith hand lessee sess sicesieeie eee ctaeem Hach ...525 ace cesses 5. 00 
1D ee eeanneoe aoe do -.|, Withouti handles 2. ..s assess -ecee =i meer dO. -ss2-beenccereeeee 4.00 
BACON eects cereee l= == Gs PiilGin, qasscsscpoensaaancoonocoodecn: Per pound 22 scscseneee meee -75 
DO vse Secs careless CO Pa GH ans Son cise annie cre eicje scien e = oie steer tered eee CO -c2 Sates cowsenieee -70 
DOr. ste eel eee dO cals Shouldergie ces eaten etna eet eter erate dO 3.-.2senes -Seeeeeee . 65 
WDOsteeeen erent se CO ee OWLS: sees cone esta cee s ooeae mentee] “meee 7 EE SeSecmscsocpac . 40 
IB6ans occ sees see (fee do ..| White or corn-field .......-------..- Per bushel-.s4+2-sncsttee 3. 00 
Brandy eee aaa eee do;2| Apple 228s e a. secs ee seescle ie tence Per gallon 2-ceeeeseeeeeee 4.00 
0 Sere eee seas | see do..| Peachteceeectes- 2-2 ce cue sen enemy cet Olen ooan doa aoeintaeeaatens 5. 00 
LBINS, be Bo Seeebeecud lace do|.3|sHresh, net 22 s..c0- 222s ce eee eres Per pound .'. 2 -ceceeeeeeee . 25 
DOM seek seek see do ..|-Salt:or Corned, cccade --s<-0cesmepieisic| t=) 00 ab. - sche eee . 50 
Beef-cattle --..---- tee dos . | (GLOSS Hascccciscces ceeisice cane sletemtayaterel eet GO 22... sccccews seeeeeee .18 
Gandless ss. esas ce alee do ve allow sasa2 ce bets casei ce cele eee eee CO |... ncu~ vase neeeeneere 1. 00 
G@haingseeec ose seclen= CO? iW eLTACO sete ene seere coca ee eee eat P6r pair). -scaceeene eater 2. 50 
Clothe. ceceaeis BAclleas do ..| Woolen, for soldiers’ clothes, yard | Per yard..cccesccevevees-- 4.00 
wide, 10 ounces to yard, and pro 
rata as to greater or less weight 
or width. 
(Chili ssesceesnecd||sae Cpa el Ol PAAS Se ee GaccaSassadoccoocsusseos5e Per pound, .--5--ceeeeeeeee 3. 00 
Ole Alb ostcbasacgalle se do. Wmshelled sacen cae = ele see = eee Per bushel of 70 pounds .-- 1.95 
Woeep ee seca do ..| Shelled, sacks not included......... Per bushel of 56 pounds -. 2.00 
Corn-meal ......... ...do ..| Sacks not included ........-.....---. Per bushel of 50 pounds .. 2. 00 
Drilist= (lees sass ..-do..| Cotton, yard wide, 3yardstopound.| Per yard.....-....--.----- . 65 
LMP. gab RSASa aoe weal) dal) iteen es nbalbye Gandooghanonesroccs 6 ---| Per barrel of 196 pounds..| 22. 00 
DOr eee Fe Ore esters = GOtse ze eh gcse en tee oe mentee Per sack of 98 pounds .---| 11.00 
DOF the ae ee eas eed se eOUPCLiILNG Seeee stone senses eee eee aa Per barrel of 196 pounds..| 20.00 
iby eesese nee mets Ocoee GR Sean SAR armotued Gosoas Hoabence Per sack of 98 pounds ....| 10.00 
DOLee eee ae eee 3 edo be} Hin @ C2 eee eee sen ecceenceese Per barrel of 196 pounds..| 18.00 
Dorset os ase A d0elsees: Ore eects soremlente aye woes seater Per sack of 98 pounds ..-.. 9.00 
Modder sescse eens = Oe MBalG Gene ance erie: Seles afeinectercietereet Per 100 pounds..-.--2.----- 2.50 
Oasqeeceeeenee dor. Un balegisccas weve ste eicctemene aaceretaecmse O iannies cccueaemamenee 2.00 
ats -e eee eee ae 5e sosOic| MY OO ss Gobaaocacingoncncepssoteasss: Hach .....--¢:--5-seeeeeeeee 3. 25 
TAY ease eecaes oes 22d0 2.) Bale ooo ec seeeeee cane rer Ura enemaan Per 100 pounds............ 1.50 
DOP eee Lee =rcdoae|) Unbaled Gsscccese ee eeeoe see ees eee ees 8 
HOPS ise ves nee eae 04d NGO Le sie cece eterna tances caae sae : 
DOr oaceea ees dO SANGrOsR Siok cz aca Bata aoe te cto acne erate | stoners s 
Hides? sa. emcees do ts\ ADPy sce eee bee ciee wanes te gem emec wen : 
DB Yi SaaS eae S105.) GOO css oaenietstee ene sass aoemeese = se | eee . 
Morsesseeeceesc acne ..-do..| Artillery, first class B 
DO seecce reece ...do..| Artillery, second class .......-- Jcsncs|--2--0 ...-2« see espeeneaee 400. 00 
ALP OM ae sees caine SG dalca RBI eoasemecocaobee Sacuss saan Hate Per ton of 2,240 pounds-..| 85.00 
DOM sete seee vce Ztd0 eo Uare OL LOUD fon neem sors aeneesee Gere GO. He ences eeeee eee 350. 00 
Ave Soue sone 2-00.22 |-e lat or Dand 6222. sor csa se eee cose | sarin 0 = sccce cose mesinanenets 320. 00 
DOs ote ect 2 dO ie. LLOOD eer eee ok sere alee mnns sateen ac |eeet'a dO’... 052. ca eco steers 440.00 
DO Biases ectsereee 200 eale-boiller platew tees eae cites ese ee| Oates O22 s2njnce acento 500. 00 
WO ose ee seen --.d0-.| serviceable railroad senses cleus c|oc <== UO PREM mceoacccns: 175. 00 
DOSeeeeesccecss +.-d0.-| Unserviceable railroad sssee-r cece s2-|s~ CO “asic <clec oe eee eens 75. 00 
JGE es asoaonseaae 2. 2do .-) Wool) domestio*ascreeeee eo ee eee ee Per yard 2-5 oesseeeeemee 4.00 
Kettles. taecs- sess Sido es eC anp, ArOnG poeta. cae ee eee sene © Hach .<:.%. ides sseeeenee 5. 00 
ardecc renee ase ae as 0 |...) Clean 2224 seine save cece eeemeesne sau Per pound 2 ./.5. seocepieeeee 15 
Meavheresce.-c6 co'- =e QO acl BOLO se cos se ae crea sietetreeemioiem seialelae|i4(s/qgei- dove dsses sesh es aieeeeee 2. 50 
SO eS epeecocee £2200 24 VO Pper cece et er ccee ee ee seer eeace| | meres dO) Jo caowet a eeetae 3. 25 
DOs seee ciecass P2200 <2) Harness onset reraterefeie ellis ererere 0 Kt PE OR rac - 3.00 
Molasses .-...---.-.- sce dow, |-Canesese: aaseeceeesr ers eee eran => Per Pabllon o- ceases teem 5. 00 
Oe se se cieic nes Bee Ova] OT DUI ters ere es oie eer eee er ete rt OQ [ote se sie a cen eee 3. 00 
Mules Bite aise sees os S4-do'.-): First Class so. <sce t- ereeteeee ete. Per head... 25220 tees 400. 00 
DO Mer ecstecke- £-.d0)..| Second Classia ease cee see ere tere a iaicraie = CO jaja: cs oee ees n eee 350. 00 
DOsterer esc <i se6d0.2<| Lhitd Classics. cancer e selec citemte aot) seer =r 7 Reema Srcsc cine 250. 00 
Oats See red cence os 2-00 ©} Sheaf, unbalods.-2¢ iveers te anes eae = Per 100 pounds...........- 2. 00 
Dose aes A3do.2.| ‘Sheaf, baled (a7 sseeeneetae cae ee ete fete se CO 422. SP nen ce eee 2.50 
Dovterseceecce 5500022] Shelled o2j.2-eandeeenae acest sare Per bushel of 34 pounds -. 1.50 
Osnaburgs..-....--- ..-do ..| Cotton, $ yard wide, 7 ounces to yard| Per yard.....-.......--.-- . 60 
Do.cecccecreees|e--d0..| Cotton, ¥ yard wide, 8ounces to yard|..... CO .cccvvcoscccessssuas -70 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 837 


Pa 
ne) 
Articles. ‘ Description. Quantity. Price. 
co 
PGAS 2 Je wieialere'c aie ain exe Good -| Cow <.....c.<0 SE CD OOOO CP ONOCAOE TE Per bushel of 60 pounds .-| $2.00 
IBOtAtOOS sccm nls > <i5|- = GG LPIA Wala ct otra mpacliasian wo te osuincee sence loa Sa dOj-caacaset ecm eee eee 2.00 
WOrcessede a: eee. Goto SWOGU-c vena ames Cree cc cea eee cams Sec COG cn otceacs satan ee te 1.00 
Peaches, dried.....]..- GOmet, FCCIGd tages ne eek eee ecu aee els Per bushel of 38 pounds .. 5. 00 
OS Hprpes. soar eee AM TU MPCClOWs seacicet tae ocsledssc cae Sarieelao ees COs % sees sete emacee 3. 00 
GEM ge ond ate ss eneial do:;.| Fresh .....° Fe alain tote Seer goentiee sate Ber pound 2 so. arcesteecer . 35 
ee er een Oe a SEG. ocan as ps ein as -S a Gacin Sin wadaweets eas. Orestes cia stistcceicer +95 
Pasurnge's:....--.|--- do ..| Cattle and horses near city ......... Per head per month....... 3. 00 
HOR cemamcla was cel =< dowaeinterion seit Stee earth eso te se nee UOits Si Pt aosee cn soees 1. 50 
CURIE: coins waa su | =m orm. \WN O@Wye- cee ssece ses ee tee oees fee sockies er poundinsn sss cae sete ~15 
WOvreetsetccsss| ss dott Old. 2 go sccewacvace ents wor snle decek ete COM tena seco essetee ees -12 
OV. Oreo carne cicis co siciaie|'- =~ dots Goods-easere ec secece cents cee cscie Per bushel of 56 pounds .. 2. 50 
BOCKR conc sdacees|s.- do .-| Two bushels, Osnaburg .........-.. HACHidos Gasp asap ewes ccs sce 1. 00 
PLE RN O56 4. ce mee oh > 5 - do ..| Cotton, 3yard wide,44yardstopound| Per yard..---............- - 50 
we ae do ..| Cotton, yard wide,33yardstopound|..... Cope oe heaee aon eee . 60 
Cotton stripes .....]... do ..| 3 yardsto pound..... ine Rae OSA eae OOtsesscceeee seae ore es .75 
eid te, Mm So OCR DSO REEE (CBE dorsc|: Coasts. .20s.cceccca sca to ones tele Per bushel of 50 pounds ..| 15.00 
PD) Ones ca = wales does) Liverpool: 25-2... ccccsncenctine sete dll ece-- COM since sc aaa 30. 00 
DOCS aecmacetcs cs ca <|o= CO aale ALIN Viens mers cece state: anes ate ets Rei palleorceseasae cecccet 8. 00 
Shoe thread......- Coral Wax. j.7 seats cs scessicecsacteeole Pe POUN Cl mcec ames eeaies. 3. 00 
DOGS seeyeeere ce mnie -lies - Coa SOLMONS)  WOOlLs sap imecccles cee oe eee Por pail’ 2. --ca1s0ce aecaee 125 
SU2) Daca Gees ee AOmaie abet nee uen sac ,ceictets aes coe Wer head.o.<+-.scccesauess 15. 00 
PRADO aeieaic edna is =}5 0 da. 4) Brawn, €OMUNON 2.7.5 doses veleo => Cr DOUNG wa. ewac does seis - 90 
De seitGepaneca see GOvshaess- CO Semeeat  taac le mies See sap e aaa ets es Ope aonneAs Gooodhabsac 80 
SUN Deccteecss scremertc wm Ova ELAT Opes acs ae secee cess ceene lesa dOjchecscacessceescstee 40 
bs Se eae i do SS Ofte acl toeeise ete fos oe sete she ee O o.cicis anew ecc cence ees - 20 
el NN) pa ee Ores) DAI tesa teeciccssssecusesaecs sss Per 100 pounds <..-=...-.. 1. 50 
WGP cate eee ee aes doPeisUinpalede meets ke soanietececcntee slc- os. CO ses acs leone cia ceter 1, 25 
eh Gaseeeriscseem ca ciel: Ones NAG Kee tee ce oats coe ne ce cress oa ca aie Por pound -o- ceo eaheeeee 5. 00 
) OT oe SSSR eae aISel ase UoOmaKGLCCUMse ear aaecac- tet sso oe yoet es CO ah eee ase 7.00 
Lent cloth’. 522. 5.1} 45: do ..| Cotton, 10 ounces to yard ........... Ber yard? 23. sercccascsse 290 
JRO Sea Seeaooe ee ase do-it Cleanse nase ss <- or Pee iotis aici noc Sea Per pound . 80 
WIROSAE osees cl.) se. OG BO WMenere seta da: a. kees sede ste cs Per pallomei.te.ne-eccet 1. 00 
WW ONseers sect oe alan s Corman Mamita keden os i025 5-1 -s.ccase oeile = la: UGG Baas -ite cece coseee -75 
WISH Wsid. ces). 2c fe200 20) GrOUG! oa met sgt ees end giceSaeceaineeos dO aac asrenea-coseces 4. 00 
WaltA t feteiaaic oS .a.e.3 SFO a | MAPS UMA bOmWiIbO. so celchacce es csecnce- Per bushel of 60 pounds... 4.00 
WOR seco ee ae aan Bee Opes ie Aen ite eeestetelalaie = c.o.2 = 2s 2iarece wae) siete cite = o:='= GOe see ane car secs ae otras 3. 50 
Die ERE sea ee Opi OUGIiNarverete ss ss- ts case ds oe Oto’ s/o COE sa oelesccee eee 3. 00 
Wheat straw -.-.-... SiN 52), WBE lok eS A ee Per 100 pounds ........... - 60 
DOmressce ase <= Be OOF- UM DAOU eeritairs ca tases cccce sce eel -c se UGiecse sea tace cose - 50 
BVViOG) rasttcteracte cas. EeUOe er L NWASN OMe eats. ce sie cinescacces sense Per pown dees seer asec 3. 75 
WOm esse oes ce cin OOP aU ILWaABUOU me ceuurs fori ose geajsew cere els bie One cssnacesccs cesses: 3. 00 
SWiatONG a2 22 2c csc ..-Go ..| Wood axle, 4-horse, new ........-~-. Bacheo et -eaet cecttoeet eee 250. 00 
Diets teas see - d0i se) Lronaxle, 4-horse, NOW «60+ -scceses<|- 5-02 dOsysessccshse ese soa 300. 00 
ID ae 52-00...) VW 00d axle) 2-horse; NOW -.c.cs+-ce-s|oe- -- Ore aeo race aine et 175. 00 
LOY hh eee Sitch ae 8 Eee Ost | Aron ax love - HoOrSesNOW oucwc.seccceaelesaes COM Goss eee eee nen ee 225. 00 
ig Pi la ge a Peer UG ls CObLOMse re scneccns ences. cleaved clees Per bunch of 5 pounds.... 6. 00 
Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and horses. 
Description. Quantity. Price. 
ESPEMPOPLOMORLOLAT OF trae ie oc oe ule cicicioes cc ober ene sccsussmeleee scone Per 100 pounds ....... $0. 30 
Shelling and sacking corn; sacks furnished by Government.....-....- Per b Babe of 56 05 
pounds. 
eeu OMe eee nee ete s Sea be CU sick a act eh coe e et cnes Senieiae Per 100 pounds per . 03 
mile. 
Hire of 2-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner | Per day.....-...-.....- 7. 00 
Hire of 2-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by Govern- |..... Ota eesces toe 5. 00 
ment. 
Hire of 4-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner.|...-. Omir octet tecets 10. 00 
Hire of 4-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by Govern- |..... DOWe eee ancien ae 6. 50 
ment. ; 
Hire of 6-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner.|....- GO Wideeed act ceaees 12. 00 
Hire of 6-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations’furnished by Govern- |....- GOR eh Whites ae alas 8. 00 
ment. 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner .......-.-..---------..0-|----- (10) PS AOR SAC OEE PRC 1. 50 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by Government..-....-....-..-..-.|.---- (026.6 AS Se eaRAS ae 1. 00 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner ........--.--.----------- Remmonth eo: sc. os. 30. 00 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by Government...........--.-----|----. COMM ote oerbaee 15. 00 


The undersigned, commissioners and appraisers under the act of Congress for 
regulating the impressments for South Carolina, have adopted the foregoing 
schedule of prices, which they think is fair and equitable under existing circum- 
stances. They hope that the producer will be willing not only to sell to the Gov- 
ernment at these prices, but to private individuals, and especially to the families 
of soldiers who are in the service of their country. The present is no time for 


ws 


838 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


those who are at home to be speculating on the necessities of a bleeding country. 
They should consider that whilst the patriotic and gallant soldier in the Army is 
offering his blood and his life as a sacrifice for independence, that they, too, are 
called upon to make sacrifices and forego all exorbitant profits on what they have 
to sell. He who is unwilling to do so is unworthy of his country and the cause in 
which she is engaged. 

The commissioners would respectfully suggest to the quartermasters and com- 
missaries in South Carolina that they should not impress provisions which have 
been purchased for family supplies and immediate consumption, nor should they 
interfere with purchases made at Government prices, on their way to market, 
in the hands of a fair retail dealer, who is willing to sell at‘a moderate profit to 
supply the wants of the poor in the cities, towns, and villages of the State. 

The foregoing schedule of prices will continue in force for two months, unless 
sooner revised. : 


B. BF. PERRY, 
A. M. MARTIN, 
Commissioners. 
CoLuMBIA, S. C., September 15, 1863. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 


Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, September 30, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President of the Confederate States of America: 


SIR: Your esteemed favors of the 5th, 11th, and 16th instant have 
been received. The action of the enrolling officers under the instruc- 
tions they received has been such as to secure to the country the 
abundant crops of grain planted in Florida during the spring, pro- 
vided overseers and managers shall not be taken into military service 
before the crops shall be gathered and the tithes paid to the Govern- 
ment. But every day’s experience proves the necessity of having 
slaves kept in proper subjection, to insure support for the armies in 
the field and the citizens at home, and to prevent insubordination 
and insurrection. 

With regard to the iron on our railroads, I say in candor that I shall 
be satisfied with the course the Secretary of War shall pursue by your 
instructions, with a full knowledge of facts, and will, to the best of 
my ability, sustain his authority. 

I received a letter from General Lee relative to General Perry’s 
brigade, in which he states: 

It would give me pleasure to recommend the adoption of Your Excellency’s sug- 
gestion as to the mode of recruiting it did the exigencies of the service admit of 
its being detached at this time; but unless a force, at least equal to the brigade 


in number, can be sent to take its place, I do not think that its services can now be 
spared. 


And— 


Your views with reference to the promotion of the officers of the brigade do 
justice to those gallant gentlemen, and I sincerely hope that some means may be 
devised by the wisdom of the State and Confederate governments of restoring 
the Florida brigade to its original strength at least, and suitably rewarding those 
who have so bravely and faithfully served their country. 


To-day I received a letter from General Perry, a copy of which is 
inclosed. 

The plan suggested by me in my letter of 18th August affords 
the only means of recruiting the brigade. There are not men enough 
in the State out of the Confederate service and subject to military 
duty to fill the brigade. With the exeeption of those who have been 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. — 839 


exempted from military service by Confederate Government authority, 
I do not believe there are enough able-bodied men in the State to con- 
stitute a full regiment. The militia laws of the State are wholly 
inoperative. I urged upon the General Assembly in several messages 
the important necessity of amendments, or a militia law de novo to 
secure the services of all able-bodied men, but in vain. There are no 
officers by whom orders may be carried into effect, and no authority to 
draft when men refuse to volunteer. These facts being considered, 
is it not highly creditable to the intelligence, courage, and patriotism - 
of the citizens that with a voting population never (according to the 
best data on the subject) exceeding 12,898, over 16,000 Floridians have 
been mustered into the Confederate service? 

The General Assembly will convene on the third Monday in Novem- 
ber, when I hope with better success to be able to impress them with 
the absolute necessity of a statute to insure the military service of 
every man and boy in the State having physical strength to defend 
his own or his country’s rights. Ishould have called an extra session, 
but I could not reasonably believe they would act favorably, and 
their failure to act would have been detrimental to our cause and to 
the character of the State. A few new members will be elected— 
enough, I hope, to secure proper action in November. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON. 
[Inclosure No. 1.] 
CAMP PERRY’S BRIGADE, 
Rapidan River, Va., September 21, 1863. 
His Excellency Governor MILTON, 
Tallahassee, Fla. : 


GOVERNOR: In ease of failure of your effort to have my brigade 
transferred to Florida to recruit, can you not arrange to have it re-en- 
forced here by regiments, battalions, or individuals from Florida? 
The brigade is now so reduced as to make it impossible for it to do 
justice to itself as a brigade, or to our State. 

Do not the past services of the brigade, as well as our State pride, 
urge that the brigade be re-enforced? Think of the gallant State of 
Florida being represented by a brigade of only 450 men! I feel that 
the brave Floridians I have had the honor to command in Virginia 
have done so much for the name of their State that it is but justice 
that the organizations as they now exist should be maintained, that 
the companies and regiments should be filled, and the brigade strength- 
ened by addition of other regiments and battalions. 

With much respect, Governor, your obedient servant, 
-E. A. PERRY. 


Avueust 11, 1863.* 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


STATE OF FLORIDA, County of Taylor: 

We, the undersigned, officers of county aforesaid, desire to petition 
Your Excellency the President of the Confederate States of America 
for the few men that are still remaining in the county that have not 
joined the Confederate Army, and who are and were residing in the 
county the first day of this instant, to be exempt from conscription up 
to the age of forty-five from age of eighteen years old, for certain 
reasons: 

First. We wish to represent to Your Excellency that the men in 


* This paper is not mentioned in the letter of Governor Milton, but being found 
filed therewith it is here printed as an inclosure. = 


840 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


this county, subject or not, have always been ready to respond to 
every call made by Your Excellency for troops; so much so that our 
county has become drained down to about fifteen or twenty men that 
are subject to the Confederate service, leaving between 80 and 100 
soldiers’ families who are generally very destitute and in needy cir- 
cumstances, as we have but little or no slave labor within the county, 
comparatively speaking, to the number of families destitute of sup- 
port. The principal part of the provisions have to be raised by the very 
men that are subject to your call, and also to your exemption, accord- 
ing to an act of Congress. 

And we would further state to Your Excellency that four-fifths of 
the breadstuff that is consumed by soldiers’ families in this county 
the present year is raised out of this county, and not one-tenth [of 
the| families have any facilities of hauling these provisions from 
where they are raised when it is given to them; and it does and will 
require all the attention that can be afforded them if this petition is 
granted. 

And we would respectfully represent to Your Excellency that if 
this petition is not granted that in our humble opinion the women and 
children of our county are bound to come to suffering if not starva- 
tion; and while we do and have given the Confederate Government 
our whole support and have been ready [to] stand in the defense of 
the Confederate Government, yet we feel deeply interested (but not 
too much) for the helpless ones at home; and feeling that Your Excel- 
lency having the power to exempt Taylor County of any further con- 
scription for the present, and will ever pray Your Excellency to grant 
the foregoing petition if in your august opinion you deem it worthy; 
and ever pray. 

5. P. Ee, 
Clerk Cirewt Court. 
EDWARD JORDAN, 
Sheriff. 
ROBERT HENDERSON, 
Judge of Probate. 
WILLIAM McMILLEN, 
NEAL HENDRY, 
County Commissioners. 
DANIEL C. BAKER, 
WS. SMART: 
C. F. OHARA, 
Justices of the Peace. 


Act of the General Assembly of South Carolina. 


AN ACT to amend an act entitled ‘‘An act to amend an act to organize and sup- 
ply negro labor for coast defense, in compliance with requisitions of the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States, and to authorize and direct the Governor to 
proceed to furnish negro labor under said act.” 


I. Be at enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives now 
met and sitting m General Assembly, and by the authority of the 
same. 

* * * * * * * 

Ilf. That whenever a requisition shall be made on any district, 
parish, city, or incorporated town or village, by the State agent, for a 
Supply of slave labor under the provisions of the act aforesaid, it 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 841 


shall be the duty of the commissioner of roads of said district or 
parish, or corporate authorities of such city, town, or village, 
to impress and forward under such requisition all able-bodied male 
free persons of color, who are between the ages of sixteen and fifty 
years, who shall be required to labor for the same term as the slaves 
sent from such district, parish, city, incorporated town, or village, 
and be entitled to receive the same compensation allowed for the 
services of such slaves: Provided, That it shall be the duty of the 
commissioner of roads in each district and parish, and the corporate 
authorities of each city, town, or village, to select, by lot, the same 
‘proportion of laborers from this class as may be ordered in the assess- 
ment of slave labor, and that those selected to perform this duty shall 
not again be selected until the call has been made on all free negroes 
in their section: And provided also, That the privilege of furnishing 
an able-bodied substitute shall be extended to all such free negroes. 
* * * * * * * 


V. That the negro labor herein provided for shall be liable for the 
construction of military defenses in any other portion of the State 
that may be threatened by the enemy. 

Passed September 30, 1863. 


RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG AND POTOMAC R. R., 
PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, September 30, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: Capt. John M. Robinson, having returned from Europe and 
reported for further orders, has been remanded, I learn, to his former 
position in General Jones’ command in Southwestern Virginia. While 
in England, after encountering difficulties which seemed to render 
hopeless his mission for purchasing supplies for some of our Virginia 
railroads, he succeeded in effecting very advantageous and satisfac- 
tory negotiations for purchasing them with the obligations of these 
railroad companies. This success was largely attributable to the 
confidence in himself and in those by whom he was sent, which he, 
by his judgment and address and character, inspired in those with 
whom he dealt. I know of no one who could have combined the 
same advantages which he possessed for overcoming the almost insu- 
perable difficulties in his way, or who could have better improved those 
advantages. Nor do I believe that any new agent could now effect 
in England what he has done or what further he could now do. The 
purchases made by him were for only five Virginia railroads, and 
were by the risks and difficulties of importation restricted to the least 
possible quantities which those few companies would need for the 
maintenance of their machinery for the next year or two. This leaves 
unprovided with the means of maintaining their machinery, so essen- 
tial and even now so inadequate to the military transportation required 
of them, all the other railroads in this and the other Confederate States, 
depending only on the delusive and often disappointed hope of an 
early termination of the war, which has hitherto paralyzed and will 
continue to paralyze all efforts for supplying them by their owners. 
I therefore respectfully suggest to you that it would be a prudent 
precaution for the Government to convene as many as practicable of 
the presidents of these railroad companies and urge them to avail 
themselves of the confidence and credit which Captain Robinson has 


842 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


established in England and (through a special detail for that duty) of 
his services in procuring for them those supplies so essential to the 
maintenance of military transportation over their roads. Neither 
this company nor I personally have now any special interest in this 
being done, but as a citizen of the Confederacy, who in my official 
capacity have special opportunities of knowing the very great impor- 
tance of this measure to the country and our cause, I cannot refrain 
from making it known to you. It is but just and proper to add 
that this letter is in no degree prompted by Captain Robinson or by 
any partiality for him; nor is it written with his knowledge of my 
writing it. 

Lam, with high respect, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

. P. V. DANIEL, JR., 
President Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac R. R. Co. 


BUCKINGHAM, October 1, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON: 


Str: As there occurred several inaccuracies in publishing our 
Schedule A, dated Richmond, October,1, 1863, we respectfully submit 
the following corrections. We trust, as the mistakes are so obvious, 
that the good sense of the public as well as of our impressing agents 
enabled them in detecting to correct them: In August we assessed 
prime white and red wheat at $5 per bushel, and good superfine flour 
at $25 per barrel. At our meeting the 24th of September the Board 
readopted in full our schedule of August, with a few additions. 
Therefore we retained our former valuation of superfine flour. But 
we added fine flour, which we assessed at $22 per barrel, and extra 
superfine flour at $26.50 per barrel, and family flour at $28 per barrel, 
each weighing 196 pounds. We also added good, fresh fat pork, at 
45 cents per pound net weight. Not apprehending the development 
of any facts of sufficient importance to require a change in our valu- 
ations for at least two months, we adopted Schedules A and B, as 
adjusted in August, with the foregoing additions, as the Government 
- rates for the ensuing two months. We therefore submit the August 
schedules marked A and B, with the foregoing stated additions and 
corrections, and request their republication, with the understanding 
that the prices therein indicated are to remain for the months of 
October and November, as agreed upon when we presented to you 
our last report. If in the meantime any additions to the number of 
articles assessed should be desirable, we will send in a supplemental 
schedule embracing them. 


Most respectfully, 
EK. W. HUBARD, 
ROBT. GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 129. Richmond, October 1, 1863. 


The following schedule presents the maximum prices to be paid for 
the articles appraised at all cities and usual places of sale, and when 
impressed elsewhere the same prices are to be paid elsewhere, less 
the cost of transportation to the city or usual place of sale to which 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 


843 


the article would go ordinarily for sale from that neighborhood, or 
less the cost of transportation to the point at which the Government 
needs the article and wishes it to be sent, provided that in no case 
the amount deducted for transportation as above shall exceed 25 
cents per bushel for grain and 25 cents per hundredweight for long 


forage, flour, bacon, iron, &c.; 


in addition to the established price 


of transportation, the Government to pay all legal tolls, and, where 
farmers cannot procure nails for baling forage, Government to furnish 
the same at cost, which will be deducted from the established price 
of baling: 


SCHEDULE A. 


Articles. Quality 
ATALACST A 3 lore At Prime!ss2 sss. 
ING ee ae Good ......--. 

Seer WOE lees OO eae ees ve 
See GCOe eee calc COs aos ose 
Se ae Oe se ENE PODS SA ER EOS Mees cele 

GornmQy ese ese Prime ees. 

Unshelled corn....|..-.- doses see 

Corn-meal...:....- Goodjs.t 22-2: 

VO) eee Sees cea Prime) Sece2 se 

een OR DRT s are alee ae Oe eres Se 

Wheat bran....... Good ......... 

Shotts? 2 eo aacleeees On esasen 

Brown stuff......- te owes ss 

Ship stair see seses dowzises 

Ina COM esos -sanlecls es es Oe as 

SAU DOR Kaos ae acto. see domese2 te 

Fresh pork........ Fat and good... 

ATs eoe wre pete ste Goods. 

WIOLSCS Sooo See ae First class..-.. 

OG ewe tcicrseieets 2 Fair or me- 

Tino. 
cet COs ce ee cee tases ce SOO Seeks ales 

GAS i eteeie sisisics = Goodise222. cn. 

IBCAMBe once esc ee eee le eee Gotceenaess 

IPOUALOOS, ses. sceaiam =e a1 5 QO. seca 
hele Gee coe sale ee dOroene eat 

COMMONS ease oie cies Ita acis GQO0:senetce: 

Dried peaches.....|....- do0vsteee 
ee CC te EA ney CE EE (OLA Same e 

Dried apples ......|-.--. dOweene se: 

Lay DAlOG ae oaae ees (ieeasanAee 
eS G's Oe ESE REL! Ree icere ee 

Hay, unbaled......|....-. li a eeeer 

Sheaf oats, baled ..|..-..- CO wrodae vee 

Sheaf oats, un- |..... dontasees 

baled. 

Blade fodder, |.-... Gots see. 32 

baled. 

Blade fodder, |..-.- CO! sss%25.0 

unbaled. 

Shucks, baled ...../....- nO eseness 

Shucks, unbaled...|..... ies SSC 

Wiheab Sita w,; |i2-..d0.-..-.-. 

baled. 

Wheat straw, |....-. One tact 

unbaled. 

PasOrare: oo. - sc suis anes G0 asecets 
bees UOe-fees-e em: | SUPCLiOry.=- =. 
eae Giese. sa-- <2) LIitst Tate-=: .: 
Bpsnh. LO tre ee nek aie CrOOG seed cece os 
ee OGeer Joe saee ss =| OUP CLIOL cece. = 
ohreoe Oe see ses clhirsbirater se. 

Salimceteese seas 2 Good 2:03... 3: 

SOS P isace seaccs ool Weae Om se anae: 

Wanmales 222 2= 250 el \erc COme were. 

\iGtn yh Pe eee Bed beace WO BaneceGe 

RVD Koy 2 sete a nie = J2ated Ot 2s ose 

Sugar ses. sc8 oe s.- |e = Oto 2 

MOISSS68.5- 002 sao oclee see (Clee ee 

DA Coy eB Seen ot a oh ci Orso eer c 

Coed: So se acciestrateeke iti) Be oa ae 

Teast soo Sate GOg saat 

MSU e re asara carpal na CO 25 ss \5% 

PAP ALON: sees eae te eens GO Saganse a 
eye GO prec ee cee eal eee OOM tee ees 


Description. 


Superfine 
Extra superfine 
Famil 


See ee ee 
ee 


Se eee 


Artillery, &Ci.sc2s5-+ = 
Washed 


ee 


Timothy or clover... 
Orchard or herd grass. 
Baise do 


Se ee 
See ee 


ee 


No. 1 quality 
No. 2 quality...... BGOCG 


Quantity. Price. 
Per bushel of 60 pounds....; $5.00 
Per barrel of 196 pounds .. 22. 00 
eteet COE SER CaP SUE Set Me 2506 
Ser COiret ee cas spite een ose cOuDO 
faets Go uses ee CNTs a ey 28. 00 
Per Bane of 56 pounds... 4.00 
BG Oss ee ci se stobin aration cette 3.95 
Per bushel of 50 pounds.... 4, 20 
Per bushel of 56 pounds .-- 3. 20 
Per bushel of 32 pounds.... 2. 00 
Per bushel of 17 pounds .... . 50 
Per bushel of 22 pounds.... - 70 
Per bushel of 28 pounds ..-.. - 90 
Per bushel of 37 pounds.... 1, 40 
Per, pound)... 22. -2c.<cssssus3 1.00 
JtaP CORE te sors eee Uneeeine 1.00 
“Per pound, net weight.-..... . 45 
Per pound. D AOT AR! 32 ees aoe 1.00 
Average price per head..... 350. 00 
Per DOUNG yee es seen seer 3. 00 
See OO oes anata tes aaalare 2. 00 
Per bushel of 60 pounds ..- 4.00 
BEES DOs secs sioeessastnese as 4.00 
Biohad CO ce eee A ee SE 4. 00 
SAE CU Mes eos aereSuGerdcer cre 5. 00 
pate 1 Ci Wee RT ae cone pak rt se eae 5. 00 
Per prsbel of 58 pounds .... 8. 00 
Piece OO atpese ses Oeceeess eae 4, 50 
Per paatal of 28 pounds ..- 3. 00 
Per 100 pounds ........----- 3. 00 
ae eee: 0 tee rete e oe ee eulcc oe 3. 00 
eee MOS sos eens alee cilaicic = 2.70 
Ser Omen ret access eee ae 4.00 
EPIASS CO Ree ehies tint. eines palace 3.70 
Mt: COTA etcce ne ee cee aes 3. 00 
Erase = CORN Be eee os cese See omens 2.70 
fea CO Mace cmanosne sopee ae 2.00 
hess Ogre ener eta. Semi eetaia 1.70 
enae CO reece ent swim beltoete 1.00 
Node My Gore osbaractigaer eae .70 
Per head per month........-. 3: 00 
dees COW see eobpeyicisscice® scrah- 4. 00 
SRHAS Oh denseees tech rece: see 5. 00 
AOE GS se np da acatchoe abn 5. 00 
ahaa Overseas res aye ole scares 6. 00 
Seems GOMeeeratienecatlcss oases 7.00 
Per bushel of 50 pounds.... 5. 00 
OE POUDG secre cas a <2 e= ae - 40 
Se iiee (0) -semibid AONE GOO IaDSEe OAL 1.00 
Ieee AA oe BOS SnERe saris 1. 00 
pas GO, Coe Me athe thie this Sai e lst 3. 00 
en pound eere-e ss sel - 2-5 1. 00 
Per Gallo oss. Vans - sees = 8. 00 
POT POUN Ce oaste wee snes e- - 20 
BLESS CO Rae me ote eeleretiecas dace 3.00 
Pci sae Oy beech tsaer svecn Sis ose 7.00 
Ber Pa llony ee seb cece ses . 50 
Pele LOlL erate tess vaace a «nines 125. 00 
Sop UO) ag5ehe Pinte © uel sisie © saie'e m= 110, 00 


844 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ScHEDULE A—Continued. 


Articles. Quality. Description. Quantity. Price. 

5G) Pigaron. <a asec. w<s G00 esters No.3 quality...-..-... Per ton .....2 o0s-ssee eee $100. 00 

Bae BLOOM ILOM ee erelate ee a ane Oia See eae soko aessismee peace aeeeeels ene do 2.5... Aiea ae eee 180. 00 

58 | Smith’s iron.......|.-... dons 2s-s0 Round plate and bar..|....- OO e202 5 see eee 380. 80 

59 | Railroad iron...-..|.---- C1 a Seiten epmuceaccpo mendnemo sane ae PRESS srigan Soc 190. 00 

GOu|pueathere sarcccdessl- eee do. 2-225 Harness 2-25 2tc cee Per pound): 2. ease eee 2. 60 

NM Sacer GO AecOa,s2)o 3 j2atel|(ers 3) == dO sascem<e WOlGvscc cine cece ase venience OO -aes nono tasee eee eee 2. 40 

G24 ance MOseneeiae -ea ee a] ete GO es2 scene Upper tease eee sen leseer CO! boca. sic cutee eee ree 2. 80 

63)) Beet-cattleee-ssecsl---2- dcp = 25-8 Gross weight .-.---.... Per 100 pounds/=ea.eeese seer 16. 00 

Gt eras dOsceaneme sear Superiones-c | scene CD RS aoe eeaara ance lserc: do 2252 eeeesee et eee ee 18. 00 

G5 ieee: Re Spee Firat rate... .-|.<-.s OO .k opsewesewesa=clesors dO «2-6 san pee eee 20. 00 

66 | Sheep; -..-'-.=--.~. Waite eee tel sp een eee = eee w nes = ee Per head. .~ «2.2050 sane 30. 00 

67 | Army woolen | Good ........ 10 ounces per yard....| Per yard.........---------.. 4.50 
cloth, 3-4 yard. 

68 | Army woolen cloth |. --.- CO =o eden sclcewecteG icles heeeek ss 26 sn + [ac feeble wale al sae eee (a) 

69 | Army woolen |..... dO tee sete 20 ounces per yard....| Per yard......522-22e-eeeees 9. 00 
cloth, 6-4 yard. 

70 | Army woolencloth |. ---- Ox. wutpleia 6 al oa ve cee dopa pene aes <<] es 52st eae aes eee (a) 

Peg t id larinels, 8-4 2. <iic t| +00 es 0.225 ae os 6 ounces per yard ..... Per yard......cssose- seen =e 3.00 

72 | Cotton  shirting, |----- Oko Soptae 44 yards to pound.....|....- CO. dois wc ce cen secre eene 42 
3-4, 

73 | Cotton shirting, |.---- GG} isss655a4 3% yards to pound ..-..|.--.- CO) << foc tenate cease ete ete - 50 
7-8. 

74 | Cotton sheetings, |----- 0 eeonces = 3 yards to pound......|.-..-- CO: «.. nas aeteelie ese bemee . 60 
4-4, 

75 | Cotton, Osnaburg, |.--.- LO Foectsces 6 ounces per yard.....).-..- dO... .cceacieeee euieeee eee - 60 
3-4. 

76 | Cotton, Osnaburg, |.--.- Ow eens 8 ounces per yard..-.-..|....- (0 doace=2502 cee eee -70 
7-8. 

77 | Cotton drills, 7-8 --|.--.-. WO 2kaae as 3 yards to pound....-.-|..-..- OO sence saccn = eemeeeere -70 

78 | Cotton shirting |.---- Sipe seanond|ipqodc dO sc. 5 5. oee aerator GO, sce s. so. sceeceeeeeee -70 
stripes. 

79 | Cotton tent cloths.|....- 0 2.cs-c5% 10 ounces per yard....|....- dO .....-.-- sesso 87 

BO lowe soc ei chla dou Uo bsmcbiew Sows eGR dg|ab leeds Code \o.a alleme ai Mere cia etele sete eee (b) 

81 | Cotton warps..--.- O70 2.55 s5ehaseaasosdsdcs cdbdssossu: Per pound:..--os-eseeeeerees 1. 63 

82 | Army shoes ..-.---].-.--- fi 3 Bees PES eos st6 taser acitedec ‘Per pair .6. 22 eee eee 10. 00 

83 | Shoe thread .....-.|..-.- Ree neta oncias DoD CanoHsenSt soos Per pound.) cone. eee eee 2. , 

84 | Wool socks, men’s-|]....- Oude ne. = 2s |Seeisenys dec ay seve stem ete Per pair).--.J-222-00s-seeene 1. 25 

Spee Males <ccseccr coe =- First rate-..-. Wagon, &G2---2ee seer Average price per head..... 300. 00 


er 


a Pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 
b On the above-enumerated cotton cloths, pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 


In assessing the average value of ‘first-class artillery and wagon horses at 
$350,” we designed that the term should be accepted and acted upon according to . 
its obvious common-senseimport. In other words, that horses should be selected 
and then impressed accordingly as their working qualities and adaptation to army 
service, together with their intrinsic value, would warrant a judicious purchaser 
in considering them as coming within the contemplation of the commissioners 
when they assessed the average value of such horses as the Government needed 
at $350. But cases might arise, however, when the public exigencies would be so 
urgent as to demand that all horses at hand should be impressed. Yet, under 
ordinary circumstances, when family or extra blooded horses or brood mares of 
admitted high value are impressed, we respectfully suggest to the Secretary of 
War to have instructions forwarded to the impressing officers to propose and 
allow the owners to substitute in their stead such strong, sound, and serviceable 
horses or mules as shall be considered and valued by competent and disinterested 
parties as first-class artillery horses, or first-rate wagon mules. 

The term ‘“‘ average value per head” was used in contradistinction to a fixed 
and uniform price for each horse or mule. We supposed that in impressing a 
number of horses or mules, whether owned by several persons or one individual, 
that some might be estimated at $250, or even at less, and others at different 
advanced rates, according to their worth, up as high as $450, or above that 
amount, thus making an average value or price for a number of good, sound, and 
efficient horses $350 each, and mules $300 each. 

In illustration of our views, we will add that a horse with only one eye sound 
might, in all other respects, be classed as a first-rate artillery horse, yet the loss 
of one eye would justly and considerably curtail his value. So a horse from ten 
to eighteen years of age might be deemed in all other particulars as a first-class 
artillery horse, but of course, however efficient or able to render good service for 
a year or so, yet his advanced age would justly and_ materially impair his value. 
Any horse, however he may approximate the standard of a first-class artillery 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 845 


horse, must, according to deficiencies, fall below the maximum price; and as few 
comparatively exactly come up to the standard, and therefore are entitled to the 
maximum price, so of course in all other instances the price should be proportion- 
ately reduced, as imperfections place them below the standard of first class, &c. 
E. W. HUBARD, 
ROBERT GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and drivers. 


Quantity and time. | Price. 


MONON MIOLAC Oweste raters: © «<n nesactete| tac acs sinconn tase cw selce bos Per 100 pounds ....-.- $0. 30 
Shelling and bagging corn; sacks furnished by Government........-. Per 56 pounds ........ 05 
AU teeta snc oe soe acs echapasetacescsretracrccaeperersedace Per cwt. per mile ..... . 06 
JE InN! Gaba One deedic ap SO60 SD OOS EOS DAcIDHOUEO => Jeeeet enciec Ate Socicre Per bushel per mile... -03 
Hire of 2-horseteam, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner -..| Per day.......--.----- 10. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....-..-...-....|----- CO ose etcte saaates 5.00 
Hire of 4-horseteam, wagon, and driver; rationsfurnished by owner ..|....- Ostet otencetares 13. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government......--..--.-...|----- Gkineesadsassnaaane 6. 50 
Hire of 6-horseteam, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by owner..|....- GO) satwece ceccctcs 16. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government........--..----.|----- i) Be EaBucsbooneacs 8. 00 
Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner. .........-....--.-------|----- dO wet wae tose eee 2. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.....-....--..-..|.---- CORRE the se adadeacs 1. 25 
Hire of same; rations furnished by owner .......----.--.-.---------- Per moutiecca.stes = 40. 00 
Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government..............--.|-.--- OAL acseeetecsee. 20. 00 


E. W. HUBARD, 
ROBERT GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 1, 1863. 
COLIN J. MCRAE, Esq., 
Commissioner, &c., Paris : 


Sir: Referring to my letter of the 26th ultimo, I beg now to add 
that you will please apportion out as follows the £262,500 of the 
Erlanger loan reverting to the War Department: Quartermaster’s 
Department, £85,000; Commissary Department, £40,000; Ordnance 
Department, £55,000; Medical Department, £30,000; Niter and Mining 
Department, £40,000; Engineer Department, £12,000. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


| SARATOGA, October 2, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON: 

DEAR SiR: I observed in the Enquirer of yesterday that General S. 
Cooper had published only our schedule of July last, which purports 
to be made for one month, and omitted to have prefixed to its publi- 
cation our last report handed into you since the 24th ultimo, which 
enlarges the schedule, and sets forth the price assessed on several 
articles now for the first time introduced and appraised, and also 
proposing not only to re-adopt our July schedule as far as it extended, 
but to extend the time of its continuance up to a period of two 
months. Thus you will see there is an important omission. But if 
this was from your opinion that this portion had better not at 


846 - CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


present be inserted and published, why, of course, we are disposed to 
defer to your better judgment. On the contrary, if from inad- 
vertence, I respectfully suggest that the publication be made in full, 
as we contemplated; that is, so as to embrace our last report made in 
September, as well as what we adopted of our former schedules. 

I regret to find a growing desire in certain high places to contest 
our action, and thereby substantially break down the system of 
appraisement and substitute speculative or neighborhood valuations 
in lieu of it. If they succeed it will be far more fatal than any Yankee 
victory. Commerciallaws do not regulate prices. 'Then who should? 
Why, certainly, the law-makers. But if they do not, it is clear that 
extortioners will certainly both rule and ruin our cause and the 
people. It is clear to my mind that the laws of trade and commerce 
do not regulate or govern prices. As prices in our existing exigen- 
cies have to be controlled, what body of men so proper to perform 
this task as our Legislature? Pray, what more fiendish or hellish 
agency can assume this sovereign function than a band of cormo- 
rants, extortioners, and speculators? If our law-makers fail at this 
critical juncture to regulate prices extortioners most assuredly will 
do so, and they never have ruled but to ruin. Let the law be based 
upon the broad principle of just compensation. Who could spurn 
such a bill? In what contempt would our gallant Army hold its 
opponents? As for the particular mode there would be no danger, I 
assure you, of prices being ever placed too low. Human nature does 
not lean that way. Experience fully assures me of this fact. The 
Confederate law regulating your Department contracts, &c., with our 
cotton and woolen manufactories, so far as I learn, is satisfactory to 
both the stockholders and the Government. Why not apply that 
principle in all cases and to all parties? I have just written a long 
letter to R. A. Coghill on this subject. Show this to your brother, 
or others if you see fit to do so. 

I learn the Roanoke Valley Railroad has applied to court for an 
injunction. So has Rice & Co., of Farmville, upon their leather 
impressment. If our judges are so soft and dull as thus to be used 
by sordid extortioners, they had better abdicate and join the disaf- 
fected in North Carolina. I trust the Government will employ our 
ablest men to sustain it before our courts. Money. will not be spared 
to subvert the policy of appraisement. This you may rely upon. 
So look out for able legal champions, and let the papers fill the popu- 
lar mind on this point and never spare our law sharks. But enough. 
I will aid you in any rational plan that can be devised. 

Pray excuse this rigmarole, and believe me, with the highest regard 
and most hearty good wishes, 

Your friend and servant, 
K. W. HUBARD. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 130. Richmond, October 2, 1863. 


I. The evils resulting from the prolonged absence of soldiers who 
have obtained furloughs on account of sickness being greatly on the 
increase, the attention of officers ef the Army is directed to the sev- 
enth paragraph of General Orders, No. 69, of 1863, from this office, 
and strict compliance therewith is enjoined. 

II. Commanders of companies who, agreeably to the requirements 
of the aforesaid Orders No. 69, receive from examining boards notices 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 847 


of furloughs granted, by them, are required to make out and forward 
monthly to the superintendents of the bureaus of conscription (Col. 
J. S. Preston, at Richmond, Va., or Brig. Gen. G. J. Pillow, at 
Marietta, Ga., as the case may require) lists of all men so furloughed, 
and who do not promptly return to their companies at the expiration 
of the time granted them; and it will be the duty of the superintend- 
ent receiving such lists to direct the proper enrolling officers to arrest 
and return to their companies, without delay, all persons who are 
thus reported and found absent without proper authority. 

Ill. Payment upon affidavit to soldiers sick or wounded in hos- 
pitals, who are unprovided with descriptive lists, will hereafter be 
limited to four months’ pay. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., October 3, 1863. 
Col. BENJAMIN 8. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 

I inclose herewith copies of two letters from Secretary of War to 
myself and my answer thereto. | 

According to my construction of these letters (which I consider 
tantamount to orders) the Secretary of War substantially revokes 
the order transferring to General Johnston the powers and duty of 
enforcing the conscript law in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Tennessee. He leaves me the nominal superintendent, while in 
fact the business of the bureau is drawn to the War Office. 

The main business of the conscript branch of the bureau (and the 
same duties being performed by the supernumerary branch) is to 
bring into the Army all those liable to duty as conscripts. The 
numerous questions of exemption and details which are constantly 
presenting themselves in the administrations of this branch of the 
service are all by this communication of Secretary of War ordered to 
be remitted to the Secretary for decision. While I am looked to by 
General Johnston as controlling this branch of the service, and am 
held responsible for additions to the armies, it will be thus perceived 
that I have no control over the subjects and men, from whom alone 
this increase of the Army must be drawn. 

I do not incline to think that such was the intention of the Secre- 
tary of War in writing the letter, but such is the result which neces- 
sarily follows, as I understand that letter. I do not suppose General 
Johnston can alter or change this order of business, nor do I com- 
plain of it; but this system of business will delay the decision of all 
such cases and keep the men out of the Army during all the time lost 
in transmitting the papers through to Richmond and back, and while 
passing through the tedious course of examination in the office at 
Richmond. It is easy to see that this will greatly retard the work of 
building up the Army by conscripts. My object is to explain to 
General Johnston the effect of the changes made in the work of the 
bureau by these instructions of the Secretary of War. 

Since the reception of this letter of the Secretary of War I have 
indorsed all cases which have been forwarded from the various ren- 
dezvous, outposts, and camps and forwarded them directly to the War 


848 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Office. I submit the whole matter to the general, and would be glad 
to know his views upon the subject. Am I acting properly under the 
circumstances? If my conduct is in anything disapproved, I would 
thank you to furnish me with his instructions. The amount of busi- 
ness thus sent up is very large, and it will of course be suspended 
until the papers are returned, and all future business must be sub- 
jected to like delay. Under the instructions, as I understand them, 
I can decide nothing finally, not even such questions as the enroll- 
ing lieutenants were empowered under the general order of the 
Adjutant- General to dispose of finally (if no appeal was taken). 

If the general should concur with me in the construction of these 
letters, I ‘respectfully ask if it is not my duty to myself to ask to be 
retired from all further connection with the bureau. 

Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, é&e. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 23, 1863. 


Brig. Gen. G. J. PILLOW, 
Marietta, Ga.: 


GENERAL: The Commissary-General has referred to the Department 
an application of Major Dameron, commissary of subsistence at 
Meridian, Miss., for the exemption or detail of his clerks and agents, 
with an indorsement requesting me to direct you ‘‘to grant exemption 
or detail to such conscripts as may be required on the certificate of 
Major Dameron, chief commissary of subsistence of Mississippi. 
This order to apply particularly to cattle drivers and one confidential 
clerk to each disbursing commissary, provided he cannot get a dis- 
abled soldier or non-conscript.” 

While I do not think it expedient to authorize exemptions or details 
made in the way proposed to be final, yet the great importance of ~ 
preserving uninterrupted the operations of the Commissary Depart- 
ment requires that such exemptions or details should be considered 
and treated as operative until reference can be made to the Depart- 
ment. 

Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


-[Inclosure No. 2.] 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., September 23, 1863. 
Brig. Gen. G. J. PILLOW, 
Marietta, Gries 


GENERAL: I have received your letter relative to the appointment 
of an agent to visit and report upon the necessity of exempting over- 
seers in the canebrake region of Alabama. I concur in your views as 
to the delicacy and difficulty of allowing exemptions or details in 
favor of planters or overseers of large plantations. Except in very 
rare and exceptional cases it is better that the claims of the law should 
be exacted. Parties with such large means must be able to procure 
some assistance in the managements of their estates, while the exemp- 
tion to them causes great dissatisfaction to many and affords an 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 849 


excuse for complaint to more. Such exonerations should be granted 
very sparingly, and even then there had better be details for a limited 
period—say until the crop is gathered—rather than exemptions. ; 
I perceive that you exercise the discretion of granting exemptions, 
details, and discharges. Such power cannot be with propriety parted 
with by the Department, and, indeed, one class of exemptions can 
only, under the law, be determined by the President, to whose personal 
discretion it seems confided. ‘While, therefore, from necessity, you 
must, in the first instance, act on the applications for exemptions, 
&¢., such, in all doubtful cases, should only be conditionally deter- 
mined, and be referred to the Conscript Bureau or the Department 
here for review. 
Your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[Inclosure No. 3.] 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., September 30, 1868. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

SIR: Your two communications of the 23d instant are acknowledged. 
General Johnston directed me to assume control of the conscript serv- 
ice of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. This order was accom- 
panied with the following order of the Secretary of War, through the 
Richmond bureau: ‘‘This Bureau claims no jurisdiction over con- 
scription in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. ‘The control was 
transferred to you entirely and is subject to be delegated by you to 
any extent,” except the case of Major Denis, of Mobile. 

From this order it appeared to me that the subject of conscription 
in these States was transferred to General Johnston, and that exemp- 
tions and details, incidents growing out of the powers of conscription 
under the law, followed as a matter of course. General Johnston 
delegated the powers to me by his orders assigning me to that duty. 
It-was thus that I conceived myself fully authorized to act in granting 
exemptions and details in enforcing the conscript law. I did not 
intend to assume or to execute powers which the Government had not 
granted. I thought then and still would understand the authority 
conferred by this order in the same way. It is, of course, always 
competent. for the Government to countermand this order, or to sus- 
pend the further exercise of the authority conferred by it, and it is no 
matter of complaint on my part if it should be done. This I under- 
stand to be the effect of your letter of the 23d instant. I therefore 
cease to act upon such applications, and shall forward them all with 
my indorsement. The immediate effect of this will be to throw all 
the work of this bureau into your office, and to suspend the operations 
of my functions as superintending officer of this bureau, leaving me 
in the exercise of -the same but no larger power than the enrolling 
officers themselves possessed. Indeed, my authority is cut down 
below the powers these enrolling lieutenants were authorized to exer- 
cise by orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Lay, chief of Bureau of Con- 
scription, dated July 21, 1863; also the order of Adjutant-General 
Cooper of February 23, 1863. Both of these orders authorize local 
enrolling officers to grant exemptions specified in the law, subject 
to the right of appeal. When I assumed command of this bureau 


54 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


850 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


enrolling officers were exercising this authority, and I found so much 
irregularity in the practice of enrolling officers of different districts, 
and so much abuse of the power of granting exemptions loosely and 
upon insufficient proof, that I issued a general order requiring all 
applications, with the proof, to be received by them; that the enroll- 
ing officers should indorse their opinions upon the applications and 
forward them to these headquarters for consideration. I also found 
commandants of conscripts for States-exercising the powers of detail. 
In the camp at Enterprise, in Mississippi, I found that about one-third 
of all conscripts received had been detailed, and about a like propor- 
tion in camps of other States. To control this great loss of the mili- 
tary strength out of which the armies of the country had to be built 
up, I ordered all applications for details to be forwarded for my action. 
I have made great efforts to husband the resources of the country by 
cutting off, as far as possible, all details, only allowing those connected 
with the Government workshops, and refusing details to quartermas- 
ters and commissaries and the purchasing bureaus of both of those 
departments, except in cases of feebleness in the party applied for, 
and this on surgeon’s certificate. So great was the pressure upon 
me that I applied to General Johnston (to whose quartermaster I 
refused details) to know if I was acting properly. General Johnston 
fully approved my action and the rules laid down for the action of 
this bureau. A copy of this communication is herewith furnished 
you, with copy of General Johnston’s approval. 

From these facts you will perceive that the greatest effort with me 
has been not to make details except in cases of absolute necessity, 
and then only for Government works requiring mechanical skill to 
meet the want. In administering the affairs of this bureau under the 
orders of transfer above set out I supposed it was my duty to act upon 
such applications; but I have, as far as possible, avoided making any 
details, in order that the vast armies required to defend the country 
might be kept up. The population of this conscript department _is 
greatly exhausted. In the great rush for the cavalry service (com- 
panies of which are everywhere forming under the orders of cavalry 
commanders), and because of the numberless applications for exemp- 
tions and details to escape infantry service, and under your orders to 
consider all of these applications for the purchasing bureau as oper- 
ative, but few new men can be gotten in hand for the Army. 

I am sustained by the commanders of the departments. If I am 
sustained by the Government I can execute the law and administer 
this bureau with profitable results to the country. : 

I nave felt it my duty, in explanation of my action, to say thus 
much, trusting that you will perceive in my conduct nothing but an 
earnest zeal to serve the Government to the best of my ability. 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW? 
Brigadier-General, O. S. Army, Superintendent, é&c. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Columbus, Miss., August 31, 18638. 
Maj. W. H. DAMERON: 
I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your communi- 
eation of the 29th instant with the inclosed copy of instructions. 
Fully appreciating the importance of your position and with every 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 851 


disposition, as far as it is possible, to extend to you all the assistance 
I can consistent with the paramount duty of building up of our 
reduced armies, yet I am compelled to say that I cannot allow details 
for any arm of the service or branch of the staff conscripts fit for 
field duty. Itis possible, and I know it, to get competent non-conscripts 
for these arms of the staff. It will not cost you half the labor to get 
competent non-conscriptsthat I am performing to get conscripts for the 
line. The policy of the Government (a policy originating in necessity) 
and the acts of Congress alike require you, as far as possible, to 
supply your wants from non-conscripts. 

It was in pursuance of this policy that the Quartermaster and 
Commissary Departments were required to give up their agents, 
clerks, and assistants and supply themselves with non-conscripts or 
disabled soldiers. 

My duty requires me to place in the Army every man competent of 
performing duty in the field if within conscript age. There is no 
conflict of authority in our instructions. The Commissary-General 
has furnished me with copies of his instructions. | 

Without our armies are rapidly built up ruin to the country may 
speedily follow. My duty to the line compels me to say that I can- 
not in any case, unless ordered by the Government or department 
commander, allow any able-bodied conscripts to be detailed for serv- 
ice in your branch of the staff or any other, except that of the ord- 
nance and shops connected with it. Ihave not yet in a single instance 
departed from this position, which the necessities of the service com- 
- pelled me toassume. Iam sensible of the fact that at the outset you 
will be somewhat at a loss for suitable agents and will feel embarrassed, 
but proper efforts on your part will overcome this embarrassment. 
The non-conscript population and those exempted for disabilities 
is larger than the able-bodied conscript population; out of these and _ 
disabled soldiers (another large class) you must supply your wants. 
If I allow details for your district, I must for others and then for 
every arm of the staff which has wants to supply. Do this and we 
have not men enough of conscript age to build up the line. I must 
act upon general rules. A departure in this case begets the necessity 
of a departure in others, which when allowed has no end. If a list of 
the agents you have employed were furnished me I would allow, by 
general orders, a detail of all now actually on duty, after first being 
enrolled and sworn in, a detail of twenty days, after which you would 
be required to have them turned over to the Army. I can give no 
order to protect your agents from arrest by the officers of this bureau 
without innumerable frauds upon the service, as my officers have no 
means of knowing your agents except through my order. I do not 
object to your appealing to the Government. IfIam wrong in my con- 
struction of the law and of my duty it will put meright. I shall send 
a copy of this communication to General Johnston, the department 
commander, whose right to control my action in this, as in all other 
things relative to my present duties, is fully recognized. No loss of 
time prejudicial to your branch of the service can occur while his 
opinion is being appealed to. I am daily having about 100 appli- 
cations for details of one sort or another arising from the wants of the 
staff. I cut them all off where they embrace able-bodied conscripts, 
except in the Government workshops connected with the ordnance 
' arm, and those I shall curtail as much as possible. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent of Bureau. 


852 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


This Bureau claims no jurisdiction over conscription in Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Tennessee. The control was transferred to you 
entirely, and is subject to be delegated by you to any extent. The 
operations of Major Denis, commandant of Louisiana conscripts at 
Mobile, are not included in the terms, being confined to citizens of 
Louisiana, and the Bureau retains him exclusively under its orders. 


[Indorsement. | 


Morton, September 3, 1863. 
Brigadier-General PILLOW: 
Your letter to Major Dameron and the rules therein laid down are 
entirely approved. . 
BENJ. 8. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 3, 1868. 
P. V.,DANIEL,. Jr. Esq., 
President Richmond and Fredericksburg R. R. Co., Richmond: 


Your letter of the 30th ultimo has been received. I should prefer 
the presidents of the railroads should correspond among themselves | 
or assemble by their own arrangements to consider the subject of 
procuring supplies from abroad. I am unwilling to intervene offi- 
cially in matters relating exclusively to their own interest. 

Very respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


NASSAU, NEW PROVIDENCE, October 3, 1868. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Sir: By the last arrival from Wilmington a few days since Mr. 
Seixas communicated to me a dispatch in which you direct me to ship 
meat and provisions as rapidly as possible on the best terms of 
freight. Mr. Watson, of A. Collie & Co., has had a cargo of bacon 
here for some time which he has been unable to ship. Under the 
circumstances I have taken it under my control and commenced the 
shipment, fifty boxes of which go by the present opportunity—the 
Virginia. Messrs. Crenshaw Brothers will turn it over to the Com- 
missary Department, as I consigned it to them to avoid confusion in 
the accounts. I will hurry forward the residue of the cargo by every 
steamer that leaves this moon. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
L. HEYLIGER, 


Government Agent. 
[Indorsement. | 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
October 15, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to the Secretary of War, asking if this sort of 
shipment of small installments of meat comes up to a compliance with 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 853 


his orders and urging more specific instructions as to quantity. The 
Army is bordering on destitution in meat and the districts of supply 
in the enemy’s hands. 

L. B. NORTHROP. 


GENERAL sort ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 132. Richmond, October 5, 1868. 

I. Cadets having been required by General Orders, No. 65, Septem- 
ber 9, 1862, to report to this office, those who have not complied with 
the terms of that order and who fail to do so, either personally or by 
pee for the ensuing thirty days will be dropped from the rolls of the 

rmy. 

II. Officers of the Quartermaster-General’s and Commissary De- 
partments who are in charge of depots will receive from officers col- 
lecting the tax in kind and receipt for all produce belonging to their 
respective departments which may be invoiced to them and provide. 
store-houses for the same. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 133. Richmond, October 5, 1868. 


I. The chief of the Niter and Mining Bureau is directed, through 
the officers of his Bureau, to impress copper, coal, and such other 
minerals as may be needed for the use of the Government. 

II. The provisions of paragraph I, General Orders, No. 67, current 
series, is extended to officers of the Conscription Bureau. The pay- 
ments authorized will be made out of the funds appropriated for the 
support of that Bureau. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Heian and Inspector General. 
| HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, ° 


DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., October 5, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


I send in charge of Lieutenant Griffith thirteen deserters from Gen- 
eral Brageg’s army for assignment to the Alabama regiments in the 
Army of Virginia. This is done by General Bragg’s orders. The 
Army of Tennessee is at present so convenient to the homes of these 
men that it is impossible to keep them in the army. In accordance 
with these orders of General Bragg Iam now sending a great many 
deserters tothe Army of Virginia, whence it will be impossible for 
them to make their way back home. I sent forty others two days 
[ago]. General Bragg is satisfied these men will not stay in his army, 
and there are so many of them that shooting them seems out of the 
question. My own opinion is that it is the best that can be done 


854 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


under the circumstances. I keep a record of their names and regi- 
ments to which they formerly belonged. There [are] from 6,000 to 
8,000 of them, and unless you disapprove the measure I will send off 
these deserters and conscripts I gather from this disaffected region of 
Alabama (the mountain region) to the provost-marshal at Richmond 
for assignment to the Army of Virginia. 
Respectfully, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 5, 1863. 
Maj. Gen. HOWELL COBB, 
Commanding State Troops, Atlanta, Ga.: 


GENERAL: I have received your letter as to the proper mode of 
filling vacancies in the State troops. There is every disposition, from 
a cordial appreciation of the laudable efforts of the Governor of Geor- 
gia to raise these troops, as well as from just deference to his station 
and known views, to have these appointments made in the most accept- 
able manner. There are certain limitations of authority, however, 
which must be observed. Where the troops have not been organized 
under the Confederate laws, but as militia, then there can be no doubt 
or difficulty—the appointments will be with the Governor, or agree- 
ably to the State laws. When the organizations have’ been under the 
Confederate acts for local defense, then, if before being tendered 
they are organized into regiments, the field officers may be, and 
properly should be, elected by the men, and then, as regiments 
organized, they may be tendered and accepted by the Confederate 
authorities. If, however, the companies are separately tendered and 
accepted, and have to be organized into battalions and regiments, 
the law vests the appointment of the field officers in the President, 
and he cannot delegate it nor divest himself of it, though he will 
naturally give weight and due consideration to whatever recommen- 
dations the Governor of Georgia may present. 

Under the foregoing statement of the law as construed by the 
Department, little difficulty, it is hoped, will exist in nearly all 
instances in accomplishing the wishes of the Governor without 
departing from the provisions of existing laws. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


a 


GREENSBURG, October 5, 1868. 
Messrs. EDWARD SPARROW, JOHN PERKINS, Jr., C. M. ConRAD, D. F. 
KENNER, 
Members of Congress, Richmond, Va.: 


GENTLEMEN: The bearer, Mr. Addison, visits Richmond on impor- 
tant public business, and this affords me an opportunity of addressing 
you on an important matter that deeply concerns the interests of the 
people of Louisiana, and I suppose those of every Confederate State, 
more especially of those whose shores are washed by the Atlantic or 
the Gulf. I allude to the question of obtaining the necessaries of life 
and of war through the enemy’s lines. The people of the parishes of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 855 


Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi River are starving for the want 
of salt and salt meat. Their manufactories of coarse woolen and cot- 
ton cloths have all been destroyed by the enemy, and they are without 
clothing. Having no woolen or cotton cards, and without the means 
of manufacturing them, they are unable to weave homespun cloths to 
hide and protect their nakedness. Utterly destitute of medicines, 
the best medical treatment is unavailing for them. Nine out of ten 
are without firearms, and if they had them, cannot obtain the powder 
and lead to load them. Can the introduction through the enemy’s 
lines (in spite of their vigilance) of these necessaries, and such like, be 
injurious to the Confederacy? If so, it is strange that the enemy has 
deemed it so important to prevent their introduction, so important as 
to consider the prohibition of their introduction one of their most 
reliable means for our destruction and subjugation.. Surely we should 
admit what the enemy so strenuously strives to prevent to enter. 
What is deemed by them so much to our military advantage should 
not be so heavily visited, punished, and marred by the Confederacy. 
Might not a portion of the immense quantity of cotton which has 
come into the possession of the Yankees by the late successes of their 
arms have been.saved to the Confederacy if a quantity of it, not suffi- 
cient to be of any material advantage to their manufactories, had 
been permitted to be exported, with éven the danger of going to the 
North, in exchange for the necessaries of life for our starving people 
and suffering armies, who have so extensively perished and been 
demoralized for the want of them? And could not the traffic be so con- 
trolled and managed as to prevent any great abuse of it for the advan- 
tage of the enemy? Could it not be so controlled as to be available 
for the erying wants of the people and the soldiers, and without 
important injury to the Confederacy and its cause? Could not the 
ruthless speculator, buying for the purpose of re-sale and extortion, be 
pursued and punished, and denied the privilege of trade, without 
withholding its important and vital advantages to the starving family 
and suffering soldier? Could not there be found honest, firm, and 
vigilant provost-marshals, giving ample security, acting under the 
obligations of an oath and the fear of disgrace, and be placed at 
required points to enforce laws and regulations on this important 
subject, so as to prevent the scandalous abuse of this valuable and 
necessary privilege? Could not the traffic thus, by strict and judi- 
cious regulations, be guarded from excessive abuse, and thus come 
into the hands of a better class, who would be ashamed and afraid of 
the base practices of extortion, of violating regulations of which they 
should be previously sworn to obey, as well as not to convey important 
or treasonable information to the enemy? 

There is one view of this subject which is irresistible, and affords, 
in my opinion, the strongest proof in behalf of the soundness of the 
~ arguments in favor of the regulated toleration of this trade of smug-. 

‘ling; that is, that in spite of all efforts it has continued and will 

ontinue to exist. For, inspite of the regulations of the enemy, their 
' officers, from the corporal up to the highest general, take a share in 

and permit it, as do their civilians from the highest to the lowest. And 
so with our side; officers of all grades and civilians of all positions 
are said to have been even scandalously engaged in it—engaged in 
it to an extent that they would not have been if the traffic were openly 
permitted and regulated in a manner which would be to the advantage 
of the country. As it now exists it causes a sympathy with the aban- 
doned trader, and even with the corrupt and smuggling enemy, which 


- 


856 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


demoralizes our people, and especially that class whose pride and 
patriotism (to get them in the Army) have to be prompted by the 
severity of military law and enforcement. 

Gentlemen, these are not my opinions only; I share them with the 
most intelligent, patriotic, and devoted to our cause; and were 
you present and witnessing this traffic and the course it is assuming, 
you would come to the conclusion (I strongly believe) that for the 
benefit of our cause it should be tolerated, but regulated. and repressed 
in such a manner that the Confederacy might reap its benefits. That 
it can be so regulated I entertain not the least doubt, from proposi- 
tions which have been made by foreigners, some of which have come 
to my ears. I refer you to the bearer, Mr. Addison, for the details of 
matters on this subject as they exist here (a very selected point for 
the Yankees to obtain their more than gold-prized article of cotton). 
Mr. Addison can give you numerous facts in relation to it, which to 
enumerate here would lengthen this communication to a tedious extent. 
The bearer will inform you that I hold a very disinterested position in 
the expression of opinions which I have given in this communication, 
because he will inform you that although my family and about 200 
Slaves have been for a long time on half rations, that I have up to 
this time—notwithstanding my advocacy of a regulated trade and of 
my belief that the Government winked at such a regulated trade, yet 
because I feared to be identified with those who so seandalously abuse 
it—I have up to this time refrained from the least participation in it. 

With my apologies for so long a communication, and with the hope 
that it will receive your due attention, 

I remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
F. D. CONRAD. . 


BENTON, Miss., October 5, 18638. 
Hon. JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
Richmond: 

DEAR SIR: The real and admitted disloyalty, discontent, and deser- 
tions in our Army and manifest indifference among our people at home 
is attributable to many causes. I have lately mingled much with all 
classes of our people, and in different sections of this State. I have 
made it my earnest business to ascertain the mind of all classes and 
the causes moving upon them. They may be stated as follows: 

First. Poverty and destitution in the necessaries of life among the 
families at home. | 

Second. The inability of the soldier and family, with the greatest 
economy, industry, self-denial, &c., to obtain the necessaries of life 
at the present extraordinary rates demanded. 

Third. The intolerable abuse made by certain exempts of their 
freedom from the service to speculate, not only upon their own labor, 
but upon all articles of prime necessity, looking only to their selfish 
avarice and private fortune. 

- Fourth. The open and palpable failure of many officers to enforce 
the conscription law against many exempt conscripts who are prosti- 
tuting their trades and exemptions to the foulest extortions. 

Fifth. The mysterious discharge of many able-bodied conscripts at 
conscript offices and the conscription of many who should be dis- 
charged, showing either partiality and corruption or great incompe- 
tency. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 857 


Sixth. The utter incompetency of many officers in every branch of 
_Service from their drunkenness, absence from duty, &e. 

Seventh. The appointment and detail of able-bodied conscripts to 
little, petty offices at home, such as tax collectors in kind and cotton 
buyers in counties, police districts, or beats, and enrolling offi- 
cers, &e. 

Kighth. The exemptions in part, not because the law is really 
unwise and should be offensive, but because many of the exempts 
make themselves and their trades engines of oppression to all classes, 
and especially to the poor. Doctors, blacksmiths, tanners, shoe- 
makers, and artisans generally, together with all speculators, consti- 
tute the main body of extortioners. They are the men who are 
depreciating our currency and shaking our Army and country from 
center to circumference. There are plenty of old men and women to 
teach our schools; there are plenty of old physicians to do our prac- 
tice; there are plenty of old men and negroes to do our tanning, 
shoemaking, blacksmithing, &c., and if they should extort or refuse 
Confederate money, why not conscript or impress them, not by age, 
but for their practice and conduct? 

The want of a proper enforcement of existing laws and the want of 
further stringent legislation is deeply felt, and if not early remedied 
must prove a bane and destruction to our cause and country. All 
departments of life should be duly adjusted pending a war, as well as 
in peace, but those who might be useful to the public at home should be 
placed in the Army the moment they turn speculators and extortioners 
or fold their arms in idleness. Itis afact very notorious that even the 
Government has made many contracts with exempts within conscript 
age and ability, at the most extraordinary prices, instead of conscripting 
the parties. If speculation and extortion are not put down speedily and 
effectually our country will be completely ruined, and that very soon. 
The complaints stated are founded in truth, and are general. There 
is too much favoritism, partiality, and evasion in the enforcement of 
existing laws by subordinate officers. The loyal can only admit that 
the complaints are true, for they are self-evident to every observer. 
I could be more specific and give names—persons, officers, and local- 
ities—but it is a general thing and not an exception to be specified; 
and besides, I am not solicited to give such information, nor has the 
citizen been requested generally to do so; and when they have vol- 
unteered to do so they have been singled out by certain delinquent 
and drunken officers as the objects of oppression. The tax imposed 
on certain trades and traders only promotes extortion to cover the 
taxes and afford an excuse for extortion. Extortioners and specu- 
lators must be bridled some other way. The year’s wages of a soldier ° 
and the labor of his family for a year will not buy the cards, wheel, 
loom, and salt necessary for the family, to say nothing of meat, 
horses, shoes, bread, &c., nor can the Government advance his pay 
todoso. The prices of these things must be brought down. It is 
the spirit of speculation and extortion that makes these articles so 
high, and not the absolute scarcity of them. The people are encour- 
aged to pay such prices by being told by the speculator that the 
money is bad and will soon be worthless. Substitution has been a 
great evil in many cases. Very worthless men have been bought at 
high prices into the service as substitutes, while generally the prin- 
cipals have gone into speculation and extortion to reimburse them- 
selves for the money they have expended for substitutes. Indeed, so 
far as my observation extends, the principals who have purchased 


858 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


their exemption by substitution have done so in order to speculate, 
and were either then engaged in the business or soon entered upon it, 
except now and then an honest: planter. Why not put these prin- 
‘cipals in the war where their substitutes have been lost to the service, 
not by the casualties of war? Substitution by the law was merely 
permissory. It was not in the nature of a contract with or grant 
from the Government, but a mere indulgence, accommodation, priy- 
ilege, and dispensation granted to the principal with the tacit condi- 
tion that no loss to the Government should be occasioned thereby; 
and hence any law requiring the principals of any date to resume 
their services where the substitute has been lost, not by the casualties 
of war, would not and could not be obnoxious to the charge of being 
ex post facto, or impairing the obligation of contracts. If I owed my 
country 365 days’ labor I have not discharged the debt by putting a 
laborer in my place who deserts in 100 days. It is a debt that only 
can be paid in labor. It is a debt due from the principal, and if the 
substitute deserts before the whole labor is performed the remainder 
certainly is the debt of the principal and not the absolute debt of the 
substitute, who never really owed the Government anything, but was 
merely permitted by the Government to work out the labor debt for 
another man, if he would do so, and was not taken in absolute pay- 
ment of the whole debt. As between the Government and principal 
there was no contract or grant. There was a contract between the 
principal and substitute, but the Government was no party to it, and 
if the substitute violates the contract the principal has his recourse 
upon him and not upon the Government; nor has the Government 
any recourse upon the substitute further than to arrest and punish 
him for a violation of the military law, and, if it chooses to do so, to 
compel him to further service; and this, not upon any contract or 
grant, but from the necessity of self-preservation and further indul- 
gence or dispensation to the principal. 

Pardon me for these suggestions. JI do not propose to provoke an 
answer, but trust that it is the right and the duty of every citizen 
without apology to place before you the benefit of his observations 
with such stiggestions as his mind may desire to present. ‘The duties 
of your office exclude you from that sphere and travel of life in which 
these evils are common, which would enable you to see and know 
them for yourself. 

Accept for yourself the high regard and best wishes, personally and 
officially, of 

Your friend, truly, 
: ; ROBT. 8. HUDSON. 


[Indorsement. ] 


DECEMBER 3, 1863. 
Respectfully referred, by direction of the President, to the Honor- 
able Secretary of War, whose attention is inyited to what the writer 
says about conscript officers and substitutes. 
BURTON N. HARRISON, 
Prwate Secretary. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 859 


RICHMOND, October 7, 1863. 
General G. J. PILLOW, 
- Marietta, Ga.: 


In assigning you to conscription duties in Alabama and Mississippi 
it was not designed you should control or in any way interfere with 
the officers who are on that duty under the Bureau of Conscription in 
this city. The Secretary of War desires to see you here, and you will 
consider this an order to come. 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., October 8, 1863. 
Col. BENJAMIN 8S. EWELL, 
Assistant Adjutant-General: 


I sent you, for the information of General Johnston, last night a copy 
of telegram from Secretary of War. This dispatch is difficult to 
understand in connection with the telegram from Secretary of War to 
General Johnston saying, ‘‘ This Bureau claims no jurisdiction over 
conscription in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee; the control was 
transferred to you entirely and is subject to be delegated by you to 
any extent.” It does not become me to make any remarks on the 
construction now placed by the Secretary on his own order. Since I 
assumed control, however, over the organization all the officers of 
that Bureau have been ordered to report to me, and I suppose not less 
than 1,000 eases originating in that Bureau have been referred to me 
by the Secretary himself for decision. The general, however, under- 
stands this subject, and I deem it wholly unnecessary to say more in 
this communication upon that subject. Ido not know for what pur- 
pose I am ordered to proceed to Richmond. I send the general a 
report of the work of the bureau, which has only been organized and 
at work about four weeks, but mostly with inadequate supporting 
forces. With only partial reports from the newly organized rendez- 
vous and outposts in Mississippi, and with no reports for last month 
from half the rendezvous in Alabama, my reports show a total of 
7,336, not including a man from any camp of the Richmond bureau, 
whose reports have not reached me. My supporting force, which had 
to be raised and organized, amounts to about 2,000 men, the most of 
which are non-conscripts and were nearly all armed by myself from 
arms gathered up by officers of the bureau. Full reports from all the 
rendezvous and outposts and camps for the month of September 
would swell the reports of its work to 15,000 men for work, amounting 
to about one month for the whole organization. I am satisfied that 
the organization, being now in full operation, is daily adding 500 men 
to the different armies. My work, however, will be suspended by this 
order of Secretary. While I would do anything for General Johnston 
and for the country, yet it is impossible for me longer to continue in 
my present position. It needs no explanation why I take this course. 
General Johnston will understand it. 

Respectfully, 
GID: J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent. 


860 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC 
[{Inclosure No. 1.] 
Reports from rendezvous in Alabama. 


Colonel Lea, commanding rendezvous at Blountsville, Ala., for month of 


August: 
V olunteer « i565. < diciese opto yn bie > oe pete ce he 93 
CODSCTIDES 25 ce Se a6 se en ee cin oe ae ane ee niet 28 
Silane lors. ee eee ee hace pb ot ate eee 25 
Deserters.2 22% Seco ee Se ee A Se 101 
Not classedLen nat so. 0s) Ae ae eee si. 3 ee 60 
Total... -2 2.25 on cece oe eos oo ce SO 307 
Lieutenant-Colonel Echols, commanding rendezvous at Selma, Ala., for 
August and September: 
Volunteers. sire See. seuss Se ee ee 147 
Conscripts. Sie se eco Ae Ie Oe, Soe Ae eee ae eee 20 
Siragaierdslyer Mis PA ie 8 Peay Se eee S01) Ss 1 1, 042 
Weserters.on sity. nce ba ia on oleae 59 
Paroled prisoners... ....-.J2~-)-s-c <4 Ose eee er 813 
Total ss... 2 lise eesti... ei Se ae 2, 081 


Colonel White, commanding rendezvous at Montgomery, Ala., for August 
and to September 25: 


sew OluNGeeTrs.. bu. obs ee Eee ool eb ee ee 81 
CONSCYIDUS . 24.25 be 5. cog sco coe oe ee ee 4 
miragelers 2.0 oe. oa a 843 
Deserters .2 22.2 Sees. ie eee ee ee E 22 

Total. 2.5.22 b yea dose Lense oe ak oo ee ee 950 
Lieutenant-Colonel Estes, commanding rendezvous at Tuscumbia, Ala., fon 
August: 
Volunteers fo 022. pede ens cece ol oh cee ee 92 
Conscripte ts 20 2 2 2kee 20 eee et SS See 49 
Stragelers..< LoL. AVilt. col s4h A Be ee 137 
Deserterssoic2bo lho viges) BE eS ee 788 
Total. <a. 20-- pene ca-meeae-ecenee Sue cece ee oe 306 
Colonel Miller, commanding rendezvous at Mobile, Ala., for September: 
Volunteers 2222 2 2 a ee oe ee 228 
Coriseripts' $202 3, Se Se Re Oa 297 
Strarclersor i cline Ses ee ECE eed oe 34 


Total 2... 3 so dawics Sem dixie poopie Gh ee een oe ent el eee 559 
Captain Magruder, commanding rendezvous at Butler, Choctaw County, 
Ala., for September: 
Mostly conscripts sent to camp of instruction, Enterprise, Miss-. 109 


Paroled prisoners. - ------ TUS Sy Ee Oe eee ee 100 
Totaling Jsda tee ok oe flea telah tre ae dee ce bach ke ee tine eee 209 

Major Falconnet, commanding rendezvous at Decatur, Ala.: 

Stragglers. 20 oe. ie Gee eee ei ee 109 
Major Stone, commanding rendezvous, Camden, Ala.: 

Half of month; September ./20.. 0) SSE A. Ale oe ee 58 
Captain Echols, commanding rendezvous at Cedar Bluff, Ala.: 

Not classed ou. 22 5.24 ati le tice Pe eee GL oes 113 


Lieutenant-Colonel Pennington, commanding rendezvous at Livingston, 
Ala.; but one report: 
Not classed ‘i206 Jo. ye De ree ee 2 33 
Alabama officers, not stationed : 
Not elassed i! 2. vive jad a eee ee 2 ee 132 
Major Mason, commanding rendezvous at Grove Hill, Ala.; weekly report: 
Conscripts Dee Se en oe bo see oe ees 2 a tr 13 
Deserters ee ooo. <5 aad ae be eee ee ee Ae 9 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 861 


Major Hunt, commanding rendezvous, West Point, Ga.;a from September — 
3 to October 7: 
Mostly stragglers_..-..._...____- Pee eae Pe aay As ees eR 120 


Reports from rendezvous in Mississippi. 
Colonel Wilbourn, commanding rendezvous at Brandon, Miss.; two weekly 
reports in September : 
SE TLC ii tee lla pad Ad Ah ehbnid kisi A AeA ADR Albee eR Ai 144 
in September : 
BI AaeE, rt Soky Sooty a Aa tA AN he rag oA as 4 310 
Colonel Magevney, commanding rendezvous at Okolona, Miss.: two weekly 


ere Grete neeeenn se St Ur ceetey | TASH AG PEAS ae ee) Sta ey) SO Sites 401 


Rees UR ee een Pere ho a 1 Ny ERRNO gd WO ly 168) 


OCIS SELG SSI ay gaat AE) UE Se ie Ek as Se RE 56 
Major McLemore, commanding rendezvous at Augusta, Miss.; one report in 
September : 
emcee e eae Re eS 29 


Major Butler, commanding rendezvous at Rome, Ga.; half month of Sep- 
tember : 


I ASRS aed aes ue Dn re 116 
Perrcripisment fromeaAlavpama,. 0s... 2 oc. oo ec eee 3 
OM tc es Ais: Ate ee ee Poe ey Sedat yeh aul ok ee 119 
Georgia officers, not stationed : 
ro TRELLIS y lle 1 ace, 9 ota RE SS ae NSU een ae RIE ALL JO 365 
Total from CreOt sieae aoa te Ca eC Felted Saree rete I ayaa ® 484 


Major Hopkins, commanding rendezvous at Chattanooga, Tenn.; one report 
in August: 


Rete let re oc oman, AONE NE EA PINE ALT ee 25 
One report from Captain Clayton, Sixtieth North Carolina: 
BOT Rt oe oo Coe ee eS IN dks poids BO I | oO St Cea RO ee 48 
Officers from South Carolina, not stationed: 
1 TET gS i leak gh Par Ma EA ae cr nag Sy Nal SAN I aan ORE Of 5d 
oa. rom rendezyous officersi.4/2 0. UV SIM tat eo ule 7, 062 


= 


Reports from officers Richmond Conscription Bureau. 


One report from Talladega, Ala., in September : 

PIesercers Ses oe Rett Lie GN seas. SU eee RA : 13 
No report from camp of instruction, Notasulga. 
One report from Major Clark, Enterprise, Miss., monthly report, Septem- 


ee eee ee rr Bes su bo iyi ee EO NOMAD RE 261 
Total from Richmond Bureau officers. ._+............___............ 274. 
Total from rendezvous or supernumerary offices _..._..._...........___... 7, 062 
Eascatifreaat ob). . oe, i ne meee, er sone rane 7, 336 


a West Point is on Alabama line, and Major Hunt operated almost exclusively 
in Alabama. Did not exercise the right of conscription in Georgia. 


862 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The conscripts from camps at Talladega and Notasulga, Ala., have 
per General Johnston’s orders been sent to Mobile, Ala. Orders have 
been given to send conscripts from Alabama in future to the Alabama 
regiments in Army of Virginia; conscripts from Enterprise, Miss., 
were by orders of General Johnston sent to Mississippi regiments in 
army in Virginia. How many were sent from camps in Alabama and 
Mississippi is not known, no reports thereof having been sent to these — 
headquarters. 

There are but partial reports from rendezvous in Mississippi for 
month of September and one-half rendezvous from Alabama. If 
reports were all in they would swell this report, I think, to 12,000 
men sent to the Army since the 1st of August, when I commenced to 
reorganize the bureau. I was six weeks at this work. There is not 
more than four weeks’ labor for the bureau, and no reports for nearly 
half of the bureau for September. These twenty-six supporting com- 
panies of cavalry, most of whom are non-conscripts raised, organized, 
and armed by me with arms gathered up over the country during the 
same time. Add the conscripts from camps of instruction, which are 
not embraced with the exception of 278 men above, no reports being 
received, and it would swell the reports to about 15,000 for about 
one month. The work of the bureau now averages 500 per day, accord- 
ing to my reports lately sent in. 

re GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent. 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


Cavalry companies received as supporting force to the Volunteer and 
Conscript Bureau, Department of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mis- 
sissippv. | 


1. Capt. M. Davenport, De Kalb County, Ala. 

2. Capt. J. M. Clifton, Cherokee County, Ala. 

3. Captain Millsaps, Cherokee County, Ala. 

4. Captain Bowie, Talladega, Ala. 

‘5. Captain Lipscomb, Carrollton, Ala. 

6. Captain Foard, Greensborough, Miss. 

7. Captain Red, Kosciusko, Miss. 

8. Capt. H. H. Shackelford, Grenada, Miss. 

9. Capt. J. G. Ryan, Carrollton, Ala. 

i0. Capt. J. E. Hunt (unassigned). 

11. Capt. H. H. W. Boggan, Itawamba County, Miss. 
12. Captain Thompson, Grenada, Miss. 

13. Captain Harper, Eutaw, Ala. 

14. Captain Mull, Monticello, Miss. 

15. Captain Muldrow, Columbia, Miss. 

16. Captain Ferguson, Carrollton, Ala. 

17. Capt. Thomas K. Truss, Elyton, Ala. 

18. Captain Love, Decatur, Ala. _ 

19. Captain Jennings, Enterprise, Miss. 

20. Captain Smith, Randolph County, Ala. 

21. Captain Moses, Chambers County, Ala. 

22. Captain Moore, Elyton, Ala. 

23. One company at Fayetteville, Ala. (Captain not known.) 
24. One company at Jasper, Ala. (Captain not known.) 
25. One company at Montgomery, Ala. 

26. One company at Tuscumbia, Ala. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 863 


Composed of conscripts and non-conscripts and are armed with 
guns I had gathered up over the country. 
GID: J2 PHLLOW:, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Swperintendent. 


—— 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Columbia, October 8, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to inclose you a copy of a report of resolu- 
tions adopted by the Legislature at its late session, to which I beg to 
call your earliest attention. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


[Inclosure. ] 


The committee on Confederate relations, to whom was referred so 
much of the Governor’s message as relates to ‘‘the system of impress- 
ment adopted by the Confederate Government,” beg leave to report: 

That in the short time allowed they have not been able to gather 
very definite information on the subject, but enough to satisfy them 
that serious grievances are committed in the manner of executing the 
impressment law. Such a law can be justified only by necessity, and 
even then should be enforced equitably and discreetly. These con- 
siderations have not been sufficiently regarded. Your committee are 
informed that impressments are unnecessarily made at some conven- 
ient spot, when the things required might be obtained by purchase a 
Short distance off, if the officer would take the trouble to go after 
them; that the provisions of the law requiring a sufficiency to be left 
for the use of the owner and his family is not always attended to; 
that to save trouble the impressing officer will sometimes allow persons 
who are not convenient to him to go free, while those who are so unfor- 
tunate as to be within his grasp are stripped; and that in some eases 
supplies set apart to answer the tax in kind are not called for, while 
impressing goes on in the neighborhood, because it gives less trouble. 
These things are greatly to be deplored. Besides being wrong their 
tendency is to render Government officers odious, if not to produce 
violent opposition, and to destroy that hearty co-operation of the 
aggrieved persons in the conduct of the war which is essential to its 
success. But the redress provided by the act, namely, the punish- 
ment of offenders by court-martial, is quite inadequate, and the course 
pursued by the Governor seems to the committee to have been very 
judicious and proper. ‘They accordingly recommend the adoption of 
the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That this General Assembly heartily unites with the 
Governor in his appeal to the Confederate Government to have the 
impressment law faithfully and discreetly executed, and that His 
Excellency be requested to communicate this resolution to the Secre- 
tary of War. 

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to confer 
with the Secretary of War and procure, if practicable, his consent to 
allow the board of relief for soldiers’ families in any district in which 
the Governor shall be satisfactorily assured that there is a deficiency 


864 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of supplies for subsistence of such families, to receive of the agent 
of the Government the provisions which may be levied in kind in | 
such districts, on paying a commutation in money therefor at Govy- 
ernment rates, under such regulations and restrictions as may be 
judged proper. 
Respectfully submitted. 
HENRY D. LESESNE, 
Chairman. 


IN THE SENATE, 
September 25, 1863. 


Resolved, That the Senate do agree to the report. 
Ordered, That it be sent to the House of Representatives for 
concurrence. : 
By order: 
WM. E. MARTIN, 
Clerk of Senate. 


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
September 28, 1863. 


Resolved, That the House do concur in the report. 
Ordered, That it be returned to the Senate. 
By order: 
JOHN T. SLOAN, 
Clerk of the House of Representatwes. 


SENATE CHAMBER, 
Columbia, October 6, 1863. 


I hereby certify that the foregoing is a correct copy of the report 
and resolutions of the Committee on Confederate Relations as they 
passed the two houses of the Legislature at its late session. 

WM. E. MARTIN, 
Clerk of Senate. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Columbia, October 8, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: I have the honor to inclose you a slip containing Major Mel- 
ton’s conscription notice and my proclamation thereon. I had hoped 
the Legislature at its regular session would take the matter of exemp- 
tions under consideration and make such arrangements as would 
relieve us all of embarrassment. Having convened them, however, in 
extra session, I committed the matter to their consideration then, as 
you will perceive by my message, a copy of which I sent you. The 
shortness of their session may possibly have prevented their consid- 
ering this matter. As they convene in less than two months, I submit 
whether it will not be better to suspend any further action till their 
next meeting, especially as it will in many parts of the State cause 
great inconvenience if the overseers are taken off before the end of 
the year. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 865 
[Inclosure No. 1.] 
Conscription notice. 


HEADQUARTERS CAMP OF INSTRUCTION, 
Columbia, S. C., October 1, 1868. 


I. All overseers and owners of plantations to whom certificates of 
exemption have heretofore been granted under act of Congress ap- 
proved October 11, 1862, are hereby ordered to report to the enrolling 
officers of their respective districts to be enrolled for service. Also, 
all persons who have hitherto been withheld from conscription by rea- 
son of claiming exemption under the laws of the State. 

II. Persons liable to enrollment for service under the foregoing 
order will be allowed to go forward as volunteer recruits, provided 
they report to the enrolling officer of their respective districts indi- 
cating the companies of their choice and go forward by the 26th of 
October instant. All persons so reporting will be furnished with cer- 
tificates by the enrolling officers stating that they volunteered and 
selected their companies before enrollment. 

IlI. The privilege of volunteering hereby extended is, under the 
order of the War Department, subject to these restrictions: That no 
one of conscript age shall volunteer into any company organized since 
the 16th day of April, 1862, nor into any company which may be already 
full. And the commandant of conscripts is required to make requisi- 
tion for the return to the camp of instruction of every person who shall 
go forward without first reporting to the enrolling officer of his dis- 
trict, and for every person who shall be mustered into any company 
which is already full, or into any company organized since the 16th 
day of April, 1862. 

IV. Any overseer who was employed and acting as such at the date 
of April 16, 1862, and has continued so to act, but is not now engaged 
on a plantation which entitles his employer to claim the exemption of 
such overseer, will be permitted to take employment on any planta- 
tion which, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved May 
1, 1863, is entitled to the exemption of an overseer, and on the com- 
pliance of his employer with the provisions of said act such overseer 
shall be exempted. 

V. By section 3 of the act of Congress approved May 1, 1863, the 
exemption is authorized of such other persons as ‘‘ the President shall 
be satisfied ought to be exempted in districts of country deprived of 
white or slave labor necessary for the support of the population 
remaining at home, and on account of justice, equity, and necessity.” 

VI. Applications for exemption under the section recited should 
be addressed to the Secretary of War, setting forth all the material 
facts, and should be sworn to by the applicants and verified by the 
oaths of at least two respectable citizens who are cognizant of the facts 
to which they affirm. When so verified they should be léft with the 
enrolling officer for investigation, who will forward them through 
these headquarters with his report on thé facts. 

VII. All applications for information in reference to exemptions or 
to matters pertaining to the conscription or to the going forward of 
volunteer recruits should be made to the local enrolling officers. 

C. D. MELTON, 
Commandant of Conscripts. 


dd) R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


866 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
{Inclosure No. 2.] 
PROCLAMATION. 


SraTE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Columbia, October 4, 1563. 


Whereas, Maj. C. D. Melton, commandant of conseripts, under the 
Confederate Government, for the State of South Carolina, issued on 
the 1st of October instant, an order requiring ‘‘ all persons who have 
hitherto been withheld from conscription by reason of claiming exemp- 
tion under the laws of the State” to report to the enrolling officers of 
their respective districts to be enrolled for service; and 

Whereas, it is held by the Executive of the State that all exemptions 
from military service provided for by the convention of this State 
and other competent State authority are valid in law and should be 
insisted on, of which notice has from time to time been given to the 
commandant of conscripts: 

Now, therefore, I, Milledge L. Bonham, Governor and commander- 
in-chief, do direct all citizens of this State holding exemptions from 
the adjutant-general’s office and otherwise exempt by the laws of this 
State to claim their exemptions from Confederate service before the 
enrolling officers of the Confederate Government and to notify the 
adjutant-general of the State of such claim, to the end that the ques- 
tion may be submitted for the decision of some competent legal 
tribunal. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the State, at Columbia, this 
4th day of October, in the year of our Lord 1863, and the eighty-eighth 
year of the sovereignty of the State. 

[SEAL. | M. L. BONHAM. 


WM. R. HUNT, 
Secretary of State. 


ae 


RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG AND POTOMAC Re 
PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, October 9, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: Your note dated the 3d, and postmarked the 6th instant, in 
reply to mine of the 30th ultimo, in relation to the importation by 
other railroad companies of supplies necessary for the maintenance 
of their railroads, has duly arrived. You state that you should pre- 
fer that the presidents of the railroads should correspond among 
themselves or assemble by their own arrangement to consider the sub- 
ject. This company and the others that have already succeeded in 
procuring supplies through the agency of Captain Robinson have no 
longer any special interest in the subject. Any invitation to such a 
convention trom them to other railroad companies, and any sugges- 
tions made by them at such a convention called by them, would very 
probably be considered an officious intermeddling in the affairs of 
others by persons having no concern in them, and be disregarded, and 
would certainly fail to carry with them any weight or authority. But 
from the Secretary of War, charged with the function and responsi- 
bility of maintaining the military transportation of the Confederacy, 
and for that purpose clothed by the act passed at the late session of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. . 867 


Congress with the eminent authority to compel all railroad com- 
panies to maintain in efficient condition their roads and machinery, 
or in default of their doing so to do it himself at their expense, 
taking possession of them if necessary, such a convocation and such 
suggestions, with the offer of such facilities as the Government can 
and does afford, would come with peculiar propriety and persuasive 
authority. For these reasons, while I shall be always most willing 
and ready to contribute every exertion I can make toward accom- 
plishing what is so important, so essential to the success of our cause, 
I must respectfully leave the subject with you, not doubting that you 
will appreciate its urgent importance, nor the special facilities just 
at this time presented by Captain Robinson’s recent successful mis- 
sion and opportunities for further negotiations and by the present 
improved aspect of our military operations. 
With great respect, your obedient servant, 
PONV DANTE IR.: 
President, &c. 


MERIDIAN, October 10, 1863. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Richmond: 

There seems to be misapprehension in the War Office of General 
Pillow’s position. Orders from it are sent to him directly, and your 
dispatch ordering him to Richmond indicates that he was assigned by 
you, and was exceeding his authority. Full authority over conscrip- 
tion in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, for benefit of troops 
of those States serving in them, was conferred on me, and General 
Pillow was acting under my orders. See my telegram to Secretary of 
War dated June 28, and those to me of Acting Chief of Conseript 
Bureau, Lieutenant-Colonel Lay, dated June 30 and July 31. If 
authority conferred on me is withdrawn, I ask official information. 
If not, I suggest the propriety of sending orders of War Department 
to me instead of directly to my subordinates. 

J. EK. JOHNSTON. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPT., 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., October 11, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: I regard it as imperatively demanded for the good of the serv- 
ice that I visit and in person inspect the camps of instruction in North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and it may be necessary for 
me to goto Alabama and Mississippi. Besides this inspection I deem 
it important to have personal conferences with the executive authori- 
ties of the three first-named States. What appears to me a lack of 
appreciation of the importance of the duties intrusted to this Bureau 
and of the necessities of the Government has caused the Governors 
of South Carolina and Georgia to interpose impediments to the per- 
formance of those duties, which I hope to induce them to remove by 
direct representations and appeal. It is only the urgent import of 
this matter which reconciles me to leaving the Bureau for an hour. 
Unaer your earnest and enlightened instructions I think I have sue- 
ceeded in starting it into vigorous and successful action. I can repeat 


= 


868 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


in full faith that I believe its existing agencies to be entirely suffi- 
cient for all the purposes contemplated by the conscription policy; 
that at this moment they are sending into service every man in the 
Confederacy who is liable, and that they will continue to do so, and 
that no other form or mode cf recruiting will be as effectual. Besides: 
this, law, justice, and equity are now so administered by the officers 
as to reconcile the people of the country to the necessities of the 
public defense, and at the same time to provide for its production 
and police. The military force of the Government is strengthened 
by a careful regard to the productive power and by bringing (by just 
and legal proceedings) the aid of public sentiment to sustain our 
efforts. If conscription were the sole and exclusive source of supply- 
ing the armies it would, under its present mode of administration, 
very soon be regarded as honorable and just, and people would enroll 
themselves for the Army as a customary duty and not an enforced 
service. Military enforcement will not effect this, nor will it send 
men into the field. I feel justified in the unqualified recommenda- 
tion that all other modes of supplying the armies be abandoned. - 

For the extraneous duties assigned to the Bureau your instructions 
and allowances, if they can be carried out, are amply sufficient. 
With a permanent force of six or eight companies of well-equipped 
men in each State, under the orders of the Bureau and the privilege 
of oceasional aid from neighboring armies, all delinqyencies, deser- 
tions, and unauthorized absences can be effectually remedied. If ask 
no more for any probable demand for these purposes. ler the pur- 
poses of obtaining such statistical information as may be useful to 
the Department or to Congress, I have required of the enrolling offi- 
cers to make investigations and report upon all matters which seem 
to me to bear upon the military capabilities of the country, as well as 
the actual condition of the military force not actually in the field. I 
hope by the 1st of December to have approximate returns. 

On leaving Richmond at this time I feel perhaps too anxious that 
the measures I have adopted under your instructions may not be dis- 
turbed. I have thrown every energy of my mind and heart into the 
service to which you have assigned me. Directed by your clear and 
enlightened judgment I mean to make the operations of this Bureau 
successful to the full extent of the law and orders. Impelled by duty 
and pride to the effort, I know you will pardon the seeming irregu- 
larity of the earnest request that no organic or substantial changes be 
authorized before my return. 

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


MERIDIAN, Miss., October 11, 1863. 
General S. COOPER, 7 
Adjutant and Inspector General: : 

Sir: On the 28th of June last I telegraphed to the Honorable Sec- 
retary of War as follows: : 

The conscript law is not enforced in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. I 
ask authority to enforce it for the benefit of the troops of those States serving in 
them, &&. 

The reply by telegraph from Lieutenant-Colonel Lay, assistant 
adjutant-general, dated June 30, transferred the conscript service in 
these three States named to me, and informed me that the three State 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 869 


commandants would be ordered to report in person tome. On the 
3lst of July the following telegram was received from the Bureau of 
Conscription: 
General J. EH. JOHNSTON, 

Commanding, &e.: 


The Adjutant and Inspector General has desired me to answer your telegram 
of inquiry respecting the extent of General Pillow’s jurisdiction. This Bureau no 
longer claims any jurisdiction over conscription in Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Tennessee. The control was transferred to you entire in my dispatch of June 
30, and is subject to be delegated by you to any extent. 

G. We LAY. 


Lieut. Col., Assistant Adjutant-General, Acting Chief of Bureau. 


In order to bring into the ranks as soon as possible all conscripts 
not of service in my (then) command, I placed at the head of my 
conscript bureau Brigadier-General Pillow, whose zeal, vigor, and 
capacity. were well known to me, and added to the organizations 
transferred to me by the Conscript Bureau three regiments. After 
_ these arrangements were completed I was called away from my head- 
quarters. Since my return, five or six days ago, I have received 
from General Pillow copies of orders sent to him from the War 
Department which virtually annul the authority conferred upon me 
and take from General Pillow the power to be useful by depriving. 
him of authority. I respectfully submit that the position to which 
that officer is now reduced is much below his rank and official merit. 
My object in proposing to be allowed to enforce the conscript law was 
to fill promptly the ranks of the Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi 
regiments. Believing the law to be inoperative in the States desig- 
nated, I did not hesitate to make the proposition which was accepted 
by the War Department. Yet I am informed by Brigadier-General 
Pillow that he had received orders from the War Department that 
none of the conscripts collected by the officers and troops of my com- 
mand should be assigned to it, but be sent into Virginia. My object 
being thus defeated, I respectfully ask that the authority given me be 
formally rescinded and that of the Conscript Bureau re-established 
in this department and that of the Gulf; that, being unable to 
strengthen my few brigades by conscripts, I may increase them by 
restoring the regiments taken from them for the purpose of collecting 
conscripts. The organization of the Bureau of Conscription will, of 
course, still remain. 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
deh LOTNS LON: 
General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 12, 1865. 
Brig. Gen. G J. PILLOW, 
Marietia, Ga.: 

GENERAL: Your letter of the 5th instant has been received. Con- 
scripts from disaffected districts and deserters (who are, more cor- 
rectly, only absent without leave or stragglers) may be properly sent 
to the Virginia army, but care must be taken not to make that gallant 
army a Botany Bay for ruffians or cowards. 

Respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


870 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


RICHMOND, October 12, 1863. 
Maj. J. B. FERGUSON, 
Quartermaster, C. S. Army: 
(Care of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Liverpool, England.) 


Str: There is at length a prospect of your receiving a portion of 
the funds required for expenditure abroad. The sum of £85,000 has 
been apportioned to this department from a sum at the command of 
the Secretary of War in England, and a draft will be remitted by this 
mail for the amount upon C. J. McRae, esq. I have heard, too, inci- 
dentally, that you were furnished on the 29th of August last, by Messrs. 
Collie & Crenshaw, with the sum of £20,000. The purchases made 
with this latter sum are, I trust, near at hand. In fact, I look with 
some expectation to the steamer Dee, just arrived at Wilmington, with 
a cargo not reported. The other sum you will expend in blankets, 
shoes, and material for overcoats, as heretofore instructed, these 
being the articles most needed. I inclose you a circular* which will 
guide you in selecting and assorting the shoes with reference to the 
numbers most in demand. There is not a day to be lost in forward- ~ 
ing these supplies. So much time has already been lost in providing 
funds in Europe that winter is almost upon us, and we have barely 
time, using the utmost dispatch, to procure from abroad some of those 
essential articles of supply which cold weather will render a neces- 
sity and which the exhausted condition of home resources forbids 
that we should expect to procure here. You will therefore purchase, 
to the extent of the means provided, without delay, and avail, as your 
discretion may suggest, of the speediest and most reliable opportunity 
to ship the stores to the Confederate States. You had better make 
your shipments via Nassau during the winter months, as I understand 
that the opportunities to forward from that point are better during 
that season than offer at Bermuda. The early receipt of these sup- 
plies is rendered the more necessary by the fact that our depots are 
bare, and that a valuable cargo of blankets, shoes, and -woolens for- 
warded by Major Waller from Nassau in the Hebe proved a total 
loss, with that steamer. I have endeavored to replace that cargo, and 
more, by extending to Major Waller (who was sent to Nassau to for- 
ward quartermaster’s supplies in store there) facilities for buying, 
through limited shipments of cotton, certain supplies which he reports 
can be had at reasonable prices. 

At the earliest practicable day after the receipt of this advise me 
fully of progress made and your future prospects. Write fully, too, 
in relation to the market, giving a list of the prices that rule for all- 
articles of clothing required by this department, together with samples 
of quality if they can be furnished. Any suggestions, too, touching 
the general interests of this department will be acceptable. Your 
experience and opportunities for observation should afford some. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


| RICHMOND, October 12, 1863. 
Maj. J. B. FERGUSON: 
(Care Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Liverpool, England.) 
SiR: In connection with a letter of instructions forwarded by this 
mail, I deem it proper to advise you briefly of material changes made 


* Not found. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. S71 


in connection with the manner of remitting and controlling Govern- 
ment funds abroad. 

By a recent arrangement, C. J. McRae, esq., has been constituted 
the sole depositary abroad, on whom the Treasury Department will 
draw in favor of any disbursing officer connected with either of the 
bureaus of the War Department. The proceeds of such remittances 
are to be deposited with Fraser, Trenholm & Co., and Mr. McRae has 
been authorized to transfer, in case of necessity, any balance from 
one account to another, so as to meet the pressing needs of one 
bureau by issuing any surplus not immediately required by another. 
It is also made your duty to report to him all contracts now outstand - 
ing, or that may hereafter be made, exhibiting the amounts to be paid 
on them and the dates at which the payments falldue. All bonds and 
other Government securities in the hands of agents of the War 
Department are to be turned over to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., but of 
these I believe you hold none. Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. are 
instructed to report to Mr. McRae, whenever required, the balance in 
hand to the credit of the different bureaus, and to apportion the sums 
in their hands as directed. 

That Mr. McRae may exercise understandingly this discretion, sc 
far as the interests of this Bureau are concerned, it will become your 
duty to keep him advised in a general way of its necessities. I have 
written him briefly on the subject and invited in your behalf his 
favorable consideration. There are really no supplies of certain 
descriptions here, and of all kinds there is a great deficiency in the 
depots, and it is of the first importance that our wants be relieved, 
and that promptly, from abroad. You will spare no effort to accom- 
plish this end, and I will use every endeavor to provide you from 
time to time with more funds. 

Shipments of cotton may be relied on in part to provide means. 
The Government steamers proper are devoted exclusively to the serv- 
ice of the Ordnance and Medical Bureaus. The Collie Line, of which 
you no doubt have heard, is set apart for the wants of this and the 
Commissary Bureaus. Through the space, too, allowed the Govern- 
ment in every private vessel clearing from a Confederate port we are 
sometimes enabled to ship cotton. By the terms of the contract with 
Collie & Co. the cotton carried on their steamers is consigned to and 
sold by them and the proceeds invested in such supplies as may be 
called for. You will confer, therefore, with these gentlemen and 
keep them advised of the wants of the department, and they will 
doubtless be glad to be relieved of the duty of making purchases, 
and will permit you to buy as well as indicate what is wanted. 

You will communicate all matters of interest connected with the 
prospects and management of this line of steamers which in any way 
affect the interests of this department, and especially in what pro- 
portion the proceeds of the cotton carried out may be divided between 
this and the Commissary Bureaus. Advise me, too, of the basis on 
which the advance of £20,000 referred to in my previous letter was 
made. | 

Cotton which is sent out by private vessels is consigned to Messrs. 
Fraser, Trenholm & Co., and proceeds of same on account of this 
department will be placed to your credit. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


872 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


RICHMOND, October 13, 1863. 
CoLin J. MCRAE, Esq., 

Parts: 

Sir: By a recent arrangement, of which you were duly advised, 
you have been constituted the sole depositary abroad, on whom the 
Treasurer will give drafts in favor of any of the disbursing officers 
of the War Department. You have also been authorized to exercise 
a control over the funds to the credit of the various agents abroad, 
and under certain circumstances to transfer a surplus from one to 
meet pressing obligations of another. I have informed Maj. J. B. 
Ferguson, the purchasing agent of this department in Europe, to 
this effect, and have likewise instructed him to keep you advised of 
the necessities of this Bureau, so that you might exercise properly the 
discretion with which you are invested. Permit me to ask for him a 
favorable héaring. He cannot, I assure you, present the necessities 
of this department in too strong a light. I have but recently assumed 
the control of affairs, and the condition in which I find our supplies 
is the occasion of great anxiety. The depots are quite bare; the 
domestic resources, in many particulars limited at best, nearly 
exhausted, and a season of the year is rapidly approaching which 
renders indispensable many articles of clothing, such as shoes, blank- 
ets, and overcoats, which it is impossible to provide here. I am con- 
strained, then, to look abroad, and there I am embarrassed for want 
of funds. This department, with all its need, has not enjoyed facili- 
ties possessed by others for*drawing from abroad, and now there is 
hardly time to provide them. What remains to be done must be 
done quickly, and I trust you will lose no opportunity to put at the 
disposal of Major Ferguson any funds which can possibly be spared 
even temporarily from other sources than may be allotted to this 
Bureau. Ido not mean to disparage the wants of other branches of 
the service, but I feel a strong conviction that at this particular 
juncture, in view of the great scarcity of the supplies referred to and 
the near approach of winter, some demands made by them might be 
postponed for a brief season to provide for the urgent necessities of 
this department. 

[A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. | 


RICHMOND, October 18, 1863. 
Maj. NORMAN S. WALKER, 
C. S. Agent, Bermuda: 

Str: I infer from a recent letter from Major Ferguson that there 
are some quartermaster’s stores at Bermuda awaiting shipment to 
Wilmington. If so, allow me to ask that you will arrange for their 
immediate shipment. Major Waller was sent some two months ago 
to Nassau to superintend the forwarding of some supplies that had 
accumulated at that point, and I had purposed that he should visit 
Bermuda also, but I find that he will be delayed at the former place 
too long, and so am constrained to call upon you to give special atten- 
tion to this matter. Our wants in regard to all articles of clothing, 
especially blankets, shoes, and heavy cloth for overcoats, are so great 
that it is of vital importance that we should receive promptly all that 
can be had. 

Will you do me the favor to report at an early day to what extent 
and at what prices supplies of the character referred to ean be had 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 873 
in Bermuda? Some 20,000 shoes and like number of blankets, with 
quite a lot of woolens, have been arranged for in Nassau, and if a 
like supply could be drawn from Bermuda it would greatly relieve 
the first pinch of winter and save suffering. It is only such consid- 
erations that induce me to look to these points for a limited supply, 
in the hope that time may be saved. 

Should the condition of the market at Bermuda permit, and you be 
able to purchase promptly with funds at your command, that course 
will be most acceptable to me and of great benefit to the service, and 
I willtake immediate steps to have the expenditure refunded; or if you 
can purchase now on the faith of cotton to be delivered at Bermuda 
at ruling prices, I will see to the execution of the contract. 

Favor me, if you please, with a response at your earliest convenience. 
A. R. LAWTON, 

Quartermaster-General. 


[OCTOBER 14, 1863.—For address of Jefferson Davis to the soldiers 
of the Army of Tennessee, see Series I, Vol. XXX, Part IV, p. 744. ] 


RICHMOND, October 14, 1868. 


Circular letter to General Joseph E. Johnston, General Pillow, and 
others. 


The Secretary of War directs me to say that for the more speedy 
recruitment of the armies of the Confederacy under present exigencies 

the authority to enforee the conscript law, heretofore reposed in 
General J. E. Johnston, within the limits of Mississippi, Alabama, 
and Tennessee is continued, and the organizations and arrangement 
authorized by him, with a view as well to the enforcement of that 
law as for the arrest and return of deserters and stragglers, are left 
in operation under his sanction until further orders, but in the exe- 
cution of the conscript law the right of appeal in regard to the allow- 
ance of exemption must exist in the Department, in all cases, and the 
class of cases coming under the third section of the law of exemption, 
resting on the discretion of the President, must be forwarded directly, 
with such indorsement, however, as may serve to present the true 
facts of the case. 

State organizations embracing conscripts, except in the limited 
instances otherwise ordered by the Department, can be received only 
on the understanding that those of conscript age shall be discharged 
and, either by volunteering or assignment, devoted, as required by 
the conscript law, to filling the organizations to which that law makes 
them applicable. 

All authorities given to raise companies where the conscript law 
cannot be executed by reason of the possession or control of the 
enemy will, on report or evidence that they have been abused to 
recruit those liable to conscription elsewhere, be promptly revoked 

- and the officers, if in commission, held responsible. 

All deserters or stragglers who have entered into new organizations, 
whether found within the lines of the enemy or elsewhere, must be 
returned to their original commands, and all officers having such men 
in their organizations are required to report and return them. 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


S74 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 14, 1863. 
His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, 
Governor of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.: 


Sir: I have received your letter suggesting the temporary suspen- 
sion of Major Melton’s order relative to overseers. Colonel Preston 
has been induced to make a visit to Columbia with the view of con- 
ferring with you on this and other points on which embarrassments 
may arise in the execution of the conscript law. He is fully informed 
both as to the necessities of the service and the views of the Depart- 
ment for meeting them, and it is hoped the result of his conference 
will be to remove all prepossessions against the operations of con- 
scription, under the regulations of his Bureau, and to secure concur- 
renee of view and harmony of action between the Department and 
the authorities of your State. 

With high esteem, 
| JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


RicHMoND, October 14, 1863. 
Maj. T. L. BAYNE, 
Ordnance Bureau, un Charge of Steamers: 

Str: That I may understand the resources at the command of the 
Government in the way of sea transports, and more especially such 
as may be available to meet the wants of this Bureau, and also in a 
general way the management thereof, will you oblige me with infor- 
mation on the following points, making the same as precise as you 
can: 

First. The names and capacity (tonnage) of the Government steam- 
ers proper, and the frequency of their trips between Nassau or Ber- 
muda and the Confederate States. 

Second. The same of the steamers of the Collie Line, and its pros- 
pects for any early increase of means of transportation. 

Third. The same of private vessels engaged in running the blockade. 

Fourth. The facilities for shipping cotton on Government account 
in private vessels, and the rates of freight, and how usually paid. 

Fifth. How is the tonnage on private vessels apportioned between 
the different bureaus ? 

Sixth. The freight, if any, exacted by the Government in private 
vessels running into Confederate ports, and how is that regulated at 
Bermuda or Nassau? 

Seventh. What are the expectations of increasing these resources 
through the Thorburn contract, or any other of a similar nature ? 

Eighth. To which point, Bermuda or Nassau, should this depart- 
ment direct that supplies now being purchased in England shall be 
sent to insure their speedy receipt ? | 

Ninth. Are there facilities at Wilmington for storing and com- 
pressing all the cotton sent abroad, and to what extent is a bale 
reduced by compression, and how many bales of compressed cotton go 
to a ton? 

Tenth. What payments have been made by the Government on 
account of the Collie Line, and what information have you of advances 
made by them (Collie & Co.), on Government account generally, or to 
either this or the Subsistence Bureau? 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 875 


Eleventh. What have been the receipts and shipments by the Collie 
Line, since its establishment, distinguishing between the bureaus 
interested ? 

Twelfth. What, in the aggregate, are the weekly or monthly ship- 
ments of cotton or other produce on Government account ? 

Your early attention is requested to this communication; and I 
have further to ask that for the future Mr. Seixas may be required 
to make a weekly or monthly report, showing in detail the cotton 
shipped on Government account and the cargoes received at Wil- 
mington, distinguishing therein between the different bureaus, and 
that a copy thereof may be forwarded for the information of this office. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


Add, also, how the Collie steamers are loaded with cotton. Is the 
eargo made up indifferently of cotton belonging to either this or the 
Subsistence Department, or are the shipments distinct in their char- 
acter; and if distinct, in what proportion for each department? 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 135. Richmond, October 15, 1863. 


I. Reeruiting officers and others are forbidden to grant permits to 
conscripts or deserters, allowing them to visit their homes, or to remain 
there for any purpose. The notice already given conscripts is deemed 
sufficient, and deserters are not entitled to ‘indulgence. 

IJ. All parties who have received exemption papers for disability 
other than those granted for permanent and decided disability, must 
be re-examined, and the law, which there is reason to believe is too 
often evaded, be in these and in all cases str ictly enforced. 

lil. Men employed to aid enrolling officers must, if subject to con- 
scription, be regularly enrolled; and unless detailed for the special 
duty in question by written orders of the War Department, will be 
reported to the Bureau of Conscription, to be disposed of as in other 
cases. 

IV. Officers will be held to strict account for any violation or neglect 
of these orders. 

V. The provisions of paragragh I, General Orders, No. 67, current 
series, is extended to officers of Maj. A. H. Cole’s department. The 
payments authorized will be made by any post quartermaster. 

VI. Officers and soldiers in the general service cannot be trans- 
ferred to local companies, and applications therefor will not be 
entertained. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
dpions and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
_ Fachmond, Va., October 16, 1863. 
His Excellency M. L. BONHAM, 
Governor of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C.: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 8th instant 
inclosing a copy of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of 
South Carolina on the subject of impressments. It is with serious 
regret as well as some surprise the Department finds that the General 


876 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Assembly has thought it necessary to make an appeal to the Confed- 
erate Government to have the impressment law faithfully and dis- 
creetly executed. Ihave painfully realized that this law is of necessity 
harsh, summary, and not uniform in its action upon producers. And 
it has been the studious effort of the Department to temper its execu- 
tion by as much of leniency, discretion, and generality as was com- . 
patible with its due enforcement or the accumulation of adequate 
supplies essential to the Army. 

With this view special instructions have been sent from the vari- 
ous bureaus urging a strict observance of the limitations of the law and 
forbearance and consideration as far as practicable in its enforcement. 
It should not be forgotten, however, that this power of impressment 
is reposed by law in military commanders as well as in the Depart- 
ment, and that the exigencies of the service are specially operative 
upon them to induce summary and sometimes over-zealous proceed- 
ings. ‘To what has been already done I can only add the assurance 
that the expressed wishes of the General Assembly of South Caro- 
lina are received with deference and consideration, and shall operate 
to induce, if possible, enhanced vigilance in repressing all irregularity 
and indiscretion on the part of the officers employed in the enforece- 
ment of the law. It is a matter of regret that complaints which come 
to the Department are of so vague and general a character as to ren- 
der it difficult to discover instances of offense or to administer a due 
corrective. Information of specific cases in which the provisions or 
spirit of the law have been disregarded or violated have been thank- 
fully received, and the invitation here repeated is freely given for the 
continuance of such reports. With reference to the further resolu- 
tion of the Assembly desiring me ‘‘to allow the board of relief for 
soldiers’ families in any district in which the Governor shall be satis- 
factorily assured that there is a deficiency of supplies for subsistence 
of such families to receive of the agent of the Government the pro- 
visions which may be levied in kind in such districts on paying a 
commutation in money therefor at Government rates, under such 
regulations and restrictions as may be judged proper,” Your Exeel- 
leney cannot fail to perceive this mode of relief, by withdrawing sup- 
~ ples intended for the Army, would increase the necessity of resorting 
to the very process of impressment which seems to be considered a 
grievance by the Assembly, as the exact amount thus withdrawn 
would have to be supplied by impressment. It would be tantamount 
to raising by that means what may be required by the boards of relief 
in such eases, and I am reluctant to incur the odium of impressment 
further than may be absolutely necessary for the supply of the Army. 
There would be, too, danger in the precedent set by such eases, as the 
supplies there procured would be at rates lower than could otherwise 
be obtained, and there would be numberless applications of a similar 
character and dissatisfaction at non-compliance with them. Of course 
there is no disposition on the part of the Department to diminish sup- 
plies in any district where a sufficiency does not exist for the wants of 
the inhabitants, but the law allows any district or county, where it is 
not believed to be expedient to collect the tax in kind, to be reported 
to the Secretary of the Treasury, and in lieu thereof the tax becomes 
payable in money. 

It would be preferable upon proper representation made of the 
insufficiency of the supplies in any district for the consumption of 
the inhabitants that such district should be exempted. The Govern- 
ment would thus avoid the danger of a mischievous precedent and 
all the expense of collecting only to part again with the tax, while 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 8T7 


the full amount of supplies would be left free for the relief of the 
inhabitants. 
With high esteem, truly yours, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 17,. 1868. 
L. HEYLIGER, Esq., 
Government Agent, Nassau, New Providence: 

Sir: The Commissary-General is very anxious to receive as rapidly 
as possible the cargoes of meat at Nassau. The amounts heretofore 
sent by the steamers coming in are considered by him very scant. 
Consideration in apportioning cargoes must, of course, be had to the 
wants of other departments of the service, but none are quite so 
essential unless, perhaps, those for niter and lead. Ishall be pleased 
if decided preference in freighting be given to these three articles— 
provisions, niter, and lead. 

Very respectfully, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[ OCTOBER 18, 1863.—For Flanagin to Holmes, in relation to raising 
troops in Arkansas, see Series I, Vol. LIII, p. 901. | 


HEADQUARTERS GEORGIA STATE GUARD, 
Atlanta, October 18, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I inclose to you a letter just received from His Excellency 
Joseph E. Brown, Governor of Georgia, and most respectfully request 
your early and particular attention to it. The position taken by 
Governor Brown must necessarily be attended with the most serious 
embarrassments in the organization and discipline of the troops under 
my command, and it is therefore important that I should at once 
receive your instructions as to the course I am to pursue. There are, 
unfortunately, in the service those who entertain the same opin- 
ion with Governor Brown, and co-operating with him can subject me 
to great embarrassment. Until otherwise ordered I shall forward to 
Richmond all vacancies that may occur. In the meantime I have 
addressed to Governor Brown a letter, a copy of which I inclose. 

Earnestly asking your immediate attention to the subject, | am, 
with sentiments of sincere regard, 

Very respectfully, yours, &c., 
| HOWELL COBB, 
Major-General, Commanding, &e. 


{Indorsement. ] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
October 23, 1868. 
Respectfully submitted to Secretary of War. 
The Governor of Georgia insists upon the right of the Home Guards 
to elect officers to fill vacancies, and declares his intention to issue 


878 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


commissions when election returns are sent him. Pronouneces the 
decision of Secretary of War denying such right as a flagrant viola- 
tion of the constitutional rights of the troops, and expects to bring 
‘the question before the General Assembly. General Cobb asks for 
instructions in the matter. 
C. H. LEE, 
: Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 


MARIETTA, October 15, 1863. 
Maj. Gen. HOWELL COBB: 


DEAR SiR: I have to acknowledge officially the copy of the letter 
from the Secretary of War to you, in which he denies the right of 
the Home Guards to elect officers to fill vacancies. This, I supposed, 
would be the result after the positive manner in which the President 
spoke in our interview the other day. I did not then wish to provoke 
a discussion which would have been fruitless, and passed it by with 
my simple dissent from the doctrine. I consider the decision so 
flagrant a violation of the constitutional rights of the troops that I 
shall issue commissions to fill all such vacancies when election returns 
are sent tome. I expect to bring the question before the General 
Assembly and will, of course, be submissive to their decision, what- 
ever may be my own opinion. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure No. 2.]. 


HEADQUARTERS GEORGIA STATE GUARD, 
Atlanta, October 18, 1863. 
His Excellency JoSEPH E. BRown, 
Governor, &c., Marietta, Ga.: 

Sir: I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th instant. 
After our interview with the President I had hoped the question was 
settled, and regret to find that you have determined not to acquiesce 
in the decisions of the President as then made known to you. I need 
not say to you the course you propose to pursue will bring the Con- 
federate and State authorities into direct conflict, and endangers, if 
it does not destroy, the efficiency of the State Guard service. I 
request that you will issue no commissions to fill vacancies unless 
they are forwarded through these headquarters; otherwise you destroy 
all military rule and discipline and demoralize the troops under my 
command. In the meantime I submit the question tothe Department 
of War at Richmond for such instructions as the President may see 
proper to give. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, 
HOWELL COBB, 
Major-General, Commanding, &e. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 136. Richmond, October 21, 1868. 
Paragraph III, General Orders, No. 100, Adjutant and Inspector 
' General’s Office, last series, is so amended as to authorize payment 
of the money value of clothing which may be due the soldier at the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 879 


end of the year, as therein provided, upon descriptive lists when he 
is absent from his command by proper authority at the time, and will 
be prevented from rejoining it within sixty days thereafter. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CIRCULAR. | CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
WAR DEPARTMENT, BUREAU: OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., October 21, 1868. 
As the military status of every employé at the arsenals and depots 
of the Ordnance Department is reported monthly at the office of the 
Chief of Ordnance, Col. J. Gorgas, Richmond, Va., commandants of 
conscripts and enrolling officers are hereby notified that any informa- 
tion relating to conscripts and others so employed may be obtained 
by application to said office, by. which means all controversy between 
conscript officers and the commandants of ordnance posts will be 
avoided. 2 
By order of George W. Lay, lieutenant-colonel, assistant adjutant- 
general, acting chief of Bureau: 
P. N. PAGE, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


GENERAL Sen ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 137. Richmond, October 22, 1863. 

The authority of commandants of conscripts to make details for 
enrolling service of officers and soldiers coming within their jurisdic- 
tion under the second clause of paragraph IJ, of General Orders, No. 
82, and paragraph V, of General Orders, No. 96, of 1862, is hereby 
extended, so that they may employ such persons in the duties of rail- 
road guards, bridge or ferry guards, or in the protection of public 
property, at the request of the officers of the staff departments, or of 
local military commanders. Special reports will be made of all such 
details to the Bureau of Conscription. 

They may also detail in like manner, until the recovery of health, 
any convalescents borne on the rolls of general hospitals, who may be 
reported to them by the hospital boards as unable to take the field, 
but fit for light duty, the details to cease at the time that may be 
indicated by the examinations of the hospital boards. 

By order: 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Tallahassee, October 22, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 
Sir: It appears from the returns of the recent elections in this 
State, from letters received from respectable citizens, and from an 


880 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


examination of the muster-rolls on file in the adjutant-general’s — 
office that many persons who are now in the Confederate service 
have been elected to the inferior offices of justice of the peace, county 
commissioner, &c., and it is alleged that some are deserters from it. 
What shall be done in the premises? Under the statutes of the State 
it may be my duty to issue commissions upon receipt of the returns 
of elections, but unless it shall be so declared by the opinion of the 
attorney-general I shall not commission any who are in Confederate 
service, or any who being subject to conscription have been notified 
to repair to camps and failed to do so. I have submitted to the attor- 
ney-general of the State the question whether or not, with a knowl- 
edge of such facts, I am required to issue commissions. At all events, 
I feel assured that they are not entitled to discharge from Confederate 
‘service under the act of Congress approved April 2, 1863; nor are 
they deemed by me necessary to the administration of the govern- 
ment of the State. I feel it my duty to inform you that in various 
parts of the State there are deserters from the Confederate service 
who were citizens of this and other States, whose influence (added to 
other causes) has produced much disloyalty, amounting to a disposi- 
tion for what is termed ‘‘reconstruction of the United States Govern- 
ment;” in other words, to cowardice, submission, and a propensity 
for treason. 

I am also informed by letters which have been received from per- 
sons now in Nassau (who left the State, but desire to return) that 
transports are now ready, and that it is the purpose of the enemy to 
invade Florida during this or the next month via the Saint John’s 
River, Fernandina, and Saint Mark’s. Many of the troops in Confed- 
erate service in this State are yet unarmed, and but few of them have 
been properly drilled and prepared to meet the enemy. Some time 
ago I applied through the Hon. R. B. Hilton for 3,000 stand of small- 
arms, 2,000 for the use of the troops commanded by General Cobb 
and 1,000 for such State forces as might be organized under the call 
of the President for 1,500 men for home defense. Two thousand 
Austrian rifles were sent to General Cobb via Columbus, Ga., but 
none to the State. In view of the amount of arms, munitions of war, 
&e., voluntarily furnished by the State of Florida to troops in Con- 
federate service, I had no reason to suppose that a demand for such a 
small amount would not be respected. The cavalry in Confederate 
service in this State are inefficiently armed. We have no arms for 
State troops, and if the State shall be sacrificed for the want of arms 
and munitions of war, the responsibility for the consequences must 
rest with the War Department of the Confederate Government. We 
need immediately 1,000 short Enfield rifles with saber-bayonets and 
fixed ammunition for the same. I shall be obliged to you to send 
them by an agent to this place, or inform me by telegraph that I can 
get them, and I will send an agent. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. ° 


CIRCULAR. | CONSCRIPT OFFICE, 
Richmond, October 22, 1863. 
His Excellency the Governor of Virginia has decided that the mili- 
tia officers of Virginia, as a class, are no longer in commission in 
consequence of their commands having been absorbed by the con- 
script law. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 881 


The department, regarding this as a decision from competent 
authority, directs that the conscription law be executed accordingly. 
You will report all such persons fer duty. 
By order Col. J. C. Shields, commandant: | 
JAS. H. BINFORD, 
Lneutenant and Adjutant. 
(To District Enrolling Officers. ) 


RAILROAD BUREAU, C. S. A., 
Richmond, October 28, 1868. 
Brig. Gen. A. R. LAwTon, 
Quartermaster-General, Richmond: 


GENERAL: The arrangements for moving cars and locomotive 
engines across the bay at Mobile and over the narrow-gauge track 
from Montgomery to West Point have proved a decided success, saving 
time, labor, and expense, an economy which will not end with this 
particular work, as the connection between the two roads at Mont- 
gomery already accommodates all Government transportation, thus 
enabling your department to dispense with the large number of drays 
and animals formerly occupied in performing it. By these efforts 
some of the most needy railroads in the Confederacy will be enabled 
to considerably increase their transportation for Government, and 
there is no apparent reason why the movement of troops and stores 
should not be made with probably greater regularity and dispatch 
this winter than heretofore. 

It is well, however, to remark that this improvement will prove 
only temporary, because the roads have no means in many eases, and 
all of them but limited facilities, for keeping their machinery in the 
proper repair. Engines and cars cannot be made for the same reason 
that they cannot be repaired; consequently all aid in the shape of 
additional cars and engines is but deferring an evil day. The time 
will soon come when the Government itself will be incompetent to 
render even this assistance. It can only do so now because of the 
contraction of our territory. 

It would seem that the railroad companies had been negligent in 
attending to what is so clearly their own interest as keeping their 
rolling-stock in repair, but you can readily comprehend how unavoid- 
‘able was their condition. When the war began railroad managers 
thought their business ruined. Their incomes had been realized from 
commerce, and when trade was so suddenly cut off, and before our 
contest had assumed its present gigantic proportions, a period of inac- 
tivity in transportation took place which justly alarmed these mana- 
gers who occupied positions of trust. In order to contract every 
expenditure, to meet the crisis which seemed impending, they encour- 
aged the enlistment of their employés—a class having usually but few 
local associations, and nearly always ready to embark in any scheme 
that promises change or excitement. Hence their workshops were 
soon reduced to a minimum force of workmen. The conscript act 
completed what the prudence of the railroad managers had begun. 
The twelve-months’ volunteers were held to service, and to-day there 
is not a car, engine, or machine-shop in the country able to do one- 
half the work offered it for the want of men and material. 

As the war developed the wants of Government the business of 
transportation increased, but the Confederacy, instead of the mer- 


56 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


882 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


chant, claimed the energy and skill of railroad men. Eager to serve 
our new Government, with a patriotism which I fear has never been 
properly appreciated, the railroad companies voluntarily and unani- 
mously reduced their rates to figures which barely covered working 
expenses, and to-day they are carrying for Government everything 
except troops at prices which are not fairly remunerative. But the 
idea of making money out of the Government does not seem to be 
entertained by those connected with the management of railroads, 
and no corporations in the Confederacy have made such constant 
efforts to serve the Government as railroad corporations. The mana- 
gers of them embraced the best business talent and exhibit as much 
patriotism as any class in the country. 

To complete what Government officers first thought to be the best 
plan for transportation, but which every railroad man knew to be a 
most destructive one, the former ordered engines and cars from road 
to road, irrespective of ownership, and making no provisions for their 
return. Thus this valuable property was used and abused from one 
end of the Confederacy to the other, cars were run from point to 
point without attention and only found rest in total destruction, 
utterly lost to their owners, who are left without redress. 

A wiser policy now prevails; officers are in a measure restrained 
from interference, and the owners are keeping their rolling-stock 
under their own control; otherwise it is hard to imagine what troubles 
might surround our transportation. At the beginning of the war 
most of the roads had fair supplies of rolling-stock and material, and 
such of the former as could be kept at home was, with the aid of the 
latter and the few workmen that could be found, maintained in toler- 
able condition, but the rapid depreciation consequent upon constant 
work soon exhausted these supplies, and now the richest and most 
provident companies are feeling severely the want of the most ordi- 
nary articles. In many cases business has pressed so hard that 
machinery could not stop for repairs, and in others the machinists 
and material could not be had to make them, even when engines were 
laid up. It is estimated, and in my opinion rather under than over 
the mark, that fifty locomotives now in the Confederacy are useless 
for the want of tires, and they can be made either at Atlanta or Rich- 
mond in less than six months; but the Government absorbs the 
work of these shops and the material also; consequently the railroads 
are impotent. ) 

Is it any wonder that transportation is deficient? Is it not rather 
a wonder that we have any transportation by rail at all? 

To remedy in part the deficiencies described, the task of moving 
cars and engines from west of the Alabama River was undertaken. 
With all the assistance that could be obtained it was a tedious oper- 
ation. Sickness at Mobile and Montgomery retarded the work, and 
that which I reasonably hoped would be completed by August 1 was 
not finished until about the 20th of September. This work will help 
the most needy roads, but, as I before remarked, the aid is only tem- 
porary; there is no permanent relief without machinists from the 
Army, iron from the mines, and permission for foundries and rolling- 
mills to work for railroads. Fresh cars and engines, without repairs, 
will follow those already laid aside, until every resource is exhausted, 
when the Government will be compelled to do that which it has 
refused heretofore. 

When machinery is properly cared for the depreciation is scarcely 
perceptible, and had the railroads been able to get what the Confed- 
eracy produces they would be in nearly as good condition now as they 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 8383 


were two years ago. Every important article of consumption by rail- 
roads can be produced in the Confederate States, but so long as the 
Government controls and denies the roads, you may say, practically 
everything, there will be no permanent relief for them. 

The time has arrived when it must be decided whether this system 
is to continue; if it is, the Government must be prepared for very 
limited and uncertain means of transportation. It is utterly impos- 
sible to continue in the present destructive course. Complaints of 
the deficiency in transportation are daily made, and your department 
is censured for want of energy, and too frequently worse motives are 
ascribed. Something is due to a department upon which the whole 
burden of transportation rests, and if it is not yielded, then other 
officers must shoulder the responsibility. What the roads ask, and 
what they must have, is iron ore, permission for foundries and roll- 
ing-mills to work for them, and a liberal system of detailing machin- 
ists from the Army. Nothing else will do. 

The Government surely must have learned by this time that rail- 
road officers are not usually nor peculiarly deficient in management, 
energy, or disposition. If the appointment of Col. W. M. Wadley 
failed to produce anticipated results, it was because the origin of 
trouble would not be seen, though often pointed out. No energy, 
skill, or talent can make transportation what it ought to be without 
the aid suggested. Itis to be hoped that these facts will be appre- 
ciated before it is too late. 

IT remain, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
I’. W. SIMS, 
Major and Quartermaster. 


[ Indorsements. | 


OFFICE OF QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL, 
October 24, 1863. 

The within report of Major Sims, in response to a call made on him, 
is respectfully referred to the Secretary of War. 

I cannot too earnestly call attention to the present and prospective 
condition of the railroads of the country, our sole dependence for 
bringing armies and their supplies together. The peculiar condition 
of our country at present, the unprecedented relation between the 
positions of our armies and the growth of their supplies—the largest 
arnry in the Confederacy drawing its rations and forage from points 
700 miles distant—give to railways an importance to which they were 
never before entitled. When the Government controls and absorbs 
nearly all the labor and materials of the country, to Government only 
can the railways look for permission to use, at their own expense, the 
materials, labor, and machinery necessary to keep them in working 
order. And time is all-important, or the injury will soon be irrepa- 
rable. As I desire soon to have a conference with the managers of 
the railways on which we principally depend, I wish some authority 
to promise the necessary assistance, or the permission to work for 
themselves, which will insure us against a total loss of our means of 
transportation. All my efforts to improve their condition will be 
fruitless of practical results unless I am armed with this power. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


For conference with General Lawton, Quartermaster-General. 
J. “ALS Bs 


Noted; file. Discussed with Quartermaster-General in person. 


884. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


HEADQUARTERS VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, 
DEPT. OF TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI, 
Marietta, Ga., October 23, 1863. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General : 

Colonel Richardson’s command, 1,500 strong; Colonel Bell’s, 600 
strong; Newsom’s command, 600; Wilson’s, 300 strong; Kizer’s, 400 
strong, making an aggregate of 3,300 men, all cavalry and raised in 
West Tennessee under my orders, constitute the nucleus of a division 
of cavalry which I want your authority to organize. These organiza- 
tions will all soon be swelled into full regiments, and every man of 
them has been brought from within the enemy’s lines and raised by the 
work of this bureau. These officers all now report to me. I am not 
content with my present position. Ihave applied to Generals John- 
ston and Bragg to relieve me. This they declined upon the ground 
that my services in my present position are so important that I ean- 
not be spared from them. One very serious ground of dissatisfaction 
with my present position is that, having no command and being an 
‘‘outsider,” I lose all chances for future promotion, and if I ever 
return to the field, no matter how long, first I will have to return with 
my present rank and be overshadowed by all the officers from my 
own State, who constituted a part of the army which I commanded 
and of which I organized about 45,000 before the transfer to the 
Cc. S. service took place. This is the hardship of my present 
position. Because I have zealously labored for the interest of the 
service and made myself useful, is it just that I should be thus held 
and debarred of all chances of promotion and of command, which 
follows? Another serious source of embarrassment in my present 
position is that the officers of my staff, taking rank from my own 
position, are all on the pay of captains and lieutenants, which is 
wholly inadequate for their support, compelled as I am to have my 
headquarters in the towns and cities, where the cost of living has 
become so excessive that their pay will not even subsist them, much 
less pay all the other incidental expenses of living. These are the 
great sources of my dissatisfaction with my present position. Though 
the service is most distasteful and repugnant to my feelings, I am will- 
ing to work wherever the Government considers my services most 
important; but for the reasons stated above I am urgent in my appli- 
cation to be relieved, and ask that you will, by orders, authorize me 
to organize the cavalry commands mentioned above, and with them 
proceed to the district west of the Tennessee River and increase it to 
a division. I make this appeal to your sense of justice. 

I an, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent. 


P. S.—I omitted to mention the command of Col. J. J. Reiley, who 
has a full regiment brought out of West Tennessee under like orders. 
G. JER, 


Major Cooper has also raised a regiment under my orders in Middle 
Tennessee, where it now is, but will come soon. 
Gi soes 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 885 © 


MERIDIAN, MIss., October 28, 1868. 


General J. E. JOHNSTON, 
Commanding, &c., Meridian, Miss.: 


GENERAL: The President directs me to state to you that the rule 
in reference to conscripts enrolled in any State is to distribute them 
equitably among the regiments of that State in proportion to the 
numbers effective for service. It is a misapprehension to suppose 
that it has been intended to assign conscripts to any one army or 
organization without reference to the general demands of the service. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
: G. W. C. LEE, 
Colonel and Arde-de-Camp. 


[| OCTOBER 23, 1863.—For Cooper to Johnston, in relation to instrue- 
tions given General Pillow concerning the assignment of conscripts 
to Johnston’s command, see Series I, Vol. XX XI, Part III, p. 583. | 


[OCTOBER 23, 1863.—For Governor of Mississippi to Johnston, in 
relation to transfer of State troops to the Confederate service, see 
Series I, Vol. XX XI, Part III, p. 584. ] 


LONDON, October 28, 1868. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: 


Str: You will find inclosed copies of dispatches Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 to 
Colonel Gorgas (with accompanying papers), to whom I have hereto- 
fore forwarded all my dispatches referring to the accounts of Major 
Huse. I, however, note in the letter of instructions to Mr. M. H. 
Bloodgood that he is instructed to report directly to the War Depart- 
ment. I therefore inclose you copies of previous dispatches; also 
copies of correspondence with Major Huse and letters to Major Fer- 
guson and Captain Crenshaw, his principal accusers here. Since my 
last of September 15 to Colonel Gorgas, Mr. Bloodgood and myself 
have spent much time upon these accounts and yet have not been 
able to make an examination complete enough to report to you our 
final conclusions. We are both here in London, and have made 
arrangements with an accounting and examining house which I think 
will enable us to arrive at nearly certain conclusions. Major Huse 
has shown from the first every desire to aid us in every way in his 
power. It would be equally impossible and improper at this stage of 
the matter tomake any remarks upon the merits of the question. My 
object is simply to report the fact that we are at work and making as 
much progress as the enormous and complicated nature of the trans- 
actions admit, and will, at as early a day as practicable, send you an 
official report. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
. C. J. MCRAE. 


886 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


[Inclosure No. 1.] 
DisPATcH No. 1.] Lonpon, July 25, 1863. 


Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance, Richmond: 

On the morning of the 22d instant I received a communication from 
you, dated the 26th of May, informing me that I had been appointed 
+o examine the accounts and vouchers of Maj. Caleb Huse, the special 
agent and disbursing officer of the War Department abroad. Onthe 
receipt of this communication I addressed a note to Major Huse 
informing him that I would be ready to commence this examination 
immediately after the Ist of August, and asked him to have his 
accounts ready to lay before me at that time. In the afternoon of 
the same day Major Huse called on me and brought with him another 
communication from you, from which it appeared that the Secretary 
of War on the 1st of June (five days after the date of the communi- 
cation to me) had appointed M. Hildreth Bloodgood to make the 
examination in connection with me. First reading this paper, I 
thought I would await the arrival of Mr. Bloodgood before com- 
mencing the examination, but on a more careful examination of both 
the papers I think it probable the second appointment would not 
have been made if it had been known that I would act; and as it is 
uncertain when Mr. Bloodgood will be here, I have concluded to pro- 
ceed with the examination as I proposed. It is due to Major Huse 
that the investigation should be made as soon as practicable, besides 
the public interests require it, as his usefulness is impaired by charges 
that have been made against him. I fear that he has already been 
embarrassed in making his negotiations by these rumors. Before 
this reaches you you will no doubt have received a communication 
on this subject which was made to me by Maj. J. B. Ferguson, jt; 
and which I forwarded to Mr. Memminger, with the request that he 
would send it to the War Department through you. In making the 
examination of the accounts and vouchers of Major Huse I shall ask 
the assistance of H. O. Brewer, esq., now in Paris, a gentleman of 
high character and a thorough business man, familiar with all sorts 
of accounts and devoted to our cause. With his assistance and the 
aid of one good clerk I hope by the middle of August to complete the 
examination and to forward you the result. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
-C. J. MCRAE, 


[Inclosure No. 2.] 


DISPATCH No. 2. | FOLKESTONE, ENGLAND, August 28, 1563. 
Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance, Richmond: 


Sir: You will find inclosed duplicate of my dispatch of the 25th of 
July.* Mr. Bloodgood not having arrived, I have in connection with 
H. O. Brewer, esq., commenced the examination of the accounts of 
Maj. Caleb Huse. Every facility for the examination has been 
afforded by Major Huse and Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., but 
owing to the nature of the transactions and the difficulty of obtain- 
ing confidential clerks, we have not thus far called in any other assist- 
ance, consequently our progress is rather slow. We have just finished 
the examination of the accounts current and find them based on cor- 
rect business principles, accurately made out, and sustained by the 


* See next, ante. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 887 


proper vouchers; but we have not yet gone into the question of prices, 
which will be a tedious and laborious business, and much care will be 
required to arrive at a proper decision, as the prices of most of the 
articles were much higher during the period of purchase than they 
were before or have been since, owing to the great competition in the 
English markets for all military supplies which then existed. As we 
shall not be able to complete the examination in time to give you the 
result by this mail, I write now specially to call your attention to the 
fact that two settlements have been made of the account of Messrs. 
Isaac, Campbell & Co., one with the firm in London on the 25th of 
May by Messrs. Emile Erlanger & Co., approved by Major Huse, the 
other with you in Richmond by Mr. Battersby, acting for Messrs. 8. 
Isaac, Campbell & Co.; and in order that you may be fully informed 
as to what has been done on this side of the water, I inclose a copy of 
the agreement made with Messrs. Emile Erlanger & Co. The account 
has been settled on this side according to this agreement, and I have 
arranged the matter with Messrs. Emile Erlanger & Co. by charging 
the amount paid Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. to the account of 
the Confederate loan of £3,000,000—say, £457,224 15s. 10d.—and have 
taken up the cotton warrants for 5,000,000 pounds of cotton and the 
$2,000,000 8 per cent. bonds deposited by Major Huse as collaterals for 
the advance of £90,000, which are to be returned to Major Huse when 
he presents me warrants from the Treasury Department for the 
various sums advanced him on account of the War Department. 

I inclose an account of the sums advanced Major Huse as well as 
of £56,000 advanced Captain Crenshaw by authority of Mr. Mason 
out of the proceeds of the loan before my arrival, and respectfully 
request that you will cause the necessary warrants to be sent to me to 
cancel the advances, so that the accounts of the loan may be properly 
kept between the Treasury and War Departments. Mr. Mallory has 
already sent Captain Bulloch the warrants for the amounts advanced 
on account of the Navy Department. It. was not until after I had 
commenced the examination of Major Huse’s accounts that I learned 
that any further settlement had been made with Messrs. 8. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. in the Confederate States, and I write you by the 
first opportunity to advise you of what has been done here, so that 
you may at once annul the settlement made with Mr. Battersby and 
get back any cotton that may have been delivered to him for Messrs. 
S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. At the time the settlement was made on 
this side by Messrs. Erlanger & Co. the Government held more than 
half of the £3,000,000 loan, and it was thought very desirable to dis- 
pose of as much of it as possible. Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. 
were also of the opinion that they would be able after a short time to 
dispose of half of what they had taken at cost; the other half they 
intended to hold as a cotton speculation. They, however, have not 
disposed of any of it, and now propose to return £100,000 of the 
bonds at the rate at which they received them, in leu of that amount 
of cotton which Mr. Battersby was to receive in the settlement with 
you; but as the bonds are 22 to 24 per cent. discount, both Major 
Huse and myself have declined this proposition. Messrs. 8. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. agree that the settlement with Mr. Battersby shall be 
canceled, and have so written him... Major Huse also informs me that 
he has heretofore written you on this subject and advised the same 
course. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
Cc. J.. McRAKE. 


888 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
{Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


Copy of agreement between Messrs. S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. and 
Messrs. Emile Erlanger & Co. 


We, the undersigned, Isaac, Campbell & Co., of London, and Emile 
Erlanger & Co., of Paris, have made to-day the following agreement 
on behalf of the claim Isaac, Campbell & Co. state to have against 
the Confederate Government for the sum of about £515,000. Major 
Huse, who incurred this debt with Isaac, Campbell & Co., will give 
them a certificate of indebtedness for the above sum, which they will 
hand over to Emile Erlanger & Co. Emile Erlanger & Co. engage to 
hand over to Isaac, Campbell & Co. £150,000 of paid-up bonds for 
which they have subscribed, and for which they will eredit Emile 
Erlanger & Co. with £135,000, less the discount allowed to subscribers, 
this quantity being considered paid up. 

Isaac, Campbell & Co. will receive, furthermore, from Emile Erlanger 
& Co. £150,000 in bonds, the former crediting the latter with £135,000, 
no discount being allowed to these; £90,000, which Emile Erlanger & 
.Co. have advanced for Isaac, Campbell & Co., £90,000, together with 
interest, will be taken over from their account and credited to Emile 
Erlanger & Co. Emile Erlanger & Co. will pay in cash £40,000 to 
Isaac, Campbell & Co., and on the 2d of June the further sum of 
£20,000; and Isaac, Campbell & Co. will have the right to draw on 
Emile Erlanger & Co. at ninety days’ date for the sum of £40,000, 
and place this to the credit of the latter, less interest for seventy days. 

Emile Erlanger & Co. engage to deliver the above-mentioned 
£300,000 of bonds as soon as they are ready, and half of these not 
later than the 15th of June. 

Isaac, Campbell & Co. will leave in the hands of Emile Erlanger & 
Co., to be returned to the Government, the cotton warrants and 8 
per cent. bonds now deposited with the latter for the security of their 
advance of £90,000. 

In the event of Isaac, Campbell & Co. wishing to resell these bonds 
they shall give the refusal of the bonds to Emile Erlanger & Co. at 
such price offered by other parties and which Isaac, Campbell & Co. 
are willing to accept. 

Isaac, Campbell & Co. remain responsible to the Government for 
their account, and hold Emile Erlanger & Co. free from any loss or 
reclamation in this respect; and they furthermore leave the balance 
of their account as a guaranty, and will not claim it from the Govern- 
ment for two months. Isaac, Campbell & Co. will allow their account 
to be audited by General McRae or any person he may appoint in 
his behalf. 

EMILE D’ERLANGER, 
For EMILE ERLANGER & CO. 
S. ISAAC, CAMPBELL & CO. 
Lonpon, May 25, 1863. 7 


Received the 25th of May, 1863, the within named sum of £40,000. 
S. ISAAC, CAMPBELL & CO. 


Copy of letter from Major Huse approving the above agreement. 
: PARIS, May 26, 1863. 
Messrs. EMILE ERLANGER & Co.: 


GENTLEMEN: S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. have an account with the 
Confederate States Government for army supplies furnished by them 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 889 


on my order, upon which account there is due a balance of, say, 
£515,000. This account I agree on the part of the Confederate States 
Government may be transferred to yourselves upon any terms that 
may be agreed upon between yourselves and Isaac, Campbell & Co., 
and I further agree that, provided the account is thus transferred to 
you, all money that I may receive from any source for the payment 
of this claim shall be paid to you. 
Iam, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE, 
Major of Artillery. 


[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


Payments on account of the War Department from proceeds of the 
loan.* 


To Major Huse, forS. Isaac, Campbell & Co.: 


£ oe ele 
PEI OE OIA COSA. oc Shae hot es ten 90,000 0 0 
RIES IOULECOCIE 2 airs Le eee cee a ee 182,224 15 10 
eye ety) Ald Wh or eu ceo oe oe 135,000 0 0 
EEL pala RR asst a2 Oc eon gee 100,000 0 0 


& Ss. d. 
. 457,224 15 10 
Wempene One! GOreas Clarh. 22.0 -<ct..22,-----52-45--2-----2- 22,500 0 O 
Eeueie ro won(ivoney lated) wes. 0.022... - =k =. =--+----- 10, 201° 47 3% 


489,976 0 5 
Rae aitaltl, Cronshiaw, bye MirowagOn..\.... 02 3-722.) -+--2 4422 56,000 0 0 


545,976 O 5 


[Inclosure No. 3.] 


DISPATCH No. 3.| No. 6 AVENUE MATIGNON, PARIS, 
September 4, 1863. 

Col. J. GORGAS, : 

Chief of Ordnance, Richmond : 


COLONEL: You will find inclosed duplicate of my dispatch of the 
28th of August, with the accompanying papers, which I sent by the 
Nassau mail.+ This goes by the way of Bermuda to the care of Maj. 
N.S. Walker. Permit me to call your attention particularly to that 
part of the 28th August dispatch which refers to sending the neces- 
sary warrants to enable me to adjust the accounts of the War and 
Treasury Departments. The list inclosed in dispatch of August 28 
of the disbursements from the loan on account of the War Depart- 
ment furnishes the necessary information to send the proper warrants. 
Having been much engaged during the past week with other business, 
I have made but little progress in examining the accounts of Major 
Huse, and as Mr. Bloodgood has now arrived in England I shall ask 
his assistance before proceeding with the work. Mr. Bloodgood has 
not yet been to London, nor have I heard directly from him, but have 
learned that he reached Liverpool on the 28th ultimo. If I do not 
hear from him by Monday, the 6th, when I will be prepared to go on 
with the examination of the accounts, I will address him a note ask- 
ing his assistance. Major Huse has received advice from Major 
Walker that the last of the Austrian rifles (380,000) reached Bermuda 
on the 26th of July. All his other purchases have been shipped, and 
he is endeavoring to get up the order for Texas, but his credit has 


* But see sub-inclosure No. 1 (corrected statement) to inclosure to letter from 
Memminger to Seddon, October 26, p. 909. 
+See dispatch No. 2 and inclosures, p. 886. 


890 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


been so much impaired by the action of other agents of the Govern- 
ment that I fear he will have great difficulty in getting up this or any 
other order; at least, he will have to pay advanced prices just in pro- 
portion as his credit has been impaired. The multiplicity of agents 
and contractors on this side the water prevents any of them from 
being useful; besides, this system has destroyed the credit of the 
Government, and in future we must rely entirely on the shipment of 
cotton. Why does not the Government take the subject of blockade 
running entirely into its own hands? Not a bale of cotton should be 
allowed to come out of the country nor a pound of merchandise go 
in except on Government account. 
With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE. 


[Inclosure No. 4.] 


DISPATCH No. 4. ] 6 AVENUE MATIGNON, PARIS, 
September 15, 1868. 
Col. J. GORGAS, 
Chief of Ordnance, Richmond: 

COLONEL: Fearing that dispatches sent by the way of Nassau and 
Bermuda may not reach the Confederacy, and deeming it important 
that you should be advised of what has been done on this side of the 
water in reference to the settlement of the account of Maj. Caleb 
Huse with Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., I inclose copies of my 
last two dispatches with the papers which accompanied them, and 
send the whole by the French West India mail under cover to Maj. 
Charles J. Helm, Havana, with the request that he will forward by 
the first opportunity.* I hope that some of these dispatches will 
reach you in time to enable you to cancel the settlement of the 
account of S. Isaac, Campbell & Co., made with Mr. Battersby, before 
any of the cotton delivered him has left the Confederacy or been 
transferred to third parties. I still think that the settlement of this 
account made on this side was very favorable to the Government, as 
it enabled us to dispose of £300,000 of the stock of the loan at the 
issue price, which if not disposed of in that way would now be on 
hand, or at least not available. But I fear that it will be very dis- 
astrous to Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., as they have the whole 
of this stock, representing £267,224 15s. 10d. of their account on hand; 
also £50,000 in gold in the Confederacy, amounting in the aggregate 
to £317,224 15s. 10d., none of which is available unless they were to 
force a sale of the stock, which could not be done at a better rate than 
30 per cent. discount from the price at which they received it. This 
would entail a loss of about £80,000 or $400,000. Great as this sacri- 
fice would be, Mr. Saul Isaac (the financial partner of the house) 
informs me that unless they can get early relief from our Govern- 
ment they will be compelled to make it, as it will. be impossible for 
them to meet their engagements with so large an amount locked up 
in Confederate securities. Our credit is greatly depreciated, and the 
fact being known that this house has a large portion of their capital 
involved with us has also affected their credit to such an extent as 
to prevent them from making such financial arrangements as under 
other circumstances they would have no difficulty in effecting. The 
result is that this house, which has been so much maligned by our 


*See dispatches Nos. 2 and 3 and inclosures, pp. 886-889. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. oo.) San 


overzealous friends, is likely to be ruined by having trusted our Gov- 
ernment when nobody else would. 

Since the date of dispatch No. 3 (4th instant) I have seen Mr. 
Bloodgood and arranged with him to take up the examination of 
Major Huse’s accounts on the 17th instant. We shall continue to 
avail ourselves of the very valuable assistance of Mr. Brewer, and 
hope by the end of two weeks to make a final report on the subject. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE. 


P. S.—The inclosed statement of the amount advanced the War 
Department from the loan is £1,000 less than is shown by the state- 
ments shown in dispatches Nos. 2 and 3.* The error in the former 
statement arose from having charged Captain Crenshaw with £56,000 
instead of £55,000. The whole amount advanced for the War Depart- 
ment is £544,976 Os. 5d., to cancel which I hope you will have the 
proper warrants forwarded as heretofore advised. 

OF A auikeie: 


[Inclosure No. 5.] 


No. 14, BURLINGTON HOTEL, LONDON, 
July 22, 1868. 
Maj. CALEB HUSE, 
Special Agent of the War Department Abroad, 
71 Jermyn Street, London: 

I am in receipt.of a communication from Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of 
Ordnance, informing me that I have been appointed to examine your 
accounts as the disbursing officer of the War Department abroad. 
Please let me know when and where you will have your accounts 
ready to place before me. At any time after the 1st of August I shall 
be ready to commence the investigation. 

With much respect, yours, &c., 


©. d. MCHAIe 


[Inclosure No. 6.] 


71 JERMYN STREET, LONDON, July 23, 1863. 
Hon. C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for C. S. Loan, Burlington Hotel, London: 

A letter received from Colonel Gorgas by me yesterday on the sub- 
ject of my accounts appears to be more full than the one which you 
received by the same conveyance, and which is referred to in your 
note of yesterday. I therefore inclose a copy of it.+| Mr. Bloodgood 
has not arrived, and it being uncertain when he may be expected, and 
really important, as I conceive, that as early an examination as possi- 
ble should be made, I beg to suggest that you request some other gen- 
tleman from the Confederate States to discharge the duty expected 
by the War Department of Mr. Bloodgood. It isa matter of indiffer- 
ence to me who makes the examination. I am only desirous that the 
examination should be made as soon as practicable, and in view of 
the effect that the charges brought against me by Major Ferguson in 
his letter to you may have in lessening the confidence of business men 
in me until these charges are found to be untrue, it seems to me 


*For statement (corrected) see sub-inclosure No. 1 to inclosure to letter from 
Memminger to Seddon, October 26, 1863, p. 909. 
+ Not found as an inclosure. 


892 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


highly important for the interest of the Government that the exam- 
ination should be made as promptly and as thoroughly as possible. 
As matters now stand, important business negotiations may at any 
time be interrupted by interested parties circulating the story that I 
am an officer under charges for malfeasance in office. An attempt of 
this kind has already been made, as you are aware, by William G. 
Crenshaw. I beg, therefore, both as a matter of public importance 
and private interest to myself, that you will take steps for having at 
least a preliminary examination made at an early day. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE. 


iInclosure No. 7.] 


No. 7, BURLINGTON HOTEL, LONDON, August 5, 1863. 


Maj. CALEB HUSE, 
Chief Agent and Disbursing Officer 
of the War Department in Hurope: 

MaJor: I arrived last night from Paris, and shall be ready to- 
morrow to commence the examination of your accounts and vouchers. 
Just now I am going to Messrs. J. Henry Schroeder & Co., 145 Leaden- 
hall street, but will be glad to see you, so that we may arrange for a 
convenient place to make the examination. In the meantime please 
have prepared for me a general statement or account current of all 
your transactions as disbursing officer for the War Department since 
your arrival in Europe. Such a statement will enable me to proceed 
with more order and expedition in the examination of the detailed 
accounts and vouchers. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE. 


[Inclosure No. 8.] 


BURLINGTON HOTEL, CORK STREET, LONDON, 
; October 16, 1868. 
Captain CRENSHAW, 
22A Austin Friars, London: 

SiR: When I last saw you you read me a copy of a letter to Rich- 
mond charging Maj. Caleb Huse with improper conduct in the per- 
formance of his duty. I have since, at the request of the War 
Department, undertaken (with the aid of M. H. Bloodgood) the exam- 
ination of his accounts. We are both here in London for some days, 
and would be glad to hear from you personally or by letter in full 
the details of your charges. The former course would be preferable, 
as having the papers in hand we could confer more understandingly. 
As it is the wish of the War Department that the examination should ° 
be thorough and a speedy report made, we would ask your immediate 
aid and attention, as our stay here is but limited. 

Yours, respectfully, 
C. J. MCRAE. 
[Inclosure No. 9.] 
BURLINGTON HOTEL, CORK STREET, LONDON, 
October 16, 1868. 
J. Bb. FERGUSON, Jr., 
Major and Quartermaster, C. S. Army: 
(Care of A. Collie & Co., Manchester. ) 

Str: In June last you addressed me a letter making charges against 

Maj. C. Huse. I replied, referring you to the War Department. and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 893 
inclosed a copy of your letter to Richmond. I have since then, at the 
Secretary of War’s request, undertaken (with the aid of M. H. Blood- 
good) the examination of Major Huse’s accounts, &e. Weare both 
here in London for some days, and would be glad to hear from you 
personally, if feasible; if not, by letter with full details of your 
charges. The former course would be preferable, as having the 
papers before us we could confer more understandingly. We would 
ask your immediate attention and aid, as our stay here is but limited, 
and the Department desires, for many reasons, a thorough examina- 
tion and speedy report. 

Yours, respectfully, 
C. J. MCRAE. 


[Anclosure No. 10.] 


BURLINGTON HOTEL, CORK STREET, LONDON, 
October 16, 1863. 
Maj. CALEB HUSE, ~ 
No.'°25 Grande Rue Autewil, near Paris: 

DEAR SiR: We deem it best for the interests of all parties to call 
upon Messrs. Ferguson and Crenshaw, who seem to be your principal 
accusers at Richmond, to substantiate their charges against you. We 
have therefore this morning addressed a letter to each of them, 
requesting them to communicate with us personally or by letter at 
their earliest convenience. 

Yours, respectfully, 
C. J. MCRAE: 


[Inclosure No. 11.] 


71 JERMYN STREET, LONDON, October 20, 1563. 


Hon. C. J. McRAE and M. H. BLOODGOOD, 
Burlington Hotel, London: 


GENTLEMEN: In reply to your communication of the 16th instant 
informing me that you have thought proper to callupon Major Fergu- 
son and Mr. Crenshaw to substantiate the charges they have made 
against me, I have only to state that I have received this intelligence 
with great satisfaction. Since the examination of my account and 
transactions for the C. 8. War Department was first commenced by 
Mr. McRae I have endeavored to afford the gentlemen engaged in it 
every assistance in my power. I shall continue in this course, and as 
this investigation is one of grave importance to myself personally, as 
well as to the Confederate States Government, I beg to request that 
you will make it as thorough and searching as possible, so that your 
report to the War Department may finally dispose of the matter. If 
you will call upon me either verbally or in writing for information or 
explanation upon any transaction in which I have been concerned 
since the commencement of the war, whether private or official, I shall 
be glad to reply at length to your inquiries. If you should think 
proper to examine me under oath, I shall be entirely willing to be 
sworn before either an English or C. 8. official. I have not only been 
personally annoyed by the conduct of Major Ferguson and Mr. Cren- 
shaw, but my efficiency as an agent of the C.S. War Department has 
been seriously impaired to such an extent that I think it important 
that my character for integrity and soundness of judgment should be 
fully re-established; or failing this, that some other officer should be 
detailed for the important duty to which I have been assigned. 

Iam, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE, 
Major of Artillery. 


894 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Inclosure No. 12.] 


71 JERMYN STREET, Lonpon, October 23, 1868. 


Hon. C. J. MCRAE and M. H. BLOODGOOD, 
Burlington Hotel, London: 


GENTLEMEN: The charges against me appear to be limited to my 
transactions with the house of 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. It has been 
assumed that no one could be sufficiently well acquainted with the 
miscellaneous articles embraced in my purchases of and through that 
house to make the purchases understandingly, and that I have there- 
fore placed myself completely in the power of that house, perhaps 
innocently, but at all events to the prejudice of the interests of the 
Confederate States Government. When this investigation first com- 
menced I foresaw great difficulty in the way of making it thorough, 
which I was very anxious it should be, and expressed my anxiety to - 
Messrs. 8S. Isaac, Campbell & Co., at the same time that I furnished 
them with a copy of Major Ferguson’s letter to Mr. McRae, denounce- 
ing me as a dishonest agent of the Government. They appreciated 
the difficulties of the case, and expressed themselves desirous of doing 
anything in their power to enable me to vindicate my character. 
They have offered to exhibit their books to the auditors appointed by 
the Confederate States Government to examine my accounts, and to 
give them the means of tracing every transaction they have had with 
me from the date of my first order, not only for goods purchased by 
them on my order, but for everything sold to me from their own estab- 
lishment. My collection of samples has been made entirely for my 
own guidance. Not expecting such an examination as this now going 
on, [ find that it will be impossible for me to provide you with sam- 
ples of every lot of articles purchased, and to state accurately the 
price and date of purchases, as you desire. With some articles this 
can be done, with others it cannot. Some articles have been pur- 
chased by 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. in small lots as they could get 
them. In such cases I have only preserved samples of lots, which 
differed considerably either in price or quality, or both. You will 
perceive, therefore, that while my collection of samples is quite suffi- 
cient for the purpose intended, and is indeed more serviceable than 
it would be if the samples were more numerous, it is not adapted to 
the purpose for which you desire to make use of it. I beg therefore 
to suggest to you as the only really efficient means of arriving at the 
facts you wish to ascertain, that you avail yourselves of the first offer 
made by Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co., and carefully examine 
their books. In the course of such an examination you would be 
able to determine the actual profit made by 8. Isaac, Campbell & 
Co. on every article, and you could afterward, if you should think 
proper, continue your examination by applying to the houses from 
which Messrs. 8S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. made their purchases, the 
names and addresses of which you could learn from the invoice book 
of Messrs. 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. Of course the samples that I 
have are quite at your service for you to make such use of them as 
you may elect, and since I am really under examination for criminal 
proceedings, and it might be said that I could even now add false 
samples to my collection, I beg that you will take charge of my 
sampleroom yourselves, and if you think proper have a lock placed 
upon the door and keep the key in your own possession. 

Iam, gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
CALEB HUSE. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 895 


RICHMOND, October 28, 1565. 
Maj. J. B. FERGUSON, 
Quartermaster : 
(Care Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Liverpool, England. ) 

Str: I sent to you by Mr. Craig, who returned a few days ago to 
England, a letter informing you of the arrangement recently made 
here between the War and Treasury Departments, by which Mr. C. J. 
McRae was constituted the sole depositary abroad, on whom warrants 
or drafts would issue in favor of officers of this Bureau, with the 
power also on his part to transfer, in case of necessity, the funds of 
one bureau to the credit of another. In view of that I instructed you 
to keep Mr. McRae fully advised of the necessities of this department, 
and I wrote also to Mr. McRae asking, in your behalf, his favorable 
consideration. I alluded to the fact that the loss of one of the Collie 
steamers, the Hebe, freighted with shoes and blankets, the articles 
most needed, had embarrassed me very much. I have now to add 
that that embarrassment has been greatly increased by the unfortunate 
loss of another vessel of the same line, the Venus, loaded, I fear, 
wholly on account of this department, and with supplies of a like 
character. Under these circumstances it has become still more impor- 
tant that you put this whole matter in a proper light before Mr. McRae, 
in order that, in the exercise of the discretion with which he is 
invested, he may place at the disposal of this Bureau as much of the 
foreign fund controlled by him as can be possibly spared from other 
branches of the service. I write this with the sanction of the Secretary 
of War, who agrees with me fully as to the necessity for this course of 
action. It is his desire that every available means shall be used to 
provide promptly a supply of blankets, shoes, and material for over- 
coats to meet the wants of our Army for the coming winter, and, as I 
have often said, not a moment’s time is to be lost. Ample arrange- 
ments have just been concluded for drawing from Bermuda and 
Nassau all that may reach either of those points. Should you find it 
necessary to give a preference to either of the articles of supply 
referred to, send, for a while, blankets in advance of the others, for 
we have no facilities at all for manufacturing them here. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


{Indorsement. | 


OCTOBER 24, 1863. 
Approved. It is hoped that Mr. McRae will appreciate the neces- 
sity for such supplies as early as practicable. However important or 
interesting the expected operations of the Navy, our liberties and 
lives must depend mainly on the efficiency of our armies. If either 
service must languish for want of funds it certainly should not be the 
Army. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of Warr. 


RICHMOND, October 23, 1868. 
Maj. R. P. WALLER, 
Quartermaster, Nassau, New Providence: 
Str: You understand the pressing necessities of this Bureau, espe- 
cially in the items of blankets, overcoats, and shoes. I wrote to you 


896 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


a few days ago informing you of the arrangements made for supply- 
ing you with a limited amount of cotton with which to purchase such 
supplies as you could obtain on fair terms at Nassau. I alluded to 
the loss of the Hebe as increasing our difficulties, and I am just 
informed of the loss of another steamer of the Collie Line, the Venus, 
loaded, doubtless, with quartermasters’ stores. She went last to 
Nassau and brings, I fear, a great deal that was purchased by you. 
It is now indispensable that we obtain both from Bermuda and Nassau 
all that those markets will afford. We are compelled to look to these 
points of early supply for certain articles which the approach of 
winter compels us to have in advance of receipts expected from 
Europe. I have, therefore, to instruct you to extend your operations 
beyond what was contemplated by my recent instructions. To the 
extent of your ability you will purchase all that the market at Nas- 
sau affords of the articles needed, and I have the authority of the 
Secretary of War for saying that for a time the resources of the Goy- 
ernment, in the way of sea transportation, shall be devoted to any 
extent necessary to carrying out cotton to provide you with funds 
and to the bringing in in advance of other supplies what you may 
purchase. [ have written to Major Walker, at Bermuda, to a like 
effect, and shall rely on his exertions to draw from that point what is 
most needed. Let me hear from you by the earliest opportunity, and 
be particular to inform me upon what I can rely. 
A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


P. 8.—Major Walker, at Bermuda, has been instructed by the Seec- 
retary of War to use for the benefit of this department any funds 
in his hands belonging tothe War Department or any bureau thereof. 
If Mr. Heyliger can advance any that you may need it will be accept- 
able and only in keeping with the spirit of the instructions referred to. 

Show this to Mr. Heyliger. 


[Indorsement. ] 


Approved and special attention requested. 


J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, October 23, 1863. 
L. HEYLIGER, Esq., 
UO. S. Agent, Nassau, New Providence: 


Sir: With the sanction of the War Department I address you on 
the importance of forwarding promptly from Nassau any freight that 
may have accumulated there for this Bureau, as also any that may 
be provided on the spot by Major Waller, through purchases made 
in your market. 

The loss of two steamers of the Collie Line, on which we have been 
almost entirely dependent, has so straitened the resources of this 
department that the Secretary of War has consented that for the 
present any facilities at the command of the Government may be 
devoted to the special purpose of forwarding quartermaster’s stores, 
particularly such articles as blankets, shoes, and material for over- 
coats, so much needed for a winter’s supply. Let me ask that you 
will give this matter your especial attention and do all you ean to 
insure the receipt, with all possible dispatch, of the supplies referred to. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 897 


[Indorsement. ] 


Approved and special attention requested. 
J. A. SEDDON, . 
Secretary of War. 


No. 138. Richmond, October 24, 1863. 


The following instructions are published for carrying into effect the 
ninth section of the act of 26th of March, 1863, to regulate impress- 
ments in respect to labor on fortifications and other public works in 
States in which provisions have not been made on this subject: 

1. The commanding general or the officer of engineers in charge of 
the work shall have power to decide upon the necessity for making 
impressments of slaves for this purpose, after making suitable efforts 
to secure the necessary laborers by contract. He must be satisfied of 
the necessity of the measure before he resorts to it. 

2. He may authorize the impressment of male slaves between the 
ages of seventeen and fifty years, but before the 1st day of December 
next shall abstain from impressing slaves from plantations exclu- 
sively devoted to the production of grain and provisions, without the 
consent of the owner, except in cases of urgent necessity. 

3. No impressments shall be made of the slaves employed in the 
domestic and family service exclusively, nor upon farms or planta- 
tions where there are not more than three slaves of the age specified, 
and not more than 5 per cent. of the population of slaves shall be 
impressed in any county at the same time, unless the necessity is very 
great, and after consultation with this department or the Governor of 
the State in which the impressment is to be made. 

4. The ordinary period for impressment shall be sixty days, but if 
the owner of any slave shall fail to bring the slaves impressed to the 
place of rendezvous within five days after the time appointed, the 
slaves so withheld may be detained for ninety days, and for a longer 
term of ten days for every day of default, unless a reasonable excuse 
be given for the delays that have occurred. 

5. It shall be the duty of the commanding general in charge of any 
lines requiring fortification to acquaint himself with the resources of 
slave labor within his department, and to consider with care the 
manner in which he may obtain the control of whatever is necessary 
for the public service, by fair and equitable apportionment among 
the owners of such property. He will consult with the Governor of 
the State and other State authorities as to the best mode of proceed- 
ing, so that his impressment may cause the least embarrassment to 
the industrial pursuits of the community. 

6. Notices shall be given of the number and character of the slaves 
required, the time and place of their delivery, the time for which the 
service is required, and of the arrangements made for the subsist- 
ence, management, and custody of the slaves so required; and if the 
masters of slaves shall agree to furnish subsistence for their slaves 
and a suitable overseer or agent to superintend them, they shall have 
the privilege of so doing. But such overseers shall be subject to the 
control of the officer in charge, and may be dismissed for any mis- 
conduct by him. 

7. The sum of $20 per month for each slave delivered in pursuance 
to requisition, and $15 per month for each slave held in consequence 


57 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


898 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


of failure of his master to obey requisition made as hereinbefore pro- 
vided, shall be paid by the Confederate States, and soldiers’ rations, 
medicines, and medical attendance furnished; and the value of all 
such slaves as may die during their term of service or thereafter, from 
injuries received or disease contracted in such service, or may not be 
returned, shall be paid by the Confederate States. Such value shall 
be conclusively established by a formal appraisement by a board of 
experts mutually agreed upon at the time the slaves are received 
into the Confederate service. Compensation shall also be made for 
all injuries to slaves arising from the act of the public enemy, or 
from any injury arising from a want of due diligence on the part of 
the authorities of the Confederate States. But the Confederate States 
will not be liable for any slave not returned by reason of fraud or col- 
lusion on the part of the owner or his agent, or the overseer selected 
by him to superintend them, nor if his death should be caused by 
the act of God, or by disease existing when the slave is received by 
Confederate authorities. 

8. Subsistence and provisions furnished by the owner shall be com- 
muted for at the rates allowed soldiers in service. All slaves sent 
voluntarily to the Confederate authorities and accepted by them 
without other special contract shall stand on the same footing as 
those delivered under requisition; and the owners of all slaves 
delivered or taken under requisition shall be entitled to regard the 
Confederate States as contracting with them to comply with the 
obligations and conditions herein expressed. 

9. In ease there should be any disagreement on the subject of the 
value of any slave impressed, or in case the impressing officer shall 
not be satisfied of the accuracy of any valuation or valuations, the 
appraisement shall be referred to the appraisers appointed under the 
fifth section of the act concerning impressments, according to the 
provisions of the act of Congress approved 27th of April, 1863, and 
published in Orders No. 53, current series. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[OCTOBER 24, 1863.—For, Flanagin to Holmes, in relation to raising 
State troops in Arkansas, see Series I, Vol. LHI, p. 903. | 


[OcToBER 24, 1863.—For Johnston to Governor of Mississippi, in 
relation to transfer of State troops to Confederate service, see Series 
I, Vol. XXXI, Part III, p. 588. | 


— 


Convention of commissioners appointed under the act of Congress 
of the Confederate States to regulate empressments. 


AvucGusta, GA., Monday, October 26, 1863. 


In accordance with the request of the Secretary of War, the com- 
missioners appointed in the different States under the actof Congress 
of the Confederate States ‘“‘to regulate impressments,” met in conven- 
tion in the council chamber of the City Hall at Augusta, Ga., on Mon- 
day, the 26th of October, 1863. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 899 


On motion of Col. G. D. Moore, of Mississippi, Col. E. W. Hubard 
was called to the chair, and Col. A. H. Bradford and Col. C. J. Elford 
requested to act as secretaries. 

The proceedings of the convention were opened with prayer by Rev. 
Mr. Potter, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The president explained the objects for which the convention was 
assembled. 

On motion of Commissioner Perry, of South Carolina, 


Resolved; That the commissioners in attendance do enroll their names, with the 
States for which they are appointed and their post-offices. 


Under this resolution the following enrollment was made: 

Virgi 
ville, Va. 

North Carolina—H. K. Burgwyn, Garysburg, N. C.; R. V. Black- 
stocks, Stocksville, N. C. 

South Carolina—B. F. Perry, Greenville, 8. C. 

Georgia—J. E. Morgan, La Grange, Ga. ; U. B. Wilkinson, New- 
nan, Ga. 

Alabama—Wylie W. Mason, Tuskegee, Ala.; Robert C. Fariss, 
Montgomery, Ala. 

Mississippi—J. W. C. Watson, Brooksville, Miss.; G. D. Moore, 
Brooksville, Miss. 

Tennessee—W. E. Travis, Newnan, Ga. 

On motion of Commissioner Watson, of Mississippi, the following 
resolution was adopted: 

Resolved, That the commissioners present do now proceed, as their States may 
be called, to lay before the convention orally their information and views as to 


the condition respectively of the States they represent with reference to supplies 
for the subsistence and clothing of our armies and population for the ensuing year. 


Wythe- 


Under this resolution statements were made by Commissioners 
Gibboney and Hubard, of Virginia; Burgwyn and Blackstocks, of 
North Carolina; Perry, of South Carolina; Morgan and Wilkinson, of 
Georgia; Mason and Fariss, of Alabama; Moore, of Mississippi, and 
Travis, of Tennessee. 

A communication from 8S. R. Cockrill, of Nashville, Tenn., was 
received and laid upon the table. ; 


Resolved, That the hours for the meetings of the convention be from 9 a. m. to 
1.30 p. m., and from 3.30 p. m. to 5 p.m. 


Adjourned to meet on to-morrow morning at 9 o’clock. 


TUESDAY, October 27, 1863. 


The convention met pursuant to adjournment. ‘The minutes of the 
preceding meeting were read and approved. 

Col. Alfred M. Martin, a commissioner from South Carolina, reported 
and was enrolled. Post-office, Brighton, 8. C. 

Resolutions relative to the objects of the convention were submitted 
by Commissioners Mason, of Alabama; Perry, of South Carolina; 
Fariss, of Alabama; Moore, of Mississippi, and Burgwyn, of North 
Carolina. 

On motion of Commissioner Burgwyn, of North Carolina, the vari- 
ous resolutions thus submitted were referred to a committee of one 
from each State, to be appointed by the president. The following 
commissioners were named as the committee: 

Mason, of Alabama; Moore, of Mississippi; Perry, of South Caro- 
lina; Gibboney, of Virginia; Burgwyn, of North Carolina; Morgan, of 
Georgia, and Travis, of Tennessee. 


900 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The communication of S. R. Cockrill, of Nashville, Tenn., was read 
to the convention by Commissioner Travis, of Tennessee, and on 
motion referred to the committee of one from each State. 

On motion of Commissioner Perry, 


Resolved, That the committee of one from each State be further instructed to 
report such other matters of business as they may deem proper. 


The following resolution was submitted by Commissioner Fariss, of 
Alabama: 

Resolved, That it is the duty of the convention to give an interpretation of the 
provisions of the impressment act for the guidance of impressing officers, and 
particularly as to what class of holders are entitled to local assessment, and when 
an appeal is made to the commissioners whether it is not their duty to affirm the 
award of the local appraisers as being ‘‘ just compensation” if the impressing 
officer cannot furnish evidence to the contrary. 


On motion this resolution was referred to a special committee of 
three, consisting of Commissioners Watson, of Mississippi; Fariss, of 
Alabama, and Blackstocks, of North Carolina. 

Agreed to suspend the rules as to hours of meeting and adjournment, 
and that the convention now adjourn to meet at 7 p. m. 


7 P.M. 


The convention met pursuant to adjournment. The committee of 
‘ one from each State, through their chairman, Commissioner Mason, 
of Alabama, reported progress and asked leave of further time to 
report, which was granted. The committee to whom was referred 
the resolution submitted by Commissioner Fariss, of Alabama, 
reported progress and asked leave of further time to report, which 
was granted. A communication from the agents of the Richmond 
factory was received and referred to the committee of one from each 
State. 

On motion of Commissioner Perry, of South Carolina, 

Resolved, That the prices of the following articles should be uniform in the 


States, viz: Wheat, flour, iron, whisky, brandy, cotton cloths, spun yarn, sugar, 
coffee, and tea. 


On motion of Commissioner Perry the consideration of the price of 
wheat was then taken up and debated for some time without a result 
being attained. 

A resolution submitted by Commissioner Blackstocks, of North Caro- 
lina, was referred to a committee of one from each State. The con- 
vention then adjourned to meet at 9 o’clock to-morrow morning. 


WEDNESDAY MORNING—9 o’clock. 

The convention met pursuant to adjournment. The roll was called 
and the minutes of the meetings of yesterday were read and recorded. 

On motion of Commissioner Watson, of Mississippi, 

Resolved, That the secretaries be instructed to procure the services of a minis- 
ter of the gospel each morning to open the meetings of the convention with prayer. 

The committee of one from each State, through their chairman, 
Commissioner Mason, made the following reports, viz. : 


REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the resolutions 
offered by Commissioners Mason, of Alabama, and Perry, of South Carolina, 
have had the same under consideration and beg leave to report favorably thereon 
and recommend their adoption by the convention. 

WYLIE W. MASON, 


Chairman. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 901 


Resolutions introduced by Commissioner Mason, of Alabama: 


Resolved, That in the opinion of this convention the act known as the act ‘‘ to 
regulate impressments” is eminently wise in all its provisions, and fully vindi- 
cates the purpose of the Government to maintain the supremacy of the civil over 
the military authority, and that it is the paramount duty of every true and loyal 
citizen to yield a cheerful obedience to all its requirements. 

Resolved, That a state of war, resulting as it always does in an obstructed and 
suspended commerce and the disturbance of the usual means of transportation 
for the diffusion of supplies, precludes the idea of a fair market. 

Resolved, That in such suspended and obstructed condition of commercial 
affairs and transportation, the true basis of values for articles necessary for the 
subsistence of the Army and the people is founded upon the legitimate cost of 
the production of such articles and such percentage thereon as may be considered 
reasonable and proper. 

Resolved, That in view of the financial embarrassments of the country it is the 
duty both of the Confederate and State authorities to enact such municipal regu- 
lations, in accordance with their respective organic law, aS may promptly and 
effectually relieve such embarrassment. 


Resolutions introduced by Commissioner Perry, of South Carolina: 


Resolved, That the practice of the Confederate Government agents in making 
contracts for and purchases of manufactures and other articles for the use of the 
Army at higher prices than those adopted by the several boards of commissioners 
in the different States is highly reprehensible, injurious to the Government, and 
should be stopped at once by the Secretary of War. 

fesolved, That the habit which prevails in many sections of the Confederacy 
with the quartermasters and commissaries and their agents in impressing articles 
for private use and consumption in families is contrary to the act of Congress 
regulating impressments, and should be prohibited by the War Department. 

Resolved, That in impressing articles of food and forage for the use of the 
Army the agents of the Government should exercise a prudent discretion, and 
impress in those sections of the different States where food and forage are most 
abundant. 

fesolved, That in those parts of the country where the provision crop is short, 
and will not more than supply the wants of the country, the tithes due the Gov- 
ernment should be commuted for in money and left for the supply of soldiers’ 
families and other destitute persons at Government prices. 

Resolved, That upon the true construction of the act of Congress regulating 
the matter the price of no article manufactured for the use of the Government 
under the said act can be more than 75 per cent. on the cost of production, exclud- 
ing the cost of the raw material, which should only be reimbursed without a 
profit thereon. 

Resolved, That the said act of Congress allows a profit greater than is reason- 
able and far beyond that with which manufacturers have heretofore been 
satisfied. 


The report and resolutions were adopted unanimously. 


REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State to whom was referred the preamble and 
resolutions offered by Commissioner Moore, of Mississippi, have had the same 
under consideration, and beg leave to report favorably theron and recommend 
their adoption by the convention. 

WYLIE W. MASON, 


Chairman. 
PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS. 


Whereas, the people of the Confederate States are now engaged in a death 
struggle for life, liberty, property, and all that we hold near and dear; and 
whereas, it is expedient that the Government of said Confederate States should 
husband all of its resources for the attainment of its independence; and whereas, 
the land over is swarming with a class of persons known as speculators, who are 
seeking to possess themselves of many of the most essential if not all the supplies 
necessary for the support of the Army to the detriment not only of the Govern- 
ment but of the people thereof, particularly of the indigent poor, whose fathers, 


902 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


husbands, brothers, and sons are absent in the Army, baring their breasts to the 
shafts of the enemy and battling for our independence: Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That while we would allow the largest liberty of trade to the coun- 
try that is practicable, it is, in the estimation of this convention, inexpedient that 
transportation on our railroads or by express companies be denied to articles of 
prime necessity in the hands of speculators. 


The preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted. 


REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the resolution 
offered by Commissioner Watson, of Mississippi, have had the same under consid- 
eration, and beg leave to report favorably thereon and recommend its adoption 


by the convention. 
WYLIE W. MASON, 
Chairman. 


PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS. 


Whereas, it is understood that the Government has at its command a greater 
supply of salt, spun cotton, cotton cloth, and sugar than its present necessities 
require, of which articles many of the people of the Confederacy are greatly in 
want: Therefore 

Resolved, As the opinion of this convention, that the material interests of the 
Government and people of the Confederate States would be greatly promoted by 
the liberal interchange by the Government with the people of salt, spun cotton, 
cotton cloth, sugar, &c., for all necessary army supplies. 


The preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted. 


REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the preamble and 
resolutions offered by Commissioner Burgwyn, of North Carolina, have had the 
same under consideration, and beg leave to report favorably thereon, and recom- 
mend their adoption by the convention. 

WYLIE W. MASON, 


Chairman. 
PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS. 


Whereas, it is obvious that in the struggle between the speculators on the one 
part to gratify their avarice, even to jeopardize the safety of our country, and 
the Government on the other to protect that country, it becomes important to 
strengthen the arm of the Government by the action both of the Government 
and the people: Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the several States of this Confederacy be requested to pass such 
laws and take such measures as will most effectually cause the prices fixed by the 
commissioners of assessments in their States to be observed by sellers and pur- 
chasers. And this convention is of the opinion that the most effective mode of 
doing this would be for the Legislature to impose a tax on all articles sold over 
the schedule price for the same, equal to the amount of the difference between 
the schedule price and that at which the article is sold. 

Resolved, That the commissioners of the several States be requested to have 
these resolutions laid before their respective State Legislatures. 


The preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted. 


REPORT. 


The committee to whom was referred the resolution offered by Commissioner 
Moore, of Mississippi, have had the same under consideration and beg leave to 
report favorably thereon, and recommend its adoption. 

WYLIE W. MASON, 
Chairman. 


RESOLUTION. 


Resolved, That the chairman of this committee be instructed to recommend to 
the convention the propriety of appointing a committee whose duty it shall be to 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 903 


forward to the Secretary of War the proceedings of the convention; and another 
committee who shall prepare and publish an address to the people of their respec- 
tive States explanatory of the provisions of the impressment law, and upon such 
other topics as may be thought proper and expedient. 


The resolution was unanimously adopted. 
REPORT. 


The report of the committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the 
resolution offered by Commissioner Fariss, of Alabama, asks leave to be dis- 
charged from the further consideration of the case, inasmuch as the objects of 
the resolution have been embraced in other resolutions, 

WYLIE W. MASON, 
Chairman. 
The report was unanimously adoptea. 


REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State, to whom was referred a communication 
from Mr.S. R. Cockrill, of Nashville, Tenn., on the subject of supplying the Army 
_with fish, have considered the same and recommend that the same be forwarded 
to the Secretary of War for his consideration.* 

WYLIE W. MASON, 


Chairman. 


The report was unanimously adopted. 
REPORT. 


The committee of one from each State, to whom was referred the communica- 
tion from the agent of the Richmond factory, beg leave to be discharged from the 
further consideration of the same, as this convention has no power to act in the 
premises. 

WYLIE W. MASON, 
Chairman. 


The report was unanimously adopted. 

The following committee was appointed to forward the proceedings 
of the convention to the Secretary of War: Commissioners Wilkinson, 
of Georgia; Martin, of South Carolina; Gibboney, of Virginia. 

The following committee was appointed to prepare and publish an 
address to the people of the Confederate States, explanatory of the 
provisions of the impressment law, &c.: Commissioners Travis, of 
Tennessee; Watson, of Mississippi; and Perry, of South Carolina. 

On motion of Commissioner Watson, of Mississippi, it was 

Resolved, That the commissioners of the States, respectively, be, and are hereby, 
requested to forward to the commissioners of all the States copies of their schedules 
as they may from time to time be adopted or revised. 

Leave of absence was. granted to Commissioner Blackstocks, of 
North Carolina. 

The committee of three to whom was referred the resolution sub- 
mitted by Commissioner Fariss, of Alabama, made the following 
report: 

‘REPORT. 


The select committee to whom was referred the foliowing resolution, viz: 


‘‘ Resolved, That itis the duty of the convention to give an interpretation of the 
provisions of the impressment act for the guidance of impressing officers, and 
particularly as to what class of holders are entitled to local assessment, and when 


*See Elford to Seddon, October 31, transmitting Cockrill’s communication, 
p. 915. 


904 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


an appeal is made to the commissioners whether it is not their duty to affirm the 
award of the local appraisers as being ‘ just compensation’ if the impressing officer 
cannot furnish evidence to the contrary.” beg leave respectfully to report: 

That they have considered the subject-matter referred to them, and are of 
opinion that the phraseology of the law itself defines with the greatest accuracy 
the cases in which the owners of property impressed by the Government agents 
are entitled to have the value thereof determined by local assessment or arbitra- 
tion. The law provides in explicit terms that in cases where property the owner 
of impressed by the Government and the impressing officer cannot agree upon 
the value thereof it shall be the duty of such impressing officer ‘‘ upon an affidavit 
in writing of the owner of such property or his agent, that such property was 
grown, raised, or produced by said owner, or is held or has been purchased by 
him not for sale or speculation but for his own use and consumption, to cause 
the same to be ascertained and determined” by the process designated in the 
foregoing resolution as ‘‘local assessment.” This enumeration of the cases in 
which the owners of property impressed are entitled to the benefit of local arbi- 
tration it is believed includes every conceivable case but the one in which the 
owner cannot or will not prove, by his own affidavit or that of his agent, that such 
property was grown, raised, or produced by him, or is held or has been purchased 
by him*’not for sale or speculation but for his own use or consumption. The 
intention of the law, it is most manifest, was to make those who purchased and 
sold for trade or speculation one class and all other persons another class. This 
latter class, however, may in practice be augmented by the refusal of persons 
intended to be embraced in the first class to make the affidavit in the first section 
of the law specified. Those who make this affidavit are entitled to have the value 
of their property, or what will be just compensation therefor, determined by 
local arbitration. All other persons can only demand for their property compen- 
sation according to the schedule of prices agreed upon and published by the 
commissioners in pursuance of fifth section of the impressment act. 

The second question referred to the committee for its consideration is stated in 
these terms: 

‘‘And when an appeal is made to the commissioners, whether it is not their 
duty to affirm the award of the local arbitrators as being just compensation, if 
the impressing officer cannot furnish evidence to the contrary.” 

The act of Congress concerning impressments was passed as well for the 
protection of the citizen as for that of the Government. The rights of the citizen 
were so often violated by the arbitrary and unjust proceedings of Government 
agents charged with the duty of furnishing supplies for our armies, that a public 
clamor was raised upon this subject, which, reaching the ears of Congress, led to 
the introduction and enactment of the original impressment law. In the original 
law no provision is made for appeals from the decision or the award of the local 
arbitration for which the first section of the act provides; but this decision or 
award was declared to be final, as the schedule prices agreed upon and published 
by the commissioners was made final in all cases to which they were applicable. 

Soon after the passage of the original act, however, in the immediate vicinity 
of Congress, a case occurred in which by local arbitration $20 per hundredweight 
was allowed to a farmer for hay, when the owner of the article had offered it to 
the agent of the Government for less than half that price. This occurrence was 
made public through the Richmond newspapers and became a matter of public 
notoriety, and immediately led to the passage of the act by Congress entitled 
‘‘An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to regulate impressments by officers of 
the Army.’” This act declares that in all cases of appraisement provided for in 
said act ‘‘the officer impressing the property shall, if he believes the appraise- 
ment to be fair and just, indorse upon it his approval; if not, he shall indorse 
upon it his reasons for refusing, and deliver the same, with a receipt for the 
property impressed, to the owner, his agent, or attorney, and as soon as prac- 
ticable forward a copy of the receipt and appraisement and his indorsement 
thereon to the Board of Appraisers appointed by the President and Governor of 
the State, who shall revise the same and make final valuation, so as to give just 
compensation for the property taken, which valuation shall be paid by the proper 
department.” 

From this brief history of this appellate jurisdiction of the Board of Commis- 
sioners it will be seen that it was conferred alone for the protection of the Goy- 
ernment, and this is even yet more strongly manifested by the fact that the right 
of appeal is denied to the citizen, while it is given as a right to the Government. 
To this appeal on the part of the Government the only condition precedent is 
that the officer impressing shall indorse upon the appraisement his reasons for 
disapproving, and thereupon the case comes before the Board of Appraisers for 
their revision and final valuation. This appellate jurisdiction was obviously 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 905 


given to the commissioners as a remedial measure. The law conferring it is, 
therefore, a remedial law, and upon well-settled principles of construction should 
be construed in the light of the evil which led to its enactment and so as to sup- 
press the mischief and advance the remedy. Now, to do this it must be held that 
the powers of the Board of Commissioners in the exercise of appellate jurisdiction 
are to be held as unrestricted and general as are their powers in cases of which 
they have original jurisdiction. It is the duty of the commissioners to fix upon 
the prices to be paid by the Government for every article of property which can 
become the subject of a local arbitration, and this they are required to do, so as 
to afford just compensation to the owners thereof, and these prices, it is insisted, 
should be regarded as fair and right until by competent proof the contrary is 
shown. To illustrate, the commissioners are required to fix the price to be paid 
by the Government—say for the article of wheat. The commissioners of Georgia, 
in the discharge of this duty, agree upon and publish $5 per bushel as the price to 
be paid for wheat in the city of Augusta. This, then, is the judgment of the 
commissioners as to the value of wheatin this place, and as to the price that will 
afford just compensation therefor. At this price the Government agents in 
Augusta impress and appropriate large quantities of wheat for the use of the 
Government. They make an impressment, however, and the owner of the wheat 
so impressed makes the affidavit which will entitle him to the benefit of an 
appraisement by local arbitration. This appraisement is made and $8 per bushel 
is allowed. This case is now brought before the commissioners by appeal, and it 
now becomes their duty to revise the said local arbitration and make final valua- 
tion of the wheat in question, so as to give just compensation therefor. In mak- 
ing this final valuation the commissioners, it will be seen, will only be required to 
decide a question which they have previously solemnly adjudicated, and upon 
which their judgments are known to be fully made up. 

Now, under these circumstances, shall it be said that the judgment of the 
inferior jurisdiction shall be regarded as prima facie right, though in conflict 
with the judgment and decision of the appellate jurisdiction? Or should not the 
very reverse of this be held to be the sound rule upon the subject? What is just 
compensation to one citizen in Augusta for his wheat will also, as a general rule, 
be just compensation to his neighbor for the same article; and surely, in the 
absence of all proof authorizing or requiring a difference to be made, it can 
scarcely be expected that a board of commissioners will say to one citizen of 
Augusta that $5 per bushel is the full value and just compensation for his wheat, 
and at the very same time, because his neighbor’s case comes before him by appeal, 
declare that the latter is entitled to $8 per pushel, and that less will not be just 
compensation. It is obvious that it was intended that the original impressment 
act and the law by which it was amended were to be construed as one law, and 
thereby to introduce as far as practicable in each State uniformity of prices. It 
must also have been intended that the commissioners in assessing values should 
in their original and appellate jurisdiction adopt and apply the same principles 
and standard, and this being done, it will follow that in all cases brought before 
the board by appeal, schedule prices must be enforced unless the owner of the 
property impressed by testimony make out an exceptional case, in which event it 
would be competent and proper for a higher price to be allowed ; but in consider- 
ing appeals it should be borne in mind that the assessment of the local arbitra- 
tors is not by the law made testimony and should not, therefore, when above the 
schedule prices be regarded as prima facie right, but as erroneous, unless by com- 
petent proof the contrary is shown. 

All of which respectfully submitted. 

J. W. C. WATSON, 
Chairman. 


On motion of Commissioner Mason, of Alabama, the following res- 
olutions were adopted: 


Resolved, That the secretaries of this convention be instructed to superintend 
the publication of the proceedings of the convention, and revise and correct proof 
sheets; and that they are authorized to have published 500 copies, to be equally 
distributed to the commissioners of each of the Confederate States; and that the 
sum of $150 each be allowed the said secretaries for their services. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are due to James Mullins, the 
keeper of the City Hall of Augusta, for his polite attentions during our session, 
and that $75 be paid him for his services. 

Resolved, That the president of the convention be authorized to draw upon the 
quartermaster of this post for the amounts above appropriated and for the 
expenses of printing and forwarding the minutes. 


906 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


On motion of Commissioner Perry, of South Carolina, 


Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be returned to his honor the mayor 
of the city of Augusta for the use of this hall during our session and for the kind 
attentions which have been shown the members by his officials. 


On motion of Commissioner Watson, of Mississippi, 


Resolved, That the thanks of this convention be, and are hereby tendered to the 
Hon. E. W. Hubard, of Virginia, for the able, dignified, and satisfactory manner 
in which he has presided over its deliberations. 


After some able and eloquent remarks by the president upon the 
business of the convention and the state of the country the convention 
adjourned sine die. 

EK. W. HUBARD, 
President. 


A. H. BRADFORD, 
C. J. ELFORD, 
Secretaries. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, October 26, 1863. 
Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: Some time ago you gave me permission to withdraw the 
enrolling officer from the First Congressional District in this State, 
and to enlist all men liable to conscription in the local State troops. 
It has operated very well except in the counties east of the Chowan 
River; there they have lost all their negroes. They are cut off by 
gun-boats from aid or communication with the State, and are exposed 
to almost weekly raids from the enemy, which, from the nature of the 
country, it is impossible to resist. They therefore petition me most 
urgently to relieve them from conscription. I do not feel at liberty 
to do this, as I agreed they should all join the local companies if the 
conscript officers were withdrawn, but if it meets your concurrence I 
will conscript all men without families and whose services are not 
needed to protect and feed the women and children and excuse the 
balance. 

For your full information I inclose a letter from Colonel Hinton, in 
command of the State troops in that region, which I beg you to read, 
and which is reliable. Give me your answer as soon as possible, and 
oblige, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[Inclosure. ] 


MURFREESBOROUGH, N. C., October 24, 1868. 


[Governor Z. B. VANCE, 
Raleigh, N. C.:] 

GOVERNOR: This will be handed to you by my friend George W. 
Brooks, esq., who visits Raleigh for the purpose of endeavoring to 
procure a revocation of the order recently issued to me from the 
Adjutant-General’s Office in regard to the conscripts residing east of 
the Chowan River, in so far as said order relates to Pasquotank 
County. I take great pleasure in stating that Mr. Brooks is a gentle- 
man of the highest respectability, and any representation made by 
him will be entitled to the fullest respect and eredenee. He has stated 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 907 


to me his views fully in regard to the matter, as he will also do to you. 
My own judgment tells me that those whom he represents are in error 
and are laboring against their own best interests. They think other- 
wise, and are of the opinion that if all force is withdrawn from that 
county that they will be troubled with no more Yankee raids. As my 
chief object is to be of benefit to the people of this district, if; after 
hearing Mr. Brooks, you agree with him, I shall be content. It will 
certainly relieve me of great anxiety and responsibility. I know that 
the indiscriminate execution of the conscript act east of the Chowan 
River would entail an immense amount of suffering upon a great 
many people. The almost total loss of slave labor from that section 
imposes upon nearly every man of family the necessity of laboring 
daily for their support. But while this is true, there are a large num- 
ber of young men who do not labor at all, and who have no earthly 
excuse for being out of the service. If the order which you have 
issued to me could be so modified as to discriminate in favor of those 
whose families are dependent upon their labor for a support, I shall 
certainly be more than gratified. 

You remember, Governor, I told you when I accepted the position 
I now hold that I felt a deeper interest in the welfare of this people 
than any other, and that I was willing to do all in my power for their 
relief. I have also been careful to assure all with whom I have con- 
versed that it was no part of your purpose to oppress them, but to 
benefit them. I have told them that by our united efforts we had suc- 
ceeded in getting them permanently released from Confederate con- 
scription, provided they would volunteer for State defense. I have 
endeavored to execute the order thus far in but three counties, to 
wit, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Chowan. In Chowan I met with 
no difficulty; but all with few exceptions came into the State organ- 
ization without hesitancy. Captain Warren reports to me that one 
new company has been organized, and that there are nearly enough 
left in Chowan to make another. While I have received no official 
communication from Captain Myers, I have at the same time received 
reliable information to the effect that he was succeeding well, and 
had already gotten nearly enough in camp to make a new company. 
In Pasquotank Captain Elliott has notified those subject to conscrip- 
tion to meet at some point in the county one day this week. What 
his success will be I am unable to say, but am inclined to the opinion, 
from the representations of Mr. Brooks, that but few will respond to 
the call. 

I have thus as briefly as possible stated to you the condition of 
affairs in the counties in which I have attempted the execution of the 
order. 

Iam, Governor, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. W. HINTON. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
: Richmond, October 26, 1563. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Srr: I have the honor to inclose herewith for your information copy 
of dispatch No. 7 from General Cc. J. MeRae, agent of the Erlanger 
loan, Paris, of date 15th of September, ultimo, with statements. 

Very respectfully, 
Cc. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


908 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
- [Inclosure.] 


6 AVENUE MATIGNON, PARIS, September 15, 1863. 


Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond: 


I have the honor to ineclose duplicate of my dispatch * of the 4th 
instant (No. 6), with the copy of a letter* from Capt. James D. Bul- 
loch, and a corrected statement of the amount advanced the War 
Department from the proceeds of the loan. The originals of these 
papers went by the Halifax and Bermuda route on the dth instant, 
but fearing that communications by that route may not now be able 
to reach you, I send this by the French West India mail, under cover 
to Maj. C. J. Helm, of Havana. The statement of the payments 
made on account of the War Department, sent in dispatch No. 6, 
showed an error of £1,000 in the amount charged to Captain Cren- 
shaw. ‘The inclosed statement is correct, and shows that the amount 
advanced from the loan on account of the War Department to be 
£544,976 5d. You will also find inclosed an account current with the 
Navy Department to date, from which you will see that there has 
been advanced to that Department £440,500, against which I have 
received from Captain Bulloch Treasury warrants for £364,962 13s. 
A4d., leaving a balance against the Navy Department of £75,537 6s. 
8d. Captain Bulloch informs me that he will be compelled to have 
about £50,000 more this month and about £150,000 in October. As I 
am still without any instructions from you, I shall continue to furnish 
Captain Bulloch with the money necessary to keep his contracts 
going on in accordance with the plan adopted, with the advice and 
concurrent action of the commissioners, on the 4th of June. This 
plan, though not in exact accordance with the forms of the Treasury 
Department, will save the Government from £14,000 to £15,000 in the 
way of commissions and exchanges, and I hope you will cause the 
proper warrants to be drawn on me in favor of Major Huse and Cap- 
tain Bulloch, so that the amounts advanced to the War and Navy 
Departments may be properly credited to the loan account. In this 
way the whole matter may be brought within the forms of the Treas- 
ury Department. The accounts inclosed and Captain Bulloch’s of 
the 19th ultimo will give you the necessary information for drawing 
the warrants. The stock of the loan is at 28 to 30 per cent. discount, 
and unless we have some great military success there is no probability 
that Messrs. Erlanger & Co. will be able to dispose of the £704,000 
which they took conditionally within the six months agreed on. The 
balance of the available portion of the loan will not meet Captain 
Bulloch’s engagements, and as I suppose they are considered of para- 
mount importance, it would be unwise to make any drafts against the- 
loan, except to reimburse the advances already made and to meet 
Captain Bulloch’s engagements, of which his letter gives a full account. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, .- 
C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for the Loan. 


* Not found with War Department records. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 909 


[Sub-inclosure No. 1.] 


Corrected statement of payments made on account of the War Department from 
proceeds of loan. 


To Major Huse for S. Isaac, Campbell & Co.: & Sslid 
EO OU ITE pL ENS DBRS TRE MIR Gn air IU Ma pe het aah Rs lars a 90,000 0 0 
PAPA TERRE RUG ee ee wer Se red Ne ae eee Bee 182, 224 15 10 
| OTE SSE CS CoG Sg hed IRA hein wie i et ab rere a Ms OR RD LES See 135,000 0 0 
Sneeree eee Settee EU TP a A oe A Gy Ry a 100,000 0 0 

Dye Orens acCcOUDti.6 avo. ieee 2 As leek ot 22,500 0 0 

Peeenever (money loaned) 2.7. Be 10,251 4 7 

489,976 0 5 

fe Waptain Crenshaw by Mr/ Mason . 2.415.022 0:0. g 2 se ee 55,000 0 0 

544,976 0 5 


MAY 206, 18638. 
[Sub-inclosure No. 2.] 


C. 5. Navy Department in account with loan of £3,000,000. 


Dr. 
Mar. 24. To amount paid out of £150,000 advanced on 


the order of Mr. Mason and Mr. Spence for ¢  s. a. 

aU Obie INOTU cee eee og 26,000 0 0 

POpMAU Meanie eee FOS 38,962 138 4 
Te WW AA GCO Re eee aot es os oe 30,0387 "6" .8 £ sd. 
95,000 0 0 
June 20. To Captain Bulloch (1,440,000 francs) ------.------------- 57,600 0 0 
emmie str rer tA. heia NOTE Ll Ee ee 30,000 0 0 
Pere tayo ae Bloc 4. 02 ee 13,750 0 0 
im eeor TOM Ant NL. Ie oplaui gor L052 ofl eee oe 3,000 0 0 
SE gee SOC T sn) UES TMC | 2 Se cn ae ae rec ena e 25,000 0 0 
July 25. To Capt. J. D. Bulloch (800,000 francs) -.--.------- arreee 32,000 0 0 
July 30. To Capt. J. D. Bulloch (720,000 frances) ---. --- PR fee ete 28,800 0 0 
Jive ou. Lo Capt. J.D. Bulloch (720,000 francs) .2-...25.--.-222. 28,800 0 0 
Pee ee Capita te mistOc ine oho" rele Yo.) ee eee ods 52,000 0 0 
sept. 4. To,Capt. J. D. Bulloch (720,000 frances) ...-.--.-----.---. 28,800 0 0 
Seumey Lo Cup. J... bulloch (800,000trancs) .-...-.--.-4-4..-- 32,000 0 0 
440,500 0 0 

Cr. 
By Treasury warrants received from Capt. J. D. Bul- 

loch : & 8. ds 

SMe UGeI A tates o. booe at Soka eee We bee 300,000 0 0 

Marre Oipooe | 4 22k pods Sa. AES. ek 26,000 0 0 

Warrant 251317 _.-_. Aah Soot hs earth) a aS. 38,962 13 4 
-——. 364,962 18 4 
PCI Cea 10 St SPS ta Oe Ne Pe ee Boe OTD, OST" GNS 


RICHMOND, October 26, 1863. 
Maj. NORMAN 8S. WALKER, 
Commercial Agent Confederate States, 
Saint George's, Bermuda, West Indies: 

Stir: I wrote to you afew days ago calling your attention to the 
importance of forwarding with all possible dispatch any quartermas- 
ter’s stores at Bermuda, especially such articles as blankets, shoes, 
and material for overcoats. I also expressed a hope that you would 
be able to purchase on fair terms supplies of the description referred to 
in the Bermuda market, and I further assured you that I would refund 
to you any money you might expend belonging to other bureaus or to 


910 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the War Department, and that if you could purchase on the faith of 
cotton to be received I would use every exertion to forward the quan- 
tity needed at the earliest practicable day. 

This application was prompted by our great necessities on the 
approach of winter. These had been increased by the loss of the 
steamer Hebe, loaded exclusively with quartermaster stores, and they 
are now made more urgent still by the unfortunate loss of another 
steamer of the Collie Line, the Venus. She came from Nassau, and 
was freighted, I fear, wholly with supplies which I attempted to pro- 
eure from that market through Major Waller. I am therefore con- 
strained to appeal to you again, and this time I do so with the sanction 
of the Secretary of War, by whom I am authorized to say that you 
ean use for the purpose indicated any funds of the War Department 
or any bureau thereof in your hands, and that any sea transporta- 
tion at She command of the Government may for a season be devoted 
so far as may be necessary to bringing in the supplies of this Bureau 
that may have accumulated at Bermuda, as also any that you may 
purchase. 

Allow me to ask that you give this matter prompt attention and do - 
allin your power to accomplish the ends indicated, and secure the 
early receipt at this point of all supplies of the character referred to 
that ean be drawn from Bermuda. 

A. R. LAWTON, 
Quartermaster- General. 


[Indorsement. ] 


Approved and special attention requested. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 140. j - Richmond, Va., October 27, 1863. 


The assignment of conscripts will be directed by the Bureau of 
Conscription only, except such as may be properly made by Briga- 
dier-General Pillow within the territory allotted to him in subordina- 
tion to General J. KE. Johnston. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 27, 1863. 


His Excellency J. G. SHORTER, 
Governor of Alabama: - 


Sir: Your Excellency’s letter, inclosing a letter from Col. R. H. 
Smith relative to abuses in the military administration and the admin- 
istration of the conscription service at Mobile, has been received. 
The provost-marshal at Mobile is subordinate to the departmental 
commander in that city, and it does not appear to this Department 
why application was not made to him for the ecrrection of the abuses 
complained of, especially as Colonel Smith testifies to the suavity, 
fairness, and ability of that commander. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 911 


The Department has written to Major-General Maury informing 
him that it is not aware of any constitution, law, order, or instruction 
that authorizes the exercise of the power which Colonel Smith com- 
plains of by any military officer or by this Department.* In February 
last the Hon. M. J. Saffold was appointed to examine into the cases 
of all prisoners held by the military authority who did not belong to 
the Confederate Army, and the Department has received from hima 
number of well-digested reports of his examinations, which it has 
approved. He has been continued for the performance or that duty, 
as cases may arise. The Department has had no disposition to clothe 
the provost-marshal with the power of determining upon the necessity 
or propriety of detaining in prison any persons not connected with 
the Army. Under urgent appeals from the general commanding the 
Department of Mississippi, sanctioned by the concurrence of the Exec- 
utives of the States, I placed the administration of the conscript'on 
laws in the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama under the 
superintendence of Brigadier-General Pillow some months ago. He 
has organized his corps of conscription officers and has performed his 
work with energy and zeal. The Department anticipated that there 
would be complaint, for it has had abundant testimony of the dis- 
turbance that the demands of the public service under the conscrip- 
tion acts ereates in the relations of society and in the pursuits of 
individuals; but it has endeavored, by careful exposition of the laws 
and by frequent and explicit instructions, to secure a cautious and 
considerate administration of them. Brigadier-General Pillow has 
been furnished with the statements of Colonel Smith, and has been 
instructed to apply a corrective promptly in the matter complained of. 

Very respectfully,-your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAK DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 27, 1568. 
Brigadier-General PILLOW, 
Superintendent, &c., of Conscripts : 

In a letter from His Excellency Governor Shorter a letter of Col. 
Robert H. Smith, of Mobile, Ala., was submitted to this Department. 
The following paragraphs occur in that letter: 

The conscript officer pays little or no regard_to the law and the general orders 
requiring conscripts to be sent to their own State, and to be allowed to select 
their own regiments and companies—most important rights, if the Government 
wishes to make them good and contented soldiers. 

The order from the Secretary of War of 20th of June [July], 1863, declaring 
that ‘‘ hereafter persons furnishing substitutes in accordance with existing regu- 
lations shall become liable, &c., upon [the] loss of the services of the substitute,” 
is construed, against the plain letter, to cover persons who put in substitutes over 
forty-five years of age before 20th of July, 1863; and I believe (absurd as it may 
appear) that the party taken up must prove that his substitute is still in the 
Army, though there is no proof that he is not. 


These charges against the enrolling officers appointed under your 
directions at Mobile are of the gravest character, involving nothing 
less than an abrogation of the laws and orders of the Department in 
some instances and flagrant deviation from their plain import in 
other instances. The matter requires a strict and impartial inquiry. 
The Department feels full confidence that this will be made by you, 


* See Series IT, Vol. VI, p. 482. 


O12 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and the proper corrective be promptly applied. In making these 
inquiries it will be proper to inform Colonel Smith of the facts com- 
municated to you, in order that he may specify the cause of his 
complaint. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


——$————————— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 27, 1863. 
Col. L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commassary- General : | 

Str: This Department, under the fourth section of the act relative 
to impressments, approved by the President of the Confederate 
States 26th of March, 1863, recognizes the existence of a necessity to 
take private property for public use by reason of the impracticability 
of procuring the same by purchase, to accumulate supplies for the 
Army and for the good of the service within the State of Georgia, 
and by the authority conferred by the said act authorizes the Com- 
missary-General, the assistant commissaries of subsistence, and the 
agents of the Commissary Bureau to take property by impressment 
for the public use in all cases where the same cannot be obtained by 
contract within the State of Georgia... The Department, in Orders 
No. 37 and other orders published during the present year, has 
determined the conditions under which impressments shall be made, 
and in this authority directs that the regulations prescribed shall be 

observed and all the restrictions imposed shall be adhered to. 

By order of the Secretary of War: 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 27, 1863. 

Maj. Gen. HOWELL CoBB, 

Commanding State Guard, Atlanta, Ga.: 

GENERAL: I have received your letter of the 18th instant, inclosing 

a copy of your correspondence with the Governor of Georgia in ref- 
erence to the appointment of officers for the State troops raised in 
response to the call of the President. I regret that there is a conflict 
of views on this question between the Confederate authorities and 
the Governor, but the course of the Department is clear. The call 
for the militia was made, in the event that the quota of the State 
should not be filled up by volunteers under the Confederate law, for 
local defense and special service. Iam not informed what propor- 
tions of the troops were raised as militia and volunteers respectively. 
Volunteers, under the Confederate law, have the right to present 
themselves organized into regiments, with officers elected by the 
men; but if not so organized when tendered, the President has the 
undoubted right to appoint the field officers. Officers of the militia 
will, of course, be appointed or elected in accordance with the State 
laws. 

Very respectfully, 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 913 


ATLANTA, GA., October 29, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


My observations convince me that I have not overestimated, but 
rather underrated, the importance of organizing the several staff 
corps as ‘‘general staff corps of the Army.” The idea of being 
attached to the person of the general has done and is doing ineal- 
culable injury. General Cooper is advised of my views. Please 
confer with him. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 141. Richmond, October 29, 1863. 


I. The practice of relieving officers from commands to which they 
have been appointed and assigned, and ordering them to report in 
person to this office for further “assignment, will cease unless specially 
required by orders from this office. 

II. Soldiers returning home on furlough, or on reaching places at 
which they will stay during furlough, will immediately report to the 
nearest enrolling officer, who will keep a register of their names, 
descriptive list, place where stationed, by whom the furlough was - 
granted, and the time at which it expires. 

III. When at the expiration of his furlough, and being at a distance 
from an hospital examining board, a soldier is unable to travel, the 
enrolling officer will order him before the board of examiners for con- 
seripts; and the medical officer and one of the physicians ‘‘employed ” 
concurring, they will forward to his commanding general, with a state- 
ment of his case, a recommendation for an extension of furlough, not 
to exceed thirty days, duplicates being also sent to the Surgeon-Gen- 
eral. But when the soldier is accessible to a general hospital he will 
be sent before the hospital examining board, who will conform to the 
preceding instructions. 

IV. In eases of sickness or wounds which from any cause are 
neglected, or do not receive proper treatment, the disability in conse- 
quence being prolonged, the soldier will be sent by the enrolling officer 
to the nearest camp of instruction for treatment in hospital. 

' V. Recommendations for extension of leave to officers and furloughs 
to soldiers, and medical certificates to officers and certificates of dis- 
ability for discharge to soldiers, will only be given by authorized 
boards of examiners; or, in cases embraced in paragraph III of this 
order, by the board of examiners for conscripts. Recommendations 
or certificates from private physicians, or from a medical officer singly, 
will not be received. Paragraphs 171 and 173, General Regulations, 
and paragraph I, General Orders, No. 51, current series, from this 
office, are amended to accord with this paragraph. 

VI. Furloughed soldiers will not be permitted to go within the lines 
of the enemy. 

VII. Inthe medical examination of substitutes the instructions and 
requirements of paragraph 1192, General Regulations (paragraph 48, 
Medical Regulations), will be fully adhered to; and if a substitute 
fails to meet the conditions of that paragraph he will be rejected. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


58 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


914 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, October 31 [29], 1863. 
His Excellency JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Klorida, Tallahassee, Fla.: 


Str: Your letter of the 22d instant has been received. The act of 
Congress of 2d of April last, chapter 12, requires the Department to 
discharge persons in the Army who may be elected after their enlist- 
ment or appointment in the Army members of Congress and State Legis- 
latures, judges of the supreme courts of law and equity in every 
State, district attorney, clerk of any court of record, sheriff, ordinary, 
judge of probate, and one tax collector, and a parish recorder. 
Justices of the peace and county commissioners are not entitled to 
discharge. The Governor of a State may designate officers to be 
exempt from conscription under the act of May 1, 1863, but this act 
does not apply to the Army. The Department is employing every 
effort to bring into the service those who have absconded their com- 
mands, but its success thus far has not been equal to its wishes or 
expectations. These efforts will not be relaxed, and attention will be 
given to the cases that you have brought to its notice. Orders will 
also be given relative to the supply of arms for the service in Florida. 
The Department cannot close this letter without expressing its 
obligations to Your Excelleney for the cordial support you have 
habitually given to all the measures for the common defense which 
have been adopted by this Government. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 142. Richmond, October 30, 1868. 


I. The requirements of the army making it necessary that the 
present supply of artillery horses and other field transportation be 
carefully husbanded, and a more perfect system of supply adopted, 
Maj. A. H. Cole, inspector-general of field transportation, in addition 
to his present duties, is hereby charged with this duty. 

II. Under his orders all inspections, purchases, impressments, and 
issues of field transportation (including artillery horses) will be made, 
and recruiting, fabricating, and repairing done throughout the Con- 
federate States; and all other officers are prohibited from purchasing 
or disposing of this description of property, except such as may be 
specially authorized to purchase by the commanding general of an 
army, Whose field of operation in such eases shall be confined to the 
limits of the army and the country immediately in the advance; and 
under no circumstances will such officers be allowed to purchase 
within any district of country to which a regularly appointed purchas- 
ing officer has been assigned. 

III. The Quartermaster-General is authorized to district the Con- 
federate States for the purposes named, and will assign officers to the 
duty, who will control the subject within their respective districts, 
under such rules and regulations as he may establish. 

IV. Officers charged with inspection of field transportation are 
authorized to make inspections anywhere within the limits of their 
assignment, and to condemn and order to be turned in to the nearest 
post quartermaster all artillery horses and other transportation found 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 915 


unserviceable, to be so disposed of as the chief inspector of the district 
may direct. 

V. Chief quartermasters of armies or quartermasters at posts other 
than those in the field will make their estimates on the chief inspector 
of the district for such field transportation as they may require. 
When necessary for the protection of parties collecting animals near 
the enemy’s lines a cavalry escort will be furnished by the nearest 
commander of troops. 

VI. The horses and other property in use in the Commissary Depart- 
ment must not be impressed by officers of any other department. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., October 81, 1868. 
His Excellency J. EK. BRowN, 
Governor of Georgia, Milledgeville, Ga.: 


Sir: The difficulties attending the collection of supplies surpass 
any conception you can have, and it has become a question of the 
gravest doubt whether the army of General Bragg can be maintained 
embodied in its present position. In the present state of the currency 
impressment is the only mode by which supplies can be had, and but 
for the apprehension of such seizure I have the strongest reason to 
believe that there would be seareely any sales, even at the prices given 
by private individuals and speculators, as the owners of products for 
subsistence would prefer to hold for constantly enhancing rates or 
through distrust of the currency to be received in payment. Iam sat- 
isfied if the Government were to dispense with impressments and rely 
upon the effort of purchasing at current rates, besides causing at once 
exorbitant increase destructive to the currency, there would be an 
utter impossibility of obtaining adequate supplies, as the rising mar- 
ket and the distrust of the currency would certainly prevent volun- 
tary sales. - 

Under these circumstances will Your Excellency pardon me for 
pressing on your consideration earnestly the importance, at least 
under the present emergency, of removing all impediments to the free 
action of commissary officers and of giving them the countenance of 
your influence? I am induced to make this application by having 
had transmitted to me a copy of a letter recently addressed to you by 
one of the leading commissaries of your State, Major Locke. I ear- 
nestly commend his views to your consideration, and would respect- 
fully ask your compliance with his request or some action that may 
have the effect he desires. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GREENVILLE, 8. C., October 31, 15638. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Confederate States of America: 
At the recent convention of commissioners under the ‘‘Act to regu- 
late impressments,” held at Augusta, Ga., the inclosed communication 


916 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


from Mr. 8. R. Cockrill, of Nashville, ''enn., was received, and by vote 
of the convention ordered to be forwarded to you for consideration. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. J. ELFORD, 
Secretary to Convention. 


[Inclosure. } 


MARIETTA, GA., October 24, 1868. 


THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, 
Sitting at Augusta: 

Called together as you are by the Secretary of War to aid by your 
actions and counsels the Subsistence Department, I hope good results 
may follow your deliberations. I have implicit confidence that our 
independence will be won by the valor of our troops, but not without 
much effort and privation. If there be a question about which there 
is danger, it is the supply of meat for the Army. While we held 
Middle and East Tennessee there was no danger. At present they are 
in the possession of the enemy, and it is now uncertain what supply of 
meat, if any, will be drawn from that quarter. This may interfere 
materiaily with your prices, and hence the propriety of embracing all 
our resources in this terrific conflict. We have men, arms, ammuni- 
tion, bread, and clothes, and a supply of meat must be had, as we are 
resolved not to be subjugated. The infamous enemy who invades 
our country threatens to starve us into submission. God said: ‘‘ Let 
the waters bring forth abundantly,” and it was done. He gave to 
man dominion over the fish of the sea. In our rivers, lakes, and bays 
there is an inexhaustible supply of fish, which in our abundance we 
have never resorted to. It is the part of wisdom now to look to this 
providential supply placed beyond the reach and control of the enemy. 
if driven to the necessity the Army can be fed from the waters. In 
political economy supply and demand determine prices. The plan to 
diminish the price of meat for the Army is to increase the supply. 
As agents for the Government this becomes a legitimate question for 
your body. How is this to be done? The stock regions are mainly 
in the hands of the enemy, and in the cotton States we have not time 
to grow them now to meet what may become an important emergency; 
that is, a scant supply of meat for the Army. The most certain and 
ready resource, then, is to assume dominion over the fish of the sea. 
How is this to be done? I make the following suggestions: 

First. By orders from the proper military department detail 10,000 
men from the several armies, selected for their fitness for this service, 
such as disabled soldiers, new conscripts, and men over forty-five (if 
found necessary), who shall be placed under proper officers at the 
best fisheries to be found in the Confederacy. 

Second. They are detailed as a permanent force to furnish an addi- 
tional supply of meat for the Army from the waters, by all the appli- 
ances used for such purposes, to wit, traps, seines, floats and hooks, 
trot-lines, nets, spears, gigs, hooks, &c. 

Third. The Government to furnish a supply of salt and the fish as 
caught to be scaled, dressed, and salted. This service can be ren- 
dered by women, either white or black, or both. 

Fourth. A detail of rough carpenters should be made to make boxes 
and barrels, and quartermasters to superintend the transportation to 
depots, &e. 

Fifth. Officers in attendance should make reports weekly to higher 
authorities. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 917 


The above is a sufficient outline of the plan. The object is to add 
to the supply of meat for the Army, thereby enabling you to control 
the price thereof. An experiment may show that it is economy in the 
Government thus to employ force enough to furnish half the meat 
required by the Army. It is the legitimate mode of effecting the 
price of what isto be bought. If this force should average ten pounds 
each per day it would give 100,000 pounds per day, which would be 
rations for an army of 200,000 men. We know that men can live on 
fish. We know that the supply in the rivers is abundant. We know 
that industry and system will get them out of the waters. It is too 
uncertain in the hands of individuals, hence the necessity of organ- 
izing a regular force to work at this alone by the Government. They 
are reliable meat growers. It develops one of the hidden resources of 
the Confederacy at a time when it is needed. The soldiers of the 
Army may become alarmed about a meat supply, as we are cut off 
from Tennessee and Kentucky. This should be relieved as soon as 
possible. Establish the fact that we have a supply of meat in the 
waters and our independence is won. We can’t fail on any other 
question; we must not fail on this. Bonaparte passed the Alps when 
the world thought it was impossible. The supply is in the waters 
beyond doubt, large enough to feed the whole population of the Con- 
federate States, and will we sit down and say we can’t get out enough 
to feed 200,000 men? At many of the fisheries a large quantity of oil 
could be made—much needed now by the Army. The plan will not 
interfere with the field force, and its successful execution is recom- 
mended by the highest considerations. To insure success, however, 
I think that if the Secretary of War will give the orders and author- 
ity to General Gideon J. Piilow that he will put the whole plan into 
operation sooner than any man in the Confederate States. He is 
practical and of untiring energy and industry. He knows how such 
things can be done. He can direct matters in the Conscript Bureau 
and attend to this meat supply also. If these views meet the approval 
of the commissioners I hope they will in their official capacity urge 
its immediate adoption upon the Secretary of War. I think we have 
no time to lose. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. . 
S. R. COCKRILL, 

Nashville, Tenn. 


[Indorsement. | 


BUREAU OF SUBSISTENCE, 
November 10, 1868. 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 

The writer says correctly that our people have not paid attention to 
fisheries in the lakes and rivers of the interior, of which the products 
would searcely support the hands employed. The shad fisheries on 
the tide waters of the rivers have been attended to, and the supply 
has of late years been steadily diminishing because the fish caught 
were on their way up to spawn. The results of this business have 
not exceeded local consumption. It was conducted by plantation 
negroes and by Yankees. The writer has not shown from Scripture 
that the promised dominion over the waters and the fishes therein will 
confer on the 10,000 Confederate invalids and exempts the skill to 
fabricate all the appliances necessary to catch the fish or the judg- 
ment, perseverance, and hardihood requisite to use them successfully, 
even if the vast amount of cord needed was obtainable. Nor has it 
been shown that in the absence of these facilities and endowments 


918 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the promised dominion will cause in the fish a due avidity to be 
caught, even if the season of the year will admit the present applica- 
tion of the plan. It must also be shown that the promised dominion 
over the waters will be admitted by Mr. Lincoln in favor of the Con- ~ 
federates, and induce him to prohibit hereafter the boat expeditions 
which have been used with great activity heretofore to break up the 
fisheries in the waters of Virginia and North Carolina. This whole 
subject has long ago been carefully considered, and but little fish has 
been secured during the past two seasons. ‘The impossibility of get- 
ting seines or the cord to make them has restricted our efforts and 
they have failed. Professor Richardson, of Marietta, made long ~ 
communications on the subject, and the reports of Major White, of 
Florida, thereon are conclusive. Landsmen often fail in their 
theories on marine matters from want of familiarity with little details 
which the experience of seamen alone furnishes. If Gen. G. J. 
Pillow can realize the results indicated this Bureau will be greatly 
benefited directly. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


BURLINGTON HOTEL, LONDON, October 31, 1863. 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond: : 
Str: Your note of the Ist instant directing how the £262,500 of the 
Erlanger loan reverting to the War Department ‘‘should be appor- 
tioned between the different bureaus” was received on the 25th 
instant. Iam also in receipt of the communication of the President 
of the 18th of September, with a copy of the agreement between the 
heads of the departments of the 15th of the same month; but your 
letter of the 26th of September, referred to in the note of the Ist 
instant, has not been received; neither have the contracting officers 
of the War and Navy Departments received their instructions; at 
least they have not reported to me. I suppose your letter of the 26th 
of September contains the authority empowering me in case of neces- 
sity to transfer any balance from the account of one bureau to that of 
another, and full instructions in reference to the manner in which 
the wishes of the President and the agreement between the heads of the 
departments of the 15th of September are to be carried out. Without 
this letter or information of the character which I suppose it contains, 
your note of the 1st is not intelligible, nor can I satisfactorily discharge 
the duties which are expected of me. My dispatches to Mr. Memmin- 
ger have put the Government in full possession of how the Erlanger 
loan has been disposed of and what amount of it is still available, and 
I respectfully refer you to them. 
With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE. 


P. S.—Inclosed you will find duplicate of dispatch* No. 1, relative 
to investigation of Major Huse’s accounts. We have nothing to add 
on that subject. Mr. Bloodgood is still engaged in prosecuting that 
work, but I have not had time during the past week to give him much 
assistance. We have not, therefore, progressed as rapidly as we 
desired. 

Oe Fee. 


*See p. 886. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 919 


| NOVEMBER 2, 1863.—For Magruder to Murrah, in relation to the 
service of Texas State troops, &e., see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, 
p. 383. | 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Columbus, Miss., November 3, 1868. 
GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


Since the last meeting of the Legislature, Mississippi has been made 
the theater of a continued war, and notwithstanding the many sacri- 
fices of her citizens and the efforts of the army sent for her protec- 
tion, a large portion of her territory has been overrun by the Federal 
army and much of her property has been destroyed and large quan- 
tities carried away. Their superior numbers have enabled the enemy 
to overrun large districts of country, but they have not as yet been 
able to occupy permanently but an inconsiderable portion of the ter- 
ritory of Mississippi. Corinth, Vicksburg, and Natchez, with a few 
square miles surrounding each, is all that they can justly claim as 
being within their lines. The advance of heavy columns of the 
enemy upon the city of Jackson early in May last, at a time when 
we had no adequate force for its protection, rendered it necessary, in 
my opinion, to remove the archives and public property of the State, 
as far as I was able, from Jackson to Enterprise, where the seat of 
government was temporarily established. Since the first occupation 
of Jackson by the enemy Vicksburg has fallen, and the Federals 
have been again in possession of the capital of the State, and it has 
remained in such an exposed position that I deemed it unsafe to 
return with the archives and other public property. I therefore 
established the seat of government, temporarily, first at Meridian and 
more recently, for the convenience of suitable buildings for offices; at 
Macon. : 

The ordeal through which the State of Mississippi has been called 
to pass has been one of sore tribulation, and well calculated to test 
the loyalty of her citizens. There have been a flood of rumors as to 
the disloyalty of particular districts and localities of the State, but I 
have received no reliable information of any considerable disaffection 
in any quarter. It is perhaps true that some individuals, taking 
counsel of their fears, have taken the oath of allegiance to and sought 
the protection of the Government of the United States. But the 
great heart of the people of Mississippi remains as true to the cause 
and their determination to succeed in the great struggle in which we 
are now engaged and is as hopeful and buoyant as when the contest 
first began. 


THE PENITENTIARY—DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS. 


Believing it to be very certain that the enemy would occupy the 
city of Jackson, it became necessary to make some disposition of the 
convicts in the penitentiary, and having been informed that twenty- 
five of these convicts were unfriendly to our cause, and would in all 
probability join the Federal Army if permitted to fall into their 
hands, I determined, therefore, upon consultation with the superin- 
tendent and supervisors of the penitentiary to send these convicts to 
some place of greater security. I applied to the Governor of Ala- 
bama for permission to send them to the penitentiary of that State, 
which he kindly granted, and they are now confined at Wetumpka. 


920 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. ° 


Learning also that there were convicts willing to take up arms 
in defense of their country, I pardoned them and caused them to be 
mustered into service, and they have since been distributed to the 
different regiments from the State in the Confederate Army. A con- 
siderable number of convicts still remained in the penitentiary who 
were either unable or unwilling to go into the Army. These were 
upon the near approach of the Federal army turned out without 
pardon. I was satisfied that the enemy would destroy the peniten- 
tiary buildings, and being unable to get any safe place of confinement 
for these convicts, I thought it to be the best disposition that could 
be made of them. Upon the first occupation of the city of Jackson 
by the Federal army the penitentiary buildings were all destroyed, 
and there remains now of that institution with all its machinery but 
little save the rubbish of the walls. One steam engine and a lot of 
iron and copper is all that can be recovered from the ruins. I have 
directed Col. U. Bourne, acting chief of ordnance, to collect every arti- 
cle of value from the rubbish and transport them to Meridian. Ihave 
directed the copper to be sold to the Government of the Confederate 
States for the manufacture of percussion-caps. The steam engine 
will in all probability be destroyed by rust or otherwise before the 
State will again be in a condition to use it. I therefore recommend 
that some disposition be made of it by the Legislature. I herewith 
transmit the report of the supervisors of the penitentiary,* showing 
that at the time of its destruction it was yielding a handsome revenue, 
there being a net profit to the State of the last year of $60,490.76. 
There is another matter in this connection to which I desire to call 
your attention. Since the penitentiary has been destroyed several 
persons have been convicted of crimes, the punishment for which is 
imprisonment in the penitentiary, and they are now confined in the 
jails of their respective counties awaiting some action of the Legis- 
lature, and it is for you to determine whether or not a temporary pen- 
itentiary shall be established. 


INSTITUTIONS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, BLIND AND INSANE. 


The State institutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind 
have been broken up at Jackson. The lunatic asylum was much 
damaged during the siege of Jackson in its fencing and outbuildings. 
The main building suffered but little, and the institution, under the 
supervision of its able and attentive superintendent, Dr. Robert 
Kells, assisted by the board of trustees, still gives shelter and suste- 
nance to this truly unfortunate class of our citizens. The money 
heretofore appropriated by the Legislature has been sufficient with 
rigid economy in its disbursement to keep up the institution, but the 
increased cost of every article of consumption or use renders it neces- 
sary for the Legislature to take this subject again under considera- 
tion. An asylum like this for the protection and proper treatment of 
the unfortunate lunaties of the State was found to be absolutely 
necessary in times of prosperity and profound peace, but now 
when the country is torn and distracted by war and invasion, and 
our citizens have scarcely time to provide for the protection of the 
sane members of their families, it is still more important that the 
Legislature make adequate provision for the maintenance and pro- 
tection of this unfortunate class. I therefore recommend that the 


* Omitted. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 921 


Legislature take the affairs of the lunatic asylum again under con- 
sideration and make such additional appropriations as may be found 
necessary for its proper support. 


IMPRESSMENT OF HORSES. 


The cavalry force of this department, under General Van Dorn, 
having been ordered to Tennessee to re-enforce General Bragg, the 
open country of the State of Mississippi was left exposed to the cav- 
alry raids of the enemy without any adequate force for its protection. 
Under these circumstances, when the State had been traversed from 
one end to the other by an insignificant force of mounted men under 
_ Grierson, and when the whole State appeared to be in imminent dan- 
ger of being overrun and destroyed, I published a eall for volunteers 
in this arm of the service to serve for from three to twelve months, 
and meeting with great difficulty in raising the force required on 
account of the scarcity of horses, I ordered a sufficient number of 
horses, bridles, and saddles to be impressed to mount and equip such 
men as were willing to volunteer who were unable to mount themselves. 
In obedience to these orders 619 horses and 213 saddles and 125 
bridles were impressed at an aggregate cost of $224,910.50 and placed 
at once in the service. These horses, bridles, and saddles are still 
the property of the State, to be disposed of as the Legislature may 
direct. The principal damage done the property of the State has been 
accomplished in the main by marauding parties of the enemy num- 
bering from 15 to 500 men. Against such parties as these it is impos- 
sible to protect the country by means of infantry alone. Such forces 
ean only be held effectively in check by means of cavalry. I have an 
understanding with the President of the Confederate States, and also 
with General Johnston, to turn the cavalry force raised as above 
mentioned over to the Confederate service, the Confederate Govern- 
ment agreeing to pay for the use and risk of the State horses during 
their term of service, and also to pay the value when any such horse 
or horses shall be killed or captured by the enemy. This arrangement 
is, however, subject to any disposition which the Legislature may 
deem proper to be made in the premises. I am well satisfied that 
Mississippi can be protected only by mounted men, and therefore 
every assistance that can be consistently rendered should be given by 
the Legislature to this arm of the service. 


ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT. 


Circumstances have forced the removal of the State armory from 
Brandon to Meridian, where temporary buildings have been erected 
for the reception of the machinery, unfinished guns, and guns out of 
repair and ordnance stores on hand. ‘The fortunes of war have 
caused the removal of the State armory twice since the commeénce- 
ment of the present contest; first, from Panola to Brandon, and more 
recently from Brandon to Meridian. ‘These repeated removals have 
very much retarded the repairing and manufacture of arms. It is, 
however, hoped that the armory will soon be in working order and 
that its operations will not again be disturbed. For more definite 
information I refer you to the report of Col. U. Bourne, acting chief 
of ordnance, herewith transmitted.“ I also send you the report of 


* Omitted. 


922 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Col. A. M. West, quartermaster-general of the State, to which I refer 
you for full information as to the transactions of his department.* 
The business of that officer has been so extended and the assistants 
allowed the quartermaster-general by law so limited, that a large 
amount of unsettled accounts have accumulated upon his hands. I 
therefore recommend that he be allowed such additional clerks or 
assistant quartermasters as may be found necessary for the proper 
transaction of the business of the office, or that an auditor be 
appointed to examine all unsettled accounts coming before the 
quartermaster-general for settlement. 


ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 


The report of the adjutant-general, herewith transmitted, will show 
to the Legislature the number of regiments, battalions, and unattached 
companies that have been organized and turned over to the Confeder- 
ate Government in this State, so far as the same was done by the 
State authority. Some regiments were organized in the State under 
authority derived directly from the Secretary of War, and their 
muster-rolls were never filed in the adjutant-general’s office. Of 
such there is no record, nor is mention made of them in the report. 
The report will also show the number of drafted men and volunteer 
cavalry organized under State authority as State troops. 


REMOVAL OF NEGROKS. 


While our enemies are unable to hold permanently any consider- 
able portion of the State, the exposed condition of the northern and 
western districts to cavalry raids and the facility with which the 
enemy can enter the counties upon the margin of the navigable rivers 
in the State renders it necessary that the Legislature devise some 
means for the protection of the property in those districts. Some 
means should be devised at least to prevent the negro men from fall- 
ing into the hands of the Federal authorities and thus becoming a 
powerful auxiliary means in their hands for our subjugation. Every 
able-bodied negro man that falls into the hands of the enemy is not 
only a laborer lost to the country in the production of supplies for 
the support of our armies in the field, but he is also, under the pres- 
ent policy of the United States Government, a soldier gained to its 
Army. This has become a subject of too much importance to be 
lightly passed over. Already marauding bands of these freed negroes 
are desolating neighborhoods in the Valley of the Mississippi, and 
citizens of Mississippi have been murdered at their homes by them. 
It is the policy of the United States Government in the conduct of 
this war to use these negro troops to perfect the destruction and 
demoralization of the country which the Federal Army may occupy. 
Such being the intention of our enemies, the whole strength of the 
Government should be brought to bear to prevent negro men from 
falling into their hands. I therefore recommend that the Legislature 
pass some law for the removal of all able-bodied negro men from the 
more exposed districts of the State, authorizing the Governor of the 
State, the President of the Confederate States, or the general com- 
manding the department to make such disposition of them as may be 
deemed best for the public good, a just and proper compensation 


* Omitted. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 923 


being made to the owners for the hire during the term they remain in 
the employ of the Government. 


SALT. 


Previous to the meeting of the last session of the Legislature I 
entered into contracts for salt with several foreigners who proposed 
to import it by running the blockade, which contracts I submitted to 
a committee of the Legislature. The salt under these contracts was 
to be paid for in cotton. I directed Colonel West, quartermaster- 
general for the State, to purchase 500 bales of cotton, all of which was 
not bought for that purpose, and to have a sufficient quantity on hand 
to pay for the first cargo. Fifty bales of this cotton was by my order 
delivered to one of the contractors, A. Minnett, a Frenchman, to be 
shipped to France, he securing the State of Mississippi against loss by 
depositing $10,000 in Confederate notes with the State treasurer. A 
change of generals and of the policy of the Federal authorities pre- 
vented the fulfillment of these contracts. Minnett and the other con- 
tractors failed to deliver,the salt according to their contracts, and the 
$10,000 deposited as above mentioned still remains with the treasurer. 
I sent Hon. D. 8. Pattison with $20,000 to Iberia, in Louisiana, in 
charge of a steam-boat, to purchase salt for the State of Mississippi, 
and failing in that to offer transportation to such citizens of the State 
as he might find there with salt purchased for their own family con- 
sumption, or for the use of their neighbors, without re-sale or specu- 
lation. Captain Pattison reached Iberia in time to procure a boat 
load of salt for the State and its citizens, but on the homeward trip of 
the boat on Bayou Teche it was stopped by Confederate authority 
and prevented from a further prosecution of the enterprise on account 
of threatened danger from Federal gun-boats, until the mouth of the 
bayou was actually blockaded. Captain Pattison succeeded, however, 
after much labor, in getting, as he reported, 40,000 pounds of salt 
delivered at Vicksburg. Whateveramountso received was distributed 
to destitute families as directed. For further information see Colo- 
nel West’s report as salt agent. 

Captain Pattison has not as yet made a full report and settlement 
of his proceedings as salt agent. JI am therefore unable to give the 
Legislature any further information as to his transactions. I also 
sent R. O. Dixon, esq., aS a special agent for the State of Mississippi 
to Virginia to make contracts for salt water, intending to establish 
furnaces for the manufacture of salt on State account, but he could 
not succeed in making such contracts as would justify the expendi- 
ture of money necessary to carry into successful operation the plan 
proposed, and it was therefore abandoned. Having failed to estab- 
lish manufactures of salt on State account as I desired, I author- 
ized Messrs. Strong, Cunningham & Co., of Monroe and: Chickasaw 
Counties, in this State, to manufacture salt at Saltville on’ private 
account for the people of North and Northeast Mississippi. Under the 
act of the extra session of the Legislature, held in December and Jan- 
uary last, appropriating $500,000 to purchase salt for the indigent 
families of soldiers, I appointed Capt. W. C. Turner salt agent, and 
_ directed him to go to the salt works in the State of Alabama with 
instructions to buy salt, make contracts for its manufacture in suffi- 
cient quantities to supply the destitute families of our soldiers, if it 
could be obtained in that way, or failing to get a sufficient quantity, 
to establish furnaces and manufacture salt on State account. His 


924 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


instructions were to get salt by either or all of the above means. In 
pursuance with these instructions he contracted with for the 
manufacture of bushels of salt, to be delivered by installments. 
For a more extended account of his transactions as salt agent I refer 
you to his report,* herewith transmitted, stating, however, that the 
salt has not been delivered in the quantities and at the times agreed 
upon by the contractors. On or about the 13th of April last I 
appointed Colonel West salt agent, to receive and distribute to the 
different counties the pro rata share of whatever salt might be obtained 
by purchase or manufacture, distributing the salt so received to the 
boards of police. I subsequently, on the 18th day of October, 
appointed him salt agent for the State at large, with authority to 
supervise generally all contracts for the purchase or manufacture of 
salt on State account, and to receive and superintend its equitable 
distribution as above mentioned. I refer you to his report* as salt 
agent, herewith transmitted, for further information upon this subject. 
Having purchased the cotton for the purposes mentioned in the fore- 
going part of this communication, and losing all hope of securing 
with it the salt contracted for, I ordered Colonel West to turn over 
fifty bales of it to Dr. Luke Blackburn, one of the medical commis- 
sioners for the State, to be shipped to Havana, in the Island of Cuba, 
to be there exchanged for arms and munitions of war. This cotton 
was delivered to Dr. Blackburn as directed, but as yet he has made 
no report of his success in the premises. 


WIVES, WIDOWS, AND CHILDREN OF SOLDIERS. 


The proper support and maintenance of the widows and children of 
deceased soldiers and the families of those now in the Army is a sub- 
ject of great importance, and deserves at the hands of the Legislature 
the most serious consideration. I regard it as your solemn duty to 
make such provision for their comfort and support as will no longer 
leave the families of our brave soldiers in any wise dependent upon 
the uncertain contributions of private charity for that support and 
protection which they have a right to demand for the sacrifices now 
being made by their lawful protectors. The diminution of the State 
tax will greatly diminish the military relief fund now provided by 
law. This diminution, with the increased price of provisions and 
the greatly increased number of those dependent upon this fund for 
support, will, it is thought, make it necessary for the Legislature to 
make some additional provision upon this subject. 


MONEY. 


I sent Hon. A. B. Dilworth as agent for the State of Mississippi to 
the city of Memphis to make contracts with Messrs. Hutton & Freligh, 
the only persons known to me in the country in condition at that time 
to print the treasury notes for the ‘‘ cotton loan” in the manner pro- 
vided. Contracts for printing the treasury notes for the advance on 
cotton of the denominations specified in the act approved 19th of De- 
cember, 1861, upon electrotype plates, as directed by the supplemental 
act approved January 29, 1862, and also for printing the treasury notes 
to be issued on State account for military purposes provided by an 
act approved January 29, 1862, were made with them at a cost of 4 


* Omitted. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 925 


cents per note. Of the notes to be used as an ‘‘advance upon cotton” 
there were printed 657,156, which at a cost of 4 cents per note 
amounted to the sum of $26,286.24; and for the notes to be issued for 
military purposes there were printed 205,295, at a cost of $8,211.80, 
making the total aggregate cost of printing the notes amount to the 
sum of $34,498.04. The great demand for change notes of the cotton 
money made it necessary to have a large proportion of these printed. 
This caused the disproportion in the cost of printing the $5,000,000 
cotton money and the $2,500,000 treasury notes. There have been 
5,587 applications made for advances upon cotton, and the whole 
amount of the $5,000,000 provided by law has been exhausted. The 
amount refunded on account of the loan up to the 29th day of October 
is $577,709. The amount of money issued upon my requisitions on 
account of the military fund provided by the act approved J anuary 
29, 1862, is $1,115,554.93. Of this sum $120,602.27 was issued on 
account of the appropriation for salt, approved January 1, 1863. The 
amount refunded on account of this military fund is $262,589.67, of 
which $12,589.67 was on account of sales of salt. The third section 
of the act authorizing the issuance of these treasury notes for military 
purposes provides for funding them in sums not less than $500 in 
State bonds, payable in ten years, with interest from the date thereof 
at 8 per cent. per annum. None of these notes have been so funded, 
for the reason that no provision was made for a form or for printing 
the bonds, nor is the time or the manner of paying the interest thereon 
prescribed. I have been informed that some of these notes are now 
on deposit, to be funded, awaiting the preparation of these bonds and 
some provision for the payment of the interest. I therefore recom- 
mend that some provision be made for printing the bonds and for the 
payment of the interest annually by coupons or otherwise, as the 
wisdom of the Legislature may direct. The amount expended of the 
appropriation for arms under the act approved December 15, 1859, is 
$72,745.12, for which vouchers are on file in my office. I herewith 
transmit the partial report * of the auditor of public accounts, made 
to me, showing the condition of the principal military funds provided 
by law, and respectfully refer you to the full report of the auditor and 
treasurer for further information. 


MILITIA. 


The many defects in the practical operation of the militia laws of 
the State make it my duty to call your attention especially to that 
subject. The Confederate army in this department has been con- 
stantly confronted and opposed by a greatly superior invading force, 
so that the generals commanding have not only been unable to pro- 
tect the State from invasion by large bodies of infantry, but the 
enemy’s cavalry have made repeated raids into the State, which have 
been alike destructive to the property of the country and that cordial 
good feeling for and confidence in the ultimate success of our strug- 
gle among the people so essential to a successful termination of this 
contest. While the attention of the commanding generals of the 
department have been invariably drawn, as of right it should be, to 
the advancing columns of the invading foe, I have exhausted all the 
means in my power to give them such assistance as I deemed neces- 
sary for the protection of the country against raids. I have kept 


* Omitted. 


926 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


constantly in the field all the volunteer State cavalry that could pos- 
sibly be raised, and while I have not been as successful in raising as 
large bodies of troops as I desired, I have given essential aid in the 
protection of a large portion of the State which would otherwise have 
been left in a wholly defenseless condition, and I am happy to be 
able to state to the Legislature that these State organizations have 
rendered much good service in the northern and northwestern dis- 
tricts at a time when there were no Confederate troops to spare for 
that purpose. Being mostly in unattached battalions and companies, 
and well acquainted with the roads and principal localities of the 
country in which they have operated, these State organizations have 
been able to afford much greater security to the citizens and do much 
more damage to the enemy than larger bodies of troops less acquainted 
with the country could have accomplished, after inflicting severe 
chastisement upon marauding parties whose only object was plunder. 
While other bodies of the State troops have been kept in the field less 
actively engaged than the cavalry, they have been placed, at the 
request of the commanding generals, to guard important depots of 
public stores, and other important points along the line of the differ- 
ent railroads, and have thus relieved the regular troops of that duty, 
and to that extent strengthened the Confederate army in the field. 
In explanation of the causes that occasioned the organization of the 
State troops in the first instance, and the continuing them in the field, 
I herewith transmit copies of the several calls and requisitions made 
by Generals Ruggles, Price, and Van Dorn, and also the additional 
correspondence with the President of the Confederate States, Secre- 
tary of War, and Generals Johnston and Pemberton upon the same 
subject.* My efforts to place the number of troops in the field which 
I deemed necessary to guard the State against destructive raids have 
been much embarrassed by the opposition of a part of the press of the 
State opposing the enforcement of the militia law passed at the last 
session of the Legislature. The great confidence of the people in the 
ability of the Confederate Government to protect the State from 
invasion induced large numbers of them to regard the efforts being 
made to organize and bring into the field the militia of the State as 
unnecessary, and the law itself as impracticable and oppressive. 
Had the efforts which have been made to organize the State troops 
received that support which in view of the great danger threatening 
us I had a right to expect, there is much reason to believe that the 
condition of Mississippi would now be much better than it is. A few 
thousand additional troops at Jackson in May might have held that 
place until re-enforcements to General Johnston, then arriving, could 
have overwhelmed the invading army and maintained our position at 
Vicksburg. The present condition and prospects of the country 
demand of the Legislature to seriously consider the subject of a 
thorough and extended reorgauization of the military strength of the 
State. I therefore again recommend the extension of the militia law 
so as to include and make subject to militia duty every free white 
male person, either a citizen or temporary resident, not actually con- 
scribed, between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, and as a large 
portion of these will necessarily be kept at home, only such as are 
physically able to discharge the duties of soldiers should be sent to 
the field, and the remainder should be organized, armed, and equipped 


for local defense against sudden raids and held as a police force for 


* None of these documents found herewith. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 927 


the counties in which they live. The militia officers should be allowed 
pay for the time they are actually engaged in the discharge of their 
official duties. . The law as it now stands imposes duties often arduous 
and expensive upon, them, and makes no provision for pay or allow- 
ance. I am satisfied if this were done it would add much to the 
efficiency of these officers. The extension of the conscription laws to 
forty-five years has so reduced the militia strength of the State that I 
do not believe it necessary to retain the office of brigadier-general of 
militia. The major-general, with the assistance of the regimental 
and company officers, will be entirely sufficient to carry into effect 
any law necessary to be passed. In any organization that it may be 
found necessary to make, the Governor should be authorized to appoint 
all the quartermasters and surgeons. Under the existing law neither 
the Governor nor the quartermaster-general have had the control 
over these officers which in my opinion the good of the service requires. 


SALARIES OF STATE OFFICERS. 


The salaries of the State officers were fixed by law at a time when 
provisions and property were at a low valuation compared to the 
present exorbitant prices at which every species of property and pro- 
visions is held. The pay which is allowed to these officers if made in 
the currency of the country is not sufficient to give them that support 
and maintenance which the credit of the State demands they should 
receive. I therefore recommend that their salaries be increased. I 
have sought from the beginning of the war to the present time to make 
the largest preparation to meet our enemies which the means and 
power intrusted to me enabled me tomake. I have believed it better 
to spend what we have in manly resistance than permit it to become 
the prey of plundering invaders, and in this my last message to the 
representatives of a people threatened by a more destructive invasion 
than any in modern times; in view of the known purpose of the enemy 
to lay waste our land and confiscate whatever escapes the ravages of 
war; in view of the known determination of the Lincoln Government 
to reduce this people to a condition far worse than European serfdom ; 
in view of that ‘‘dark durance” this and succeeding generations are 
doomed should Federal arms prevail, permit me earnestly to recom- 
mend that no consideration of dollars and cents should stand in the 
way of the amplest preparation of men and means and the most 
extreme measures for the defense of the country. There is no half- 
way house of rest in this revolution. Independence or death, or that 
which is worse than death, are the alternatives presented to this peo- 
ple, and the sooner this truth is fully realized and acted upon the 
better for us and our children. May God, who favors the just cause 
and blesses with success fidelity, patriotism, and courage, preside over 
your deliberations and direct your councils. 

JOHN J. PETTUS. 


{Inclosure. | 


HEADQUARTERS STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, 
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Columbus, November 1, 1863. 
His Excellency JOHN J. PETTUS, 
Governor and Commander-in- Chief : 
siz: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of Mississippi 
regiments and battalions now in the service of the Confederate States. 


928 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The report is made as accurately as the records of this department 
permit and embraces a few regiments heretofore reported by my pred- 
ecessor, Col. W. H. Brown, in obedience to a resolution of the Legis- 
lature of the State passed July 25, 1861. I have ineluded those regi- 
ments in order to show accurately the running numbers as they are 
at present designated and the change of the numbers of some since 
the rendition of the report above mentioned. The irregularity of the 
numbers of battalions is occasioned by being first organized as bat- 
talions and subsequently as regiments. Many regiments and. battal- 
ions of Mississippi Volunteers were organized beyond the limits of the 
State, and others raised under special authority reported directly to 
the War Department; consequently I have not been able to report 
the names of the companies, the captains of them, or number of men. 
The field and company officers are reported as first organized, and all 
changes that are known to me that have occurred in the commands 
are annexed to the report of each. I annex hereto Summary report of 
the State troops that have been called from time to time into active 
service and organized into battalions and regiments. ‘There were at 
first seventy companies of infantry and thirteen companies of cavalry, 
from which there were organized five regiments and four battalions of 
infantry and one battalion of cavalry. The remaining cavalry com- 
panies were unattached and operated in the northern and northwestern 
part of the State. The cavalry battalion is now filled to a regiment, 
and the unattached companies have entered other cavalry organiza- 
tions since formed. I have not in this report given a detailed state- 
ment of these troops, as they were reported minutely at the last meet- 
ing of the Legislature to you by Major-General Tupper. Most of the 
infantry served out their term of enlistment in that arm of the service, 
but cavalry being greatly needed in April last many were permitted 
to change their service upon condition that they were to re-volunteer 
for twelve months. By this means nearly two regiments were formed 
of men whose term of enlistment had nearly expired. A full report 
is annexed of the State troops now in service, showing there are three 
regiments, three battalions, and ten unattached companies. ‘There 
are several unattached companies in North Mississippi now being 
organized into a regiment under Brigadier-General George, but the 
organization is not yet reported. 

I deem it unnecessary to make any comments upon or suggest any 
changes in the present military law of the State, as you are fully 
apprised of the difficulties and deficiencies of the law. The law is 
evidently better adapted to times of peace than to the present emer- 
gency, and would meet every necessity of simple organization for 
drifland inspection. But in organizing troops for active service in 
the field it is so extremely defective as to render efficient organiza- 
tion impossible. There are numerous and glaring defects which I 
would point out, but being assured that the attention of the Legisla- 
ture will be directed to the subject, I refrain from adverting to them 
in this report. 

By the act supplemental to the militia law, approved 29th of Janu- 
uary, 1862, there is but one assistant allowed this department, and 
the salary now fixed by law is insufficient for his support. I would 
suggest that said assistant be allowed the rank and pay of captain. 
The duties of the department are frequently very laborious and such 
as to require additional assistance, in which case I have heretofore 
employed the help necessary at my own expense. I would there- 
fore suggest that this, as well as the other military departments of 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 929 


the State, be authorized to employ such additional assistance as is in 
their judgment required, and only for such length of time as is abso- 
lutely necessary. 
I have the honor to be, Your Excelleney’s most obedient servant, 
JONES 8. HAMILTON, 
Adjutant and Inspector General of State of Mississippr. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 


First Regiment: Colonel, John M. Simonton; lieutenant-colonel, 
A.S. Hamilton; major, T. H. Johnston. De Soto Guards, Capt. W. J. 
Boon; Walker Reserves, Capt. G. M. Moseley; Alcorn Rifles, Capt. J. 
J. Milam; Dave Rogers Rifles, Capt. L. M. Laushe; Pt. Mount 
Rifles, Capt. C. C. Wilbourn; Rifle Scouts, Capt. : 
Mooresville Darts, Capt. M. Pound; Mississippi Yankee Hunters, 
Capt. ; James Creek Volunteers, Capt. J. Furgerson; 
Reube Davis Rebels, Capt. W. Young. Whole number, including 
field and staff officers, 682 men. Change in field officers as officially 
reported from the War Department. 

Second Regiment: * Colonel, T. J. Davidson; lieutenant-colonel, J. 
M. Wells; major, John R. Duvall. Falkner Guards, Capt. R. J. 
Hill; Molino Rifles, Capt. E. M. Wells; Tippah Tigers, Capt. P. 
Holeombe; Tippah Riflemen, Capt. M. M. Corley; Blount Guards, 
Capt. C. G. Blount; Kossuth Hunters, Capt. R. B. Allen; Black- 
land Gideonites, Capt. — ; Plenitude Invincibles, Capt. 
; Thompson Invincibles, Capt. J. H. Kennedy; Stubbs 
Rifles, Capt. R. R. Knight. -Whole number, including field and staff - 
officers, 757 men. 

Second Regiment, No. 1: Colonel, W. C. Falkner; lieutenant-colonel, 
Bartley B. Boone; major, David W. Humphreys. O’Connor Rifles, 
Capt. J. H. Buchanan; Magnolia Rifles, Capt. ; Joe 
Mathews Rifles, Capt. W. D. Beck; Tishomingo Rifles, Capt. 
; Calhoun Rifles, Capt. John F. Booth; Town Creek Rifles, Capt. 
W.C. Bromley; Pontotoc Minute Men, Capt. H. R. Miller; Coonewar 
Rifles, Capt. S. H. Taylor; Cherry Creek Rifles, Capt. John B. Her- 
ring; Iuka Rifles, Capt. J. M. Stone; 800 men, rank and file. 

Third Regiment: Colonel, J. B. Deason; lieutenant-colonel, Robert 
Eager; major, T. A. Mellon. Gainesville Volunteers, Captain McFad- 
den; Shieldsborough Rifles, Capt. J. V. Toulme; Chunkey Heroes, 
Capt. W. B. Johnson; Sunflower Dispersers, Captain Morgan; 
MeWillie Blues, Capt. E. A. Peyton; Biloxi Rifles, Capt. J. P. Elmer; 
Downing Rifles, Captain Ratliff; Dahlgren Guards, Captain Green ; 
Live Oak Rifles, Captain McRae; John M. Sharp’s, Capt. 8. M. Dyer. 
Whole number, including field and staff officers, 806 men. Field offi- 
cers as at present known to War Department, Col. T. A. Mellon. 

Fourth Regiment: Colonel, Joseph Drake; lieutenant-colonel, P. 8. 
Layton; major, T. N. Adaire. Carroll County Rebels, Capt. 
; Center Marksmen, Capt. H. Jamison; Red Invincibles, Capt. 
—W. CG. Red; Stephen Guards, Capt. R. D. Palmer; Nelson Grays, 
Capt. Thomas P. Nelson; Sons of the South, Capt. W. A. Sumner; 
Bankston Guard, Capt. W. B. Hale; Benela Sharpshooters, Capt. 
Robert Middleton; Paris Rebels, Capt. G. W. Paris; Attala Yellow 
Jackets, Capt. J. B. Moore. Whole number, ineclwding field and staff 
officers, 787 men. 


Ya 


*See Twenty-third Regiment, p. 932. 
59 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


930 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Fifth Regiment: Colonel, A. E. Fant; lieutenant-colonel, 8. F. M. 
Faucett; major, A.T. Stennis. Bogue Chitto Rangers, Captain Jack- 
son; Red Rovers, Captain Armstrong; Pettus Rebels, Captain Reed; 
New Prospect Grays, Captain Weir; Lauderdale Spring Grays, Cap- 
tain Smith; Barry Guards, Captain Womack; Winston Rifles, Cap- 
tain Comfort; Kemper Rebels, Captain Bostick; Noxubee Blues, 
Captain Featherston; Scotland Guards, Captain Lewis. Whole num- 
ber, including field and staff officers, 736 men. 

Sixth Regiment: Colonel, J. J. Thornton; lieutenant-colonel, E. R. 
Bennett; major, R. Lowry. Rankin Rough and Readies, Capt. E. J. 
Runnels; Rankin Grays, Capt. W. B. Shelby; New Guard, Capt. E. L. 
Alford; Quitman Southerns, Capt. W. M. Hall; East Mississippi 
Grays, Capt. A. Y. Harper; Crystal Springs Guard, Capt. A. B. Lowe; 
Rockport Steel Blades, Capt. A. Steele; Lake Rebels, Capt. W. L. 
Towner; Simpson Fencibles, Capt. E. R. Bennett; Lowry Rifles, 
Capt. W. J. Finch. Whole number, including field and staff officers, 
601 men. 

Seventh Regiment: Colonel, E. J. Goode; lieutenant-colonel, H. 
Mayson; major, R. 8. Carter. Franklin Rifles, Capt. W. J. Proby: 
Bogue Chitto Rifles, Captain Brister; Amite Rifles, Capt. B. F. Johns; 
Franklin Beauregards, Capt. D. H. Parker; Jeff. Davis Sharpshooters, 
Capt. Henry Pope; Marion Men, Capt. W. J. Rankin; Goode Rifles, 
Captain Cannon; Covington Rifles, Capt. J. T. Fairly; Dahlgren 
Rifles, Capt. P. B. Williams; Quitman Rifles, Captain Huff; 911 men, 
rank and file. Col. W. H. Bishop, Lieut. Col. A. G. Mills. 

Eighth Regiment:” Colonel, G. G. Flynt; lieutenant-colonel, J. T. 
Gates; major, G. F. Peek. Yankee Terrors, Captain Watkins; South- 
ern Sentinels, Capt. W. C. Day; Ellisville Invincibles, Capt. Sam. 
Prince; True Confederates, Capt. W. T. Ward; Tolson Guards, Capt. 
G. W. Ryan; Moody True Blues, Capt. G. C. Chandler; Confederate 
Guards, Captain Knox; Tullahoma Hardshells, Captain Sansom; 
Pinckney Guard, Captain Austin; Clarke County Rangers, Captain 
McNeill. Whole number, including field and staff officers, 888 men. 
Col. J. C. Wilkinson, Lieut. Col. A. McNeill, Maj. John F. Smith. 

Ninth Regiment: Colonel, James R. Chalmers; lieutenant-colonel, 
James L. Autry; major, [A. R.] Bowdre. Irrepressibles, Capt. 
; Jeff. Davis Rifles, Capt. Sam. Benton; Invincibles, Capt. 
; Lafayette Guard, Capt. William Delay; Home Guard, 
Capt. T. W. Harris; Quitman Rifle Guard, Capt. R. McGowan; Horn 
Lake Volunteers, Capt. John H. Foster; De Soto Guards, Capt. 8. O. B. 
Crockett; Panola Guard, Capt. B. Moore; Corinth Rifles, Capt. W. H. 
Kilpatrick; 933 men, rank and file. Maj. T. H. Lynam. 

Tenth Regiment: Colonel, Robert A. Smith; lieutenant-colonel, 
Joseph R. Davis; major, E. H. Gregory. Ben Bullard Rifles, Capt. 
J. G. Bullard; Lowndes Southrons, Capt. W. B. Wade; Mississippi 
Rifles, Capt. James Barr; Hill City Cadets, Capt. J. E. White; 
Avengers, Capt. George H. Lipscomb; Madison Rifles, Capt. George 
R. Fearn; Bahala Rifles, Capt. O. T. Gibbs; Yazoo Minute Men, 
Capt. H. Peake; Rankin Rifles, Capt. G. N. Miller; Port Gibson Rifles, 
Capt. W. McKeever; 841 men, rank and file. Col. James Barr. 

Eleventh Regiment: Colonel, W. H. Moore; lieutenant-colonel, P. F. 
Liddell; major, University Grays, Capt. W. B. Lowry; 
Coahoma Invincibles, Capt. 8. N. Delany; Chickasaw Rifles, Capt. 
J. B. Williams; Neshoba Rifles, Capt. A. H. Franklin; Prairie 
Guards, Capt. J. T. W. Hairston; Noxubee Rifles, Capt. George T. 
Wier; Lamar Rifles, Capt. ; Chickasaw Guards, Capt. 
W. I. Tucker; Van Dorn Reserves, Capt. R. O. Reynolds; Carroll 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 931 


County Rifles, Capt. R. W. Williamson. Whole number, rank and 
file, 747 men. Col. 8. F. Butler, Maj. W. B. Lowry. 

Twelfth Regiment: Colonel, R. Griffith; lieutenant-colonel, W. H. 
Taylor; major, John R. Dickins. Charley Clark Rifles, Capt. John 
J. McLean; Natchez Fencibles, Capt. E. M. Blackburn; Raymond 
Fencibles, Capt. Cuddy Thomas; Pettus Relief, Capt. M. B. Harris; 
Sardis Blues, Capt. ; Durant Rifles, Capt. John A. 
Cason; Vicksburg Sharpshooters, Capt. H. H. Miller; Claiborne 
Guards, Capt. Henry Hughes; Satartia Rifles, Capt. E. R. Gale; Law- 
rence Rifles, Capt. R. J. Bowen; 1,013 men, rank and file. Col. 
W.H. Taylor. 

Thirteenth Regiment: Colonel, William Barksdale; lieutenant- 
colonel, ; Major, . Winston Guards, Capt. 
John M. Bradley; Wayne Rifles, Capt. W.J.Eckford; Pettus Guard, 
Capt. 8. J. Randell; Kemper Legion, Capt. J. W. Carter; Minute 
Men of Attala, Capt. L. D. Fletcher; Secessionists, Capt. D. R. Mc- 
Intosh; Almutcha Infantry, Capt. P. H. Bozman; Spartan Band, 
Capt. W. Mellard; Lauderdale Guards, Capt. Kennon McElroy; 890 
men, rank and file. Col. J. W. Carter, Lieut. Col. K. McElroy, Maj. 
J. M. Bradley. 

Fourteenth Regiment: Colonel, W. E. Baldwin; lieutenant-colonel, 
M. E. Norris; major, W. L. Doss. Enterprise Guards, Capt. R. S. 
Wier; Quitman Invincibles, Capt. J. P. McGowan; Shubuta Rifles, 
Capt. R.J. Lawrence; Meridian Invincibles, Capt. W. F. Compton; 
Beauregard Rifles No. 2, Capt. A. 8. Lee; Columbus Riflemen, Capt. 
; Monroe Guards, Capt. F. M. Rogers; Monroe Volun- 
teers, Capt. 8. J. Gholson; Agency Rifles, Capt. A. J. Maxwell; 1,034 
men, rank and file. Colonel Donovan. 

Fifteenth Regiment: Colonel, W. 8. Statham; lieutenant-colonel, 
J. W. Hemphill; major, J. B. Dennis. Oktibbeha Plowboys, Capt. 
J. M. Watson; Quitman Rifles, Capt. J. W. Wade; Winona Stars, 
Capt. Thomas Booth; McClung Rifles, Capt. ; Wigfall 
Rifles, Capt. W. F. Brantly; Choctaw Guards, Capt. “ar 
Long Creek Rifles, Capt. L. 8. Terry; Grenada Rifles, Capt. 
; Water Valley Rifles, Capt. B. H. Collins; Yalobusha Rifles, 
Capt. F. M. Aldridge; 1,002 men, rank and file. Col. M. Farrell. 

Sixteenth Regiment: Colonel, C. Posey; lieutenant-colonel, Robert 
Clarke; major, Jeff. Bankston. Wilkinson Rifles, Capt. A. M. Feltus; 
Adams Light Guard No. 1, Capt. D. Walworth; Adams Light Guard 
No. 2, Capt. 8. E. Baker; Fairview Rifles, Capt. J. T. Moore; Sum- 
mit Rifles, Capt. J. D. Blincoe; Quitman Guards, Capt. 8. A. 
Matthews; Crystal Spring Rifles, Capt. J. C. Davis; Westville Guards, 
Capt. G. J. D. Funchess; The Defenders, Capt. W. H. Hardy; Jasper 
Grays, Capt. J. J. Shannon; 1,002 men, rank and file. Lieut. Col.’ 
J. J. Shannon, Maj. Sam. Baker. 

Seventeenth Regiment: Colonel, W. 8. Featherston; lieutenant- 
colonel, John McGuirk; major, J. M. Lyles. Panola Vindicators, 
Capt. George P. Foote; Quitman Grays, Capt. W. D. Holder; Pettus 
Rifles, Capt. M. Bell; Confederate Guards, Capt. ; Mis- 
Sissippi Rangers, Capt. ; Rough and Readies, Capt. 
H. E. Williamson; Samuel Benton Relief Rifles, Capt. B. G. Laurence; 
Magnolia Guards, Capt. ; Buena Vista Rifles, Capt. 
T. L. Rogers; Burnsville Blues, Capt. J. C. Waters; 1,000 men, rank 
and file. Col. W. D. Holder. 

Eighteenth Regiment: Colonel, E. R. Burt; lieutenant-colonel, T. M. 
Griffin; major, J. W. Balfour. Confederate Rifles, Capt. J. M. Jayne; 
Burt Rifles, Capt. ; Mississippi College Rifles, Capt. 


932 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


J. W. Welborn; Hamer Rifles, Capt. C. F. Hamer; McClung Rifles, 
Capt. ; Beauregard Rifles, Capt. ; Brown 
Rebels, Capt. A. G. Brown; Confederates, Capt. O. R. Singleton; 
Camden Rifles, Capt. Adam McWillie; Benton Rifles, Capt. W. H. 
Luse; 723 men, rank and file. Col. T. M. Griffin. 

Nineteenth Regiment: Lieutenant-colonel, John Mullins; major, 
N. H. Harris. No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Twentieth Regiment: Colonel D. R. Russell; lieutenant-colonel, 
H. H. Miller; major, William N. Brown. No muster-rolls returned 
to this department. 

Twenty-first Regiment: Colonel, B. G. Humphreys; lieutenant- 
colonel, William L. Brandon; major, D. N. Moody. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. - 

Twenty-second Regiment: Colonel, J. D. Lester; lieutenant-colonel, 
H. J. Reid; major, T. C. Dockery. No muster-rolls returned to this 
department. 

Twenty-third Regiment:* Colonel, T. J. Davidson; lieutenant- 
colonel, J. M. Wells; major, John R. Duvall. Franklin Guards, 
Capt. R. J. Hill; Molino Rifles, Capt. E. M. Wells; Tippah Tigers, 
Capt. P. Holcombe; Tippah Riflemen, Capt. M. M. Corley; Blount 
Guards, Capt. C. G. Blount; Kossuth Hunters, Capt. R. B. Allen; 
Blackland Gideonites, Capt. ; Plenitude Invincibles, 
Capt. ; Thompson Invincibles, Captain Kennedy; Stubbs 
Rifles, Capt. R. R. Knight. Whole number, ineluding field and 
staff officers, 737 men. 

Twenty-fourth Regiment: Colonel, W. F. Dowd; lieutenant-colonel, 
R. P. McKelvaine; major, W. C. Staples. Buena Vista Hornets, 
Capt. J. W. Buchanan; Dowd Rebels, Capt. J. D. Smith; Gaines 
Warriors, Capt. Henry Roberts; Helen Johnston Guards, Capt. E. C. 
Postell; Cummings Grays, Capt. B. F. Toomer; Choctaw Rebels, 
Capt. W. C. Staples; Mississippi Confederates, Capt. W. L. Lyles; 
Kemper Rebels, Capt. R. P. McKelvaine; Caledonia Rifles, Capt. 
M. M. Rowan; one company not returned; 717 men, rank and file. 

Twenty-fifth Regiment: Colonel, J. D. Martin; lieutenant-colonel, 
E. F. McGehee; major, Thomas H. Mangum. Nomuster-rolls returned 
to this department. 

Twenty-sixth Regiment: Colonel, A. E. Reynolds; lieutenant- 


colonel, F. M. Boone; major, T. F. Parker. No muster-rolls re-_. 


turned to this department. 

Twenty-seventh Regiment; Colonel, Thomas M. Jones; lieutenant- 
colonel, James L. Autry; major, George H. Lipscomb. No muster- 
rolls returned to this department. 

Twenty-eighth Regiment—Cavalry: Colonel, P. B. Starke; heuten- 
ant-colonel, [S. W.] Ferguson; major, E. P. Jones. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. . 

Twenty-ninth Regiment: Colonel, E. ©. Walthall; lieutenant- 
colonel, W. F. Brantly; major, J. B. Morgan. Robson Rifles, Capt. 
R. Robson; Lafayette Rebels, Capt. N. A. Isom; Panola Patriots, 
Capt. T. F. Wilson; Dixie Rifles, Capt. J. IF. Harrington; De Soto 
Brothers, First Lieut. George W. Reynolds commanding; Fishing 
Creek Avengers, Capt. S. B. Herron; Oakland Rebels, Capt. W. B. - 
Craig; Hampton Guards, Capt. J. M. Hampton; Gale Reserves, Capt. 
R. G. Johnson; Walthall Rebels, Capt. J. F. Taylor. Whole number, 
including field and staff officers, 876 men. 


* See Second Regiment, p. 929. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES 933 


Thirtieth Regiment: Colonel, G. F. Neill; lieutenant-colonel, J. I. 
Seales; major, H. A. Reynolds. True Mississippians, Capt. T. H. Rob- 
inson; Neill Guards, Capt. J. M. Johnson; Dixie Boys, First Lieut. 
William Ray commanding; Carroll Minute Men, Capt. F. P. Pleas- 
ants; Yazoo Grays, Capt. Q. D. Gibbs; Dixie Heroes, Capt. W. V. 
Davis; (no name), Capt. John K. Allen; (no name), Capt. Samuel 
Young; Buckner Rebels, Capt. John N. Campbell; one company not 
returned. Whole number, including field and staff officers, 763 men. 

Thirty-first Regiment: Colonel, J. A. Orr; lieutenant-colonel, 
M. D. L. Stephens; major, H. EK. Topp. No muster-rolls returned to 
this department. 

Thirty-second Regiment: Colonel, M. P. Lowrey; lieutenant-colonel, 
W.H.H. Tison; major, F. C. Karr. Southern Farmers, Capt. Alex- . 
ander Archer; Buckner Boys, Capt. Benjamin J. Kizer; Lowrey 
Rebels, Capt. F. 8. Norman; Johnston Avengers, Capt. D. P. Rogers; 
Tishomingo Avengers, Capt. J. G. Lowrey; Lowrey Invineibles, Capt. 
W. M. Irions; Hatchie Rifles, Capt. John N. Scally; Beauregard 
Rifles, Capt. J. H. Tankersly; W. R. Nelson Guards, Capt. W. R. 
Nelson; Tishomingo Rebels, Capt. J. W. Swinney. Whole number, 
including field and staff officers, 783 men. 

Thirty-third Regiment: Colonel, D. W. Hurst; lieutenant-colonel, 
W. B. Johnson; major, J. L. Drake. Amite Defenders, First Lieut. 
Moses Jackson commanding; Cumberland Guards, Capt. A. R. Booth; 
Leake Rebels, Capt. R. J. Hall; Rebel Avengers, Capt. W. S. War- 
ren; Holmesville Guards, Capt. J. T. Lamkin; Amite Guards, Capt. 
H. Morgan; Franklin Guards, Capt. R. R. Webb; Davis Guards, 
' Capt. J. M. Tinnon; Mississippi Defenders, Capt. W. B. Johnson; 
Johnson Guards, Capt. R. O. Byrne. Whole number, including field 
and staff officers, 792 men. 

Thirty-fourth Regiment: Colonel, Samuel Benton; lieutenant-col- 
onel, Daniel B. Wright; major (not reported). Tippah Farmers, 
Capt. Granville A. Woods; Bowen Company, Capt. H. J. Bowen; 
Goodman Guards, Capt. T. A. Falconer; Dixie Guards, Capt. Daniel 
B. Wright; Cold Water Rebels, Capt. H.T. Walton; Tippah Rangers, 
Capt. John Y. Murry; Tippah Rebels, Capt. A. C. Rucker; Missis- 
sippi Avengers, Capt. M. F. Wilkins; Smith Rifles, Capt. E. W. Smith; 
Sons of Liberty, Capt. J. B. Huddleston. Whole number, including 
field officers, 779 men. ; 

Thirty-fifth Regiment: Colonel, W. 8S. Barry. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. i 

Thirty-sixth Regiment: Colonel, D. J. Brown; lieutenant-colonel, 
S. G. Harper; major, W. W. Witherspoon. Dixie Guards, Capt. 
Alexander Yates; Edwards Tigers, Capt. 8. K. Smith; Hillsborough 
Rebels, Capt. T. J. Denson; Copiah Rebels, Capt. L. B. Harris; Harper 
Reserves, Capt. C. P. Partin; Mount Zion Guards, Capt. T. J. Chris- 
man; Zollicoffer Avengers, Capt. Henry T. Siebe; Yankee Hunters, 
Capt. J. 8. Tatom; , Capt. R. D. Ogletree; , Capt. J. W. 
Ward. Two companies not returned. Number reported, including 
field officers, 624 men. | 

Thirty-seventh Regiment: Colonel, Robert McLain; lieutenant- 
colonel, O. S. Holland; major, John McGee. Shubuta Guards, Capt. 
T. T. Howze; Enterprise Tigers, Capt. W. C. Turner; Patton’s Com- 
pany, Capt. William 8. Patton; Clarke County Rescuers, Capt. 8. H. 
Terral; Yancey Guards, Capt. 8. A. Nunn; Jasper Guards, Capt. A. 
F. Dantzler; Jasper Avengers, Capt. Francis B. Loper; McLain Rifles, 
Capt. W. W.. Wier; De Soto Rifles, Capt. C. C. Terrill; McLemore 


- 


934 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Guards, Capt. W. P. Anderson. Number reported, including field 
officers, 888 men. 

Thirty-eighth Regiment: Colonel, F. W. Adams; lieutenant-colonel, 
Preston Brent; major, Franklin W. Foxworth. Wolf Creek Marks- 
men, Capt. J. Dishman; Brent Rifles, First Lieut. H. 8. Blumfield com- 
manding; Van Dorn Guards, Capt. R. C. McCoy; Wilkinson Guards, 
Capt. J. H. Jones; Johnston Avengers, Capt. Leander M. Graves; 
Holmes County Volunteers, Capt. Walter L. Keirn; Hancock Rebels, 
Capt. D. B. Seal; Columbia Guards, Capt. A. E. 8. Foxworth; White 
Rebels, Capt. John F. White; Price Relief, Capt. W. M. Estelle. 
Number reported, including field officers, 963 men. 

Thirty-ninth Regiment: Colonel, W. B. Shelby; lieutenant-colonel, 
W. E. Ross; major, W. Monroe Quin. Burt Avengers, Capt. W. E. 
Ross; Simpson Guards, Capt. R. J. Durr; Dixie Guards, Capt. J. R. 
Wilson; Rankin Rebels, Capt. 8. C. Myers; Johnston Avengers, Capt. 
M. V. Collum; Barry Guards, Capt. L. H. Tillman; Newton Hornets, 
Capt. J.C. McElroy; Price Rebels, Capt. William Price; Pearl River 
Guards, Capt. C. Bb. Banks; Monroe Quin Guards, First Lieut. J. A. 
Nash commanding. Number reported, including field officers, 895 
men. 

Fortieth Regiment: Colonel, W. B. Colbert; lieutenant-colonel, J. 
A. P. Campbell; major, E. McDonald. Campbell Guards, Capt. J. A. 
P. Campbell; Confederate Guards, Capt. R. B. Campbell; Standing 
Pine Guards, Capt. James R. Childress; (no name), Capt. A. M. Greer; 
(no name), Capt. W. McD. Gibbons; Attala Guards, Capt. George P. 
Wallace; Oak Bowery Invincibles, Capt. R. K. Clayton; (no name), 
Capt. M. 8. Latimer; (no name), Capt. W. P. Culbertson; Parrott 
Rifles, Capt. William 8. Parrott. Number reported, including field 
officers, 951 men. 

Forty-first Regiment: Colonel, W. F. Tucker; lieutenant-colonel, 
7a OL; . Pontotoe Grays, Capt. S. E. 
Melson; Koger’s Company, Capt. T. J. Koger; Duke’s Company, Capt. 
H. J. Duke; Abe’s Rejecters, Capt. Lewis Ball; Verona Rifles, Capt. 
Thomas C. Ashcraft; Williams’ Company, Capt. Joseph P. Williams; 
Beckett’s Company, Capt. N. J. Beckett; Hicks’ Company, Capt. James 
M. Hicks; Mississippi Rip Raps, Capt. G. D. Moore; Okolona Guards, 
Capt. John Richardson. Number reported, including field officers, 
1,136 men. 

Forty-second Regiment—Cavalry: Colonel, - ; lieuten- 
ant-colonel, James Gordon; major, J. L. Harris. Loula White Rebels, 
Capt. J. F. White; Choctaw Rangers, Capt. R. C. Love; Newton 
Rangers, Capt. J. J. Perry; Mooresville Blues, Capt. J. L. McCarty; 
Mrs. Body Guard, First Lieut. John Gaddis commanding; East Missis- 
sippi Dragoons, Capt. James W. Hogan; Kemper Dragoons, Capt. W. 
G. Beck; Ruffin’s Company, Capt. James Ruffin; Pontotoc Rangers, 
Capt. Joshua T. Pitts; Lauderdale Cavalry, Capt. W. V. Raney. 
Number reported, including field officers, 753 men. . 

Forty-third Regiment: Colonel, W. H. Moore. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. 

Forty-fourth Regiment: Colonel, A. K: Blythe. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. 

Forty-fifth Regiment: Colonel, A. B. Hardcastle. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. 

Forty-sixth [Forty-ninth] Regiment: Colonel, J. W. Balfour. No 
muster-rolls returned to this department. : 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 935 


Wirt Adams’ Cavalry: Colonel, Wirt Adams; lieutenant-colonel, 
Robert C. Wood, jr.; major; James Hagan. No muster-rolls 
returned to this department. ) 

First Regiment of Artillery: Colonel, W. T. Withers; lieutenant- 
colonel, James P. Parker; major, B. R. Holmes. Company <A, Capt. 
5. J. Ridley; Company B, Capt. A. J. Herod; Company ©, Capt. H. 
P. Turner; Company D, Capt. J. L. Wofford; Company F, Capt. J. 
L. Bradford; Company G, Capt. J. J. Cowan; Company H, Capt. 
George Ralston; Company I, Capt. Robert Bowman; Company K, 
Capt. George F. Abbay. One muster-roll not returned. Number 
reported, including field officers, 1,262 men. 

Ward’s Battalion of Artillery: Major, M. S. Ward. First Com- 
pany, First Lieut. J. D. Vance commanding; Second Company, 
Capt. J. H. Yates; Third Company, Capt. J. M. McLendon. Whole 
number reported, 233 men. 

Fourth Mississippi Battalion—Cavalry: Lieutenant-colonel, Charles 
Baskerville. No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Fifth Mississippi Battalion—Infantry: Major, W. H. Kilpatrick. 
No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Kighth Mississippi Battalion—Infantry: Lieutenant-colonel, J. 8. 
Terral. No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Kighth Mississippi Battalion—Sharpshooters: Major, W. C. Rich- 
ards. No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Tenth Mississippi Battalion—Infantry: Major, W. A. Rayburn. 
No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

Eleventh Mississippi Battalion—Heavy Artillery: Lieutenant- 
colonel, R. Sterling. No muster-rolls returned to this department. 

First Regiment Minute Men: Colonel, Benjamin King; lieutenant- 
colonel, J. Lawhon; major, B. F. Sutton. Time expired. 

Second Regiment Minute Men: Colonel, D. H. Quinn; lieutenant- 
colonel, James M. Conerly; major, J. O. Magee. Time expired. 

Third Regiment Minute Men: Colonel, William J. Owens; lieuten- 
ant-colonel, J. A. Harlin; major, F. C. Mercer. Time expired. 

Fourth Regiment Minute Men: Colonel, W. C. Bromley; lieutenant- 
colonel, J. J. Stone; major, B. M. Kilgore. Time expired. 

Fifth Regiment Minute Men: Colonel, Henry C. Robinson; lieu- 
tenant-colonel, D. W. Metts; major, Samuel J. Randell. Time 
expired. 

First Battalion Minute Men: Major, W. B. Harper. Time expired. 

Second Battalion Minute Men: Major, Henry F. Cook. Time ex- 
pired. 

Third Battalion Minute Men: Lieutenant-colonel, Thomas A. Bur- 
gin; major, Bb. B. Moore. Time expired. . 

Fourth Battalion Minute Men: Lieutenant-colonel, A. J. Postle- 
thwaite; major, John D. Farley. Time expired. 

First Battalion Cavalry Minute Men: Major, G. L. Blythe. 


CAVALRY ORGANIZATIONS. 


First Regiment: Colonel, G. L. Blythe; leutenant-colonel, A. C. 
Edmondson; major, C. L. Bowen. Term of service expired and in 
process of reorganization. 

Second Regiment: Colonel, J. F. Smith; lieutenant-colonel, W. L. 
Lowry; major, Company A, Capt. 8. G. Street; Com- 
pany Bb, Capt. W. K. Posey; Company C, Capt. W. G. Martin; Com- 
pany D, Capt. W. H. Wilson; Company E, Capt. E. M. Wells; 


936 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. ‘ 
Company F, Capt. Joseph A. Johnson; Company G, Capt. George 
Isbell; Company H, Capt. D. C. Gilleylin; Company K, Capt. W. L. 
Lowry. 

Third Regiment: Colonel, John McGuirk; lieutenant-colonel, J. A. 
Barksdale; major, B. M. Kilgore. Company A, Captain Stillwell: 
Company B, Capt. W. L. Farris; Company C, Capt. T. J. Kyle: 
Company D, Capt. John W. Logan; Company E, Capt. T. M. Griffin; 
Company F, Capt. H. H. Barksdale; Company G, Capt. James A. 
Barksdale; Company H, Capt. B. M. Kilgore; Company I, Capt. T. W. 
Webb. 

Ham’s Battalion: Major, [T. W.| Ham. Company A, Capt. B. H. 
Estes; Company B, Capt. T. F. M. Payne; Company C, Capt. J. P. 
Yates; Company D, Capt. W. L. White; Company E, Capt. C. W. 
MeNeill. 

Davenport’s Battalion: Major, S. Davannarn Company A, Capt. 
H. B. Brown; Company B, Capt. W. P. Pardue; Company OC, Capt. 
C. H. Carter. Transferred to Confederate service. 

Perrin’s Battalion: Lieutenant-colonel, R. O. Perrin; major, A. C. 
Reed. Companies—Captain Perrin’s, Captain Allen’s, Captain Metts’, 
Captain Moseley’s, Captain Montgomery’s, Captain Rayburn’s , Captain 
Foard’s, Captain Thomas’, Captain Walker’s. 

Unattached companies: Herndon Rangers, Lieutenant Montgomery 
commanding; Mississippi Rangers, Capt. W. b. Peery; Weatherall’s, 
Capt. J. T. Weatherall; Gholson Guards, Capt. T. C. Bookter; Har- 
tin’s company, Capt. J. A. Hartin; Buford’s company, Capt. J. H. 
Buford; Hall’s company, Captain Hall: Saunders’ company, Captain 
Saunders: Thames’ company, Captain Thames (disbanded); Red’s 
company, Captain Red (organized and gone into Confederate service). 

Cavalry companies unattached: Capt. Samuel Mathews, Capt. J. B. 
Dunn, Capt. W. B. Prince, Capt. A. H. Forrest, Capt. W. C. Max- 
well, Capt. R. L. Adams, Captain Stillwell, Capt. W. F. Gartley, 
Captain Weatherall. 


Local defense companies. 


Name of company. County. | Captain. Description. |No. 
Joeake Rangers: 2.05. overs scorn ena ss tener ep y JJ Nash 5. cance he ece ee Cavalry. 22.2% 36 
‘Capitol Guards 2.22... scans Soae ens Hinds <22tncess<s We W. dlardy <n oe Infantry -...-- 71 
Knox's Company. i: 04.20 60.2 «eyes Neshoba 244... <2... 0. Gs Knox Se pe cae Cavalry....... 45 
Morgan Riflemen]sces.-e----2 5 5-er Calhoun sesscersec C.. GC. Morgan .- 2. s-eee pee OJ csees 35 
HOeOte's COMPANY .ceee.<<Saes estar INOx@be6s fe2e see 5 HOW. Foote. 2ss2ceseleeeee do's eseeee 25 
Yalobusha Rangers: ?i.. 222. -s--2 5-1 Yalobusha....-... L. R. Stewart ......-.-|-...- do: .¢ 525226 58 
aiden Guardsi 2: nao. deen eece eas Garrolle: 2 eee. sae W.J. Booth........-.. Infantryecoese 56 
Want S:COMPAany ~ 2 sats ste ee se ele aie ses INoxUbeemse-e == ae (AY HK. Want. ther -seee eee do’ 362.82 37 
SBULG Ss COMPANY, s22--e6eeese sae eee West Point -.-----. Walliam BurtS:2ocees-|eeeee doc... 288 43 
Barr’s company..-.-..-- PA a HA AF Calhounyers ss sess AS Barr 4 oe Sasew ote ede dG eases 33 
Gaves COMpPanyice +. ot. 45a Louisville S252. Ww. Gate... Lee dose A4 
Ghoctaw: oilver, Grays... sees ecen sc Choctaw .. ooo 5) 1G Wey DPA xaos cee teens dope at 22s 26 
Choctaw Reservesi-¢ 24-6 54-5 ee sealers MO Se ee eae James Drane:....--.--- Cavalry 222224 40 
MEOCALORIATOS ces me are atele =m Hes ee eee tee Wilkinson.....--- GHaGordon Naas. Infantry ...--- 28 | 
SEM p1e78| COMPANY clase soso aie ee eee 0). elu eee Re Sem plessoccessee. ae Cavalry ..-... 22 
SIRT PRLS Se ee aca actos seca aman eee Calhoun t2..22s2 = KIM ecCord 222-22 iceleeeer 0 "ssc nae 46 
HAP htOWGL Sie oeess ota nae see esoeemel| se. se dO cecose sees Thomas Hightower..-|.-.-.- do (3. = 36 
Stande@ter's «cc. bot esaascscee seat: Chickasaw....---- J.J. Standeter ......-- Infantryeo2e—5 51 
Neshoba Rangersiecscss-ce2o- 5-2 sss Neshobaresaccescs J.McH. Wilson. ..---- Cavalry..----- 32 
Terry’s company Cine ee fe PER 2 ok Chunkey Station* | P. P..Terry ........... Infantryee-eee 20 
Foster Creek Rangers .....-..-...--- Copiah?..2op eee H.G. D. Brown ....-.- Cavalry .2-2.- 27 
(ROOMOral lS tenamces = i eete ae ai eters Pontotoc 4. s22-2r SEL. Davlor ss. 2. see cone dO [Semeeee 24 
Wilson’s company -.-.---------------|-+<-+- dote.-4 Siecle tle Cea ison. 23224 es- Infantry.-.--. 27 
Williams’ company .-.---------.----.- Itawamba, .2-25--- Thomas Williams .--.].---- GO. Seiose 24 
Wesson Arpilleryens: 2 Mate ts2 2s ete Choctaw ......--- J.C. Kittrell ....2.....| Artillery eee 39 
Noxubee Home Guards ..-........-.. Noxubee) sear J.B. McLelland....... Cavalry “7. -<2s 28 


* Newton Gaaney 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. _ 937 


| NOVEMBER 3, 1863.—For Seddon to Vance, in relation to the effort 
made to enlist troops east of the Chowan River, &c., see Series I, Vol. 
XXIX, Part II, p. 818. | 


[NOVEMBER 3, 1863.—For MeCulloch’s cireular, calling upon-the 
men of the Northern Sub-District of Texas to organize’ for local 
defense, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part I], p. 388.] | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADIT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 144. Richmond, November 6, 1863. 
To relieve prevalent misconceptions in regard to the policy and prac- 
tice of the Department on the subject of impressment, the following, 
being extracts of general orders of March 19, is repeated: 


GENERAL ORDERS, ) ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 


No. 31. j Richmond, March 19, 1868. 

In consequence of numerous applications made by various persons to the War 
Department, it is obvious that some misconception in regard to the instructions 
of the Secretary of War in relation to the impressment of supplies must exist on 
the-part of the people, or that the agents of the Government have violated their 
instructions. Now, therefore, for the purpose of removing such misconception, 
and to prevent any violation of those instructions, it is hereby ordered: 

I. That no officer of the Government shall, under any circumstances whatever, 
impress the supplies which a party has for his, own consumption, or that of his 
family, employés, or slaves. 

II. That no officer shall at any time, unless specially ordered so to do by a gen- 
eral commanding in a case of exigency, impress supplies which are on their way 
to market for sale on arrival. 

III. These orders were included in the instructions originally issued in relation 
to impressment by the Secretary of War, and the officers exercising such author- 
ity are again notified that ‘‘any one acting without or beyond” the authority 
given in those instructions will be held strictly responsible. 


In conformity with the foregoing, to prevent any inconsiderate 
action on the part of officers or agents charged with the duty of 
impressment, they are enjoined, until further orders, which will not 
be given unless under imperative exigencies for the supply of the 
Army, not to impress any necessaries of subsistence to man, owned by 
producers, in transitu to market, or after arrival at market, unless 
retained an unreasonable time from sale to consumers. 

By order: ; 

5S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 145. Richmond, November 7, 1868. 
The following appendix to the report of the appraisers for the State 
of Virginia is published for the information of all concerned: 


Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON: 


Str: As indicated in our last report, we respectfully submit a few changes in 
our schedules of prices. Upon the various grades of cotton and woolen cloths 


938 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and warps used by the Government we assess the prices annexed to each descrip- 
tion of goods as follows: ; 


Article. Quality. Description. Quantity. | Price 
67 | Army woolen cloth, 3-4yard..7-..-.:..-..---- Good ...| 100unces per yard.|.Per yard..| $5. 00 
68) PArmy woolenseloth, 222. 0.- ee casee scene ee eee weiner ae sons ssh aaclee See eee (a) 
69 | Army woolen cloth, 6-4 yard.......-.--......- .---do...| 200unces per yard.| Per yard-..| 10.00 
70, Armyawoolenrclovlia 22 sce lee seins ol tye oe we GOG |. sl. coon ie aa (a) 
Cle) UBIO) S, 3-454 ie dase aaa maae eee ees Oe .---do...| 6 ounces per yard -| Per yard..| 4.00 
Y2,| Cotton shirtings, 3:4 3.02 saben ee ee ehs oak do ...| 44 yards to pound .|.--.. Ove . 56 
io 1 COtLOM SHIFUN ES 16S Me oan See eee tee --do ...| 32 yards to pound -|...-.- do . . 84 
74%, Cotton sheetings, 4-4 02 a. erect walate ---do ...| 3 yards to pound --|-.-.- do. . 874 
fo Cotton, \Osnaburg, 3-42.5.-2-2-.sssedeceeeeeees ..--do...| 6 ounces per yard .|.-... do 15 
(OumCottomOsnabiure (02 vem eaeenee eee e oe -.--do ...| 8 ounces per yard -|..-.- do . 88 
(ip Cotton: drills yieS ese eee eae ee aioe .---do ...| 3 yards to pound ..|....- do . 88 
(See Couonshir pine stripesa sete tee sere eee peak (Ole spllaetea's do 22: stajasseee Beets . 88 
197ee Cottonitent Cloth a6 fase ee oo ete eeleee do 10 ounces to yard .|.-..- do : 12 
BO. id oh nn fae cic shee bade nthe: demeiede nue oe DUE oie oe donc oe re ee (b) 
Side COULOROWALPS “ena cse: eeacees cebeine ce sae eee CO= 4] A. os cisegs ie aicin Roe Per pound 2. 00 


(a) Pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 
(b) On the above enumerated cotton cloths, pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 


Good hay taken on the farms of producers, unbaled, we assess at $3 per 100 
pounds, and good wheat straw taken on the farmsof the producers we also assess 
at $1.30 per 100 pounds, unbaled. For hauling hay and wheat straw, &c., per 100 
pounds, 8 cents per mile, and for hauling corn and wheat per bushel, 4 cents per 
mile, and for baling hay and wheat straw, 50 cents per 100 pounds. 

Upon further consideration we have assessed the price of good fat, fresh pork 
at 60 cents per pound, net weight. 

We respectfully suggest to the Secretary of War to have our reports and 
schedules printed in hand-bill form, and that several copies be furnished to each 
of the quartermasters’ and commissaries’ agents engaged in impressing for the 
Government. 

Most respectfully, 
E. W. HUBARD, 
ROBT. GIBBONEY, 
Commissioners of Virginia. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, SUBSISTENCE DEPT., 
Richmond, November 7, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith an estimate of funds 
for the subsistence of the Army for the six months from January 1 to 
June 30, 1864. The estimate forwarded to you on the 3d instant was 
made for the period of one year, because the estimate furnished before 
the last meeting of Congress, made for six months, was returned to 
be made for one year. The estimate of funds for the current year 
was made under the impression of the possibility that the Bureau 
might be able to obtain for issue to troops all the articles prescribed 
by regulations as-a part of ration. In consequence of the difficulty 
of transmitting funds to Europe, the deficiency of tonnage to bring 
over the small quantity of supplies which have been purchased there, 
and the failure of almost all contractors to comply with their engage- 
ments, it has not been possible to do this, and hence the large part of 
the last estimate now unexpended. 

It is respectfully submitted, however, that it will not be proper to 
deduct the whole of the balance from the estimate for the ensuing 


- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 939 
year, as officers of this Bureau are now engaged in buying up the rice 
and corn crops of South Carolina and Georgia, which are to be paid 
for from this appropriation. In addition to this it may be stated that 
from the great difficulty which has been experienced in obtaining 
funds from Treasury many officers have been obliged to buy almost 
entirely on credit, and that hence the amount of outstanding certified 
accounts is very great. 

Believing, however, that both these purposes will not require more 
than half the amount of unexpended appropriations ($103,378,251), 
$50,000,000 have been deducted from the estimate. ) 

In making the estimate no account has been taken of the supplies 
to be received on account of tax in kind, as at this date no data ean 
be obtained on which to base a calculation of the probable quantity 
to be gotten from that source. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
; L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


The amount of the estimate is $57,988,000. 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, November 7, 1868. 
Maj. 8S. W. MELTON, 
Assistant Adjutant-General : 


Sir: I have endeavored to procure from the scanty material now 
in this office the information you desired to be furnished you in order 
that you might see what conscription had done in the past, and what 
it would probably do in the future, in filling up the ranks of the 
Army. 

The data upon which this report is made, you will perceive, is taken 
from the four States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Virginia. The business of conscription in the other States of the 
Confederacy east of the Mississippi River having been turned over to 
the bureau of which General Pillow has charge, this office does not 
afford in respect to them any data upon which to base even a conjec- 
ture upon the points submitted by you. 

The superintendent of this Bureau some time since issued a cireular 
to the commandants of conscripts calling for reports upon all the 
points upon which you desired information. These reports have not 
yet been received, but are expected certainly during the present 
month. The accompanying paper, marked A, will give you the total 
number of men enrolled, detailed, and assigned to the Army in these 
States, as appears from reports made to this office. It is believed that 
in these States three-fifths of the material under the present law has 
been absorbed in the execution of the conscript law; in other words, 
that for every three men who have been enrolled and put into the 
Army two yet remain in these States liable to conscription. It will 
be seen that of the number of men who have been enrolled about 
two-sixths have been put into the Army, one sixth detailed, and the 
remaining three-sixths have been exempted by virtue of their avoca- 
tions and the laws of Congress. Let us say, then, that there have 
been enrolled (in round numbers) 75,000, of which two-sixths have 
been assigned to the Army (25,000), one-sixth have been detailed 
(12,500), three-sixths, the remainder, have been exempted (37,500)— 
total, 75,000—and that the same proportions will be observed in the 


940 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 

remaining two-fifths of the material remaining in the States now 
liable to conscription. There will remain for enrollment 50,000, of 
which two-sixths will be assigned to the Army (16,667), one-sixth will 
be detailed -(8,333), three-sixths will be exempted (25,000); total, 
50,000. The number to be added to the Army may, then, be stated as 
follows: From those now liable, 16,667; from persons arriving at 
eighteen during the year, 2,500; total, 19,167. My own opinion is, 
however, that the number of details and exemptions will not be so 
large in proportion in the future as in the past, and I think, with the 
proper effort and energy upon the part of the officers, the number of 
additions to the Army from the foregoing sources may be estimated 
for the next year at 25,000. 

From the best information I can get at I should estimate the num- 
ber of substitutes that have been put into the Army at 5 per cent. ; 
some estimate it as high as 10. The rolls of the regiments in your 
office will, it is presumed, give you more accurate information upon 
this point. 

There are a very large number of spurious substitute papers in the 
hands of persons who are remaining out of the Army until the validity 
of the papers can be passed upon. The number in all the States, it 
is believed, will reach from 10,000 to 15,000. 

The proportion of absentees without leave, it appears, so far as the 
reports have reached this office, is about 10 per cent. 

This is the nearest approximation I can make from the material at 
hand, and I have given you the data upon which it is made. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
T. P. AUGUST, 
Colonel, &c. 


A; 
Enrolled: 
North Caroling 1.07 60 7. Basie. - JJilue. J tiled. ee 14, 465 
South Carolina. 601.20) ..). ode set lek a SES 8, 800 
Maite iia weebires cee cht ee ee "LE hate chins be ect: ar ~ .axe GO, SOO 
Georgia _occ- 21s lee aa enon eee Eee Ue ne ec ae 15, 471 
72, 122 
Detailed : ie 
North Carolina. v.22. 8 oh beet ee ee oe tb en op Re 2,651 
South Carolina .°.. 1052220 2a ee Cee 600 
Viriila oh bo ee cae ur Brine Senne are ee adele ne eee eee _ 5, 808 
Géorgia. ooo Se Ee ee ee 3, 265 
12, 324 
Assigned to the Army : 
North Carolina. Vs 22i0 08. Ce aPC a ne 10, 678 
South Carolina ws. Jecroeswt eel ss SI eee 5, 000 
Virginia ie: (vogtichetl hou wide oe edn tebe ee 5, 390 
GROOT IAL. Cais ie win bewan ci tekt en Sore ae pee eee eae aa 4,370 
) 25, 438 
Total detailed {eva cuie tel Ae ee OL bo eo uss dele eer 12, 324 
Total assigned to the Army . 2: o-4- s-Je4seeseen-o-+ «+4. see ee 25, 488 
37, 762 
Total éxenipred 7/22. “oe Se eee es Ab iidtin J. Se 34, 360 


Totalenrolledst tive aren oc ae ee Be ahooctis, Cate ee ae 72, 122 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 941 


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, 
Mobile, Ala., November 7, 1863. 
General SAMUEL COOPER, 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen., C. S. Army, Richmond, Va.: 
GENERAL: I again call your attention to my request to accept into 
the Confederate service the company of creoles of Mobile, because 
I think that perhaps the War Department is not exactly informed 
about the people I have reference to. When Spain ceded this terri- 
tory to the United States in 1803, the creoles were guaranteed all the 
immunities and privileges of the citizens of the United States, and 
have continued to enjoy them up to this time. They have, many of 
them, negro blood in the degree which disqualifies other persons of 
negro race from the rights of citizens, but they do not stand here on 
the footing of negroes. They are very anxious to enter the Confed- 
erate service, and I propose to make heavy artillerists of them, for 
which they will be admirably qualified. Please let me hear at your 
earliest convenience if I may have them enrolled in a company, or 
in companies if I can find enough of them to make more than one 
company. 
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
DABNEY H. MAURY, 
Major-General. 
[First indorsement. ] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
November 20, 1868. 
Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. An application 
to have a company of creoles at Mobile accepted into Confederate 
service. 
By order, &c¢.: 
JOHN W. RIELY, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


[Second indorsement. ] 
[| NOVEMBER | 24, 1863. 


Our position with the North and before the world will not allow the 
employment as armed soldiers of negroes. If these creoles can be 
naturally and properly discriminated from negroes, the authority may 
be considered as conferred; otherwise not, unless you can enlist them 
as ‘‘navvies” (to use the English term) or for subordinate working 
purposes. 

eA ey 
Secretary. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
Richmond, November 7, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: I have the honor to inclose herewith copy of letter to this 
Department from C. J. Helm, esq., Havana, advising of the progress 
of the agents of this Department sent out with funds, and for the 
reissue of Treasury notes to meet the necessities of disbursing officers 
in the Trans-Mississippi Department, to which I would respectfully 
eall your attention. 

Very respectfully, C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


942 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Inclosure.] 


HAVANA, October 23, 1868. 
Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury: 


str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two notes, 
one by the hands of Mr. Santos, dated 22d J uly, and the other brought 
by Mr. C. C. Thayer, dated 4th ultimo. Mr. Thayer reached here on 
the 19th instant with his packages, and Mr. Santos on yesterday. I 
was enabled, with their assistance, to arrange for passage for them- 
selves, their two assistants, and freight for their eleven packages on 
a very fast, fine English schooner, which will sail to-morrow for Mata- 
moras. The schooner is commanded by a skillful, energetic man, 
devoted to our cause, and arrangements made to secure the safe 
arrival of the packages, if possible, or their being thrown overboard 
in the event it becomes neéessary. I shail advanee Mr. Thayer such 
sum of money as he may require for himself and Mr. Santos. He 
thinks he will need some $700 or $800. Major Mathews returned from 
Tampico, reporting the impracticability of the overland route. Ithen 
sent him on an English schooner remarkable for speed, and I think 
his chances very good for getting in safely. I, however, still think 
the route overland practicable and safe. I respectfully refer you to 
that part of my dispatch of the 24th ultimo touching the great risk 
of sending such valuables from this [place] to Matamoras by such 
vessels as are only in the trade. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 


C. J. HELM. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 146. Richmond, November 9, 1863. 


I. The subjoined statement of the cost of clothing for the Army is 
published for the information and guidance of all concerned: 


Statement of the cost of clothing for the Army of the Confederate States for the 
year commencing January 1, 1864. 


Cap, complete... gi.uuc2o) Wyo Je ae ee ee $2. 00 
OVOD cunts Poverllehd lise wets ea dpe pec Se he ats Sh a So ae .38 
JACKE Goad» ge liens ones deep oe ds wk oe eee a ae 14.00 
TTOUBOIS S28 lho. se gee e en Se dda o niet pee Cle omen a 12.00 
Inte le Hee he ed ew le 3.00 
DCR WOES ONS eo. ee 2 ene be euwGeswosses. beads. Gosek nn 3.00 
hoes (Pair). o..cosiaMleveas - nce Poke ee Ee 2 10.00 
pocks {(pair).\45 eee 6 bow ee ee eee ee oe 1.00 
Leather stock 22) ope Soe ee Cee tee ee ee 25 
Greatcoat 2 Yok 2 Ce oe be eee) Ae 25.00 
stable frock \(for mounted mien) {vs 2.2 2 ee 2.00 
Fatigue overall (for engineers and ordnance) -__-._.2:.92!0/1__02 2 3.00 
Blanket... 202. ....24eU cols eee eee ee ee ee 2 10.00 


II. From the time this takes effect, and until further orders, soldiers 
will be charged and credited on account of clothing to which they are 
entitled, as provided in General Orders, No. 100, last seuay at these 
rates, and not at invoice prices. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 943 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, Ga., November 9, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 

Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
the 31st ultimo upon the subject of impressment. Deeply regretting, 
but feeling assured of the truth of your statements in reference to the 
embarrassments that do now and for some time past have attended 
the operations of the commissaries of the Army, I have felt it my duty 
to aid and encourage them in procuring supplies and to sustain them 
with all my influence in making legal impressments. There have 
been so many outrages committed in this State under the guise of 
making impressments for the Aimy by unauthorized persons, who 
have resorted to it as a convenient mode of stealing and robbing 
from peaceful and unoffending and in many cases unsuspecting citi- 
zens, and so many irregularities and acts of partiality, injustice, and 
oppression committed by some of those who are authorized to make 
impressments, stripping some of nearly all their provisions and stock, 
in violation of the act of Congress, and refusing to grant to the own- 
ers the rights provided for them in the act, that I have felt it to be 
my duty to interpose in behalf of common justice and right, and if 
possible to force lawless persons to abandon this mode of robbery, and 
legally authorized impressing agents to discharge their duties in sub- 
ordination to the laws of the country and the acts of Congress. 

I assure you that I have no disposition whatever to interfere with 
the legal execution of the laws regulating impressment, but, on the 
contrary, to aid and encourage it. It is due to the people that the bur- 
dens of supporting the Army should be, as nearly as practicable, equally 
distributed, and it is grossly unjust that agents indisposed to per- 
form their duties faithfully should be tolerated in going into some 
sections and neighborhoods and taking from the people all they have 
to subsist upon, in violation of law, denying them the right given by 
law of an arbitration, which the act of Congress entitles them to, and 
at the same time leaving other persons and neighborhoods and sec- 
tions untouched. I have called the attention of the General Assem- 
bly of this State, now in session, to the subject, and have reeommended 
the enactment of penal laws to punish those who are unauthorized 
and who resort to this method of committing robberies upon the peo- 
ple, and also of authorized agents who violate the laws of Congress, 
under which they are appointed, and which laws are wisely intended 
to restrain and regulate them. There is, as I before stated, not the 
slightest intention on my part or of the Legislature, so far as I know 
or have reason to believe, to interfere with impressments that are 
legal and conducted in accordance with the laws of Congress. 

While this is true I feel it to be my duty, in this our great time of 
need and difficulty in supplying the Army with provisions, to endeavor 
to impress upon your mind the absolute importance and necessity of 
a change of policy on the part of the Government upon the subject 
of the compensation allowed to owners for articles purchased or 
impressed for the use of the Army. The effect of the present system 
of low prices and inadequate compensation, imposing as it does the 
burdens of supplying the Army upon the producing classes, levying 
contributions upon them in every case to the extent of the difference 
in the price paid by the Government and the market value, a burden 
in which other tax-paying classes do not share, is to withhold the 


944 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


supplies from the market and cause them to be secreted and concealed 
from the Government agents. This result has inaugurated the system 
of supplying the Army by impressment instead of by purchase, which 
is contrary to the true policy of the Government and against the 
injunctions in the act of Congress which forbids impressments until 
after there is a refusal to sell. By this system and under its baneful 
operations to the difficulty of procuring supplies and the danger of 
. suffering in the Army for the want of food is added the evil spirit, 
bordering already in many cases upon open disloyalty, which it 
engenders among the people. 

The evil increases and must of necessity continue to increase so 
long as the Government persists in taking the produce of the people 
at rates so far below the market price and in distributing the oper- 
ations of impressing agents so unequally in the different sections of 
the country. So far as I am able to understand the-spirit of our 
people, they are willing and ready to furnish to the Government what- 
ever they can possibly spare and to give the preference to the Gov- 
ernment over all other consumers, but ‘not so when they see the 
burdens so unequally imposed. 

I therefore urge upon your early consideration the necessity of a 
change of policy and the propriety of paying the market price for all 
articles purchased, which will supersede the necessity in most cases 
of making impressments at all and restore quiet to the disturbed 
communities of this State. 

If this change cannot be made under the law as it now exists, I 
would through you urge upon the President the importance of pro- 
curing a speedy change of the law. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


———_——__ 


[NOVEMBER 9, 1863.—For Magruder to Murrah, in relation to retain- 
ing the Texas State troops for the war, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part 
II, p. 398. | 


RicHMOND, VA., November 11, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Siz: In accordance with your memorandum 27th ultimo, I have 
had the honor to submit a report showing the number and distribu- 
tion of our armies, the changes in these particulars since January, and 
incidentally the losses sustained in numbers; the ‘relation between 
the present and absent now and last year,” and “‘the percentage of 
absentees.”* 

The report contains nothing in reference to the condition of our 
armies, their discipline, organization, and efficiency; nothing in regard 
to the character of the waste and losses, how sustained, and how far 
and by what means repaired; nothing as to the causes, whether per- 
manent or not, of absence from the Army. Upon these important 
points the records of the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office are 
silent, and any suggestions upon them must be purely conjectural and 
entitled to no consideration whatever. 

That such information should be at all times available through the 
agency of this office is evident; that it is not available suggests 


* Report not found. 


; CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 945 


inquiries and reforms which demand serious attention. I beg to 
make a suggestion, with the remark that but for the kind invitation 
contained in the Honorable Secretary’s memorandum suggestions com- 
ing from me, a civilian and subordinate, involving in some measure a 
criticism upon the conduet of this office, might be regarded as indeli- 
cate and perhaps a breach of official propr iety. So far, therefore, as 
it must necessarily trench upon the “‘ proprieties” I beg the Honorable 
Secretary to regard this communication as unofficial and confidential. 

The remedy will be found, I think, in the employment of an assistant 
inspector-general. This “does not require legislation. The office 
should only exist for the war; at least the demand for it would not be 
so imperative in a peace establishment, and be filled by an energetie, 

practical business man, not necessarily an old army officer (whose 
experience in a peace establishment of 20,000 regulars seldom fits him 
to appreciate the ‘‘height of the areument” involved in a war estab- 
lishment of 400,000 volunteers). The reform can be inaugurated sim- 
ply by the assignment of an officer in the Adjutant- Gener: al’s corps to 
duty as “assistant inspector-general,” thus creating a sort of bureau 
in General Cooper’s office charged with the collection and preserva- 
tion of the rolls, rosters, reports, returns, the preparation and issuing 
of forms and blanks, but chiefly charged with a direct, thorough, and 
energetic superintendence of inspections throughout the armies. 

The customs of service, founded, I suppose, in wisdom, prevent 
direct communication between this office and adjutants-general in 
the field. ‘This need not be true of inspectors. To be more explicit, 
the chiefs of the Quartermaster’s, Commissary, Medical, and Ord- 
nance Bureaus communicate directly, and transact business person- 
ally with officers of their respective departments in the field, holding 
them to direct responsibility, and interfering in some measure to 
direct and control their discharge of duties. Similar relations, I 
would argue, should be established between the Inspector-General 
and inspectors in the field, by which the duties of the latter would 
be directed and made uniform, efficient, and productive of substan- 
tial results. ‘The Inspector-General would thus have perfect know]l- 
edge of the personnel of his department, could instruct them as to 
their many important and ill-defined duties, of which, by the way, 
general officers have meager and very inadequate conception, and it 
would only be necessary to clothe the Inspector-General with dis- 
cretion in the disposition of his officers to produce great practical 
results of vast import to the discipline and efficiency of the Army, 
and of which the mere gathering of data and statistics would be the 
least valuable. 

When the offices of adjutant and inspector were united under one 
general head it was certainly not designed to ignore that of the inspector. 
It was supposed, as they are very intimately connected, they could 
properly be discharged by one person. So they mightif the officer in 
charge were capable of vigorous and sustained labor, and the Army 
contained 20,000 regulars only. As the Army is engaged in war and 
numbers 400,000 men who are volunteers, it requires that the chief 
should have a competent, earnest, and industrious ‘‘assistant,” 
selected from his’corps, invested with his authority, and himself 
assisted by subordinates obtained from the same source and distrib- 
uted throughout the Army. The appointment of these subordinates, 
I am rejoiced to learn, has been conceded by the Executive. They: 


60 R R—SERIES IV, VOL I 


946 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


should at once have a head, to give them work and make them do it. 
In a search for data upon which to base a suggestion as to the best 
mode of increasing the numbers of the Army, I called upon the 
Superintendent of Conscription. At present nothing is attainable 
from that source beyond the conjectural estimates already submit- 
ted, which are not sufficiently reliable. Under the direction of the 
Honorable Secretary, Colonel Preston has called for reports and insti- 
tuted a most admirable system, from which ample and reliable data 
may soon be obtained. 

Enough now appears, however, to assure us that the conscription 
laws now in foree will be utterly inadequate to restore to our armies 
the numbers they contained last January, and to preserve this 
strength during the coming year. This will require at least 100,000 
men, to say nothing of the number which. would be required to 
change radically the character of the contest (the necessity for such 
a change into an offensive war may well be gravely considered). I 
believe that upon the reception of Colonel Preston’s report it will be 
found that the requisite number of men can be obtained readily by 
abolishing the present system of exemptions and substitutions, and 
adopting a law making all exemptions and substitutions discretionary 
with the Executive, thus rendering liable to conscription all persons 
of whatever class or condition between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five. 

The theory of exemptions is neither just in its operation between 
man and man, nor is it in accordance with the great argument upon 
which rests our ability to control this contest successfully. 

It is unnecessary to remark that it is unfair, unjust, to exempt a 
man from the service of his country because he happens to be a shoe- 
maker; or to add that the distinction is grossly invidious because the 
argument upon which it rests is simply false. Shoemakers, millers, 
&e., can be found in abundance, amply sufficient for the wants of 
the country, among the classes over the ages and unfit for service 
by reason of servitude. It is in our system of slave labor that our 
great strength consists; this it is which makes our 8,000,000 produc- 
tive of fighting material equal to the 20,000,000 of the North; and the 
problem which must be worked out is so to adapt our peculiar system 
of labor as most effectually to relieve the fighting population from 
the obligations of production and manufacture. A certain propor- 
tion of men must remain at home, it is true—not to work, but to 
direct labor and maintain police. These purposes can be sufficiently 
met by the number exempt by reason of age and disease, it being 
better, I think, not to extend the ages which, over forty-five, will find 
many men incapacitated for service but who at the same time can 
answer all the purposes of economy. 

To have permitted substitution at all was a most glaring error, 
which cannot be adequately remedied except by applying the ax to 
the root and undoing the system from the first entirely. JI am per- 
suaded that the people would cheerfully submit to a law annulling 
the contract between the principal, substitute, and the Government 
upon refunding the substitute money. The number of men to be 
secured by such a measure is very large. Of the number of substi- 
tutes, a large proportion have themselves become liable to conscrip- 
tion; and of the remainder, an equal proportion is in hospital, or at 
home upon permanent furlough, or dead; while a fearful proportion. 
of substitute papers are fraudulent, and have contributed nothing of 
strength whatever. It may be said that principals whose substitutes 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 947 


have become liable to service on their own account are themselves 
liable; but apart from the interference of the courts, it is exceedingly 
difficult to deduce from the dictum a practical result. These consid- 
erations become very important in view of the facts that there are 
not, I believe, more than 3,000 or 4,000 substitutes over the age of 
conscription actually in the field; while it is a moderate estimate to 
assert that there are 50,000 able-bodied conscripts out of the field, by 
reason of substitution. If it were worth while it might be remarked 
that upon refunding the money to the principal the Government 
would in equity be entitled to the services of these 3,000 substitutes. 
These suggestions may involve another—the suspension of habeas 
corpus. Very well. The crisis is a fearful one, and men must be 
found to constitute our armies, else all is lost. 

It might be well to extend the ages with a view to placing the men 
under control of the Government, so that they may be compelled to 
answer the purposes of labor and production and meet the ends for 
which exemptions and details are now made. I do not think the 
benefit will counterbalance the evils to result from forcing them into 
new channels of industry. In other words, I think that allowing 
them untrammeled to provide for the social and domestic economy 
the country will take care of itself, but will not be competent to do 
more. Again, I am disposed to argue the matter in full view of the 
fact that our laws must proceed from Congress—a body of men fal- 
lible and very keenly alive tosentiment at home. They will not abro- 
gate the system of exemptions and substitutions and at the same 
time extend the ages. By demanding, in their opinion, too much 
may we not lose our ability to enforce a demand for less? Had we 
not better state candidly and precisely what we imperatively need, 
and insist upon it as vital and inexorable? The details made by the 
Bureau and the War Department must be terminated, and none per- 
mitted, except to parties actually supplying material to the Govern- 
ment, and then when made to contractors upon terms which would 
make it to their interest to obtain their labor elsewhere if possible. 
This will bring the surplus labor over forty-five, and negro labor 
fairly into contribution, and place the burden of production and 
manufacture where it belongs, and where I have already said it is our 
peculiar happiness to place it. This may enhance the price of mate- 
rial, of transportation, &c., but it will send men to the Army, and 
acquit the Department of the charge of weakening the force of the 
great argument upon which our strength depends. Besides the 
services of the man belong to the Government, and his detail is purely 
a gratuity, and that, too, to individuals as unpatriotic as they are 
unscrupulous. Let them pay a round price, not only because the 
commodity is worth it, but because a round price will cause them to 
look elsewhere, and not absorb, in their lust, the very lifeblood of 
the cause. 

Now and then instances will occur, I know, as-in the operation of 
all general rules, where exemptions and substitutions and details 
are imperative. Let such cases be included in the discretionary 
power of the Executive; to be exercised by the agencies of con- 
scription. 

Has it occurred to the Honorable Secretary that conscription might 
be extended to the free negro population? In the report I have 
submitted he will find no inconsiderable figures under the head of 
‘* Extra duty.” Much of this duty, nearly all these figures occasioned 
by details as teamsters, &c., might be supplied by free negroes, whose 


948 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


services are as clearly due as those of any other class of population. 
The suggestion is, at least, worthy of consideration. 

The report I have submitted exhibits the number of regiments and 
battalions whose terms of service expire during the coming year. 
That these must be held to additional service without intermission 
is, I take it, aforegone conclusion. The Army and the country alike 
‘expect it, and are prepared to submit to it. Beyond the mere act of 
conscription there is no necessity for legislation, unless it be to con- 
firm the authority of the War Department to consolidate and dis- 
band. This authority has frequently been exercised, but it is ques- 
tionable; and as the necessity for its exercise, both as to the war and 
the three-years’ organizations, is becoming imperative, it is important 
that the warrant be clearly ascertained by law. 

But while there is no necessity for legislation, it is well to consider 
that the troops will demand the privilege of reorganization; and as 
some sort of compensation for the very great sacrifice they make in 
continuing their service, the Congress will grant it. Congress may 
understand the pernicious effect of elections. Every one—the soldier 
himself—appreciates the truth. But they will yield because the 
demand is made, as it will be, by our heroic and self-sacrificing sol- 
diery. It will be achieving much if the Department can confine this 
reorganization to companies and the elections to company officers. 
This will not, indeed, work serious injury, if a more liberal authority 
be given to the Executive to make appointments for merit. The 
appointment of all field officers should be insisted upon pertinaciously 
of course, and the law should permit the President to fill all vacancies 
by appointment, restricting the choice only to persons from the same 
State. The law permitting appointments for ‘“‘valor and skill” re- 
stricts the selections to a field much too narrow, and it is for this 
reason almost a dead letter. 

For every valuable purpose, especially for discipline—the great 
object—it is the officers of merit rather than of valor whose services 
are needed. The authority, therefore, is misdirected and well-nigh 
inoperative when ‘“‘instances of extraordinary valor and skill” are 
requisite as conditions precedent to appointment, and when the ap- 
pointment must be made only in the company to which the applicant 
belongs. 

The evils of elections are most trying and most pernicious when 
held to fill vacancies ‘‘in the lowest grade.” This system has almost 
utterly destroyed the efficiency of non-commissioned officers, whose 
services in the work of discipline are incaleulably important, while it 
perpetuates day after day all the derelictions of duty winked at by 
successful aspirants. Far better to allow once for all a full election 
of company officers, if with it can be obtained a power of appoint- 
ment by which further elections may be prevented when advisable. 

The evils of a reorganization would be in a great measure cured by 
a law making promotions by seniority less imperative. Indeed, this 
law, in my opinion, imperatively demands reforming in any event. 
It is the source of much of the inefficiency which yet marks our armies. 
The argument upon which it is based always was purely fictitious, 
and moreover arose from assumptions which cannot be predicated of 
our armies. It was perhaps very well in the old service—in the peace 
establishment—where every soldier was a blackguard and every offi- 
cer was a gentleman, educated, carefully selected by appointment, 
who made the Army his vocation, and could readily be presumed to 
improve with the progress of his years. But in our armies, where 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 949 


officers are elected and where, even if appointments are made, the 
very burden of numbers precludes the possibility of rigid require- 
ments, to be an officer is not necessarily to be a gentleman, or trust- 
worthy; and to be old in rank does not in any degree argue proficiency 
or unusual skill; and the argument upon which the fiction rests is 
without foundation and void. Indeed, apart from the law, that an 
officer should claim promotion by seniority as a right, or refuse to 
have others of superior merit promoted over him, is simply an affec- 
tation—a bold imitation of the old esprit, without a particle of the 
substance. It might be well to accord precedence to seniority when 
other things are equal, but ‘‘ other things being unequal,” prior date 
should be made to yield promptly to superior merit and the pressing » 
exigencies of a service involving the life or death of the country. 

In other words, it ought not to be demanded that the senior in rank 
should be proved utterly incompetent; it ought to be sufficient if his 
junior is shown to be clearly his superior, the object being not the 
promotion of individual interests, but the success of an imperiled 
eause. I know that strong arguments are urged in behalf of official 
esprit, looking to the cultivation and preservation of a laudable 
ambition, &c., but I earnestly believe these cannot be attained by 
such means except at a cost far exceeding their value; indeed I might 
argue that they may be obtained in the most valuable shape by mak- 
ing actual merit the only standard. 

Reform, too, is earnestly suggested in the matter of boards of exami- 
nation. They should be made imperative in every instance of pro- 
motion. It will not do to leave it to general officers to determine 
when boards shall be convened, and whether an officer does or does 
not deserve to appear before them. I know that this privilege is 
grossly abused, and a field open which is fully occupied for the exhi- 
bition of personal partialities and intrigues for. personal popularity. 
Very many, if not all, general officers are politicians in their way; the 
routine of duty very soon dulls their quantum of earnestness, and 
they are perhaps not more infallible than other men. To this the 
fact that they command troops from their own State contributes in a 
large degree. 

To sum up, where seniority accords priority of right, the aspirant 
should in every instance be made to show not only his competency, 
but his superiority. The whole sum and substance of the inefficiency 
in our armies is due to indifferent leadership; this without qualifi- 
eation is the truth. The men are brave, true, patient, unmurmuring, 
obedient, exceedingly tractable, and they need only be taught and 
led to achieve everything. 

The Honorable Secretary will pardon me if I cite aninstance. A 
neighbor of mine, a man of good parts, but wanting decision and firm- 
ness of purpose and industry, entered the service as second captain 
in a war regiment. He avoided the affair at Port Royal; he went 
upon the very verge of the battle of Mechanicsville and suddenly 
became sick, and was actually at home in South Carolina without 
leave before the seven-days’ fight ended; returned just in time for the 
second Manassas, which he avoided by lying aside in the woods upon 
the pretext that he could not find his regiment; went upon the verge 
of Sharpsburg, when he left and crossed the Potomac upon the pre- 
text of a too slight wound. The casualties of time and the service 
disposed of his superiors and he rose step by step to the coloneley, 
which he now holds without a question being made at any time or 
any action taken to make him responsible for derelictions of duty; 


950 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and now I would wager deeply he has not an officer under him who 
is not his superior in knowledge of drill and the duties of his pro- 
fession. He cannot, even indifferently, drill a soldier, a company, or 
a battalion. But he is astute, managing, shrewd, and by these arts 
succeeded. This is but one of a thousand instances, even in Gen- 
eral Lee’s army, where much more strictness is observed than else- 
where. 

In this connection I would respectfully urge upon the Honorable 
Secretary’s earnest attention the importance of a prompt action upon 
the reports of boards, and I would suggest with great deference that 
under his prodigious burden of work the Secretary cannot give to 
these reports any amount of personal attention whatever; it is useless 
to attempt it. It can only allow a spasmodic action now and then, 
without careful deliberation, and with an absence of system which 
utterly neutralizes the effect. The Army cannot wait in this matter, 
and it will not. Many complaints have been urged against these 
delays, and [ have been assured they are the cause of much of the 
illegal action which we are daily endeavoring to correct, and have 
produced in all the armies a strong indisposition to appeal to the 
agency of boards at all. The only remedy is to turn over the entire 
duty to a competent officer, with full authority to make final decisions 
in your name, with nothing else to do; and with industry and brains 
and heart equal to the work. If one such officer ean do the work I 
‘shall be surprised. With the encouragement thus given to the boards 
it will soon require two. Better employ a hundred and have the work 
done promptly, thoroughly, and justly. I am sure the Honorable 
Secretary appreciates the truth that nothing would contribute more 
to the ‘perfection of discipline in our Army. I feel it so urgently that 
I fear I may have given way to the expression of it too warmly. The 
offense is, I hope, a venal one. 

The staff deserves earnest consideration. My limited experience in 
the service has been sufficient to convince me that the importance of | 
an efficient staff has been much underestimated, and that it cannot 
be overestimated. In the work of discipline, in the matters of supply, 
in the successful pursuit of the campaign, well-nigh everything depends 
upon a competent, earnest, and laborious staff. The Army is echild- 
like, utterly dependent. The general cannot be ubiquitous—is indeed 
but aman. The staff must make up the complement. 

While it is, and should be esteemed, the most important, I regret 
to believe that the staff is in our Army the most indifferent feature. 
Staff officers are as a rule men too young in years, given to levity of 
mind and conduct, and absorbed in attention to their personal con- 
cerns. They are brave and chivalrous young men, daring in action, 
nothing more; and their daring is not worth the daring of the private 
soldier—it does not kill, and is worthless as an example, because they 
have failed elsewhere to inspire respect and confidence. There are 
many causes for this state of things. While promotion is rapid in 
the line, it comes searcely at all in the staff; and if at all itis the 
incident attending the promotion of the chief, and not the reward of 
merit. 

It is perhaps, in a contest like this, an instance of frailty that men 
of brains, of enlarged mental and business capacities, will not seek 
employment, however useful, where there are no rewards; and if they 
by mistake fall into such employment they are too prompt to leave 
it for more inviting and promising labors. Again, men receive staff 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 951 


appointments simply because a vacancy exists, and the general with 
whom they are to serve asks for them, thus according everything to 
an authority which, let me repeat, is not often earnest, but much 
oftener swayed by personal partialities and considerations of policy 
and too often of nepotism. These criticisms will be met by the fact 
that in so large an army it is impossible for the War Department to 
be thoroughly informed as to the personnel of the staff. This is true 
to a considerable extent, and bears upon both the points I have made. 
But nevertheless much might be done. No officer should be appointed 
to the staff simply because there is a place and he is asked for. His 
fitness for a position so difficult and responsible cannot be pre- 
sumed, and should be shown clearly by testimony. If the Honorable 
Secretary has not time to weigh their testimonials others can do it for 
him. Again, it would be well to insist sternly and inexorably—to 
adhere to the rule without exception—that the staff officer belongs to 
the troops; not a mere attendant upon the person of the general. It 
is important (it is said, though it may be doubted) that there should 
be perfect accord between the general and his staff, but it is much 
more important that the relations of the staff to the troops, with and 
for whom they work, should be properly and permanently established. 
When a general officer, then, is promoted and assigned to another 
command, the duty of providing his staff should devolve on the War 
Department, not on him; and in such a matter he has not a right to 
be heard more favorably than others. It would then devolve upon 
the Department to search for a meritorious staff officer to promote, or 
to appoint, or to assign. Thus, in some sort, too, could be remedied 
the effect of the rule which throws out of commission an officer who 
happens, by accident entirely beyond his control, to lose his position; 
a rule which is utterly destructive of the esprit and efficiency of the 
staff. The work which my suggestions would create, of keeping 
‘“nosted” as to the personnel of the staff, of recommending promo- 
tions and appointments, of ascertaining qualifications, &c., might 
properly be performed and easily by the appointment bureau. 
That it cannot be done by the Secretary himself, and must be done, 
if we are to have an efficient Army, by some one, are equally clear 
to me. 

Legislation is necessary for the appointment of staff officers, com- 
missaries, and quartermasters, for divisions, corps, and armies. [| 
need not argue the necessity for such a staff. If commissaries and 
quartermasters are needed for brigades, they are much more necessary 
for the larger commands; not perhaps to execute, but especially as 
experts, to inspect and cause these important and vital offices to be 
properly discharged by their subordinates—duties which cannot ade- 
quately be discharged except by experts. 

No other suggestions occur to me as pertinent at this moment. 
Many of these I have made are, I fear, obnoxious to the charge of 
being (to play upon a word) impertinent. If I have mistaken the 
license accorded to me by the. flattering invitation of the Honorable 
Secretary, and met it too self-complacently and candidly, I can only 
crave pardon. In the same spirit, if permissible, I would be glad to 
make suggestions of reforms in the Department itself, the result of 

-my own experience. I say glad, because I am painfully conscious 
that the success of the Army depends to an extent almost vital upon 
the manner in which the affairs and the business of the War Depart- 
ment are conducted. I will of course be understood to refer to sys- 
tem, not to persons. 


4 


952 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The manuscript which is here respectfully submitted is the first 
draft. Time and my continued illness, sometimes very painful, will 
not allow me to put it in a more becoming form. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
SAMI. W. MELTON, 
Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, November 18, 1868. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVis: 


DEAR SiR: I beg leave to lay before you the accompanying communi- 
cation from Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis in behalf of the Ninth Regiment 
of State Guards, called out by me under your late requisition for troops 
for local defense. These troops have now been about two months in 
service, wren there was no enemy upon the soil of Georgia and no 
raid making its way into her territory. Judging from the past, it is 
reasonable to infer that without the order of Your Excellency the 
generals in command will continue to hold them in constant service 
till the end of the time for which they enlisted. This is a violation 
of the letter and spirit of the contract by which they entered the 
service of the Confederacy, and not only does injustice to the troops 
but seriously injures the agricultural interests of the State, and 
thereby inflicts a serious loss upon our cause. 

The State has furnished promptly at all times her full quota of 
troops for regular service against the common enemy, and is ready to 
continue to do it as long as she has a man to spare. But it must not 
be forgotten that it is impossible to continue to support our armies in 
the field if our agricultural interests are paralyzed. We must retain 
a producing class at home to furnish supplies to the Army, or it 
becomes a mere question of time when we must submit to the enemy 
on account of our inability longer to support our armies. 

The Home Guards are composed of this reserved producing class, 
and their services in the agricultural fields are absolutely indispen- 
sable to the continuance of our troops in the military field. They 
are willing to do military service for short periods in sudden emer- 
gencies, but they cannot leave their homes for regular service with: 
out ruin to themselves and their country. Much of their crop of the 
present year has been and is now being wasted in the field for want 
of labor to gather and take care of it. Their wheat is not yet sowed, 
and cannot be unless they have furloughs to go home and attend to it. 
Thus by continuing them so long from their homes you cause a great 
waste of the provisions, without which you cannot keep the armies 
In the field, and you cause the productive lands which they usually 
cultivate to lie uncultivated for another year. This course if per- 
sisted in will soon end the struggle and force our people, exhausted 
by hunger, to pass under the yoke of bondage. 

I beg you to excuse me for this frank avowal of sentiments in which 
you may not concur. Iam aware of the vast responsibility and labor 
imposed upon you, and know that you cannot give your individual 
attention to all the details and smaller matters connected with the 
public interest. In looking to the movements of our large armies, 
you may not be able at all times to give your attention to the consid- 
eration of the agricultural interests, and the nature of the contract 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 953 


by which smaller bodies of troops are called to the field. You will, I 
know, excuse me for bringing this matter so often to your attention 
and earnestly urging action upon it. 

These troops were mustered into service by me under your requisi- 
tion and called into the field by you through me, which commits me 
with the contract by which they agreed to be bound, and makes it my 
duty to continue to urge a faithful compliance with it on the part of 
the Government. 

The remarks made in this letter about the Ninth Regiment apply 
equally to all the other troops called into service, as they were under 
the same requisition. 

[ again most respectfully and earnestly claim for them the right to 
return home and attend to their home interests till another exigency 
calls for their services. They are now organized, and if they were at 
the end of each emergency permitted to return home, they would at 
all times be ready to make prompt response to each call made upon 
them without serious detriment to the productive interests. 

Hoping to receive a favorable response, 

Iam, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 
| Indorsement. ] 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 


If the facts bearing on the points made within are not in your pos- 
session let General Cobb be ealled on for report. Your attention is 
particularly invited to the assertions and arguments referring to the 
obligations assumed by the Government. I expect it will be found 
that the policy has been to relieve the men from duty as far as cir- 
cumstances would permit. 

JEFE’N DAVIS. 


[Inciosure.] 


MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., November 12, 1868. 


His Excellency JOSEPH E. BRown, 
Governor of Georgia: 

DEAR Sir: At a meeting of the commanding officers of the Ninth 
Regiment State Guards (now stationed at Rome), held on the 9th 
instant, they unanimously appointed me, as one of their number, to 
present to you their views and the views of the whole regiment in 
regard to the impropriety and injustice of their being detained longer 
in camp under existing circumstances. They present their complaint 
to you, not because they suppose you have the authority to remove or 
dismiss them to their homes, or that you are in the least responsible 
for a violation of the terms of their enlistment, but because you were 
the agent of the Confederate Government in raising and organizing 
them and similar troops for the service for which they were designed. 

Our regiment and others similarly situated were raised under an act 
of Congress ‘‘ for special service and local defense.” That act gave the 
President the power to call out troops for six months for local defense 
under such terms as he should prescribe. Congress had previously 
by its legislation divided the adult male population into two great. 
classes, viz, the fighting and the producing classes. The former were 
found not to be sufficiently numerous to protect the country against 
raids and sudden and unexpected invasions of the enemy. Accord- 
ingly Congress passed the above-named act to guard against these 


954 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


emergencies. The President prescribed the terms which were pre- 
sented to the citizens of Georgia in your proclamation of June 22 last. 
In that proclamation we were informed that we were not expected to 
enter upon regular military service; that our business at home need 
not be neglected but for a few days, or weeks at furthest, at any one 
time; that we were simply to organize and hold ourselves in readiness 
to meet sudden emergencies. Even the civil officers, whose official 
business requires their almost constant presence at their offices, were 
required to enlist and assured that there would be but a short inter- 
ruption of their regular occupation. Old men were induced to enlist 
under the idea that they could undergo any hardship and labor 
required by this peculiar service. Most of our men are farmers, many 
of them small farmers, whose families are entirely dependent upon 
their presence at home in seed time and harvest for asupport. They 
know well that unless they could be at home to gather their corn and 
sow their grain the ensuing year would find their families in want and 
their friends in the Army suffering for the necessaries of life. But 
trusting to the good faith of the Confederate Government in the prom- 
ises it made through you as its agent, they patriotically and promptly 
volunteered in over double the “number called for. In accordance 
with the contract they repaired to Atlanta when ordered to guard 
against its sudden invasion, which was said to be threatened by a 
ruthless and fanatic foe who then polluted Georgia soil with their 
infernal tread. 

Nearly two months ago our gallant army (among whom we are 
proud to number our sons and brothers) drove the enemy from our 
noble State, and since that time not a hostile step has been made 
within our borders. - Is it in accordance with the terms of our enlisi- 
ment that we should have been kept in camp ever since, waiting for 
something to turn up which could be construed into an emergency 
requiring us to be called from our homes? If the answer lay within 
your decision, we doubt not the response. Who is responsible? We 
make no charges, but respectfully request you, as you were the instru- 
ment (innocently, doubtless) in placing us in a situation to be deceived 
and (as we contend) wronged and injured, to press these considera- 
tions upon the proper authorities. 

Thus far, you will perceive, we have only been insisting upon the 
law and our rights as freemen under the contract. This, it seems to 
us, Should be sufficient consideration to influence the proper authori- 
ties to set themselves right in the matter. Whenever contracts 
between individuals are broken at will and no remedy is secured by 
law, credit is annihilated. Whenever contracts between Government 
and citizens are disregarded, the confidence of the citizen in his Goy- 
ernment is destroyed and his liberty is but a name. Subjugation by 
our enemy we have never feared, but let us see to it that in our 
struggle for independence the Constitution and the laws be not hushed 
into silence, and thereby the liberty of the citizen hopelessly and 
irretrievably lost. There can be but one view of this question, so far 
as our rights under the contract are concerned. 

But let us glance for a moment at the bad policy exhibited in keep- 
ing us thus wrongfully in camp to the neglect of our usual business. 
The larger portion of these troops are producers of grain and meat. 
The time for gathering corn and sowing wheat will soon be over. 
Most of the men left no one at home to attend to these matters, and can 
get no one competent. The consequence will be that unless they are 
speedily sent home these great interests (so far as their agency, and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 955 


they constitute no mean proportion of the producing class of Georgia, 
is concerned) will be neglected. Their families must suffer and the 
Army also from this subtraction from the productions of the State. 

Again, volunteering under similar circumstances will be effectually 
killed off. No man will be willing to volunteer under terms that he 
can have no adequate assurance will be complied with. 

Again, we are in a region which is well-nigh eaten out; so nearly 
so that the quartermaster of each regiment has had to do his own 
‘impressment and could not even then supply his men, a great deal of 
the time, with more than half rations. We are taking from the citi- 
zen what is necessary to feed his family and enable him to make 
another crop, without any corresponding good to the public service 
that we can conceive. Many of the citizens in this section are moving 
to other parts of the State, others are selling out and preparing to 
remove, simply because they are left without the means of living here, 
and cannot procure provisions. Shall we remain here simply to add 
to this distress, or shall we be dismissed to our legitimate occupations 
in accordance with the terms of our enlistment? 

These considerations we respectfully present to your judgment, 
that you may take such steps as you deem proper. We hope for the 
honor and interest of the Government that it will give them their due 
weight and act in such a way as to quiet the fears of the citizens, sup- 
press the rising discontentment of our comrades, and restore the con- 
fidence of the men in the good faith of the Government. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

Very respectfully, 
M. W. LEWIS, 
Tneutenant-Colonel Ninth Regiment State Guards, 
and representing the whole regument. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPT., 
ORDNANCE BUREAU, 
Richmond, November 15, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, , 
Secretary of War: 

SIR: Since the last report rendered from this office the department 
has been chiefly engaged in the supply of the armies in the field. 
Very little time has been devoted to scientific researches or experi- 
ments. The wants of the armies have been met successfully, and 
the condition of the department and its ability to meet demands 
upon it is better than it wasa yearago. The period embraced within 
this report is from September 30, 1862, to September 30, 1863. 


IMPORTATIONS. 


The Bureau has purchased through its agents abroad under your 
orders four steamers, the Columbia, R. EK. Lee, Merrimac, and Euge- 
nie, and at home thesteamer Phantom, which have been industriously 
engaged in carrying out cotton and bringing in supplies. The par- 
ticulars of this duty will be detailed to you by Maj. T. L. Bayne, 
charged specially with the conduct of these steamers and with that 
of others partially owned by the War Department. Without these 
important adjuncts, the first of which was purchased by Maj. Caleb 
Huse at his own instance, this department could not have attained its 


956 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


present ability to respond to all calls made upon it. They have also 
materially assisted the operations of the Quartermaster, Medical, and 
Engineer Departments, Major Huse having, with happy inspiration 
and acting under the extended instructions of Secretary Walker, 
assumed the responsibility of making heavy purchases for the Quar- 
termaster and Medical Departments without special orders from the 
chiefs of those departments. The number of small-arms imported 
through these steamers from September 30, 1862, to September 30, 
1863, is 113,504. Large quantities of saltpeter, lead, cartridges, per- 
cussion-caps, flannel and paper for cartridges, leather, hardware, &c., 
have also been received in them. Three 8-inch rifled and two 122- 
inch rifled Blakely guns have been imported. The weight of the 
latter, with its carriage complete, is about 55 tons. The weight of 
its solid shot about 650 pounds and of its shell 470 pounds. A steamer, 
the Ella and Annie, was engaged in August last to carry a portion of 
the arms and other supplies lying at Bermuda direct to the coast of 
Texas. She was driven back to Bermuda when three days out and 
forced to land her cargo for repairs and was unable to prosecute her 
trip. Major Huse was directed on the 24th of May last to ship 12,000 
infantry and 3,000 or 4,000 cavalry arms, together with necessary sup- 
ply of ammunition for them, directly to Texas. He has been unable 
to comply with this order for want of funds, but recent remittances 
will, I hope, enable him to send the arms and other most necessary 
stores. Iam advised of the landing of one or two ships on the coast 
of Texas containing stores, but information is not sufficiently definite 
to state how many arms have been delivered. The chief ordnance 
officer in the Trans-Mississippi Department has been provided with 
cotton for purchase of ordnance stores, and has been ordered to act 
directly under instructions of Lieut. Gen. E. Kirby Smith in procur- 
ing them. In the meantime Maj. T. H. Price, late chief ordnance 
officer of General Price, is engaged in crossing the Mississippi with 
such supplies as he can under instructions from here. 


ARTILLERY. 


The supply of field, siege, and sea-coast artillery has been produced 
with very partial exceptions in the arsenals and workshops of the 
Confederacy; that of sea-coast guns mainly from the Tredegar W orks. 
The whole number fabricated reaches 113, of which 31 were of the 
heavier class. The number purchased was 239, of which 46 were 
large guns. The army is now adequately supplied on this side of the 
Mississippi River with artillery quite equal to that possessed by the 
enemy. It will be seen by reference to the summary of operations at 
the arsenals that 677 pieces have been placed in the field since the 1st 
of October, 1862, with appropriate supply of carriages, ammunition, 
harness, &c. The quality of the ammunition has been greatly improved 
in spite of the increasing obstacles of deficient. labor and material. 
Maj. J. W. Mallet, superintendent of laboratories, has devoted much 
of his time to this subject, and, assisted by the officers in command of 
arsenals, has produced marked improvements in the ammunition fabri- 
eated. <A rigid system of inspection has been introduced which will 
continue to insure good results at the laboratories. 


SMALL-ARMS. 


Notwithstanding the heavy losses of arms at Vicksburg, Port Hud- 
son, and at Gettysburg, computed at not less than 75,000 stand, the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 957 


supply on hand has been steadily increasing. The armories at Rich- 
mond, Fayetteville, and Asheville have produced an aggregate of 
about 28,000 small-arms within the year. Those produced at private 
establishments will swell this number to full 35,000 (it may be fairly 
assumed that this number will be increased to 50,000 during the year 
ending September 30, 1864). Of these about 30,000 are infantry 
and 5,000 cavalry arms, including among the latter 3,000 Sharps car- 
bines; the remainder are muzzle-loading of the uniform caliber of 
.5775, adopted for all muzzle-loading arms, whether for infantry, 
cavalry, or artillery. 

Revolver pistols are fabricated under contract at Macon, Columbus, 
and Atlanta, Ga.; the number produced is about 500 per month now; 
this will be increased to 1,000 per month in the course of three or four 
months. 

The supply of sabers produced under contract is abundant, though 
the style of workmanship admits of great improvement. Steps were 
early taken to establish another armory on an adequate scale; the 
site chosen was at Macon, where a plot of ground was given to the 
Confederate States for the purpose. Good progress has been made 
with the buildings, and Superintendent James H. Burton has just 
returned from Europe, where contracts have been made for the neces- 
sary machinery. <A portion will be delivered in December. Mean- 
time, with the tools and machinery saved from places abandoned to 
the enemy, work is progressing on such part of the gun-making 
machinery as can be made in this country. This armory will, when 
completed, be able to turn out from 1,500 to 2,000 stand per week. 
A portion of the machinery will be in position by the Ist of July next, 
if it should fortunately escape capture, and the whole establishment 
will, I hope, be completed as far as now intended in nine to twelve 
months thereafter. Only the most necessary buildings are now put 
up permanently, the construction of store-houses, outhouses, &c., 
being deferred to better days. 


POWDER MILLS AND PERMANENT LABORATORY. 


The Government powder mills at Augusta, Ga., have been com- 
pleted, and have kept up an adequate supply of powder, notwithstand- 
ing the vast consumption and loss at Charleston, Vicksburg, and Port 
Hudson. Full 200,000 pounds of cannon powder alone were lost and 
consumed at Charleston alone between the 1st of July and 30th of 
September. The resources required to meet the regular wants of our 
armies may be judged of when the fabrication of small-arm cartridges 
at the several arsenals has been 36,531,466 rounds in the year, and 
298,305 rounds for field, siege, and heavy artillery have been made 
and issued. To the energy and good management of the Niter and 
Mining Bureau have been largely due the supply of saltpeter, lead, 
iron, and copper needed in our powder mills, laboratories, and 
foundries. The permanent laboratory, to serve as a guide to other 
laboratories in war and adequate to all our wants in time of peace, has 
been pushed toward completion and will next season be ready for 
partial occupation. It is placed also at Macon and is under the special 
charge of the superintendent of laboratories, Maj. J. W. Mallet. 


ARSENALS, ARMORIES, ETC. 


The following are the principal establishments of the Ordnance 
Department. These employ 5,090 persons, of whom two-thirds are 
non-conscripts, disabled soldiers, boys, females, and slaves. 


958 


Richmond Arsenal, Richmond, Va., Lieut. Col. W. L. Brown; 
Richmond Armory, Richmond, Va., Superintendent W. 8. Downer; 
harness shops, Clarksville, Va., Superintendent W.S. Downer; Dan- 
ville Depot, Danville, Va., Capt. E. S. Hutter; Lynchburg Depot, 
Lynchburg, Va., Capt. G. T. Getty; arsenal and armory, Fayetteville, 
N. C., Maj. F. L. Childs; foundry, Salisbury, N. C., Capt. A. G. 
Brenizer; Charleston Arsenal, Charleston, S. C., Maj. J. T. Treze- 
vant; arsenal, foundry, and powder mills, Augusta, Ga., Col. G. W. 
Rains; Atlanta Arsenal, Atlanta, Ga., Col. M. H. Wright; Macon 
Arsenal, Macon, Ga., Lieut. Col. R. M. Cuyler; Macon Laboratory, 
Macon, Ga., Maj. J. W. Mallet; Macon Armory, Macon, Ga., Super- 
intendent J. H. Burton; Montgomery Arsenal, Montgomery, <Ala., 
Maj. C. G. Wagner; Columbus Arsenal, Columbus, Ga., Maj. F. ©. 
Humphreys; Selma Arsenal, Selma, Ala., Lieut. Col. J. L. White. 

At the arsenals, armories, workshops, and depots the following are 
a few of the principal items produced and issued during the year: 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


: ‘ Hye ie Issued to 

Repaired. | Purchased. | Fabricated. the Army. 
Heavyartillery 2.00. S22 00.5 tga cceaye tunes cece: be ae eee 46 31 77 
Siege artillery and artillery of reserve...............|....-.--.--- 20 3 86 
Field artillery -...-...-. Wee pets eater: ae eects ecaseaere 1G: 178 79 514 
Siege and: sea-coast carriages -.0/):4s-. 5 J... as ve. Lies eee 159 91 239 
Tield carriages, caissons, battery wagons, forges, &c- 567 404 302 934 
Cavalry saddled 25... <4 sueeues sare hate oon ee 1, 763 30, 381 6, 866 49, 357 
paddle blankets 52. i300..6.0 A bs. ORE ee a eee 45, 073 2, 315 16, 625 
Artillery. harness (2-horee)cuct- 456.6 56-8. bone eee 373 2,729 2, 453 4, 221 
Horseshoes (pounds) ..5..2-°.0..0. 220. ue ee ee 108, 721 120, 798 266, 951 
Horseshoe nails \(pounds)-. .: ) 305 0s cee ede Se eee 16, 700 6, 818 18, 343 
PSTUEROB fo 3 aioe a 8 eek wale Senda RE clang eae See ee 600 31, 379 4,478 1, 180 
PIOLEUS ALC sis pads Coan cei hie coe ae eee ee eee 162 39, 172 16, 472 396 
pmnal ararig is 10 cs yhacteeneee Renee ogee a meine aN 127, 862 16, 246 27, 752 145, 292 
Sapers BEC BWOLdS.... 0423.07 <6 nennretomiee tice oe come 3, 397 43, 509%) 22. <2 sees 35, 144 
Saper-bélts). cults. cw ads (35sec ee See nO ee ee See 22, 155 14, 054 30, 770 
Cartridge e-boxes 822: ot tos SIs es es ae 2, 123 126, 733 34, 666 171, 251 
Gariridgo-box belts:t.- ta canes settee: eee 4, 046 109, 352 61, 766 104, 443 
Waist Delis ss.<.216 SS nether 2, 875 132, 671 72, 750 178, 592 
Cap: pouchesacc ke wie eu ce eect a ae ee 1, 442 157, 402 41,189 185, 661 
Bayonet, scapUALds cerces wc ccs ease eee eee 1, 675 114, 858 15, 379 167, 018 
Krapsacks 222.22 tee Seek Pea ae ee at he Oe ee ee | ae ee 108, 489 27, 928 134, 100 
Haversacks: jo... sasccesaee eee ne eee eee | tee eee eee 46, 383 226, 450 227, 020 
(Canteens heck sce - se abiee tact ae os Dae eee ae eect ne 1, 278 73, 422 85, 291 212, 270 

Siege and sea-coast ammunition ..................-.- » 246 174, 329 35, 335 716,451 > 

Hieldiammunition ss. -2eeereeee sa eee ee eee eee 5, 638 178, 1i 262, 970 318, 297 
Small-arms cartridges ---.. SAS s ohae eee cee ee Cee 940, 440 81, 750 | 36,531, 466 | 44, 933, 907 
IE TICLION PIM OL Sa fos eee ee Mae ee see ace e Le ee oe ee See hee ree 16, 099 288, 526 812, 557 
MeEvoy igniters............ 2 PACNSE Par raleicve ete ucla veel Grains ae ereaietee 78, 8061. oe eran 79, 846 
PErcusslon-caps (MUSKeb) cee ose ae See ee re el eee eee 472,500 | 46,500, 099 | 55, 478, 092 
Fercusslon-Caps (Sporting) Posen se esas Bee a eel ees emer ee 979,750 | 3,358, 300 4, 844, 850 
Powder (loose) tik o inn do wench ee hat oe ae eae cee ee ee eee 40,175 | 1,417, 882 1, 638, 298 

Pounds. 
Powder consumed in laboratories... -/.2...!.0--28<-eae+2--+-s s+ ese> ~oa 5 <culne cou eee teen 1, 235, 449 
Lead consumed in laboratories 2: 520s... dee eve dese cnn dee eee ce ncse see lee 1, 521, 575 


A large portion of the purchases, repairs, and some fabrications do 
not appear on this statement, being done through other agencies than 
the arsenals. There are no sufficient returns from the Trans-Missis- 
sippi Department, and this statement relates exclusively to the opera- 
tions on this side of the Mississippi. The officers serving as chief 
ordnance officers with the principal armies in the field—Lieut. Col. 
B. G. Baldwin and Lieut. Col. H. Oladowski—have, by their untiring 
energy, succeeded in establishing, against great difficulties, some 
degree of order within their sphere of duties, despite the loose organi- 
zation of the Department which materially interfered with the exact 
performance of duty by inspiring loose notions of responsibility to 
superiors. . 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 959 


ORGANIZATION. 


Congress has by two acts authorized the appointment of 150 officers 
of artillery for ordnance duties. Under the second of these two acts 
the appointments were made after examination, and a select body of 
men obtained. By orders from the War Department no appointments 
are made of ordnance officers except after due examination. Under 
the second act alluded to the whole number of officers were distributed 
into 4 lieutenant-colonels (one to each army in the field), 9 majors 
(one to each army corps), 65 captains, 40 first lieutenants, and 32 
second lieutenants. Besides these provisional officers there are a 
large number of officers of the Regular Confederate Army on ordnance 
duty whose rank depends on the position they hold for the time being. 
The provisional organization is thus permanently distinct from the 
artillery proper, and it were better this permanent distinction should 
be incorporated into a law recognizing and organizing an ordnance 
department. Such a law appears to me necessary to the proper execu- 
tion of the duties with which this Bureau is charged. It would give 
character to this body of officers by recognizing it as a distinct branch 
of the service, the members having promotion as ordnance officers for 
duty performed as such. I earnestly commend this subject to your 
consideration. I recommend that the law of April 19, 1862, be so 
amended as to admit of the appointment of one ordnance sergeant to 
each division in the field. The division ordnance officer needs such 
assistance. I beg leave also to recommend that authority be obtained 
to place officers of the provisional ordnance on temporary rank in the 
Same manner as is allowed in the case of officers of the Regular Con- 
federate Army and in case of officers of the Engineer Corps. (See 
acts of Congress of May 21, 1861, and September 23, 1862, and Decem- 
ber 31, 1861.) Some action seems necessary to insure the return of 
officers having temporary rank to their original rank when they are 
detached from the temporary duty for which temporary rank was 
given. This was doubtless the intention of the law, but I know of no 
instance in which it has been carried out. 

Respectfully submitted. 

J. GORGAS, 
Colonel, Chief of Ordnance. 


% 
& a 

State. o a : es 3 ; gi 

a oO 2p a} 45 ed =} 

a=) oO oO ty a oO 

2 ia ° H a iS Gy 

oO wD x Fy Dn ow fQ 
oa aS ee 8, 607 PEG fy Aaa eee ec, We At: MRE 3,000 | 212,141 
INoroin Garoliia--.0.-...--sa<5- 390 74 66 | 120, 663 20 SOSA at aeretereer 143, 600 
mouth Carolina s25.552.5--22% 83 Siilcaeween eee S182 Wet eat eague. 16, 766 
EOE OE Site eect costa cin ak <a Tea eses eae ee 1, 518 OS, LL eva sce ee tines ae 337, 437 
PGE e's sawn ta = oe GOON eevee 2s oe | ecm ere 116, 739 48, 498 43, 400 72, 071 
PRABRIAME HDT res. 22 22k Tian 7, 992 1, 937 On GO2) Nad aee shew fscsou sees Lads. way 5, 059 
5s ae 18,583 | 6,354 5,276 | 343,698| 78,492 | 46,400 | 787, 074 

RECAPITULATION., 

10,000 cattle, averaging 400 pounds per head, 4,000,000 pounds, at one-pound FAMON 26 coos <0, 4, 000, 000 
8,583 cattle, averaging 300 pounds per head, 2,561,400 pounds, at one-pound ration.........-. 2, 561, 400 
6,354 sheep, averaging 50 pounds per head, 317,700 pounds, at one-pound ration.............- 317, 700 
Breehi beef, 343,698. pounds, at.one-pound ration... .....s-<seiec es. niacecn cicbacecsucscccbeoess 343, 698 
Datu Deel Ao, 402 POunas: Au ONG DOUG TAWON.-\.1'.0 Lenco sane cbar as fone hee ce ctiod sve coos 78, 492 
Fore,40,400 pounds, at one-half pound ration 2-242) fib > odse teak We week wee pe ceckeed es 92, 800 
acon, 767,014 pounds, at one-half pound Fabion:.< ~.. 5.66.6. 5.c\s sae seein tence tdcwdenectcanes 1, 574, 148 
Total number rations on hand November 15, 1863............ccnscccnccsccccccenccccecs 8, 968, 288 


J60 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[First indorsement. | 


BUREAU OF SUBSISTENCE, 
Richmond, December 8, 18683. 


Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General. 

The within statement accurately exhibits the meat ration on hand 
November 15, 1863, in the States east of the Mississippi, being twenty- 
five days’ supply for 400,000 men. It is again presented with the 
remark that the meat ration is nearly exhausted in Virginia, the last 
pound here having been forwarded to General Lee’s army, and there 
is no ‘reserve depot” to draw upon. 

S. B. FRENCH, 
Major and Commissary of Subsistence. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
December 8, 1863. 


Respectfully referred to Secretary of War for his information. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary- General of Subsistence. 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Columbus, Miss., November 16, 1868. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS: It is with no feigned embarrassment that I 
approach the discharge of the responsible duties to which your too 
kind partiality has assigned me. In the distressed condition of the 
State and its people I may well distrust my ability to meet your 
expectations in the management of our military and civil affairs. 
Nothing could have induced me to undertake the task but the fullest 
confidence that my acts will meet with indulgent criticism, and that 
I shall be sustained by you in all proper measures and efforts in your 
service. ‘The condition of the State is such as to require the applieca- 
tion for a time of all our power and resources. We are invaded 
north, south, and west by a vindictive foe, who is desolating our 
borders, burning our dwellings, insulting our people, and inciting 
our slaves to insurrection. Regiments of the latter have already 
been embodied and armed to fight against their masters. The evil 
thus far has been felt only on our borders, but when we contemplate 
the contingencies of the future, especially the withdrawal from our 
State of a large portion of the Confederate forces, we shall discover 
that it is full time for vigorous preparation. Great as has been the 
draft upon our energies, Mississippi has yet ample resources both in 
men and means. The militia being properly organized as a support- 
ing force, a few thousand mounted volunteers will be sufficient to 
protect the State from the raiding incursions of the enemy, while 
against the invasion of large armies we shall be supported by the 
arms of the Confederacy. I doubt not that your Legislature at its 
present session will make provision to meet ali possible requirements. 
We have not lightly entered upon the path we are pursuing, and, 
conscious of the rectitude of our intentions and the justice of our 
cause, we have neither motive nor desire to retrace our steps. There 
may be those who delude themselves with visions of a reconstructed 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. . 961 


Union and a restored Constitution. If such there be let them awake 
from their dreaming. Between the South and the North there is a 
great gulf fixed. It is a gulf crimsoned with the blood of our sons and 
brothers, filled with the bitter hatred of our enemies and the memo- 
ries of our wrongs. It can be passed only with dishonor, and in 
reconstruction we shall reach the climax of infamy. Humbly submit 
yourselves to our hated foes, and they will offer you a reconstructed 
Constitution providing for the confiscation of your property, the 
immediate emancipation of your slaves, and the elevation of the 
black race to a position of equality—aye, of superiority, that will 
make them your masters and rulers. Rather than such base submis- 
sion, such ruin and dishonor, let the last of our young men die upon 
the field of battle, and when none are left to wield a blade or uphold 
our banner, then let our old men, our women, and our children, like 
the remnant of the heroic Pascagoulas, when their braves were slain, 
join hands together, march into the sea, and perish beneath its waters. 
Whenever it may be necessary to call out the forces of the State I shall 
endeavor to make them efficient for the defense of the people. The 
day of militia playtime has passed. Such troops as I may be intrusted 
to command must expect to yield to the stern necessities which are 
forced upon us and do the duty of soldiers. They must repel raids, not 
make them. Strict inquiry shall be made as to the justice or injustice 
of the complaints of some portion of our people as to the alleged 
disorders of the soldiers, both State and Confederate. It will not be 
permitted them to insult, plunder, or oppress those whom they are 
called to protect; and, on the other hand, the honor of the troops 
requires that they should be vindicated against unjust charges and 
imputations. To effect this itis necessary that strict discipline should 
be enforced by the officers, and they themselves held to a rigid account- 
ability. Without this they degenerate into an injurious mob, useless 
to the State and a disgrace to the service. Without this the disor- 
derly and vicious cannot be discovered and punished, while their 
infamy is left to stain the names and the memories of their companions. 
Having commanded Mississippians in two wars, I think I know the 
character of the gallant men who march in their battalions. I have 
commanded thousands of them, and have never been compelled to 
inflict a disgraceful punishment upon a single one. I trust and 
believe that there are but few who deserve the reproaches which have 
been cast upon the State troops, and that upon investigation it will 
be found that the complaints against them are groundless. 

There are within our borders no inconsiderable number of men who 
are now absent from the ranks of your defenders without justification 
or excuse. ‘To compel them to go to the field of duty, I invoke the 
voice of an outraged public opinion; I invoke a gentler, higher 
power—the voice and influence of woman. He is unworthy of her 
smiles who is not ready to fight and to die in her defense. Although 
inilitary matters may require much of my time, no other interest of 
the State shall be neglected. 

My earnest attention will be directed to the fostering of such man- 
ufactories and the procurement of such supplies of the necessaries of 
life as may be authorized by law. Our salt-works may not be suffi- 
cient for the wants of the people, but they may be made to furnish a 
larger quantity, and aid to further reduce prices. No effort will be 
spared to procure cotton and woolen cards and such other articles as 
may be required for domestic industry, if the Legislature will make 


61 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


962). CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


proper appropriations for that purpose. One of the most gratifying 
indications of the times is the resolute spirit of industry manifested 
by our women. The spinning wheel is preferred to the harp, and the 
loom makes a music of loftier patriotism and inspiration than the 
keys of the piano. 

Among the duties I shall be called upon to perform is one which 
will give me peculiar pleasure, that of superintending the distribu- 
tion of the funds to be provided for the maintenance of the families 
of our soldiers. This should not be deemed the granting of a charity, 
but the payment of a debt, the discharge of a high obligation, and for 
which I doubt not your Legislature will make ample provision. ‘The 
wives and children of thousands of our gallant men are left to our 
eare. Let them be adopted as the children of the State. Many of 
them are now widows and orphans bequeathed to us by those who 
have shed their blood in our defense. Let the sacred legacy be 
accepted, and the God of the widow and the fatherless will bless your 
cause. 

Fellow-citizens, for the distinguished honor you have conferred 
upon me, I offer you my grateful thanks—grateful, because I do not 
deem myself more worthy than many others. I have imperiled my 
life in your cause, but this I have done with thousands of my coun- 
trymen. I have been less fortunate than those who are yet permitted 
to bear aloft your banners and carry them onward to victory, and if 
their efforts should fail and we should be doomed to subjugation, I 
shall be less fortunate than those who now sleep in honorable but 
undistinguished graves on the battle-fields of their country. But if 
we are true to our high purpose we cannot fail. Every effort of the 
enemy must be resisted with renewed energy, and final victory will 
crown our banners. Let us exert all the powers that God has given 
us, and: humbly yet confidently trust to His just providence for the 
result. Weare but defending the rights and liberties He has given, 
and if we faithfully employ the strength and means He has bestowed 
He will in his own good time secure them to us. But this will not be 
until we have, through all the trials He may impose, shown ourselves 
worthy. The prayers of our noble and heroic women may avail much, 
but deeds are also required of men. The Almighty holds the scales 
of battle with an even hand, and prayer and supplication alone will 
not avail. The balance will not preponderate in your favor until you 
cast in your swords. 


CHARLES CLARK. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 147. Richmond, November 17, 18638. 


For the due authentication of military orders exhibited in evidence 
before the judicial tribunals it is hereby declared that the orders of 
the Adjutant and Inspector General have the force of regulations for 
the government of all branches of the Army, and that printed or 
written copies of the same are duly authenticated when indorsed as 
official by any assistant adjutant-general, or by any chief of a bureau 
of this Department. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. —— 963 


HDQRS. VOL. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, DEPT. NO. 2, 
Marietta, Ga., November 17, 1868. 
General 8. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General: 


I transmit herewith a copy of the report of the work: of this bureau 
for the month of October past. From this report it will be seen that 
8,811 men were placed in the Army by this bureau in the month of 
October. The report from Alabama conscript camps (entire con- 
script branch) and two rendezvous in Alabama have not yet been 
received, and two rendezvous and two outposts in Mississippi have 
not been received for the month of October, and are therefore not 
embraced in the report. The work of these rendezvous and camps 
would probably add from 1,200 to 1,500 more, which would make the 
work of the month amount to near or quite 10,000 men. These men 
have nearly all been armed from the two States of Alabama and Mis- 
Sissippi, in which alone I have any authority to organize the bureau. 
The report of the month of September was 7,336. This was the first 
month’s work, making between 17,000 and 18,000 men added to the 
Army in the months of September and October. This work has been 
done in two States alone, having but a small population left at home. 
This population will of course soon be exhausted. I think that in 
these two States there are 10,000 men detailed and exempted. The 
work of the next month will probably fall off, as the population is 
diminished and the stragglers restored to the Army. If this organi- 
zation extended over the other States it is a reasonable calculation to 
say that it would place 30,000 men in the armies per month. Ido 
not include in the report the thirty companies of cavalry supporting 
force, principally non-conscripts and exempts, nor the cavalry, about 
5,000 men, organized and brought out of West Tennessee. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, 
Superintendent Volunteer and Conscript Bureau, Dept. No. 2. 


I have issued orders prescribing the character of reports to be made 
from the conscript camps and rendezvous, by which I shall hereafter 
be able to specify the companies and regiments to which absentees 
are sent and conscripts assigned. Shy 

mail Sead et 


[Inclosure. ] 


Report of Volunteer and Conscript Bureau for month of October, 1863. 


ro) a) n 
HH bod iol 
ih a lac 
~ HH of 
Al a oN D 
SOs cabs ae 
soe pas 
Rendezvous. Commander. Binion ae , Remarks. 
to) ° of Mm 
hy H nS fe 
co) ) Oy a 
Q 2 2¢q = x 
g As . fs 
=) = 5 co) ° 
Alal|a A H 
Blountsville -.----- Col. Bude WiOa.n saceers. 4 453 | 206 791 | 284 | 1,734 | For September and Octo- 
ber. 
selmaisis: sen ee = Lieutenant-Colonel | 72 | 27 | 1,271 | 75 | 1,445 
Echols. 
Montgomery ---.-- Col. T. W. White ...-.-- 55 | 14 920 | 125 | 1,114 | From Sept. 25 to Oct. 11. 
ave He 0N Fee eee ae Lieutenant-Colonel | 34] 71 19 % 131 
McDonell. * 
Camden. 52.24. -5: Major Stone ...---..-- 43) | 6) | cs ssa seer 104 
Greenville ......-.- Lieutenant Barton....| 17 2 116 5 140 


964 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Report of Volunteer and Conscript Bureau for month of October, 1563—Cont’d. 


ad eee aa 
en anh 
_ H nn 
F|2|¢es 
‘ oa =| HY 
S 9 | $a 
Rendezvous. Commander. ie a qe . Remarks. 

° ° of 2) 
H H Hs a 
SNe ae ae 
fle] ese|3/ 3 
=) i=} =] ) ° 
42\/AiA = dq 

Mobile. s203..4acecee Colonel Miller <2 -232-2|- 42-2 67 LOO Mee 167 

Livingston .....-.-. Lieutenant-Colonel | 28 |..--- i Ma ec 92 

Pennington. 
Grove Hill......-.. Captain McGhee...... TPM Wale Galea 55 
eee CaptainsRopinson sse-\. +224) esos eas eee ee 136 | Not stationed, operating 
in Randolph and adja- 
cent counties. . 

West) Points Ga-_-2-) Major Hunt 2225-.-2c|e-s0-|-o—% = 164/22 S35 164 | Rendezvous in Georgia, 
but operates in a- 
bama. 

Martone. s-eac-a-s Captain Steele......-..|.--.-|----- 8. ee oe 8 | Has but recently obtained 
the aid necessary to op- 
erate successfully. 

Camp of Instruc- | Lieutenant-Colonel |..-.- 159 Mos see eee 159 

tion. Lockhart. 
Aggregate...|.-------------------- eee ]e eee |e ee ee |e eee --|---- 5, 449 
MISSISSIPPI. 

Columbia’-222-.-- =. Major Cage frdens- 2 ces) waacelac ees eae Seems tel: No report in October. 

Augusta. ....--..-. Major McLemore ..... Ogizo-e 84s). Se 2 90 | But one weekly report in 
October. 

Brandon-ea-2 eens Colonel Wilbourn ....}....- 89 DOMENEG 131 

DewWKwialb 2 ae aeacces Major Halleseepceece ee 79 | 64 477 | 16 636 

DE RODD. 2 kin 0 scala Captain Gallaher -..... 9 | 102 Seed ee 179 | Three weekly reports in 
October. 

Columbus: 22 = =. Colonel Morton ....... 43 | 186 LBB sterssepeae 392 

Okolona 2 ace ae Colonel Magevney..-.| 5 | 38 127 | 23 193 

Aberdeen....--.-.-. Colonel Hardcastle ..-}.... | 26 29 2 57 

Grenadas--. 2-28 Lieutenant-Colonel]| 19) 16 258 | 21 314 

Patrick. 

Decatur t4s-c32c 25 - Captain McLean......}..-.. 23 90} 12 125 

Panldin ge s422¢ eas Major Coxcs s.scceeme 2 | 58 5: 21, 86 | Three weekly reports in 
October. 

Camp of Instruc- | Major Merwin ......-..]..... S63 55. seca seer 186 

tion, Enterprise. 
ING oa Rey ENYA |b Go oR OOD] SONS IOr aeSsesa|Saqges|o cece | PEP COA acc. 2, 389 

SouthyCar.o lima i eateee eas tte ee © stererallene co 16ers 76 | No rendezvous in South 

officers. Carolina. 

North eC aro li i sel ee-eesi scat -icee ctcieeeemes Saar seers LO eee 10 | No rendezvous in North 

officers. Carolina. 

Majorte hillingsesces.|oseelaeeee A0Saiee eee 403 | No rendezvous in Geor- 
gia; Major Phillips op- 
erates with battalion 
Georgia cavalry. 

Officers 25th 20th Wc ses ccceee sete seceae sede cesses aee ela wi ees 285 

30th Georgia Reg- 
iments and ist 
Battalion Geor- 
gia Sharpshoot- 
ers. 

Other Georgia offi-, |. 5.25. .ocee cose neeupane leans olde ne okie ore aetecdan 23 

cers 

Rome... 2-sss-secs:. Major Butler ..---.eele=ss 8 168 "seer 176 

PW Che ern lsc aq SOS Ree G OL a aaee er aahseoaal ood soda Sani 887 
RECAPITULATION. 

From Alabama) o2onsr setae eead oat sd ac 8 Sid Sa alert ee sree rate ele ee ao wots] clnipta ele alata el ekelste tate ee 5, 449 

Brom Mississippi 2--0- o<cec neces eceie cae oars ee em cle a eee ere ieee oie ep lee oho Fe aerate ete te 2, 389 

From South ‘Caroling 2oe% .s2cc.02 2 Spock beak tplee Beemer ene See ees eo ee ine esa 76 

From North Carolina 5.022.000 0e doce occ owe Baas oe ce emiee oct n ie leie.c ca tele ale aie cinta) ela ale eee 10 

Brom Georgia seas cictcr estes es rie waren 2m sie ee re ete eee ott 1 bie cic mnieeya ciaa'= aie =o imcele' Sai oer 887 

Grand total siic-ccs.cce -o- 2 Jomtien someimaa temerenemmera rr Gone sec ses cece cane eke eee 8, 811 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 965 


MARIETTA, GA., November 16, 1868. 


This report is in the main the work of the bureau for the month of 
October. The work of the Montgomery rendezvous lacks about ten 
days of being for one month. There are no reports from the rendez- 
vous at Newton and Eutaw, Ala., for October, nor from the camps of 
instruction for the same month. In Mississippi from one rendezvous 
there are no reports for October; from one there is but one report for 
same month. From two other rendezvous one weekly report from 
each is lacking to make complete the work in the State for the month. 

GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, &c. 


[Indorsement. | 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, November 26, 1863. 


The apparent results as indicated by this report exceed the results 
which would accrue from the conscription organization under Gen- 
eral Orders, No. 82, 1862. What force is engaged in procuring these 
results is notstated. The number of conscripts (635) would probably 
be attained by General Orders, No. 82. The number of deserters 
and stragglers in Alabama and Mississippi far exceed that in the States 
of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 148. Richmond, November 18, 1868. 


I. The quarterly returns of arms, accouterments and equipments 
in the hands of troops, required by paragraph 1348 of the Army Reg- 
ulations, have heretofore been furnished in a very few cases only by 
commanding officers of regiments and battalions. These returns are 
deemed essential, and will hereafter be promptly rendered. 

II. It is hereby made the duty of generals commanding brigades 
to see that these returns are made on the 1st of January, April, July, 
and October of each year, and forwarded through the regular chan- 
nels to the Chief of Ordnance at Richmond within twenty days after 
these dates, respectively. 

III. Should any officer fail to render the return required on the 1st 
of January next, within twenty days thereafter the brigadier-general 
commanding the brigade to which the officer is attached will cause 
charges for ‘‘ disobedience of orders,” or of ‘‘neglect of duty,” as the 
case may require, to be made and forwarded without delay to the 
general commanding, for his action. The same action will be taken 
on every subsequent omission to render such returns. 

IV. Brigade and district ordnance officers will give every assistance 
to colonels of regiments and officers commanding battalions in the 
preparation of the “returns,” according to the form prescribed, and 
they will also see that arms and accouterments lost by the men are 
duly charged against them on the muster-rolls of their respective 
companies. 

V. The chief ordnance officer of every army and department will 
promptly report to the chief of the Ordnance Bureau every officer 
in the command to which he is attached who fails to make the 
‘‘return”’ herein required. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


966 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 149. j Richmond, November 19, 1863. 

I. The pay and allowances of men detailed for work (except for 
Government work) will cease during such detail, and in leu thereof 
full wages will be paid them by the persons or parties to whom they 
are ordered to report. 

II. The attention of all commanding officers, whose duty it may be 
to examine the abstracts of issues of commissaries or assistant com- 
missaries of subsistence, is particularly directed to General Orders, 
No. 12, March 10, 1862. These commanding officers will also see that 
only the number of enlisted men actually present on duty are included 

n ‘‘ provision returns;” and that if any change takes place in that num- 
ber during the period drawn for that a corresponding allowance is duly 
made in the next subsequent return, and also that the provisions 
drawn are well taken care of and economically used. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va.; November 19, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Sir: Finding that by gradual and evident aceraaeaa the camps 
of instruction ‘and the force employed in the conscription service were 
expanding beyond the limitations prescribed by general orders, I have 
issued the inclosed circular requiring strict adherence to the provis- 
ions of the law. The provisions are amply sufficient for the enrolling 
service. 

In view of the propriety of preserving the legal organization, I 
respectfully suggest that applications for service in the enrolling 
department be referred to this Bureau in all cases, to ascertain if the 
officer or soldier be needed. 

This is the present practice and is beneficial in its operation. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
_ JNO. 8S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[Inclosure.] 
CIRCULAR CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
No. —. BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, | 


Richmond, Va., November 15, 1868. 


The following organization is allowed for camps of instruction. 
Commandants of conscripts are charged with a strict adherence to its 
provision. They will complete the organization and be careful in no 
instance to exceed its allowance of officers except under special per- 
mission from this Bureau: 


ORGANIZATION FOR CAMPS OF INSTRUCTION. 


Commandant of conscripts for the State. 
1. Commandant of camp of instruction with the rank of major. 
2. Assistant quartermaster, captain. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 967 


3. Assistant commissary of subsistence, captain. 

4. Surgeon, major. 

5. Four drill-masters, first lieutenants, as adjutant and clerks in 
the office of the commandant of conscripts. 

6. Five drill-masters, second lieutenants, as adjutant and clerks in 
the office of the camp of instruction. 

7. Four drill-masters, second lieutenants, in each camp of instruc- 
tion. 

8. One captain to command camp guard. 

A camp guard of fifty men may be organized, the drill-masters act- 
ing as subaltern officers. 

There will be no addition to this force of officers or of guard with- 
out the previous approval of this Bureau. 

To each Congressional district one enrolling officer with the rank of 
major or captain and one non-commissioned officer or private, who 
shall be a disabled soldier. To each county, city, town, district, or 
parish, one commissioned officer with the rank of first lieutenant and 
two non-commissioned officers or privates, who shall be disabled 
soldiers, to act as clerk or assistant. 

Commandants of conscripts will report before the 1st of January, 
1864, the complete execution of the matter of this circular. 

By command of Col. J. 8. Preston, superintendent: 

C. B. DUFFIELD, 
Assistant Adjutant- General. 


CIRCULAR BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
No. 56. Richmond, Va., November 19, 1868. 


1. The Secretary of War has directed that standing counsel be 
employed in each Congressional district to represent the Government 
in all eases of habeas corpus sued out for the discharge of persons 
from whom the Government claims military service in which the 
services of the district attorneys of the Confederate States cannot 
be had. 

2. In compliance with the foregoing directions of the Secretary of 
War, commandants of conscripts are hereby required to select in 
their several States suitable persons for the purpose indicated, and 
to report to this Bureau the names of such persons, their post-offices, 
Congressional districts, and the terms upon which their services can 
be obtained. 

In view of the number of cases likely to arise, it is believed that the 
rate of compensation allowed to the Confederate district attorneys 
will be sufficient to secure the highest professional talent. The dis- 
trict attorneys are allowed $20 in each case in which there is an appear- 
ance. When required to leave their homes upon duty they are paid 
in addition a per diem of $10, and 10 cents for each mile necessarily 
traveled going and returning. In avery large number of the cases 
a simple return will end them, and the number requiring arguments 
will be comparatively small. ‘As soon as a few of the cases have been 
heard and the court and counsel become familiar with the law and 
orders governing them, the labors of the counsel will be very much 
diminished and simplified. 

The compensation of the district attorneys is stated for the infor- 
mation of the commandants, and to serve somewhat as a guide in 
regulating the compensation to be agreed upon. They will, of course, 


968 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


make the best terms they can for the Government, taking care to 
select counsel of known ability and fidelity. The arrangement 
between the commandants and the counsel selected by them will not 
be considered as perfected until submitted to and approved by the 
Bureau. 
By order of Col. J. S. Preston, superintendent: 
C. B. DUFFIELD, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


Report on subsistence. 


On the 18th of November, 1862, a report was submitted to the Sec- 
retary of War. This report, which embodied a comparative view of 
commissary supplies and resources, is added at foot of this report.* 
A statement similar to that, as far as it can be made so from mate- 
rials in this Bureau, is now submitted, as also some remarks on the 
present and prospective supply of breadstuffs. 


BACON. 

Stock on hand October 1: Pounds. 
1862 oc sche eeceee oe. me ee 5, 154, 366 
1868. a en one ee bo ce ee 2, 059, 716 

Deficiti. oy ee 3, 094, 650 
BEEF. 


The number of beeves available October 15, 1863, are reported as 
follows: 


In. Virginia, Valley of Shenandoah, &c .. 2.2. 2.2-..25-2.. eee 6, 900 
Southwest: Virginia, SAy.-.2....- “..seaeceee5--eces ene. s ne 4,000 
10, 000 
Number on hand October, 1862 _____.___._-------- ‘LL ea 8, 500 
FIXCOSS us. os we tine ced a Ae eee ere Sie ete Sa Slee 1,500 
In other States the numbers of cattle are as follows: 
Head 
South, Caroliniaiu cscs tes oth ec a et ae 500 
GeOr ela. 2 ocey ee ed he nig meine were = Bee eee ae ee oe 821 
Alabarnay oo pe wi oe eae ak he ee te (ones eee 1, 100 
Florida Ooo. oo re cn ee bce ones ee ae 200 
Mississippi 2.20 0s oe ae ees eee bie ban webe nid came ene 14, 000 
Total ss jap tssi ts aydtencEiek cd §. ois heey sak: Boge clea eee “16, 621 


About 2,500 of the 14,000 from Mississippi come under the head of 
State cattle, but are embraced in the returns to the Subsistence 
Bureau. The stock brought from Florida forms the supply used at 
Charleston, Savannah, and the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. 
The stock reported on hand in Florida by the chief commissary on 
the 15th October, of 200 head, does not represent the purchases in that 
State, which are forwarded to Generals Bragg and Beauregard as rap- 
idly as they are collected. 

It is impossible to estimate from any data in this office what pro- 
portion of bacon may be expected for the coming year—no purchases 
of hogs have been reported—but it is certain that nothing like the fig- 
ures of last year can be reached. It was then estimated that 150,000 


* See p. 192. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 969 


hogs would be obtained from Tennessee. Now the whole of that 
State has been overrun, and though a portion of it is believed to be 
recovered, yet that recovery may be temporary, and it is not safe to 
calculate upon drawing from it a pound of bacon. At the same time 
it was estimated that 20,000 hogs could be obtained in Virginia and 
North Carolina. But several facts concur to induce the conclusion 
that no such number can now be expected from that source ; whilst 
the absence of returns or estimatesfrom Georgia, Alabama, or Missis- 
Sippi—except a statement from Georgia, of very serious ravages 
from hog cholera—forbid any regular estimate from them, or any- 
thing more than the conjecture that stocks there will be small, and 
the obtaining of a large portion of them will be precarious from the 
condition of the country and the want of transportation. 

Everywhere there is a comparative, and in many places an actual, 
scarcity of meat, and in addition to that fact the difficulty of getting 
it is greatly increased by the derangement of the currency and the 
consequent reluctance of holders to sell at any price. Under an 
apprehension of that state of things, Congress at its last session passed 
what is known as the appraisement act, and this Bureau has been 
operating under that law ever since it became evident that to pay the 
prices asked would not only fail to procure supplies but would bank- 
rupt the Government. 

The withholding of supplies and the industrious circulation by 
rumor and through the newspapers of false reports in reference to the 
execution of the impressment law by this Bureau has produced and 
will continue to produce an undue impression of the scantiness of 
supplies. Under this belief all parties who have the means are 
endeavoring, either singly or by associated effort, to lay up or engage 
twelve months’ supply of provisions. In addition to that class, vari- 
ous organizations charged with the subsistence of soldiers’ families 
have entered or are preparing to enter the market, as are also corpor- 
ations of cities charged with feeding the poor. All these parties have 
a right to transcend the prices fixed by the commissioners of appraise- 
ment in each State. They do so in all cases, and generally to an 
amount very much larger than is fixed in the schedules of impress- 
ment. ‘Thus corn has been ordered in some cases at $40 per barrel, 
or double the price fixed by the schedule of impressment, and pork 
at $160 per hundred, or 166 per cent. more than the impressing price. 
The effect of such things has been to dissatisfy sellers with the prices 
fixed by the commissioners of appraisement, large as these are, and to 
cause a great deal of concealment, evasion, and fraud in the render- 
ing accounts of supplies. It is unnecessary to trace the consequences 
of the mutual interaction of these things. 

What has been said of meats applies equally to breadstuffs. Thus 
in Lynchburg, where the Government has a large contract for grind- 
ing wheat, less than 15,000 bushels have been received. In Peters- 
burg only 48,322 bushels, and in Richmond the mill has stopped grind- 
ing for more than a fortnight. 

There has been less trouble in engaging supplies within the territory 
covered by the enemy, or in districts likely to be overrun by them. 
People are afraid of losing all. But the quantity in such places is 
either small in amount or there is such deficiency in transportation 
that comparatively little has been thus obtained. 

That supplies have held out so well under these circumstances is 
attributable to the fact that the field of operations has been so com- 
pletely covered by the agencies of the Bureau. 


970 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Anticipating the approach of this deficit in meat over two years 
ago, this Bureau recommended a reduction of the regular army ration, 
which was always more than a soldier needed or under ordinary cir- 
cumstances could consume, but the recommendation was unheeded 
until within the last few months. Still later, to wit, last fall and 
winter, an effort was made to obtain supplies, especially of meat, 
from without the limits of the Confederacy, whereby prices might 
fall by the partial withdrawal of this Bureau from the market, and at 
the same time subsistence might accumulate at home. To this end 
permission was asked to close with offers to furnish meats in the 
west and southwest in exchange for cotton. It was thought best not 
to grant it, but to allow instead contracts of that sort for delivery at 
our Atlantic ports. Several such were made, and upon terms so 
liberal as to have insured fulfillment had it been practicable. But so 
far nothing has been delivered under those contracts, nor is there a 
probability that anything will be. 

- Still further to meet this expected scarcity an agent was sent abroad 
in February last by this Bureau to make arrangements for a supply 
of meat, and, contemporaneously, Mr. William G. Crenshaw, whom 
the War Department had sent to Europe as its agent, was also fully 
instructed as to the wants of this Bureau, with authority and instruc- 
tions to make purchases and ship them by the line of steamers he was 
engaged to start between Europe and our ports. The agent first 
referred to, going to Liverpool, turned over his money to Mr. Cren- 
shaw, who purchased therewith 2,989,944 pounds of bacon. This 
amount was deemed as large as could be safely purchased in view of 
the climate in which it was to be stored and the length of time it 
would have to lie awaiting the completion of vessels to be put upon 
the line. It was purchased in May last and all of it has not yet come, 
a fact due to the delay in completing the vessels for want of funds in 
the hands of the agents. So anxious was this Bureau to aid that 
enterprise that if advanced $100,000 of its own funds in gold to the 
construction of steamers or purchase of provisions, as might be 
deemed best by Mr. Crenshaw, relying upon the cotton that should 
go forward to repay that expenditure and to make purchases of 
meats. There have now been sent out by that line and by other ves- 
sels 1,369 bales of cotton wherewith to purchase meat, and it is hoped 
that if the port at Wilmington shall continue open that a continuous 
supply of meat may be obtained in this way, not enough, however, to 
meet the wants of our armies. 

There are no other sources of supply known to the Bureau. The 
Department of Trans-Mississippi, which last year furnished a very 
large supply both of beef and hogs, is now deemed inaccessible, or 
nearly so, though some of the best officers of the Bureau on both sides 
of the river have been instructed to make combined efforts to place 
supplies on this side. : | 

The quantity of sugar used in substitution of meat has also relieved 
- the issues of that article, but the supply is now so nearly exhausted 
that its use for that purpose has been stopped, and it now is only 
given to the sick. 

This Bureau has therefore to report as its conviction that for the 
coming twelve months there will not be enough meat in the country 
for the people and armies of the Confederate States, and as the peo- 
ple can, for the reasons above stated, obtain what there is more 
readily, and insist upon having it without any regard to the wants 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 971 


of our soldiers, it is presumed they must bear the brunt of hunger as 
well as of arms. 

W hether or not there is wheat enough in the Confederacy to bread 
our armies and our whole people is not known to this Bureau, but it 
believes there is more than enough of corn to make up any deficiency 
in this respect; that, however, is not found in due proportion in Vir- 
ginia, but is widely distributed over large and distant areas, and if 
delivered at all must be hauled from farther south on railroads. But 
the present railroad transportation is inadequate for the purpose. It 
is reported by Major Carrington, quartermaster, that he will want for 
General Lee’s army alone 1,500,000 bushels of corn above what he 
ascertains to be the surplus of Virginia. This Bureau estimates its 
wants for the same purpose at 250,000 bushels. Thesingle track from 
Weldon, even if undisturbed by the enemy, cannot transport it in 
addition to its other necessary carriage. If the railroad were com- 
pleted from Greensborough to Danville it might be done without 
difficulty, and the president of the road, who has been asked to give 
an opinion on the subject, says that the connection can be made in 
three months’ time if the Government will put an adequate force on 
the road, counting the time from the commencement of work by that 
force. 

This difficulty of transportation has been seen from the beginning 
of the war, and the Bureau has made constant representations of the 
fact. 

The mismanagement in transportation, whereby an amount of 
stealing from the cars in transitu, sufficient seriously to affect the 
quantity delivered at all points depending on railroads, has been con- 
stantly felt and almost as constantly represented to the War Depart- 
ment. 

Whisky, though not a regular ration, has been desired for issue 
under circumstances of great exposure and protracted fatigue. Geor- 
gia and Alabama were the only States where grain existed in sufficient 
-quantities to justify the diversion of grain from breadstuffs to whisky. 
The arrangements that were made to that effect in Georgia have been 
defeated by the laws of the State, and, with the exception of efforts 
in Alabama, it is deemed proper not to attempt its manufacture else-. 
where than in those two States. All the grain thus used in Virginia 
necessitates the importation of that much more into Virginia, and it 
is much easier to transport spirits than grain. Indeed, to save both 
grain and transportation the importation of alcohol, to be diluted 
with water as a substitute for whisky, has been attempted, but the 
tonnage has not been sufficient for meat, a difficulty which has also 
prevented the importation of coffee. 

I have heretofore, in an indorsement on a letter of Maj. B. P. 
Noland, dated November 16, 1863, recommended ‘‘that the Secre- 
tary of War notify every general commanding a department that his 
power to accumulate reserves under that provision of the law has - 
passed away; that the exigency for meat is on them, and that they 
proceed and impress through the agents of this Bureau all meat and 
cattle in their departments that exceeds three months’ supply for citi- 
zens, and one-half of all that companies and corporations have gath- 
ered, so that privation will fall on those who are under shelter.” 

Since writing the above reports have been received from Major 
Sloan, chief commissary for North Carolina, and from Major Dam- 
eron, chief commissary in Mississippi. They are both somewhat more 
encouraging than the accounts given as to North Carolina and the 


972 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


receipt of beeves across the Mississippi, but they do not alter substan- 
tially the general aspect of the report. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commuissary-General of Subsistence. 


[NOVEMBER 20, 1863. ] 


— 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 150. Richmond, November 21, 1868. 


I. Enlisted men who have been (or may become) permanently dis- 
abled, and who hold a certificate of a medical examining board to 
that effect, and who have not been discharged the service, may have 
their rations commuted at $1.25 per diem, whether they are in a hos- 
pital, private quarters, or on furlough. 

II. Men liable to conscription, who have joined companies for local 
defense, will be discharged from such companies and conscribed. 
This order is not intended to affect companies for which special excep- 
tion has been made by the War Department. 


By order: 
S. COOPER, 
‘Adjutant and Inspector General. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 151. Richmond, November 23, 1863. 


I. Forage in kind will be issued to officers (entitled to it) stationed, 
by orders from the War Department, at posts and not in the field, for 
but one horse each. In lieu of forage $8 a month may be allowed for 
each horse to which the officer may be entitled. A certificate in each 
case will be given that the ‘‘horses are actually kept in service and 
mustered.” ie 

II. Officers of the Adjutant-General, Quartermaster, Commissary 
(except purchasing commissaries), Medical, and Ordnance Depart- 
ments, signal and regimental officers (except commanders of regi- 
ments), and subalterns of artillery, who are serving in the field, will 
be embraced in the provisions of paragraph I of this order, unless 
otherwise ordered by the commanding general. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, 
Tallahassee, November 23, 1863. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


I have no reason to believe that any appeal has ever been made to 
the authorities or citizens of the State to supply or aid in supplying 
subsistence to the armies in the Confederate service, or to sustain the 
Confederate Government by taxation or otherwise, that has not been 
promptly responded to. In proportion to her population, resources, 
and means of transportation, no State has afforded a greater number 
of gallant men in military service, more grain, beef, sirup, sugar, 
wool, leather, &c., to maintain the Government than has Florida ; nor 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 973 


has any restraint by State authority been placed on the trade or 
exchange of commodities for the accommodation of citizens of other 
States. It is not claimed that Florida has done more than her duty 
to the Government and to her sister States, but she has performed 
that duty cheerfully and with the noble spirit which should animate 
a brave and Christian people. It is possible that in some few 
instances individuals may not have heeded the calls made upon 
them—calls made by those whom they did not believe authorized to 
purchase provisions for the Government—and for this there has been 
much reason. The press of this and other States, for the protection 
of credulous and worthy citizens, have made known the most shame- 
less frauds practiced by impostors claiming to be officers or agents 
in Confederate service. 

Now and then it has happened that gentlemen in the Confederate 
service, as officers—and worthily so—have exceeded their authority 
from a misapprehension of the orders of superior officers; and now 
and then it has occurred that general orders have been issued which 
were not consistent with or justified by any act of Congress, and 
which orders, having been enforced, proved to be unjust and oppressive. 

It affords me much pleasure, however, to inform your honorable 
body that the President of the Confederate States and the distin- 
guished gentlemen, the heads of the different departments, who com- 
pose his Cabinet have consistently acknowledged the right of the 
States whenever their attention has been invited to interference with 
them. Nevertheless, in a few instances insurmountable obstacles 
have prevented a compliance with applications, the justice and pro- 
priety of which were not disputed. Nor has Florida any cause to 
complain of the distinguished officer who commands this military 
department—for none is entitled to more of-her confidence and 
respect. But the multiplicity of important events of the war, press- 
ing on each other with rapid succession and endangering more 
important parts of the Confederacy, makes it necessary that Florida 
should not exclusively depend upon the Confederate authorities for 
the civil, religious, and political rights of her citizens, and that the 
State government, whenever at all necessary, should be sufficient in 
itself to protect the rights of her citizens and shield them from 
oppression. 

As the Executive of the State I feel it my duty to invite your atten- 
tion to matters of recent occurrence which threaten to result disas- 
trously to the welfare of the citizens and the peace and dignity of the 
State, if no preventive measures shall be promptly adopted and author- 
ity given by suitable legislation to prevent their recurrence. 

Within the last few days notices have been served upon many citi- 
zens of this and other counties of the State of a like character or 
similar to the following, viz: 


OFFICE DISTRICT COMMISSARY, SECOND DISTRICT, 
Tallahassee, Fla., November, 1862. 
Mr. G. D. CHAIRES: 

Sir: The head of beeves and pounds of bacon which you now have on hand is 
needed for the use of the armies of the Confederate States. For this purpose I 
will pay you at the rate of schedule price per ——. 

If this price is not satisfactory to you compensation for the property will be 
made according to the act of Congress passed for the regulation of impressments; 
and you are hereby notified that in pursuance of the provisions of said act the 
Government requires you to hold said property subject to my order, and not to 
remove it until the business be concluded between us in terms of the law in such 
case made and provided. 


974 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


This notice is intended to be applied to all bacon and beeves, and any other 
article of subsistence required for the use of the Army in your possession, giving 
marks, description of packages, and by whom owned, as in the event of your 
failure so to do it will become my duty to make the forcible search and seizure 
authorized by law. 

By order of Maj. A. B. Noyes, district commissary: 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
M. S. ELKIN, 
Commissary Agent. 


Your attention is particularly called to the phraseology of these 
extraordinary and illegal notices. There is no legal authority to jus- 
tify the issue and service of these extraordinary notices. They are 
incompatible with the rights of the citizens and insulting to freemen 
who know their rights and have proven their loyalty to the Govern- 
ment established by them for the protection of their rights. Could the 
ingenuity of man have framed an instrument more directly, abso- 
lutely, and completely opposed to the plain, palpable, and simple pro- 
visions of the seventh section of the act of Congress regulating 
impressments? The notice makes no exceptions, makes no reserva- 
tions; all is to be held subject to the order of the military dictator, 
and on refusal the party is to be subjected to a ‘‘forcible search and 
seizure,” authorized by no law, justified by no necessity, and which 
should be resisted at every and any sacrifice—even that of life itself. 

The seventh section of the act of Congress regulating impressments 
is in these words, viz: 

The property necessary for the support of the owner and his family, and to 
carry on his ordinary agricultural and mechanical business, to be ascertained by 
the appraisers, to be appointed as provided in the first section of this act, under 
oath, shall not be taken or impressed for the public use; and when the impressing 
officer and the owner cannot agree as to the quantity of property necessary, as 


aforesaid, then the decision of the said appraisers shall be binding on the officer 
and all other persons. : 


Can anything be plainer? Can language be more simple, more 
explicit? ‘*‘The property necessary for the support of the owner and 
his family,” &c., ‘‘shall not be taken or impressed for the public use,” 
says the act of Congress. ‘‘All bacon and beeves and other articles 
of subsistence required for the use of the Army in your possession,” 
says the notice. 

In the Quincy Dispatch of the 21st instant the following appears: 


CIRCULAR. | HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF WEST FLORIDA, 
Quincy, November 20, 1863. 


Commanders of posts are hereby instructed to give all the aid in their power to 
the commissaries and their agents throughout this district in the impressment 
of subsistence stores. They will grant such details as may be required by the 
commissaries or their agents in the procuring of subsistence, and will furnish a 
guard whenever necessary to protect any subsistence stores which may be seized 
for use of the Government. They will instruct their commands accordingly. 

By command of Brigadier-General Gardner : . 

5S. S. CARLISLE, 
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. 


Is there any law which authorizes an officer in the Commissary 
Department to employ a civil officer of the State, or to use a private 
citizen, in making impressments? Or is there any good reason why 
a citizen liable to conscription, who would be willing to be such an 
agent, should not be mustered into the military service of the Con- 
federate States and placed in the ranks with a musket at his shoulder? 
Why should any citizen be clothed with military authority which 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 975 


would enable him to intrude himself into the sacred precinets of the 
family circle, and when reproved or repulsed for his intrusion, then, 
with an armed force at his back, to return and make unlawful searches 
and seizures ? ; 

Is there any act of Congress which can justify such extraordinary 
measures? Has Congress the constitutional right to authorize such 
proceedings? If nay, is it then to be considered as a right incidental 
to the military power of a Government, designed for the protection of 
civil liberty by the guarantees of a Constitution regarded as a compact 
between free, sovereign, and independent States ? 

Congress cannot rightfully exercise any power not granted by the 
Constitution; nor should any department of the Government be per- 
mitted to do so, without respectful complaint and, if need be, deter- 
mined resistance. The Constitution should be respected and uncom- 
promisingly maintained as the ark of our political and the palladium 
of our religious, civil, and personal liberties. 

It is painful to me to believe, and to express the opinion, that there 
exists a necessity for the interposition of State authority to protect 
the rights, lives, and liberty of the citizens against the military orders 
of Confederate officers for whom personally I entertain the kindest 
feelings and utmost respect. But I would be recreant to the high 
trust confided to me by the citizens of Florida if I were to hesitate 
a moment in the defense of their rights, when I believe them in 
jeopardy. 

Where is the propriety of any legislation on the part of your honor- 
able body to provide for the support of the families of your brave 
fellow-citizens, who, while in arms to defend your rights, have intrusted 
their wives, children, and aged mothers to the care and protection of 
the authorities of the State, and of you, their fellow-citizens, if you 
Shall permit an order to be enforced which deprives them of the only 
means of support, when by suitable legislation it may and should be 
prevented? Ifthe order shall be enforced upon the notices given, 
how can the families of the soldiers—how can unfortunate citizens 
driven from their homes, and dependent upon your hospitality—how 
can citizens not engaged in agricultural pursuits or in military service— 
be saved from starvation? Shall the planters of Florida ‘‘crook the 
pregnant hinges of the knee” to the military authorities for the humble 
privilege of saving, by the fruits of their own industry, the families 
of the soldiers and their unfortunate fellow-citizens from starvation ? 

May God forbid that any citizen of Florida who commands the 
respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens should be so lost to the 
genial influences of patriotism and Christianity as ever to hesitate a 
moment to offer his last cent, and with it, if need be, his life, to sustain 
the Confederate authorities in appropriate efforts to supply the wants 
of the noble armies now struggling to achieve the independence of 
the Confederate States, and thus, by the only means, save the people 
from subjugation, utter ruin, and final disgrace, or hesitate a moment 
to divide his last grain of corn or ounce of meat with the soldier’s 
family, or any patriotic citizen driven penniless from home by the 
enemy! And may He also, in the exercise of infinite mercy, forbid - 
that any citizen of Florida should ever be so base and cowardly as to 
yield willingly to any Government, or to any usurpation of power, 
the means of depriving him, v et armis, of the most sacred rights 
guaranteed by the Constitution and intrusted to worthy descendants 
of the ‘‘sires of the American Revolution,” rather than to meet death 
without fear in their vindication. 


976 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


I have unlimited confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the Con- 
federate Government when justly administered; but at the same 
time can only be sensible of its appropriate influence in the main- 
tenance of the sovereignty of the States. Better that Florida should 
be a waste of flowers, enriched with the blood of her brave citizens, 
than to be inhabited by them as slaves or willing to be slaves. 

I recommend to your honorable body to enact promptly a law which 
will protect the rights of the citizens, and punish severely any person 
who may illegally interfere with them. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, 
JOHN MILTON, 
Governor of Florida. 


[NOVEMBER 23, 1863.—For Clark to Johnston, in relation to the 
transfer of State troops of Mississippi to Confederate service, see 
Series I, Vol. XX XI, Part III, p. 743. | 


EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
Columbus, November 23, 1868. 


GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 


I desire to call your attention to the condition of the State troops 
and ask your early action. In the message of my predecessor, at the 
commencement of your session, he informs you that there are now in 
the possession of the State forces, horses, &ec., to the amount of 
$224,910.50, and that by an understanding with the President and 
General Johnston the whole cavalry force is to be turned over to the 
Confederate service, the Confederate Government agreeing to pay | 
for the use and risk of the State horses during their term of service, | 
and also to pay the value when any such horse or horses shall be 
killed or captured by the enemy; ‘‘and further, that this arrange- 
ment is subject to any disposition which the Legislature may deem 
proper to make in the premises.” As the whole matter has thus, 
according to the agreement, been submitted for your action, I have 
deemed it improper for me to permit the troops and property to be 
transferred until your will was consulted. An order having been 
issued to Colonel McGuirk to complete his regiment by taking into it 
any unattached company in the northwestern portion of the State, 
and to have his regiment ready to be mustered into the Confederate 
service by the inspecting officer of General Johnston, I have sus- 
pended the execution of that order. Lieutenant-Colonel Perrin 
informs me that he has reorganized his battalion and has now eight 
companies ready, and asks an order to transfer them. He says that 
the term of service of all the companies except two of his battalion 
has expired, but that there are a number (stated at sixty) of the State 
horses in the possession of his men, and asks that they may be per- 
mitted to retain them upon their giving bonds for the payment to the 
State of the amount of the actual cost in each case, minus the amount 
of per diem already received for the use and risk of the horses 
in the past service. I have in this case also declined to give such 
order unless directed by you todo so. Others of the State troops 
have also been ordered to be transferred to the Confederacy, but the 
whole matter is suspended for your decision. They are all now in 
active service in the northern part of the State, except Lieutenant- 
Colonel Perrin’s battalion, which is awaiting orders at Macon. Some 
of the State troops desire to remain in the State service, but Colonel 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 977 


_ Perrin informs me that all of his battalion desire to be transferred. 
The whole matter is with you, and I await your action. I earnestly 
request your early attention to it, and that you will, by resolution or 
otherwise, remove the obstacles thus presented to an efficient ream 
zation of our cavalry force. 

I concur in the opinion expressed by my immediate predecessor 
that a large force of this character is necessary to our defense. It is 
not to be expected that the Confederate troops will be so disposed as 
to give protection to all portions of this State. They will occupy cer- 
tain lines and move for the defense of certain points as exigency may 
require. Ido not for a moment suppose that it is the intention of: 
the Legislature to leave a large portion of our people exposed to the 
tender mercies of their unscrupulous and vindictive foes. No incon- 
siderable part of the State is now subject to their raids. They come 
with the sword in one hand and the firebrand in the other. It is but 
a few days since a messenger informed me that a band of these ma- 
rauders, landing in the county of Bolivar, were devastating the coun: 
try for miles in the interior, and the houseless women and children 
were fleeing before them lighted by the fires of their blazing dwell- 
ings. Shall these things be unavenged? Let there be nodelay. A 
few weeks more and you may see your own roofs in flames and your 
families fugitives or crouching at the feet of an insulting foe. The 
people look to us for protection. I earnestly recommend such changes 
in our military laws and such appropriation of money as may be nec- 
essary to enable me to bring into the field and maintain a force of 
cavalry and artillery of 3,000 men, and also to reorganize the militia 
that they may be called out without delay. Itis not expected that 
the latter will be often needed, but they should be ready as a support- 
ing force. The very fact that. they are held ina state of readiness 
will of itself add strength to our movements. Other States better 
guarded by the Confederacy than ours keep their separate armies in 
the field. Georgia has now an army of about 8,000, and her patriotic 
Governor recommends that it be increased. The Legislature of South 
Carolina has been convened to provide for State defense. Other 
States have their forces. There is no one that needs them more than 
Mississippi. 

I respectfully recommend an extension of the period of liability to 
military duty; that there be few exemptions. Those having substi- 
tutes in the Confederate Army are liable to State service, but to remove 
all doubt let them be rendered liable by express statutes. T o enable 
the commander-in-chief to bring the troops to proper discipline and 
service, give him the power to order and detail courts-martial in all 
eases, and courts of inquiry for the investigation of the conduct of 
all officers and to remove them from office. Give him such inspectors 
as may enable him to have knowledge of the condition and discipline 
of the troops. All surgeons and quartermasters should be appointed 
by and accountable to ‘him. So of all other staff officers, except the 
personal staff of the general officers. I believe one general officer 
will be sufficient. Provide for promotion by appointment even from 
the ranks for meritorious conduct. This may be constitutionally done 
in the volunteer forces, for by volunteering under the law they waive 
all supposed right to elect officers, except the law furnish it. ‘The 
right to elect officers in other cases may be safely given to the volun- 
teers, the power of removal for incompetency and inefficiency being 
retained. 


62 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


Ale! CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Provision for a draft from the militia, in case a sufficient number 
of volunteers should not offer, should be made, so that they may be 
brought out without delay. Surrender these and such other powers 
as you may see proper in your wisdom to confer, with all necessary 
restrictions to prevent any abuse of them. Against any abuses of 
power by myself or my permission of it in others, I can only offer you 
the guarantee of my humble history in the service. 

I have the honor to transmit to you an address* of a committee of 
the House of Delegates of Virginia ‘‘inviting an interchange of views 
with the respective States of the Confederacy upon the subject of our 
_ general currency.” I recommend it to your serious attention. Ialso 
send you a communication* from the Rev. C. K. Marshall, hospital 
agent, recommending the establishment of a soldiers’ home and an 
appropriation for that purpose. The object is a noble one and worthy 
of its philanthropic and Christian author. JI recommend it to your 
favorable consideration. . 

| CHAS. CLARK, 
Governor. 


MANSFIELD, NEAR GEORGETOWN, SB. C., 
November 23, 1863. 
Hon. WILLIAM P. MILES: 


DEAR SIR: In the discharge of the duties of my office the past two 
years, embracing a wide and extended jurisdiction over the slaves and 
free persons of color within this district, my attention has been 
repeatedly called to an anomalous state of things that exists among us 
throughout the whole Confederacy. I ask leave to bring it to your 
notice, that if you should deem the matter worthy of consideration, 
you may submit it before the committee of which you are the chair- 
man. It is this—that whilst our entire white male population between 
the agers of eighteen and forty-five are in the service of the Confed- 
eracy, ana those of other ages occasionally are liable to military duty, 
and whilst our slaves are busily engaged inthe pursuits of agriculture 
and in working upon the fortifications, there is yet a class among us 
which enjoys singular privileges and immunities and is, with limited 
exceptions, not held liable to public duty, to wit, the free colored 
population. Not only does this class pursue its usual avocations but 
with a greatly enlarged sphere for the employment of its industry in 
consequence of the withdrawal from many occupations of the white 
men of our country. Thefree man of color thus enjoys the increased 
profits of his business and makes money, whilst the white man does 
the hard work of the day at the risk of health and life, with a very poor 
moneyed compensation and away from home and family. The more I 
reflect upon this subject the more glaring does its inequality and 
injustice appear to me. And I have thought that it would prove an 
eminently wise and wholesome policy to place the free persons of 
color, say between the ages of sixteen and fifty, to do the menial and 
much of the mechanical service of the Army for the war, and at a 
moderate rate of wages. They might be employed as teamsters, 
hostlers, musicians, hospital stewards, attendants and nurses, caterers 
and ‘cooks, shoemakers and cobblers, and generally as assistant artif- 
icers. As matters now are, large numbers of men are detailed from 
the ranks to fill these offices, the duties appertaining to which 


* Omitted. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 979 


might be as well and faithfully discharged by the class alluded to, 
thus gaining to the ranks many thousands of able-bodied soldiers. 
The ties of home, of family, and of property will prove a sufficient 
guaranty for the usefulness and fidelity of this class if thus employed. 

Having bestowed much time and thought upon the subject, I sub- 
mit with much deference the views above expressed. 

I am, dear sir, very respectfully, yours, 
FRANCIS 8. PARKER, 
Provost-Marshal of Georgetown District, South Carolina. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, TREASURY DEPT., 
Richmond, November 24, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


Str: I have the honor to inclose herewith for your information 
extracts from dispatches Nos. 8, 9, and 10 to this Department from 
General C. J. McRae, depositary of the Treasury at Paris. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 


[First indorsement. | 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 


These papers contain more particular information respecting certain 
disadvantageous contracts made in the Trans-Mississippi Department 
referred to in Mr. Hotze’s dispatches, of which extracts were for- 
warded by the Honorable Secretary of State to this office on the 23d 
instant. 

[J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. | 


[Second indorsement. | 


NOVEMBER 29, 1863. 
Ordnance Bureau for notice; then return. 
Able so Bs 
Secretary. 


[Third indorsement. | 


DECEMBER 4, 1863. 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. 

I agree generally with what Mr. McRae says in regard to foreign 
contracts. The present arrangement for shipment of cotton on pub- 
lie and private vessels works admirably, but is limited. I would rec- | 
ommend the purchase of additional vessels and larger shipments, 
but do not agree with Mr. McRae at present that private shippers 
should be excluded. If the Government’s supply of ships were 
larger the question might then be considered. The sale of the 8 per 
cent. bonds at prices stated would be advantageous. 

J. GORGAS, | 
Colonel and Chief of Ordnanee. 


980 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Inclosure No. 1.] | 


DISPATCH 6 AVENUE MATIGNON, PARIS, 
No. 8. October 2, 1863. 


Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond: 
* * k *% * *% * 

Since the statements which accompany the dispatch were made up 
I have paid Captain Bulloch 141,333 francs, and there is not now to 
the credit of the loan more than 7,000,000 franes, not enough by 
4,000,000 francs to meet Captain Bulloch’s engagements. Up to this 
time I have employed but one clerk, Mr. Charles Walsh, jr. The 
condition of the loan was such that I did not think it advisable to 
trust the knowledge of its condition to any except those in whom we 
could put implicit trust. I will, however, now open a set of books as 
depositor, and endeavor to keep the accounts in such a way as will 
bring them within the forms of the Treasury Department. This can 
be easily done if you will cause the necessary warrants to be drawn 
on me for the disbursements heretofore made and for Captain Bul- — 
loch’s contracts. The inclosed statements will furnish the necessary 
information for this purpose. With dispatch No. 4, of the 24th of 
July, I inclosed a statement showing that I had taken up and held as 
agent for the loan $680,000 of the cotton warrants issued by Captain 
Maury and Mr. Mason; also cotton warrants issued by Major Huse 
for 5,000,000 pounds of cotton, and $4,000,000 of the 8 per cent. Con- 
federate bonds. These securities are still in hand, and I have fully 
advised you as to what I thought to be the best course to be pur- 
sued with them, as well as all similar securities which the Government 
has in Europe. There is still £704,000 of the bonds of the Erlanger 
loan to be disposed of, and unless something can be done to raise the 
credit of the Government they are likely to remain on hand for some 
time. In order to improve the stock of the loan and to facilitate 
the negotiation of these £704,000, Messrs. Erlanger & Co., Messrs. 
Schroeder & Co., and H. O. Brewer, esq., are about starting a line of 
small steamers to run from Havana to Mobile in order to bring out 
cotton under the loan. The first of these boats will leave Liverpool 
in about ten days, and will take out the certificates of the deposit 
of stock with Mr. Slidell (Mr. Mason having left London), which 
they will present to your agent for the cotton loan at Mobile. I have 
said to these gentlemen that I had no doubt but that the Government 
would give every facility for getting out cotton under the loan, and I 
respectfully suggest that you instruct the agent of the cotton loan to 
give the parties orders for the cotton on presentation of the certifi- 
cates, the form of which I sent you in dispatch No. 4, of the 24th of 
July. 

When the steamers of this company reach Havana they will offer 
them to the agent of the Government, as their object is not to specu- 
late on goods taken into the country, but to get out cotton under the 
loan. Whilst every facility for getting out cotton under the loan, as 
provided for in this contract, should be given to the bondholders, not 
another bale should be allowed to come out, not a pound of goods go 
in, except on Government account. If this plan were adopted it 
would have the most beneficial effect on the credit of the Government, 
both at home and abroad. The Treasury notes have been as much 
depreciated by the speculators who are running the blockade, both 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 981 


over the border and through the ports, as by the overissue, and our 
credit abroad has been destroyed by the multiplicity of agents and 
contractors and partners of the Government who have no credit except 
what they derive from the connection with the Government and the 
use of its cotton, out of which they are making immense fortunes, 
while the Government pays four and five times the value of the goods 
bought with its own credit and means. One competent agent in 
Europe, with the control of all the cotton that leaves the Confederacy, 
would have no difficulty in getting all the money that is wanted 
abroad, and if speculators were deprived of the means of buying gold 
and exchange at whatever price is asked, the domestic currency would 
soon improve. At present it would be useless to put another loan on 
the market. No money can be had here except on cotton, and the Gov- 
ernment ought to take the export of the article exclusively into its own 
hands. 

As requested in your private dispatch, I will go over to England 
and see Mr. Spence in reference to the charges made against him by 
Mr. Erlanger in his letter of the 4th of June. This is a very unpleas- 
ant business, and I would much rather that you would have selected 
some other person to attend toit. It is particularly disagreeable to 
me, as I fear Mr. Spence thinks I desire to supersede him as the finan- 
cial agent of the Government. I will, however, endeavor to manage 
it with as much delicacy as possible. Mr. Mason arrived here yester- 
day from London and Mr. Slidell from Biarritz. Colonel Lamar is 
also here, and I will advise with them as to the best course to pursue. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. McRAE, | 
Agent for the Loan. 


[Sub-inclosure. ] 
Total debts and engagements. 


Captain Bulloch, £488,000, less £31,000 in the hands of Mr. Spence_... £457,000 


8 es pai lA alg ld ale ERM gry et A eae yA casi Wat Pike A rk 167, 000 
Ae SSN ate 2 5 UATE he Bat Md he Ee ee, es cicada te LAO 83, 000 
emmree MOTAL 1 val ee se Gets dctee Ue eb er) aren a oy ger So But tae 174, 000 
Seer TESTE iT wi ret B61 al oy Nye eM eo ee 10, 000 
EME S11 Wa eee RR fe ree ea Re ee gk 115, 000 
(haya cartes seat i egal en aan se ait ia op Mn ea EGS Mca 10, 000 
Pe oS 
1,016, 000 
Previously paid. 
Deere Me ITED DO HS Goi aey Se ea RE ad ote Ee es Ga a£515, 000 
OSE TEEN ee A eS ot ae es ae OY 60, 000 
————_ 575,000 
Through Mr. Mason: 
Mapes Crensha wees 22. Ui lete) Series . FPL 55, 000 
Pataca NOT ba dt (Ce eg Sit us te ek ee 26, 000 
emia M aut wsY 2552 tt eta ey 38, 000 
Capuaily Dilloch. Or SPenCe . ... cde tee e nce nsiaeudocnusessh 31, 000 
—#—— 150,000 
1,741, 000 


aOf this account £150,000 has been paid in cash, and £40,000 is to be paid in 
September. The balance of the account will be paid in bonds full paid at the 
issue price. 


982 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Payments that must be made in June. 


To Capt. J. D. Builoch, for first installment on four corvettes, as per con- 


tract with Mr. ‘Armat (2oo2 Lolo. el eee £58, 000 
To Capt. J. H. North, for iron-clad building on the Clyde, which must be 
abandoned unless relief is immediately had__..-............----_--_..- 30, 000 
To pay draft of Col. J. Gorgas on Major Huse, now in the hands of 
A, Collie & Coe fee a 22, 500 
To Capt. M. F. Maury, for first installment on iron-clad contracted with 
Mr ;Armat-l sec eee dome deus eee Ae 10, 000 
120, 500 
Capt. J. D. Bulloch will require to carry out his engagements before the . 
July installment._.____._- We twede 2 oes th cS eee 60, 000 
Capt. M. F. Maury, for second installment on iron-clad contracted for 
with Mr. Armat. dice) aces A i ee eee 10, 000 
190, 500 
[Inclosure No. 2.] 
DISPATCH } 6 AVENUE MATIGNON, PARIS, 
Nov, ah October 7, 1868. 


Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond: 


Str: I beg to refer you to my dispatch of the 2d instant, duplicate 
of which you will find inclosed.* In reply to the inquiry in your 
autograph letter of the 21st (or 28th) of July, ‘‘What form of nego- 
tiation or mode of offering cotton will now most readily raise money ?” 
I now respectfully submit the following statement, with a plan by 
which, if adopted, I think all the money required abroad can be 
obtained without the necessity of any further foreign loan. In pre- 
vious dispatches I have endeavored to point out to you the damage 
the credit of the Government was sustaining by the multiplicity of 
agents, contractors, and partners which it has in Europe, none of 
whom have any credit except what they derive from their connection 
with the Government and the use of the cotton or other means out of 
which they are making enormous profits, while the country is badly 
served. ‘To illustrate this, I inclose copy of a contract (synopsis of 
this contract and invoice was furnished me by the Hon. John Slidell, 
who had the original, but did not retain the full names of the parties), 
_ marked A, made by Colonel Haynes, the assistant commissary-gen- 
eral of the Trans-Mississippi Department, with a Mr. Chiles, of Mis- 
sourl, and approved by , aide-de-camp of Lieut. Gen. 
E. Kirby Smith. It is quite evident from the quality of the cotton 
stipulated to be delivered, and the want of relative or proportionate 
value in the price of the goods, that neither of the parties had any 
knowledge of what they were doing. Being at this time engaged in 
the examination of the accounts of Major Huse, the chief agent and 
disbursing officer of the War Department in Europe, I am enabled 
to compare the prices agreed to be paid in this contract with those 
paid by Major Huse to Isaac, Campbell & Co. for similar articles, and 
find that under this contract the Governmentagrees to give $1,836,000 
for a bill of goods delivered in Matamoras, the London cost of which, 
even under the adverse circumstances under which Major Huse pur- 
chased, was only $650,880, and is to pay in 9,180,000 pounds of ‘‘mid- 
dling fair” cotton, which if shipped direct to Liverpool and sold on 
Government account would net the enormous sum of $4,590,000, as 
such cotton is now worth 60 cents per pound in Liverpool, and 10 
cents per pound would more than pay the expense of shipping, freight, 


* For extract see p. 980. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 983 


and selling. In other words, the Government pays an irresponsible 
contractor $4,590,000 for insuring $650,880 worth of goods from London 
to Matamoras, both neutral ports and none of the goods contraband. 

This is not the only contract of this sort that has come within my 
knowledge. (Information in reference to this contract was furnished 
me by Maj. Caleb Huse.) Mr. Nelson Clements has one of a some- 
what different character, but equally monstrous. The principle of 
his contract is that he is to be paid 100 per cent. on his invoice; con- 
sequently his ingenuity has been greatly exercised in devising means 
to increase the amount of the invoices. There are many other con- 
tracts of various shades and hues floating about the London markets, 
all, however, having but one object, namely, to enrich contractors at 
the expense of the Government. As before stated, these men, hav- 
ing neither capital nor credit, begin by hawking their contracts 
through the London, Manchester, and Liverpool markets and sell 
them to or divide them with the highest bidder. Such exhibitions 
are very damaging to our credit, as they create the impression among 
capitalists and all prudent men that a government which is so reck- 
less of its means is not likely to achieve its independence against 
such fearful odds. To remedy these evils and re-establish the credit 
of the Government I respectfully suggest the following plan: 

First. To revoke or annul all contracts in Europe in which profits 
or commissions are allowed, whether they be with agents, contractors, 
or partners. 

Second. That there should be one contracting or purchasing officer 
each for the War and Navy Departments in Europe. If necessary, 
they might have assistants, but there should be but one head for each 
Department, and he should be a commissioned officer, receiving pay 
as such. . 

Third. That there should be one general agent for Europe, who 
should have the entire control of the credit of the Government abroad, 
with large discretionary powers for raising money, and to whom the 
contracting and purchasing officers in Europe should report before 
making any engagements to pay money or commit the credit of the 
Government, which should not be done without the consent of the 
general agent. The same agent should have control of all cotton or 
other produce sent abroad for sale on account of the Government. 

Fourth. That the Government should take the exports and imports 
into its own hands, and no cotton, tobacco, or naval stores should be 
allowed to leave the country except on Government account or for 
account of holders of produce bonds, and none but the same parties 
should be allowed to import, the Government taking the importations 
of the bondholders on delivery at the Confederate ports, at a price fixed 
on between them and the agent in Europe, to be paid for at the port 
of delivery in cotton. If this could not be satisfactorily arranged, 
then the bondholders should be compelled to take in freight for the 
Government at a reasonable. rate, say at about £8 per ton of 2,240 
pounds dead weight, or 40 cubic feet light goods. 

Fifth. To purchase or take possession of all the cotton and tobacco 
in the country at a price to be fixed by act of Congress. This would 
not only be a wise but a popular measure, as it is not the producers 
of cotton who are benefited by the present system. Planters would 
much rather the Government should have the benefit of the specula- 
tion on their produce than the speculators and extortioners, who are 
now growing immensely rich on their necessities by the very means 
they and the Government furnish. 


984 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


So long as there was any probability that England and France 
would consider the present blockade as inefficient, it would protect 
the property of their subjects in the Confederate States from the 
enemy, the two last measures (Nos. 4 and 5) would have been impolitic. 
It is now certain that we shall receive no assistance, either material 
or moral, from abroad, and we must rely wholly on ourselves, and 
these measures will greatly strengthen the Government and will not 
injure our people, nor injure us with foreign governments, whose 
policy in reference to us has already been determined on. ‘To carry 
out the plan the general European agent should be located in London 
or Paris, with an office at Liverpool or Havre, to receive the cotton and 
other produce and attend to the shipping of goods. There should also 
be agents at Wilmington, Charleston, Mobile, and Matamoras, and 
possibly at one or two other points in the Confederate States; also at 
Havana, Nassau, and Bermuda, all under the control of the bureau 
organized at Richmond auxiliary and subsidiary to the Treasury 
Department. The agents at Wilmington, Charleston, Mobile, and 
Matamoras, and such other points in the Confederacy as might be 
selected, would sell such goods as the Government did not need for 
its own use to wholesale dealers at cost and charges, prohibiting them 
from charging more than 10 per cent. to 20 per cent. profit. In this 
way the country would be much better supplied with articles of neces- 
sity (the Government should allow no other to be imported) and at a 
much less cost than by the speculators and extortioners who now have 
this matter in their hands. As a general rule, no contract should be 
made except by the heads of Departments or bureaus at Richmond. 
When the exigencies of the service require a departure from this rule, 
which might be the case in the Trans-Mississippi Department, the 
orders for all such supplies and materials as are wanted from abroad 
should be sent through the local agents to the purchasing officers in 
Europe, who should immediately on receipt of such orders furnish the 
general agent with a copy, so that he might provide the means of pay- 
ing for the same. None of the agents should be allowed commissions 
or profits, but competent salaries and the expenses of their offices, 
for which they should keep proper vouchers, to be passed on by the 
regular auditing officer of the Government in the same manner as the 
accounts of other bureaus are passed. 

That the Government can successfully run the blockade is conclu- 
sively proved by the experiment of Maj. Caleb Huse, of the Ordnance 
Department, who put on four boats between Wilmington and Ber- 
muda in February and March last with funds obtained mainly on the 
credit of cotton the boats were to bring out, which boats made twenty- 
two successful trips by the Ist of August and without a single loss. 

If the foregoing suggestions are adopted our credit will soon be 
high in Europe, and we shall have no difficulty in getting the means 
to build as many war vessels as may be desired, or of buying alt that 
is wanted from abroad at the lowest cash prices; and as there would 
no longer be any speculators or extortioners to buy gold and exchange, 
with the enormous profits made by running the blockade, our domes- 
tic currency, not being depreciated by a comparison with foreign 
standards of value, would soon improve so as to answer all the pur- 
poses of internal trade. Besides, as soon as it was known in Europe 
that the Government had control of all the cotton in the Confederacy, 
or at least of all that is exported, there would be no difficulty in mak- 
ing another loan on favorable terms. But a foreign loan would be 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 985 


unnecessary, as the Government would have ample means from the 
proceeds of the cotton to supply itself with everything wanted from 
abroad; and with a good tax bill and a proper funding system the 
Treasury notes would furnish a good domestic currency. 

In proof that I have not overrated the resources which the control 
of all the cotton that leaves the Confederacy would give the Govern- 
ment, I have a statement of the Liverpool cotton market before me 
showing that the receipts of American cotton at that port since the 
1st of January last have been, in round numbers, 100,000 bales, worth 
on the average $200 per bale, or $20,000,000, double as much as the 
Erlanger loan will net (if all sold), which will require 260,000 bales of 
cotton—equal to a loss of 160,000 bales of cotton, or $32,000,000, even 
admitting that every other cargo was captured. 

I send this dispatch by Colonel Lamar, to whom I have communi- 
cated its contents. He has been kind enough to say that he will 
explain any part of it that may not be fully understood. 

With much respect, your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for the Loan. 


[Sub-inclosure. | 


AY 


Prices agreed to be paid to Chiles by contract made with 
him by Colonel Haynes, assistant commissary-general of Trans-Mis- 
sissippi Department, and approved by , aide-de-camp 
of Lieut. Gen. E. Kirby Smith, for the following invoice, to be paid 
in ‘‘middling fair” cotton at 20 cents per pound delivered in Mata- 
moras, goods to be delivered at same place: 


rR ATCT So SAG ee UN ee do bie oon Se cae ane cddder ees 5 $75, 000 
Ce LAC et eee ys ee eee ie om aey nee 240, 000 
JUS TOY SSSA eine a Ds SOT Sad, LOS Sh BD a eS AP ee See eee nm Se ee eS 165, 000 
SEE CULCOAL CH AL O20 a) aed | Deal yh ee eae Tito at See 600, 000 
ReMMOenT USA ne iets Gh eee tor og dee Ss hae Us Sof eee 180, 000 
MCIRELVICTS. -1U roke eee Mo ak ee utee ce ee ay eS See lane 180, 000 
60,000 socks, at 50 cents __.. Mele) Ri seep Sd RA ae, Fc eee Mya WANG Os BOE ae 30, 000 
EEINISOR UUred cope ee fey tS ATS or Tas tar kA Le 120, 000 
Bee WR GisenE Gone ete. fe es OI ee Are ee eT lo oe 150, 000 
Tray Ares HAG Clot jal, OO -- ses oe. gor) Pus ey Shoe S shes 60, 000 
mumroras icbtsplne, Wrench, &t,$0° 4. scseghe40 2k 4-234 cede 24, 000 
Pemvardnark-Dile « TONCD, at 0s. 2. 5-5 Seo eee en ee ee ob ea 12, 000 
1, 836, 000 

9,180,000 pounds cotton, at 20 cents per pound_-__._--.--.------.------- 1, 836, 000 


Cost of same goodsif bought by Major Huse of 8. Isaac, Campbell & Co. 650, 880 


itd Ores be Se Ae SS ES EE Seen mes hel eal ne tae ha SiS Lad Leary A 1, 185, 120 


It thus appears that if ‘‘ middling fair” cotton is worth only 20 cents 
per pound at Matamoras, the Government pays $1,836,000 to con- 
tractors for delivering $650,880 of merchandise at Matamoras, or a 
net profit of $1,185,120. 

9,180,000 pounds cotton, at 60 cents per pound, present value in Liver- 


TS ee Te gee teat ate, Se ees fa $5, 508, 000 
Less expense of shipping, freight, selling, &c., 10 cents per pound ---- 918, 090 


Net proceeds if shipped by Confederate Government agent 
PETE OIE OBC V EL DDO Wee ear on) oer, Lt pasta herd oem a 4,590, 000 


986 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Prices paid for similar articles purchased by Major Huse from Messrs. S. Isaac, 
Campbell & Co. 


30,000 rapiers, at 84 cents ______..___-_- Jil. J. ld) ee $25, 000 
30,000 jackets, a at $3.30. 220. «2.0 2h. bo a 99, 000 
30,000 pants, at $2.96... he ee ee se 88, 000 
30,000 greatcoats, at. $7- 20-22 l oS 210, 000 
60,000 shirts, at 52 cents. lo 3oU 2s DS LV Polo) ot) 31, 200 
60,000 drawers, a iat'62: cents . (kee Le oe eee iy SHA 
60,000 socks, at 26 cents:2. 2c) Jie8.iLd este. ee 15, 600 
30,000 shoes, at. $2.14..- oo ba eeet bee pee es s oe ee 64, 200 
50,000 blankets, at $1.80 - 2. no) cake pe oe ne ee + 54, 000 
10,000 yards gray cloth, at $1,562... 6220.2 15, 600 
-''4,000 yards blue cloth, at $1.68 2.2.0. .._ 2.22.) ee 6, 720 
2,000 yards blue cloth, at.$1:68 2G. 92.2). oo. ee eee Prem), 
650, 880 
[Inclosure No. 3.] 
DISPATCH BURLINGTON HOTEL, LONDON, 
No. 10. October 24, 1868. 


Hon. C. G. MEMMINGER, 
Secretary of the Treasury, Richmond, Va.: 


Str: On the 7th instant I wrote you submitting a plan for obtaining 
and disbursing all the money that might be wanted abroad, and sent 
the dispatch by Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, who was kind enough to say he 
would more fully explain the plan proposed and advocate its adoption. 
Inclosed you will find duplicate.* I hope you will not consider that 
I desire to obtrude my opinions upon you as to the financial policy of 
the Government, and I would not have submitted this plan had it not 
been for the inquiry in your letter of the 28th of July. Nevertheless, 
I respectfully ask for it your favorable consideration, as I am sure all 
the money required abroad can be obtained in this manner very much 
cheaper than by a foreign loan or by the sale of our securities, whether 
based on cotton or alone on the credit of the Government. Since the 
dispatch of the 7th was written I have received the communication of 
the President of the 18th of September, with copy of the agreement 
between the heads of the departments made on the 15th of the same 
month, from which it appears that the plan suggested by me has 
already been very nearly adopted so far as relates to the disbursing 
of funds; but there is no authority given to raise money or mode 
pointed out by which it can be done, unless section 5 of the agreement 
of the 15th of September authorizes Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Ov. 
and myself to do so from the sale of the 8 per cent. bonds or cotton 
warrants in our hands, which can only be done at a ruinous rate. 
Since my dispatch of the 2d (No. 8), triplicate of which you will find 
inclosed,+ I have advanced Commander M. F. Maury £12,000 from the 
Erlanger loanfor a purpose which Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell consid- 
ered of the utmost importance, and taken from him $628,000 of the 
cotton warrants countersigned by Mr. Mason, and have now on hand 
$1,308,000 of these warrants, as well as all the other securities men- 
tioned in my dispatch of the 2d instant, leaving in circulation $192,000 
of these warrants, which are selling at 34 pence per pound for cotton 
deliverable at Mobile. This is parting with cotton at a very low rate. 


a Major Huse bought no jackets or drawers, but I have taken the prices paid 
by the British Government for these articles, corresponding in quality with: the 
pants and shirts bought by Major Huse of 8S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. When dif- 
ferent prices were paid by Major Huse for the same articles I have taken the 
average. 


* See p. 982. +See p. 980. 


‘ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 987 


There has recently been some demand for the 8 per cent. bonds at 
32 cents to 35 cents on the dollar. Both Mr. Spence and Mr. Prioleau 
are of the opinion that it would be well to sell a part of what are on 
hand while there is a demand. As stated in dispatch No. 8, the bal- 
ance of the Erlanger loan will not meet the existing contracts of Cap- 
tain Bulloch by 4,000,000 of franes, and as the whole of this money 
will be wanted by the middle of December it may be available to sell 
enough 8 per cent. bonds to realize that sum, so that the engagements 
of the Government may be met until some cheaper mode of raising 
money can be devised. Lowas the rate for these securities is, I think 
it preferable to sell them than to sell cotton deliverable at the ports at 
34 pence per pound, for if in the meantime we can get money cheaper 
from other sources to meet our engagements here a very large profit 
ean be realized by drawing against the proceeds of the sale and 
reinvesting in bonds at home. At the present rate of exchange the 
margin is very great, but it will not remain so long. Private “enter- 
prise has already embarked in the business and large sales to deliver 
the bonds are being made at 25 cents on the dollar. 

Recently Mr. Charles Lafitte has renewed his proposition to make a 
loan.for us. The preliminary proposition was made through an agent 
who brought a letter of introduction to me from Mr. Slidell; it was for 
250,000,000 franes and on very favorable terms; but Mr. Lafitte hav- 
ing heard that the Government had recently made a loan for 100,000,000 
franes and given to the contractors the monopoly, or rather the refusal 
of all future loans, withdrew from the negotiation before anything 
definite was concluded. I shall return to Paris in a few days and will 
endeavor to renew the negotiation with him so far as to get his propo- 
sition in shape to send to you in time for the meeting of Congress. I 
do not know, however, that the Government desires to make another 
foreign loan. For my own opinion on the subject I beg to refer you 
to my dispatch of the 9th of July (No. 3). If the financial policy 
recommended in the dispatch of the 7th (No. 9) be adopted, no loan 
will be required. If, however, it is the desire of the Government to 
make another foreign loan, discretionary power should be given to 
the general financial agent in Kurope to contract one. If a competent 
person had had this authority i in June or Ist of J uly money could have 
been had on very EROS terms. 

* * * * ** * 
With much Seer your obedient servant, 
C. J. MCRAE, 
Agent for the Loan. 


[First indorsement. | 


SECRETARY OF WAR: 

1. These papers show that all the contracts of the Government for 
supplies from abroad have resulted in realizing for contractors 
enormous profits without any corresponding benefit to the Govern- 
cee of the Confederate States. 

That an absolute control of the trade in cotton—and I may add 
in aan and naval store assumed by the Government. 

3. That agents of the Government of responsibility, intelligence, 
and fidelity should be appointed to control this trade under a bonus 
of the Government. 

My opinion is that the only plan for relieving the currency that can 
be operative must embrace this absolute monopoly of this trade to be 
effectual. If all the cotton that has been exported had belonged to 


988 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the Government, we should have had a fund abroad adequate for the 
purchase of all military supplies, including ships to bring in and 
export the cotton. 
J. A. CAMPBELL, 
Assistant Secretary of War. 


[Second indorsement.] 
I coneur. 


Jiuggine 
Secretary. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, Ga., November 24, 1868. 


[Hon. J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War :] 


Str: As requested by the General Assembly, I have the honor here- 
with to transmit to you a copy of the following resolution passed by 
the Legislature of this State now in session, and respectfully invite 
your attention to the same. 

Very respectfully, &c., 
JOSEPH EK. BROWN. 


[ Inclosure.] 


A RESOLUTION to revoke the appointment of impressment officers and appoint 
citizens in their stead. 


W hereas, the impressment law passed by the Congress of the Confed- 
erate States has been greatly perverted and violated by the impress- 
ing officers and those professing to be, by reason of which many of 
the citizens of this State have been greatly harassed, defrauded, and 
willfully wronged: Therefore, 

Be wt resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in Gen- 
eral Assembly convened, That the Secretary of War be, and he is 
most respectfully, requested to revoke the appointment of all the 
impressing officers of this State liable to conscription, and to have 
appointed in their place and stead, in counties where it may be neces- 
sary to make impressments to feed and support our gallant armies, 
one or more responsible citizens not liable to military duty, residing 
in the counties respectively. 

Resolved further, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to 
forward a copy of these resolutions to the Secretary of War immedi- 
ately, and to furnish each of our Senators and Representatives in 
Congress with a copy of the same. 

BENNING B. MOORE, 
Speaker pro tem. House of Representatives. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk House of Representatives. 
A. R. WRIGHT, 
President of the Senate. 
L. H. KENAN, * 
Secretary of the Senate. 

Approved November 23, 1863. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 989 


[First indorsement. ] 


Respectfully referred to the Commissary-General for remarks. 
By order of the Secretary of War: 
rirky. eee elie Ee 
Chief of Bureau of War. 


[Second indorsement. ] 


OFFICE COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE, 
December 3, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to Major Locke, commissary-general of 
Georgia. 
L. B. NORTHROP, 
Commissary-General of Subsistence. 


[Third indorsement. | 


RICHMOND, December 3, 1863. 


In my opinion, the change contemplated by the resolutions of the 
Legislature of Georgia is open to grave objections at all times, and 
particularly so at the present crisis. The officers and agents whose 
displacement is recommended are those who have enabled us to sub- 
sist General Brage’s army for more than seven months past, besides 
sending large supplies to Virginia, South Carolina and elsewhere. 
They were appointed for their qualifications, and have all given large 
bonds for the faithful performance of their duty, and I know of no 
class of men against whom fewer objections can be urged. In nearly 
two-thirds of the State, 7. e., in Major Allen’s (Second) and Major 
Millen’s (Third) districts, the agents have been appointed generally 
from the counties where they reside, though in some cases there is but 
one agent to three counties. Major Millen averages one to two coun- 
ties. As far as was consistent with propricty, selections were made 
from those beyond conscript age. These men have been tried; most 
of them have proved their efficiency, and have gained an experience 
and knowledge of their business to which new beginners could make 
no pretension. As few complaints have been made against them 
as could be expected under the circumstances. I submit the com- 
plaints and their refutations that have come to my knowledge in 
the Third District, and I undertake to say that those in the Second 
District are equally untenable. It is only in the First District, 
superintended by Major Cummings, that some of the agents are 
refugees from Tennessee and Kentucky; but they are men of conspic- 
uous ability, thoroughly versed in getting up supplies, and but for 
their extraordinary energy and unflagging devotion the Army of 
Tennessee would long ere this have come to want. Iam aware that 
there have been some cases of impostors passing themselves off as 
commissary agents, but the commissariat in Georgia cannot be held 
responsible for such acts, as the names of all our officers and agents 
were published throughout the State, and now new guards against 
imposition have been adopted in accordance with a late proclamation of 
His Excellency Governor Brown. As the lawstands, it is altogether in 
favor of producers and altogether against impressing officers. The 
former can obtain redress if wronged, while the latter find scant 
favor, either at the tribunals of law or at those of public opinion. 

All of which is most respectfully submitted. 

J. L. LOCKE, 
Major and Chief Commissary of Subsistence of Georgia. 


990 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, 
No. 153. Richmond, November 25, 1868. 


Abuses having occurred from misconception of the force due to the 
passports certifying to the citizenship of the Confederate States, which 
are issued by the Secretary of State as matter of right to any citizen 
for use in foreign countries, it is announced that such passports are 
not intended to have and have not any effect whatever in the Con- 
federacy to entitle to pass the Confederate lines or to sail from Con- 
federate ports without due compliance with all police or military 
regulations prevailing there, or to exempt from military or other 
service imposed by law or regulations. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


- 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, November 26, 1868. 


His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
President Confederate States of America: 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report: 

During the past year the war has raged with increased violence, and 
on more extended arenas. From Central Pennsylvania to Southern 
Texas the shock of arms has been felt in many battles, on a grand 
scale and in numberless engagements varying from the conflicts of 
thousands to the skirmishes of a few. 

Such extended warfare, as was almost inevitable, from the superior 
numbers and more abundant resources of the enemy, has been 
checkered by some reverses as well as illustrated by not a few bril- 
liant victories and glorious achievements. 

These events are at the same time too vivid in remembrance and 
too near in occurrence to make needful or appropriate their full 
recital. To illustrate the sustained glory of our arms, it will fully 
suffice to recall in the east the victory, against all odds of numbers 
and position, at Chancellorsville, the capture of Winchester, the inva- 
sion of Pennsylvania, closing with the grand but indecisive battle of 
Gettysburg, where the glorious successes of two days’ combat barely 
failed on the third of being crowned by a crushing defeat to the enemy, 
and inflicted such heavy loss as enabled our gallant army, with many 
of the ends of the movement accomplished, to retire unassailed and 
defiant within our limits. 

In the south, the complete repulse at Charleston in the spring of 
the grand attack by sea, made with the plated ships and guns of 
unprecedented caliber and range, which the arrogance of the foe 
imagined must overpower all resistance, has been followed in the 
renewed attack, conducted now by sea and land, by the bloody 
repulse at Wagner and Sumter, which last, reduced to a pile of 
crumbling ruins, yet harbors resources and heroic men that keep in 
distant awe and impotent malignity the enemy, with all his enginery 
of land and naval war. 

In the far west, beyond the Mississippi, the valor and patriotism 
of our soldiers have been signalized by achievements which, though 
on a less grand scale, lose not in glory by comparison with any 
triumphs of the war. If we have, then, to report the loss of the Arkan- 
sas Post and the repulse at Helena, we have to glory in the hard- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 991 


fought battle of Prairie Grove; at the skillful evasion of an over- 
powering force in lower Louisiana; the steady resistance and judicious 
Strategy that enabled a force wholly inadequate to a direct encounter, 
yet to harass, pursue, and finally to expel the hordes of the enemy. 
Then at the brilliant success of Brashear City, Milliken’s Bend, and 
many minor affairs that asserted again the supremacy of our arms in. 
Western Louisiana. 

Texas, meantime, has been preserved intact, feeling the step of the 
foe only to expel him with shame and blood in the repulses at Galves- 
ton and Sabine Pass, which for the results obtained by limited means 
have been-rarely matched in history. 

The gravest reverses of the year have been sustained by us in 
Mississippi, and resulted in the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hud- 
son with their garrisons; in the partial command by the enemy of 
the Mississippi River, and the temporary evacuation of Jackson, the 
capital of the State, by our remaining forces. Yet these were to the 
enemy bloody acquisitions, and to us reverses not unredeemed by 
much of glory and vengeance. Port Hudson and Vicksburg, by the 
gallantry and constancy of their defense, fully sustained the renown 
of their previous deeds; and the repeated efforts of the vastly superior 
forces of the enemy to snatch their prizes by violence ended only in 
fearful loss and shameful rout. Our brave soldiers succumbed only 
to privation and exhaustion, and whatever may have been the loss to 
the country, they at least lost not honor. 

The campaign in Mississippi was certainly disastrous, and with the 
forces and resources collected in the State, it is difficult.to resist the 
impression that the disasters were not inevitable. Their causes, and 
whether attributable to any deficiencies in prescience, skill, or valor 
on the part of either commanders or their troops, it is felt to be 
inappropriate here to discuss, as under a just sense of what is due to 
all concerned, as well as to the Confederacy, a court of inquiry has 
been instituted to make full investigation of the whole campaign. It 
met; but its session has, in consequence of military events occurring 
in its vicinity, and demanding the presence of witnesses and judges 
at other points of duty, been temporarily suspended. It is, however, 
expected soon to resume and complete its inquiries. Justice requires 
judgment to be suspended by all until from such acknowledged 
authority facts and conclusions can be attained. 

These events caused great exultation and renewed confidence to the 

enemy, who imagine they had sundered the Confederacy and secured 
the unlimited command and free navigation of the Mississippi River, 
the great conduit of Western trade, while naturally a corresponding 
shock of despondeney and foreboding of the consequences to ensue 
from the capture of so many brave soldiers and the loss of command 
over the river, and the means of ready communication with the West, 
affected the public mind of the Confederacy. 
_ As results developed themselves the exultation and the depression 
are found to have been alike exaggerated. The gallant soldiers cap- 
tured, after brief furloughs, having by exchanges, declared out of the 
excess of prisoners before so largely made by us, been released from 
their paroles, are for the most part already reorganized and equipped, 
and now stand ready, with their approved valor and constancy, to 
meet the invader of their country. 

The communication with the Trans-Mississippi, while rendered some- 
what more precarious and insecure, is found by no means cut off, or 
even seriously endangered. 


992 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


This cannot well be otherwise, when it is recollected how difficult it 
is to guard, by gun-boats or troops, hundreds of miles of river-banks, 
if even securely possessed by the enemy, and how wholly impracti- 
cable, when on both sides, for the greater portion of the distance, the 
possession is with our own troops or people. Besides, the resources 
of the Trans-Mississippi are such as to make it self-sustaining; and 
against any force which the enemy, while engaged in their desperate 
struggle with the States on this side, can spare for attack on those 
beyond, it is not extravagant to say that they have better means of 
resistance and greater assurance of final success than the rest of the 
Confederacy. This Department, too, in view of the contingency of 
losing command of that river, has been endeavoring to aid the self- 
sustaining capacities of that section by the establishment of works 
for the production of all supplies needful for the maintenance and 
efficiency of its armies. ‘To these considerations may be added that 
a general, among the ablest, the most zealous, and judicious the Con- 
federacy can boast, is happily intrusted with the command and 
improvement of their resources, and enjoys the full confidence of the 
Government, the people, and the army. With circumstances thus 
favorable, the people of the Trans-Mississippi States have only to 
manifest the energy, courage, and devotion to the common cause of 
the Confederacy which have signalized them in the past to dissipate, 
as well among themselves as their more eastern brethren, needless 
: apprehensions. 

The hopes of the enemy have proven more illusive than the fore- 
bodings of our people. The Mississippi River is not open to them for 
the purposes of trade or travel. 

Without a stronghold on the river, where heavy guns may be placed 
or defended, we may not debar passage to their vessels of war; but 
with the command of long stretches of the river-bank, and ready 
access to nearly all parts, it would be strange, indeed, if we allowed 
security or impunity to their boats of trade or passage. The river is 
nowhere so wide that sharpshooters, even, cannot prove formidable; 
batteries of light artillery, sustained by small detachments of cavalry, 
may almost absolutely command its channel. The frequent bends of 
its course, opening the boats, despite all side defenses, with their 
boilers and machinery, to a raking fire, and the wooded coverts that 
yet line many miles of its banks, give facilities and efficiency to such 
modes of attack. Above all, except as a mere outlet to the Gulf for 
the solid advantages of trade, which have been so realized in the past 
and are now as longingly anticipated by the States of the Federal 
Union on the Northern Mississippi and its tributaries, the river must 
have in its lower course a friendly people, engaged in the avocations 
of peace and productive industry, and not, as now, a desolated and 
deserted region, occupied only by men maddened by accumulated 
wrongs and eager for every means and opportunity of retribution. 
The folly of these vain expectations must soon be acknowledged, and 
may contribute to dissipate the wilder delusion that the Confederacy 
- can be subjugated and the ends of unity and peace be obtained by 
violence and oppression. 

On the other hand, the people of the Confederacy have been ena- 
bled to realize how little, with courage and constancy on their part, 
their fate is determined by even signal reverses and by the loss of 
single strongholds, however relatively important. While material 
injuries are freely admitted to have resulted to the Confederacy from 
the disasters in Mississippi, yet some, real benefits have undoubtedly 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 993 


accrued from the compulsory abandonment of fixed points of defense 
on the river. In view of the superior numbers of the enemy, and the 
larger appliances of war enjoyed by them, the necessity of defending 
Special strategic points may justly be deprecated, since it retains sta- 
tionary a large force, and offers a wager of battle against all odds, in 
which the result is less to be determined by valor and skill than by 
accumulated numbers and the improved armaments of modern war- 
fare, in which alone circumstances give them unquestionable advan- 
tage. In the extent of our territory and the absence of vital centers 
the mobility of our troops gives for our defense advantages more than 
compensatory, and is therefore ever to be preferred. 

The loss of Port Hudson and Vicksburg has, on our side, liberated 
for general operations in the field a large army, while it requires the 
enemy to maintain, cooped up, inactive, in positions insalubrious to 
their soldiers, considerable detachments from their forces. Nor ina 
country not accessible by inland waters, where their gun-boats can 
penetrate, are they enabled from their garrisoned points to establish - 
control or dominion over any extended district. This is illustrated 
in Mississippi, where after having overrun, amid the dismay inspired 
by our reverses there, a large proportion of the State they have now 
been constrained to release and send off their forces, until they con- 
trol little more than the ground their garrisons rest on, while the expe- 
rience of their recent ravages and the insulting presence of a hated 
foe on their soil are rousing to fiercer indignation and resistance the 
people of the State. 

In Tennessee the campaign has been conducted with more varied 
fortunes. The deficiency of resources in men and provisions, rather 
than reverses in battle, during the summer compelled the withdrawal 
of our army from Middle Tennessee to the south side of the Tennessee 
River, where for a long time they held at bay the superior forces of 
the enemy. At length, with large re-enforcements and the ecombina- 
tion of a formidable army advancing from Kentucky, the enemy moved 
on the one side to possess East Tennessee, and on the other to cut off 
our larger army under General Bragg. The necessity of concentrating 
forces to encounter the main attack left East Tennessee, with feeble 
defense, to rely chiefly on the stronghold that guarded the main pass 
of the mountains. Unaccountably, and under circumstances which 
would force suspicion of cowardice or treachery but for the hope of 
satisfactory explanation from the commander, now a prisoner to the 
enemy, this almost impregnable post was surrendered without a strug- 
gle. In consequence East Tennessee came easily into the posses- 
sion of the enemy; but when their invading forces, attempting to press 
their advantage, advanced toward Southwest Virginia, they were 
successfully encountered and repelled by our forces in that quarter. 
Meantime the grander aim of the enemy to cut off the army of Gen- 
eral Bragg had been evaded by a quick withdrawal toward his base, 
and having received considerable re-enforcements from the veteran 
Army of Northern Virginia, General Bragg advanced, in turn, on his 
pursuers. Once again the superior prowess of our arms was estab- 
lished on the bloody field of Chickamauga in what ranks among the 
grandest victories of the war. Its immediate effects were to relieve 
all the more southern States from the dread of invasion and ravage, 
and to hold invested under privation and suffering the dismayed and 
shattered remnants of the enemy’s grand army of the West. Its ulte- 
rior results yet await development, and may bring recovery of the 


63 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


994 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


soil and deliverance to the people of a most important portion of 
Tennessee. 

From the achievements of our Army the transition is natural to 
numbers, condition, and prospects. 

The labors, perils, and sacrifices of the past year could not fail to 
exact losses from its glorious ranks. Time and the occasion forbid 
more than a passing allusion to the heroic dead, whose deeds and 
their memory constitute the glory of the present as they will the 
proudest inheritance of future generations. 'To the foremost of the 
illustrious throng, resting in the immortality of assured fame, more 
special reference may be demanded by just appreciation of his heroic 
qualities and eminent services, and by the saddened hearts of the 
people of the Confederacy, who mourn the death of their chosen 
champion, stricken, by ‘‘an accursed chance,” in the hour when the 
prowess of a stroke of daring and generalship just accomplished had 
opened the way to crowning victory. Without disparagement to 
others, it may be safely said he had become, in the estimation of the 
Confederacy, emphatically ‘‘ the hero of the war.” Around him clus- 
tered with peculiar warmth their gratitude, their affections, and their 
hopes. His deeds had approved him a warrior of the highest order, 
as the whole tenor of his life, in peace as in war, had shown him the 
very type and model of the Christian and hero. From the first battle 
of Manassas, when, by his firmness and invincible will, he earned the 
title now indissolubly connected with his name, down to the battle of 
Chancellorsville, where his dauntless valor struck its final and most 
decisive blow, he was identified with almost every important move- 
ment and brilliant victory in Virginia. He had lived long enough to 
reap a full harvest of fame and to have become an example to his 
countrymen and the admiration of the civilized world. But to the 
Confederacy his loss is felt to be not only irreparable, because the 
memory of his deeds and the spirit he inspired glow through the 
hearts of its armies to animate to noble emulation and kindred deeds 
of valor, patriotism, and self-devotion. The blood of such a martyr 
to the cause of Southern liberty and independence canonizes it to the 
faith and devotion of all its defenders, and constitutes a resistless 
appeal to the sympathies of mankind as to the justice of God against 
the foul aggressions of our invaders. 

Our Army may be less in the number of effectives present, but in 
every other respect is believed to be superior to its condition at the 
close of the last year. The men are more veteran, indurated to all the 
hardships and exposures of a soldier’s life, familiar with danger, and 
confident in themselves and their officers. Their discipline is im- 
proved, and while their fiery valor is unabated their firmness and con- 
stanecy may, under all circumstances, be more confidently relied on. 

Our officers, through the tests to which they have been exposed 
and the purgation effected by the aid of examining boards, have been 
rendered more efficient and capable. Altogether, whether the char- 
acter, valor, efficiency, and morale of the men and officers be 
regarded, it is but,simple justice to them to assert that they have 
never been surpassed, if ever equaled, by any like number of troops 
in the records of modern warfare. It only remains that their number 
should be increased and kept up to the standards required by their 
organizations to give assurance of their invincibility and the early 
triumph of our cause. It becomes important to consider the sources 
whence such increase of numbers may be drawn. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 995 


The first means to be adopted, naturally, is to bring back to the 
Army the large and undue proportion of men, who, from the provis- 
ional character of the Army, from the vicinity and temptations of 
their homes, under the trials of early service and in a more relaxed 
State of discipline, have deserted and straggled from their colors. 

The effective force of the Army is generally a little more than a 
half, never two-thirds, of the numbers in the ranks. From the ab- 
sentees, considerable allowance is doubtless to be made for those dis- 
abled by wounds and sickness, to whom, as the law makes as yet 
no.adequate provision, discharges have not been granted. It may 
yet be safely assumed that one-third of our Army on an average are 
absent from their posts, and may, with due efforts, be returned. The 
best means for the accomplishment of this end, it is believed, will 
be found in some agencies to be added to the service for the enroll- 
ment and collection of conscripts. They will be more naturally sug- 
gested in connection with the consideration which will be given to 
that branch of the service. 

The classes liable to conscription constitute the natural aliment for 
the support and increase of the Army. During the most trying period 
of the last campaign, when reverses and captures so greatly diminished 
our forces in one important department, it was deemed expedient to 
subject to the call for conscription those between the ages of forty 
and forty-five. Thus, the male population between the ages of eight- 
een and forty-five, with the exception of such as under existing laws 
are exempt or have put in substitutes, are liable to military service. 
It is difficult to give with accuracy the number, who, under the past 
action of the conscript law, have been brought into our armies, and 
still more, those who yet remain to be called into the field. The law, 
it will be recollected, gives to all the privilege, before being enrolled, 
of volunteering into the companies they may prefer, and as ealls 
have been made a large proportion of those who, under it, have 
come into service, have availed themselves of this privilege, and 
thus do not come under the cognizance of the conscribing officers, or 
on the lists of enrollment. On the nearest approximate estimate that 
can be made it is believed that to every one assigned there have been 
three volunteers. The number assigned during the past year in Vir- 
ginia amounts to some 5,000, and hence the addition to the Army from 
that State would be some 20,000 men. Supposing, as there is no rea- 
son to doubt, that other States have done as well, some 80,000 to 
100,000 men should have been added to our forces. Yet with so 
serious an addition our armies have not fully maintained their 
strength in numbers. This affords a startling, but, it is feared, not 
an incorrect view of the waste by sickness, casualties of battle, cap- 
tures, desertions, and discharges. 

The resources of supply from collection of deserters and from con- 4 
scription must evidently diminish as the service becomes more active 
and the numbers are exhausted; and it cannot be confidently expected 
that they can during another year increase or even maintain our 
Army in its present numbers. Yet the enemy is making every effort 
and scrupling at no means to raise to overwhelming numbers his 
already superior forces. One draft for 300,000 men is scarcely fin- 
ished, with results, indeed, but little satisfactory to him, before an- 
other call for a like number is made. The Army of the Confederate 
States, it is clear, must be at least maintained, and, if practicable, 
even increased. Our final triumph and independence must else be 


996 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


precarious, and consequences worse than ever visited a conquered 
people may be our hateful and enduring lot. All means within our 
reach to swell our armies should unhesitatingly be employed. 

The able-bodied men between eighteen and forty-five years of age 
constitute, naturally, the active force for the field, and would proba- 
bly suffice and be as numerous as the means and products of the coun- 
try would equip and sustain. It seems to have been the scheme of 
the conscript law that all such should beso devoted to active service; 
but the provision allowing substitutes and the exemption law have 
exonerated considerable numbers and classes. Both, it is submitted, 
should be repealed. 

The law allowing substitutes has proved a means for depleting the 
Army, while it has done more than any single measure to excite dis- 
content and impatience under service among the soldiers. The per- 
sons received as substitutes have proved, for the most part, wholly 
unreliable; have, in many cases, only entered to desert, and often 
elsewhere again to make sale of themselves with a view to like shame- 
ful evasion; while the fact that the wealthy could thus indirectly 
purchase liberation from the toils and dangers necessary for the 
defense of the very means that gave them the privilege, and of the 
country itself, naturally produced among the less fortunate and 
poorer classes repining and discontent. 

The men thus exonerated, too, were, from the advantages of position 
and learning they had enjoyed, among the most spirited and reliable 
of our soldiers, who had shrunk rather from the hardships than the 
perils of a soldier’s life. The law is deservedly regretted and repro- 
bated by all acquainted with its operation. It is earnestly recom- 
mended that it be at once repealed, and that all who have enjoyed its 
benefits be now again subjected to the sacred duty of defending in 
arms their property, their liberties, and their country. No objection 
of law. and justice precludes this, while every consideration of policy 
and equity commands it. 

The liberty to put in a substitute, as it was given by act of Con- 
gress, may regularly and constitutionally be abrogated by the same 
instrumentality. There has been no compact, as has been alleged, 
between the soldier or conscript, exempting himself by putting in a 
substitute, and the Government. It is nothing more than a privilege, 
which from grace or policy the Government has accorded to him; and 
instead of complaining at its abrogation he ought to be grateful for 
the measure of exemption which he has been allowed to obtain. But it 
may be insisted that there is a contract existing, if not between the 
Government and the principal, yet, at least, between the principal 
and his substitute, of which, though made on the faith of an existing 
law, the former loses all benefit when he is reclaimed to service. 

Were this the correct view it would be better for the Government 
’ that it should return to the principal a fair proportion of the sum 
expended by him in obtaining his substitute, in all cases in which 
such substitute has adhered to his engagement and not cheated the 
Government of the service to which the contract bound him, than to 
allow the further exoneration of the principal. 

But in reality the just view of the matter seems to be that when- 
ever a call is made on certain prescribed classes for military duty, the 
privilege of substitution only exempts from that call, and neither can 
nor ought to liberate the principal from the paramount duty, ever 
incumbent upon every citizen, as a patriot soldier, to defend his 
country. The principal when called, by having his substitute 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 997 


accepted, is exonerated from service under that call only; and if he 
enjoys that, has the full consideration for the contract he has made, 
whether with the Government or his substitute. He falls back into the 
body of citizens and becomes one of the militia of the country, liable 
like all others to be summoned on other exigencies and upon further 
calls to military service. In his exemption from service under the 
special call which his substitute meets he has enjoyed his full privi- 
lege, or, if it be contract, he has received his stipulated consideration; 
a further call may not be made ; future exigencies may not demand more 
levies for the Army; peace may be obtained, and then his exemption 
will have proved complete, and have been gained by the substitution. 
He, falling back into the militia, as every citizen liable to military 
duty, takes his chances of future calls and future necessities. He is 
subject to be again called whenever, in the judgment of the Congress 
having power to determine, the service of himself and any others is 
necessary for the public defense. Such need, it is submitted, now 
exists, and the class of principals, as well as all others constituting 
the militia, being under the paramount obligation, neither to be 
evaded or bargained against, of military service to the State, may be 
Summoned to the field. A man can no more, by privilege granted or 
contract made, escape the paramount obligation of defending his 
country from invasion and ruin than by promise or purchase of abso- 
lution he can evade the duty of obedience to God. This view of the 
right of the Government to claim such service is submitted rather to 
remove scruples which have been imagined to exist on the part of 
Congress in authorizing the call than to obviate difficulties to be 
anticipated from the class of principals. It is confidently believed 
their courage, zeal, and patriotism will disdain all paltry quibbling to 
evade their country’s call, and that by prompt response in that coun- 
try’s need they will manifest their appreciation of their own highest 
duty and their alacrity to meet whatever of peril or sacrifice it may 
entail. 

No records exist which will furnish the precise number of princi- 
pals who may thus be recalled to service. The best conjectural com- 
putation places the number throughout the Confederacy at not less, 
certainly, than 50,000 men of an age and class caleulated to make 
approved soldiers. | 

The classes covered by the exemption law may also, it is believed, 
be advantageously abridged. The aim of the law seems to have been 
to exonerate only a sufficient number of experts in various professions, 
trades, and mechanical pursuits to meet the requirements of society, 
but as the mode of effecting this, in various instances, all of special 
trades or pursuits have been exempted. The consequence has been 
that a larger number of persons, more in various localities than are 
needed by the requirements of the country, have been relieved from 
service. This has caused some natural dissatisfaction among those 
whose services are exacted in the field, as well as has operated to the 
diminution of the numbers liable to conscription. A wiser course, it 
is believed, would be to render all within the prescribed ages, capable 
of bearing arms, subject to conscription and allow details to be granted 
from the professions and mechanical pursuits to the extent that may 
be necessary for the industrial wants of society. A considerable num- 
ber might thus be added to the Army without unduly impairing the 
necessary supply of skilled labor for the needs of the country. 

Another means of replenishing the Army would be by lessening or 
withdrawing the details which, from time to time, have been made 


998 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


from the Army and from conscripts for the works and various oper- 
ations of the Government. It has been the policy and earnest effort 
of this Department to make them as limited as possible, but still they 
have, under the unceasing demands of all branches of the service, 
swollen to a number that constitutes a serious abstraction from the 
Army. 

One great. cause of the number thus required has been the excep- 
tional state of the market for labor caused by the enhancement of 
prices and the paucity of laborers. The comparatively few men who 
are at command for hire claim and can obtain wages that almost pre- 
clude their employment by the Government; and besides, as the pub- 
lic works have to be carried on by laborers assembled in considerable 
numbers and in many instances, as at mines, saltpeter caves, and the 
like, at distant points, the men above conscript age, having for the 
most part families and settled abodes, are reluctant to render their 
services for any rewards. The only remedy that is seen for this would 
be the extension of the claim of service by Government to a greater 
age and allow details from those not now subject to military call. 
Priority would thus be afforded to the Government in the command 
of laborers, and when it was thus distinctly recognized by them as 
their contribution to public defense and in lieu of the military service 
exacted of them, it would be acquiesced in without dissatisfaction. 

To some extent, likewise, the necessity of details might be obviated 
by some organized system of impressing or engaging the labor of free 
negroes and slaves where they could be madeavailable. The effort to 
do this, by the temptation of interests of owners, has been generally 
found to be unavailing. In many of the Government works, where 
the unskilled labor of slaves would be most available, exposure to 
the seductions or attacks of the enemy are dreaded by owners, who 
are averse to having them removed from their personal supervision 
and influence. To command slaves, therefore, in anything like the 
number required for the many works of Government to which 
they could be applied, compulsion in some form would be necessary. 
The use of negroes may, likewise, swell the number of men in arms 
in the field by substituting teamsters, cooks, and other camp employés, 
who are now largely supplied from the ranks. This policy has here- 
tofore met the approbation of Congress, and been embodied in the act 
approved April 21, 1862. No provision, however, was made to pro- 
cure the negroes for these offices, and from the causes mentioned, 
although their utility has been recognized, they could not be obtained 
by voluntary engagements of service or hire from their owners. 

There may be difficulties and embarrassments in enforcing the sery- 
ice gf slaves, but they might be overcome on the principle of impress- 
ing them as property, or of requiring contributions from their owners 
of certain quotas for public service, as has been done for works of 
public defense. The wickedness and malignity of our enemies have 
certainly placed [a] considerable number of negroes, almost of neces- 
sity, at the control-of our Government. To favor the pusillanimity 
of their people, as well as the better to advance the nefarious ends of 
their unjust warfare, they have adopted as their deliberate policy the 
employment of the slaves as soldiers in their Army. They have 
already formed numerous regiments of the slaves they have seduced 
or forced from their masters, and the statement has been boastfully 
made in their public prints that they have already some 30,000 negro— 
troops in arms. It is now an ascertained fact that as they overrun 
any portion of our territory they draw off, often by compulsion, the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 999 


most efficient male slaves and place them in their negro regiments; 
and when they have established anywhere a temporary occupation, 
they practice a regular system of compulsory recruiting from the 
Slaves within their reach. Not merely, therefore, for the purpose of 
preserving to the Confederacy this valuable labor, thus abstracted, 
but from the plainer necessity. of preventing the enemy from recruit- 
ing their armies with our slaves, it becomes a clear obligation on the 
military authorities of the Confederacy to remove from any district 
exposed to be occupied or overrun by the enemy the effective male 
slaves. 

Were there any white population within our country so affected to 
the enemy as to afford recruits to their Army, there could be neither 
doubt nor delay in removing them to a secure distance on the 
approach of hostile forces, and surely the obligation is even more 
clear in regard to the slaves, whose employment by the enemy as 
soldiers converts them from valuable laborers into Savage instru- 
ments of an atrocious war against our people and their institutions. 
All male slaves capable of arms, in such cases should, on the approach 
of the enemy, be at once removed by military authority to more 
secure districts, where they may be reclaimed by their masters, or, on 
their failure to do so, be employed on reasonable terms of hire by the 
Government. In this way, it is probable, a large number of efficient 
negroes may be obtained to supply the details from the Army for all 
unskilled labor, and also to liberate for arms the soldiers now engaged 
in unwarlike duties in the trains and camps of our armies. While it 
may be difficult to obtain the precise numbers that may, from these 
various sources, be thrown into our armies, there can be no doubt 
they would be swelled considerably beyond their present numbers, 
and constitute an army larger, as well as more effective, than any we 
have: yet mustered. In view of the increasing repugnance of the 
enemy to furnish recruits to their Army, and the failing hopes it indi- 
cates, it is almost certain that manifestation of strength and resolu- 
tion on the part of the people of the Confederacy would soon be 
decisive of the struggle. When all the disastrous consequences of 
long, wasting warfare are weighed and the mighty issues, to ourselves 
and our posterity, dependent on our success are realized, and it is 
apparent our people have only with united wills to and [sic] a 
supreme effort to put forth their entire strength to assure the prize of 
peace and independence, should there be misgiving or hesitancy even 
in adopting all the means requisite to summon forth the full number 
of our population of age and ability for arms, and to hurl them 
against the invading foe? The only inquiry, it is hoped, will be for 
the agencies that can most speedily accomplish the desired mar- 
shaling. . 

The organization already engaged in the execution of the conscript 
law may, with some slight modifications, be readily made available. 
With its officers it now extends to all portions of the Confederate 
States, and by systematized action it may be rendered as available to 
collect stragglers and deserters, to give information of the details that 
may be spared, and of the laborers, whether free or slave, that may 
be commanded to fill the places of the soldiers returned to service, as 
to enroll conscripts and the exempts and principals who may be again 
recalled to military service. One addition may be required to give it 
fuller efficiency. As originally designed the law was expected entirely 
to enforce itself by its prestige and the sanction of public sentiment. 
Every man, on being enrolled and summoned to his duty, was 


1000 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


expected promptly to respond, and no adequate means of compulsion 
were incorporated. This in the main has been sufficient, as among 
a free people, ready obedience to law—especially a law for the public 
defense—might be.expected, and the appearance of compulsion, par- 
ticularly by military authority, was to be deprecated as both unnec- 
essary and revolting. But as the war’ has been realized in all its 
trials, repugnance and recusancy have, in some limited portions of 
the country, been manifested occasionally to the call of the conserib- 
ing officers, and when desertion and straggling have added in those 
districts numbers of lawless and desperate men, there have been com- 
binations and organizations for open resistance to the regular action 
of the law. It is always best to overcome such evils in their incep- 
tion, and to prevent such lawless feelings from coming to the head 
of open violence and insurrection. There has, therefore, been found 
the necessity, at times, of small supporting forces to aid and enforce 
the execution of the law, both of conscription and for the arrest of 
deserters. Such forces could only occasionally and at intervals be 
spared from the armies in the field; and it is therefore found expe- 
dient to organize of non-conscripts and the least available of the con- 
seripts local or temporary organizations, which could be more con- 
stantly employed in arresting deserters and collecting the conscripts. 
A regiment or battalion in each State would probably suffice for the 
full accomplishment of these ends; and while under the general laws 
already existing a few companies have been organized and are thus 
employed, it might be well to have more special authority of law for 
the constitution and employment of such limited forces by the officers 
of the conscript service. 

One of the subjects demanding early attention is to make provision 
respecting the troops whose term of service will expire during the 
ensuing spring and summer. The number is considerable. Accord- 
ing to the records of the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 315 
regiments and 58 battalions contain more or less of those whose origi- 
nal term of service having been for twelve months, either re-enlisted 
for two years or were embraced within the operation of the act of 
April 16, 1862. That act authorized the reorganization of the regi- 
ments, battalions, squadrons, and companies within its scope, which 
was completed once for all; and although the individual soldiers com- 
posing such organization in a greater or less degree be entitled to their 
discharge from them, the organization itself is not disturbed or broken 
up, but remains the more or less a skeleton, according to the num- 
bers of those discharged. It is earnestly recommended that these 
organizations be not broken up by any legislative action. Great 
injustice would thereby be done to the gallant officers who have been 
tested in every way. The inspiriting associations and prestige of 
courage and success attached to the existing organizations would be 
lost. Should new organizations be authorized much injury would be 
done to the service by the unsettled feelings, discontents, and aspi- 
rations, and the demoralization in order and discipline which follow 
general electioneering throughout a command. These evils were so 
vividly realized in the reorganization of the twelve-months’ men, and 
operated so harshly on many of the best officers in the service, that 
their renewal is most earnestly deprecated. 

The men whose term of service would thus expire cannot finally be 
discharged from the service. The country needs their assistance for 
defense against our oppressors. Under the present law they would 
have the privilege of selecting their companies; but the exigencies of 


~~ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1001 


the service may advise a modification of the privilege of selecting the 
existing companies in which to serve before enrollment so as to 
restrict it to a company of the same arm of the service. Otherwise a 
partiality for certain branches of the service, as, for instance, the 
artillery, the desire of change, of trying a new sphere of action, so 
natural to the individual, may operate to impair seriously, if not 
destroy, the efficiency of one or more arms of the Service, while others 
might be increased beyond all proper proportion for usefulness. 

The necessary legislation is therefore recommended to retain in 
Service all those between the ages of eighteen and forty-five at the 
close of their present terms of enlistment, with the privilege of select- 
ing beforehand an existing company in the same arm in which to 
Serve, preserving the present organizations with their officers, to be 
filled up by such selections and the assignments of enrolled conscripts. 

From peculiar cireumstances or influences some of the present 
organizations will be greatly reduced in numbers, and to place them 
in a proper condition of efficiency will furnish an additional reason 
for the adoption of the means suggested to increase the numbers of 
our troops, especially of recalling to service the principals who have 
furnished substitutes. 

In some instances, doubtless, the reduction of existing organiza- 
tions will compel the necessity of consolidating them. This furnishes 
an additional reason to some hereafter produced for the bestowal of 
this power upon the Department. 

The law providing boards to determine the competency of officers 
has operated very favorably both to secure efficiency and to promote 
improvements among all aspiring officers and men. It has done 
much to obviate the evils anticipated from the system of election and 
promotion in the Provisional Army when so few had the benefit of 
previous learning or experience. Still, the policy of elections at all 
may be well questioned, since inseparable from it [arise] an undue 
regard to popularity, especially among the non-commissioned officers, 
and a spirit of electioneering subversive of subordination and disci- 
pline. Promotions by seniority, too, as the rule may be judicious, 
but it might, considering the number of officers who have no military 
education, be advantageously varied with a large latitude to selec- 
tion. Boards to test competency, instead of being casual and at dis- 
cretion, should, it is thought, examine every officer on his promotion 
by seniority. The universality of the test would thus deprive it of 
that apparent invidiousness which often prevents its application. 
In that certainty, too, would be found a greater incentive to constant 
preparation on the part of all junior officers. It might be expedient 
to extend to these boards a wider power of recommendation, so that 
they might not be restricted to determining merely the competency of 
those before them, but might make recommendations of more efficient 
officers, whether in or out of the special organization, giving, how- 
ever, preference on an approach to equal qualifications to the former. 
In determining the competency of officers the Board have extended 
their inquiries to physical disabilities. In consequence many officers 
whose gallant services are attested by their wounds, or whose health 
has been broken down by the privations or exposures of service, are 
honorably retired and thus deprived of their commissions. The effi- 
ciency of the service may be thus promoted; but every feeling of 
gratitude and justice revolts at such reward for wounds and sickness 
incurred in the service of the country. From such feelings it often 
happens that there is no call of a board in cases of disability, and then 


1002 | CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the position of the disabled officer cannot be filled in the field, and the 
road to promotion is effectually blocked to the junior officers. This 
state of things is often felt by gallant officers under disability with 
such honorable sensibility that even without adequate provision for 
their own maintenance they feel bound to resign; nor can relief from 
this painful necessity be given by assigning them to posts or other 
duties than those of the field, for only by virtue of their commissions 
can such assignment be made and held, and their retention of the — 
commission debars their juniors in the field from advancement, and 
leaves their command without the necessary complement of officers. 
All this results from the feature incident to the organization of the 
Provisional Army that the commission is restricted to and dependent 
upon the special organization. To obviate the serious mischiefs 
resulting it is recommended that all officers disabled by wounds or 
sickness incurred in the service should be honorably retired and 
severed from connection with their special organizations, but be 
allowed during the war to retain their rank and pay. They would 
thus be available, as far as their disabilities for field service would 
permit, for posts and other light duties, and might, without injury to 
the service in the field, be scarcely less useful to the country in less 
exposed but still important positions. Some measure of relief in 
these Gases will be promotive of the efficiency of the Army in the 
field, while it is imperatively called for by the simplest justice to the 
brave officers who have been shattered in health or maimed in body 
in noble discharge or patriotic duty. 

In connection with the subject of these boards, it seems appropri- 
ate toinvite attention to the number of reports proceeding from them, 
and to the onerous duty which is imposed upon the Executive to 
examine and decide on all which retire or dismiss officers. With ~ 
other arduous labors of even more importance it is not physically pos- 
sible that the proceedings should receive from the Executive a con- 
sideration that is desirable for just revision. A like remark applies 
to the many cases from courts-martial and the military courts, which 
are sent up or brought up by appeal to Executive clemency to the 
consideration of this Department and the President. At the same 
time a painful responsibility attaches in all these cases which will not 
allow them to be lightly treated. To obviate the difficulty it is reeom- 
mended that an officer, in the nature of a judge-advocate, be appointed 
specially to examine all such cases and to make report on all that 
require the exercise finally of Executive discretion. Some measure 
of this kind should be adopted or the approvals of the commanders 
in the field be made final, except on direct appeal within reasonable 
time to the Executive. 

In reference to the cavalry, under the system of requiring men to 
furnish their own horses it is becoming daily more difficult, and it is 
feared will soon become impracticable, to keep mounted a sufficient 
number for effective service. Under the advance in price and the 
increasing scarcity of suitable horses few have the ability to supply 
themselves, while the contingencies of active and exhausting service, 
often on inadequate forage, too frequently imposes the necessity. The 
difficulty is enhanced by the limited range of casualties for which 
provision of payment is made—only those ‘‘killed in action.” | 

The difficulty of proeuring horses is also becoming almost equally 
applicable to officers. The law of the Provisional Congress making 
provision for the payment for horses killed in battle did not, accord- 
ing to the received construction, embrace officers. This was prob- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1003 


ably owing to the liberal rate at which, with existing values, their pay 
was fixed. In consequence they would receive no allowance whatever 
for horses, even when killed in battle, had not a law of the United 
States, embraced in the general re-enactment of the Provisional Con- 
gress, allowed them compensation not exceeding in any case the sum 
of $200 for the horse. The change which the increase of prices has 
made, particularly in the rate of pay, as also in the price of horses, 
renders it beyond the ability of many to procure suitable steeds when 
dismounted. Justice as well as the interest of the service urges the 
correction of these evils, and it is suggested either that the system be 
changed and horses be furnished by the Government to both officers 
and men with a disallowance of the compensation granted for the 
service or loss of the horse, or that provision be made to pay all offi- 
cers, aS well as men, the appraised values of their horses when lost by 
any of the actual contingencies of service, and not through remiss- 
ness or neglect. 

The advantages anticipated from the allowance of corps of partisan 
rangers, with peculiar privileges of prize to stimulate their zeal and 
activity, have been very partially realized, while from their independ- 
ent organization and the facilities and temptations thereby afforded 
to license and depredations grave mischiefs have resulted. They 
have, indeed, when under inefficient officers and operating within our 
own limits, come to be regarded as more formidable and destructive 
to our own people than to the enemy. The opportunities, too, 
afforded them of profit by their captures, as well as the lighter bonds 
of discipline under which they are held, serve to dissatisfy the 
trained soldiers of the Provisional Army, who, encountering greater 
perils and privations, are denied similar indulgences. There are 
certainly some honorable exceptions to the general estimate thus held 
of the partisan corps, and in several instances partisan leaders have 
distinguished themselves and their corps by services as eminent as 
their achievements have been daring and brilliant. They constitute 
only notable exceptions, and experience of the general inefficiency 
and even mischief of the organizations would recommend that they 
either be merged in the troops of the line or be disbanded and con- 
scribed. To preserve the few that are valuable coadjutors to the 
general service, discretion may be intrusted to the Department. 

The military courts have been found to operate beneficially on the 
morale and efficiency of the Army. They have dispensed with the 
necessity of such frequent details of officers from their regular duties 
for courts-martial, and from their disconnection with the rivalries and _ 
interests of the line, as well as their larger experience and superior 
qualifications, have generally secured a larger measure of satisfaction 
to their judgments. As the courts, under the existing law, are each 
separately constituted, the members cannot, under temporary exigen- 
cies, be interchanged or assigned from one court to another. Incon- 
veniencies have sometimes resulted from. this, when from any cause 
it was desirable some member should not sit in a particular case or 
when some members of a particular court were detained by sickness 
or some other reason, and from inability to supply their places the 
court is rendered inoperative. As a remedy it is proposed the Execu- 
tive be authorized at any time to assign judges from one court to 
another as in his judgment the service may require. And a similar 
authority to detail field officers as members of the court in tempo- 
rary exigencies might be given to the commanders of corps or 
departments as is granted them by the law creating such courts to 


1004 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


detail an officer to perform the duties of a judge-advoecate in case 
of his absence or disability. 

For the due complement of staff officers the powers reposed by law 
in the Executive seem adequate with one exception. The appoint- 
ment of quartermasters and commissaries for service in the field has 
never been extended beyond brigades, and consequently no such 
officer can be directly appointed for divisions, corps, or an entire 
army. ‘The experience of the service indicates that for every army a 
chief quartermaster and commissary, in direct communication with 
the general, through whom the general supplies and movements of 
the army may be arranged and directed, are essential. So, also, as 
corps or even divisions have often in the operations of the field to 
operate separately, sometimes at considerable distances apart, almost 
as separate armies, for like uses to them a principal quartermaster 
and commissary are always important and at times indispensable. 
The necessity of the case has therefore led the generals, under their 
discretionary control over all the officers of their commands, to with- 
draw or assign from their brigades quartermasters and commissaries 
to act for the army, the corps, and divisions, and as such assignment 
proved continuous their places have not unfrequently been filled as 
vacancies by new appointments to the brigades. Indeed, this has 
become a practice so recognized that Congress in one of its acts has 
seemed by its reference to division quartermasters to have given to it 
an implied sanction. The Department, however, has, in the absence 
of express law, felt an embarrassment in either making such appoint- 
ment or in giving to the officers assigned rank appropriate to their 
superior position and more extended duties. It is suggested that 
such difficulties had better be removed by direct authority for the 
appointment and assignment of such officers, with rank determined 
by the dignity of the commands to which they are to be attached. 

For the more effective organization of the Army it will be necessary 
to have the power when companies or regiments are reduced in num- 
bers below a certain complement to consolidate and organize them 
anew. ‘This is a necessity greatly to be regretted, for many honor- 
able associations, as well as the prestige of courage and success 
attached to the old organizations, make it a like matter of feeling and 
policy to retain them. Justice to the many gallant officers, who by 
such consolidations must lose their commissions, likewise increases 
their repugnance to the proceeding. With most of the organizations 
contributed from the States where the conscript law can be enforced, 
it is hoped the necessity may be avoided; but no alternative seems 
to exist in regard to those coming from the States overrun or in the 
occupancy of the enemy. Without such measure the organization 
from these States will dwindle to extinction. From them the recruits 
that can be procured come only in organizations of their choice and 
are generally induced to come forth from the enemy’s lines by the 
active exertions of officers interested in forming new commands. 
This power of consolidation has sometimes, from the necessity of the 
case, been exercised by generals in command, but unless effected by 
consent the Department has felt its inability to regard them other- 
wise than temporary arrangements, and as leaving the old organi- 
zations with their officers in legal existence. This leads to the 
inconvenience of having officers of the line retained in commission 
without appropriate commands, and in every way causes complaint 
and confusion. In an indirect way, the power is indeed possessed, 
and under the stress of necessity has sometimes been exercised by 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1005 


the Department of effecting consolidations. That is, by disbanding 
one of the organizations from the same State, thus dismissing the 
officers and leaving the men liable to conscription, and then assigning 
the latter to the other organization. The effect of this, however, is to 
retain all the officers of the one organization while all the others lose 
their commissions; or if in lieu of this plan both organizations are 
disbanded and the men thrown together in a new one all the mischiefs 
and demoralizations resulting from elections and a new set of officers 
are hazarded. It evidently would be far better there should be the 
discretion reposed either in the commanding general or the Department 
_ to consolidate directly and let thé best officers from both organizations 
be selected, either by the Executive or on the recommendation of impar- 
tial examining boards. Powers should be given, too, in such eases, 
to permit such of the officers not needed, who are recommended as 
deserving, to retain their commissions and be subject to assignment 
to other appropriate duties. Thus as far as practicable, in the pain- 
ful necessity of reducing commands, efficiency in the commands would 
be reconciled with justice to the officers. 

By the means recommended, all of military capabilities between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-five, excepting such as the actual 
needs of society or the Government render more serviceable in peace- 
ful avocations, may be effectively devoted to active service in the 
field. But there will still remain large numbers of ages less adapted 
to the field, but still capable of arms, who may be rendered effective 
as a reserve and for purposes of local defense and internal police. 
In a struggle such as the Confederacy is engaged in, with all the dear- 
est interests of the present and future dependent on the successful 
resistance to foes superior in numbers and material resources, and 
animated by the most malignant passions for our complete subjuga- 
tion or extermination, all of whatever age capable of striking a 
blow or mustering for defense should be unhesitatingly summoned, 
as they should be prompt to answer to the sacred duty of repelling 
the invader. The Confederacy may well be regarded as a beleaguered 
city, where all capable should be placed at the guns, and all privi- 
leged from age or infirmity should yet minister to the common safety. 
The ruthless policy recently adopted by the enemy of cavalry raids 
through important districts of. country with the nefarious purposes of 
destruction and devastation, that by depriving of the means of pro- 
duction and subsistence the helpless and dependent they may compel 
to submission the men they have feared to confront, or been unable 
to subdue, render more clear and imperative the duty of thus organ- 
izing and preparing our reserve population. These raids, hitherto 
made with little danger through extensive but sparsely populated 
districts, and prosecuted rather in the spirit of brigands than of 
soldiers, might be easily checked and punished by comparatively few 
brave men, however little adapted to continuous service, if only duly 
organized and armed. A few instances of merited vengeance from 
the intended victims of their rapacity and cruelty would effectually 
stop such malignant marauders. ‘To accomplish such organization it 
will only be necessary to enforce as an obligation the duty on all 
capable of [bearing] arms to unite in such companies as are provided 
for voluntary engagements by the acts of the 21st of August, 1861, 
and the 13th of October, 1862. The former contemplated organiza- 
tions for local defense and special service within prescribed districts, 
where the members remained uninterrupted in their ordinary avoca- 
tions until on the occurrence of an emergency called by the President 


1006 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


into actual service, and when the need had passed were again returned 
to their civil pursuits. While in service they are armed, paid, and 
provided by the Confederate Government, and constitute a part of 
the Provisional Army, subject to the military authority and governed 
by the Rules and Articles of War. The latter provided for mere defen- 
sive bands of twenty or more, who on the approach of a hostile incur- 
sion should with their own arms and means bravely seek to defend 
their homes and punish the spoilers. It cast around them the egis 
of the Government, and recognized them as among the authorized 
defenders of their country. 

These two laws may readily be adapted to a division of the reserve 
population into two classes—those whose age and health would sus- 
tain service throughout the State, or some extensive district, and who 
might be called on for continuous service during an emergency, and ~ 
those who only would be adapted to defensive or police operations 
within their counties. By this adaptation and a compulsory require- 
ment the whole arms-bearing population not in active service could, 
without seriously impairing the productive and industrial resources 
of the country, be organized as effective aids in our great struggle. 
They would suffice to insure defense and internal security to each 
State and county, while the armies in the field could be employed 
solely in overthrowing the invading hosts of the enemy. <A prouder 
spectacle would never have been presented in history than a whole 
people thus organized and armed, prepared, old and young alike, at 
home and on their frontiers, to meet and repel their rapacious 
Ag2TeSSOrs. 

The subject of the exchange of prisoners of war has excited much 
attention and has a painful interest to our people and our brave sol- 
diers whom the fortunes of war have thrown into the hands of our ene- 
mies. It was the desire of this Government from an early period of 
the war to agree upon a fair and equitable system of exchanges. The 
. large preponderance of prisoners being on our side negotiations were 
opened and had been nearly consummated, the terms haying been 
agreed upon in accordance with the views of his Government as 
expressed by the commissioner of the United States, and under 
his assurance of satisfactory settlement a large number of prisoners 
held by us were delivered up. Some serious reverses, however, just 
then befalling us, and large numbers of prisoners being taken by the 
enemy, they refused to consummate the agreement and broke off the 
negotiation. Their loss in prisoners in subsequent military operations, 
especially in their disastrous defeats around this city, again giving us 
the preponderance, a cartel of exchange was agreed on and executed. 
Various efforts to obtain unfair advantages by quibbling as to its 
terms and operation were made and its provisions violated by the 
enemy, but the cartel was recognized as being in force and exchanges 
continued to be made. Our reverses in July again gave them, as 
they claim, a preponderance in the number of prisoners, since which 
time they have openly disregarded its obligations, and have now, 
upon false and flimsy pretext, declared it to be inoperative. All 
exchanges have now ceased, with little apparent prospect of renewal. 
The exchange of prisoners was desired on our part for the sake of 
humanity, to prevent, in accordance with the usages of war among 
civilized nations individual suffering as far as practicable, and all | 
the obligations imposed on us as to the treatment of prisoners and 
_exchange by such usages and the cartel of exchange have been ful- 
filled on our part with entire and:scrupulous good faith, while the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1007 


course of our enemies has been marked by perfidy and a disregard of 
their engagements and the dictates of humanity. 

The report of Mr. Ould, our commissioner of exchange, which 
accompanies this, will fully explain the present position of this inter- 
esting subject.* 

It is gratifying to be able to report that during the past year the 
Ordnance and Mining Bureaus have steadily increased the production 
and supply of arms and munitions. Notwithstanding the serious 
injury sustained from fire by one of the leading establishments of the 
Confederacy for the manufacture of ordnance, yet by prompt repairs 
and the establishment of similar works in other portions of the Con- 
federacy the manufacture has rather increased, and is now believed 
to be adequate to the regular demands of the service. Arms, too, of 
approved kinds are being made with more facility at more places and 
in larger numbers than at any previous time. Very valuable addi- 
tions to our supplies of arms have been made during the year by our 
importations from abroad, and thus have enabled the Bureau promptly 
to repair the very heavy losses which were sustained in the disastrous 
campaign in Mississippi. But without such aids in the future, unless 
unwonted losses occur, confidence is felt in our ability by internal 
manufacture to provide arms adequate to the demands of our armies. 
In the manufacture of powder, balls, shells, &e., progress has been 
marked, and with some addition in the supplies of niter from foreign 
sources there will be no want of adequate supplies of superior quality. 
Special attention has been given to the distribution of these works in 
different portions of the Confederacy, so as not to leave our supplies 
dependent on single disasters. While not yet wholly independent in 
the supply of niter, there has been until very recently marked increase 
in its production. That increase has during the past year nearly 
doubled from production. The temporary occupancy by the enemy 
of the districts of the country where the richest deposits of nitrous 
earth were found has for the present diminished the production, but 
it is encouraging to know that the artificial sources of supply in beds 
of nitrous earth will soon begin to be available, and much more than 
supply the deficiencies which have resulted from the operations of 
the enemy. The mining operations in iron, lead, and coal have all 
been pushed with remarkable skill and activity under the direction 
of the zealous head of the Niter and Mining Bureau in despite of all 
the embarrassments resulting from the paucity of laborers and fluc- 
tuating prices, and the result has been in each more abundant pro- 
duction and a better prospect of future sufficiency than we have yet 
enjoyed. A more decisive exhibition of the resources and exhaustless 
capacities of endurance possessed by the Confederacy could not well 
be presented than the decided increase amid unprecedented efforts 
and sacrifices in the field and numberless impediments in procuring 
machinery, labor, and supplies of all the great manufactures essential 
for successful defense. | 

The Quartermaster and Commissary Generals, in the administration 
of their respective departments, have had during the past year extraor- 
dinary difficulties and embarrassments to encounter. The manufac- 
turing operations of the former, as in the other bureaus, have indeed 
been conducted on a large scale, with more economy of material 
and with greater skill and energy than at past periods, and have 
made more nearly the supplies for the Army from internal resources, 


* See Series II, Vol. VI, p. 654. 


1008 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


but still for some essential articles, such as shoes, blankets, and woolen 
cloths, partial dependence on importations could not be avoided. In 
these articles it can scarcely be expected that domestic production can 
be increased, for, under the wasting consumption of war, the produc- 
tion of the raw material is more likely to be diminished than increased. 
But the difficulties of both the Quartermaster and Commissary Gen- 
erals have been most grave in the large necessary purchases and 
transportation of forage and subsistence. The abstraction of so much 
male labor from culture, and the barbarous ravages of the enemy, 
pursued with a systematic view to curtail our resources by spoliation 
and destruction, combined with unfavorable seasons to limit, almost: 
beyond precedent, the production of these essential articles. The 
scarcity, too, was greatest in one or two of the States nearest to our 
large armies, and the necessity for months of sustaining almost 
entirely the armies of Northern Virginia from supplies of corn drawn 
from South Carolina and Georgia, will strikingly illustrate both the 
dearth and the difficulty of supplying it. At one time it was thought 
necessary to make appeal direct to the feelings and patriotism of the 
people for the prompt rendition of all surplus of supplies for subsist- 
ence, and it is a grateful duty to acknowledge that they who have 
never failed to recognize as their own the cause of the Confederacy, 
with zeal and emulation met the exigencies of the case, and in very 
many instances stinted themselves and their dependents to supply the 
Army. It is most creditable to these departments that they have been 
able, amid the real deficiencies existing and the many hindrances from 
distance, defective transportation, and other causes, to keep the armies 
at all times moderately supplied, and even able to make all the move- 
ments in the field which the exigencies of the campaign demanded. 
How long their exertion will avail to assure such results, it must be 
confessed, is now a matter of grave anxiety. The consumption of all 
animal life in the war has been very great, and in addition, during the 
past few months, destructive and widespread disease has prevailed 
among the swine, which constitute the most serviceable as well as 
largest resource for meat. Bacon and beef must, in view of the needs 
of the Army and the people, be scarce during the coming year. It is 
confidently believed, indeed, that there is a sufficiency of meat in the 
Confederacy to afford a reasonable supply to the Army, and yet sus- 
tain the people likewise, but to attain such result it must be hus- 
banded with care and used with more economy than our people have 
been accustomed to practice. The supplies of hay and long forage 
generally are likewise undoubtedly scant, for these articles are not 
habitually produced in superabundance in the Confederacy, and the 
season has been decidedly unfavorable. Many substitutes for the 
better kind of long forage may be readily found on plantations, and 
it is hoped the people recognize the necessity of parting with the best 
of their stores for the use of the animals exposed to the much harder 
toils and labors of the service. This is the more necessary, as another 
of our immediate needs is the due supply of horses for cavalry and 
artillery, indispensable arms of the service. Our safety demands 
that we preserve our horses during the rigors of the winter, and in a 
condition to resume efficient service in the spring, as it would then be 
next to impossible to replace them. 

But the gravest difficulty encountered by the purchasing depart- . 
ment is that the only mode of obtaining supplies available to them is 
impressment. The inflation of the currency and the insatiable thirst 
for gain and speculation induced’ by it have caused inordinate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1009 


enhancement of the prices of all products, and a yet continuing 
advance, stimulated in part by the increasing volume of the currency 
and in part by the sordid calculation of large gains from hoarding by 
holders or speculators. To this has likewise contributed some dis- 
trust, not of the cause of the Confederacy, but of its future ability, 
however earnest its desire to preserve its credit and good faith, to 
redeem the large issues which such enhancements of price rendered 
inevitable. The consequences have been an almost universal repug- 
nance on the part of producers and holders to sell at any price, except, 
under compulsion. This evil had begun to manifest itself before the 
close of the last Congress to such a degree that some legislative 
remedy was recognized to be indispensable. To buy at current prices 
was seen to be suicidal to the credit of the Government, to swell its 
indebtedness, in a brief period, beyond its utmost capacities for 
redemption, and at the same time to raise by daily accessions the 
advancing scale of extravagant prices, until both the fears and 
interest of the holders would forbid sales at all. Under these cir- 
cumstances Congress devised and authorized a System of impress- 
ment of all property required ‘“‘for the good of the service,” or the 
accumulation of adequate supplies for the Army, at the same time 
recognizing that under the exceptional circumstances of the country 
and the disturbance of the ordinary laws of trade regulating supply 
and demand current prices constituted no criterion of just compen- 
sation required by the Constitution to be allowed for the appropria- 
tion of private property to public uses. Congress provided for the 
ascertainment of such just compensation by reference, in the first 
instance, in part to local appraisers, and then to two commissioners 
to be appointed for each State, one by the Governor and the other by — 
the President of the Confederacy. These officers, combining by their 
appointment the sanction of the State and Confederate authorities, 
were not only to entertain appeals from local appraisements, but from 
time to time to ascertain and prescribe fair rates of valuation to 
govern in impressments. 5 

As there seems no other alternative, this was, perhaps, as judicious 
an arrangement on this delicate and difficult subject as was practica- 
ble, and on it the Government has been compelled to rely almost 
exclusively during the past year. This resource, operating with 
increasing stringency and strain, is at this time its only reliance. 
The evils attending it are, however, very great, and only less than 
the failure or deficiency of supplies, which, so far, it has managed to 
avert. Impressment is evidently a harsh, unequal, and odious mode 
of supply. With the utmost forbearance and consideration even 
its occasional exercise is harassing and irritating; but when it has 
to prevail as a general practice, to be exercised inquisitorially and 
summarily in almost every private domain, by a multitude of subor- 
dinate officers, it becomes beyond measure offensive and repugnant 
to the sense of justice and prevalent sentiment of our people. It has 
been, perhaps, the sorest test of their patriotism and self-sacrificing 
spirit afforded by the war, and no other people, it is believed, would 
have endured it without undue manifestations of discontent ar d resist- 
ance. It has caused much murmuring and dissatisfactica, but a 
knowledge of the necessities which alone justified it has caused 
the outery to be directed rather to the mode and, as alleged, occa- 
sional excesses of its exercise than against the system itself. Casual 
irregularities and abuses in the use of such a power by numerous 


64 R R—SERIES LYon VOL IT 


1010 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


agents in so many quarters may not be wholly avoidable, but every 
effort to obtain information respecting them and to afford prompt 
correctives has been earnestly made by the Department. As to the 
mode of action, great misapprehension has prevailed. It has been 
supposed that it was the system of the Department to attempt to reg- 
ulate the prices for the public according to the schedule rates pre- 
scribed by the State appraisers, by impressing the products held by 
all who sold at higher rates, and in like spirit to keep supplies from 
being enhanced in price by the competition of consumers in the large 
* cities, by the impressment of allsupplies in transitu to market, unless 
the holders would agree to sell at schedule prices. To this supposed 
policy was ascribed the great enhancement of prices in the markets 
of the cities, and the gravest apprehensions of want were entertained 
by many from the alleged exclusion of free supplies to the cities. The | 
orders and instructions of the Department had been, in fact, against 
such policy, and the republication and reiteration of the regulations 
on the subject, which had been made soon after the initiation of the 
system, have, it is hoped, removed such injurious impressions. At 
the same time it is found, as throughout it had been feared by the 
Department, that the scarcity and high prices of supplies in the mar- 
kets of the country have not been due to the law of impressment or 
to the supposed policy under it. The impressment law applies only 
to the surplus of producers, and expressly exempts to them and others 
the reasonable supplies they may have or obtain for the consumption 
of themselves, their families, or dependents. Thus all consumers are 
privileged freely to supply themselves. All supplies, too, it is now 
at least fully known, are exempt in transitu to market and for a rea- 
sonable time afterward. Yet it is found that all prices have only the 
more rapidly advanced and are still advancing, and that neither are 
the markets of the city adequately supplied, nor can consumers, by 
purchase at current rates, without the utmost difficulty supply them- 
selves. 

The truth is, that the explanation, as the cause, is to be found out- 
side of the impressment law, or the action under it. The real diffi- 
culty is, that the price advancing from day to day with an accelerated 
ratio and a steady depreciation of the currency, the holders, unless 
required by positive necessity, prefer to retain their supplies, and will 
not sell for any temptation of present price. 

The impressment law is, in fact, almost the only corrective of this 
feeling, which would else be well-nigh universal. It favors the 
supply of the market and of consumers. The apprehension that 
surplus products if retained may be impressed by the Government at 
the rates prescribed by the State appraisers constitutes the strongest, 
as it is nearly the only, inducement to holders to sell at market rates. 
Setting aside feelings of humanity and patriotism, which, to a credit- 
able degree, may induce sales, and testing the matter by the general 
motive of self-interest alone, this is a plain matter of calculation, who 
would sell, unless forced by a present necessity for the money, when 
constant advance in the price of the product is sure, and the money, 
if received at once, is no less certain of its depreciation before the 
occasion of its future use? The difficulty, therefore, with the con- 
sumer, as with the Government, is the redundancy of the’ currency 
and the consequent steady inflation of prices. This in its direct, and 
even more in its indirect, influences, not merely on the market and on 
the property of citizens, but on their instincts of selfishness, on their 
sentiments, tastes, and aspirations,.is a fearful evil, and more demoral- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. LO en 
/ | 


izing to our people than the more dire calamities of war. It pertains 
to another branch of the Government and to an abler mind to portray 
this subject in its true colors and to propose correctives; but as the 
mischief weighs as a paralysis on the energies of this Department, I 
may be excused for saying that in my judgment the sole effective 
remedy is prompt reduction of the existing issues to the amount 
needed for currency by the people of the Confederacy, and the inflex- 
ible determination and pledge never to exceed it. No mode of utilizing 
the credit of the Confederacy can be so wasteful as the enhance- 
ment of all prices by a constantly increasing ratio, or so mischievous 
as the subversion of the standard of values, tempting all into the 
wild whirl of speculation, and corroding, by the vile greed of gain, all 
the nobler elements of character. If the present system be continued, 
prices, already many hundred per cent. above true values, must be 
indefinitely enhanced, the credit of the Government must be wrecked 
utterly, and no alternative left for the continuance of our patriotic 
struggle and the preservation of our lives and liberties but grinding 
taxation and the systematized seizure, without present compensation, 
of all supplies needed for the employés, as well as the armies, of the 
Confederacy. 

The necessity of reliance on impressment as the ordinary mode of 
supply it is trusted will, by judicious legislation, soon be obviated; 
but as it may at all times be of occasional necessity and employment, 
it is desirable that the law be perfected in some of its features. In 
the confidence felt, with justice in the main, in the deference of our 
people for law and in their patriotic disposition to comply with the 
requirements for their defense, Congress has made imperfect provis- 
ion as to the mode of procedure for its enforcement, especially when 
evaded or resisted. It is very important that the enforcement of all 
laws, even those having direct connection with military affairs, should 
not look to or be dependent in the first instance on the sanction of 
armed force, but should be attained by civil procedures and the reg- 
ular administration of justice. The absence of such provisions in 
this law has compelled the Department to frame and issue regulations 
assimilating the proceedings to civil administration, which regula- 
tions partake more of the character of legislation than is felt to be 
appropriate to military orders. They have been acquiesced in with 
commendable recognition of their aim by the public, but it is prefer- 
able they, or more perfect provisions, should have the legislative 
sanction. | 

The tax in kind which was adopted, in some measure, to obviate 
the issue of notes and the resort to impressment, has been as yet but 
measurably operative; but beneficial results have so far foilowed, 
and greater are expected to flow from its application. Delays have 
resulted, it is believed from inevitable causes for the most part, in 
the lists of assessment to be made by the officers of the Treasury 
and handed over to the quartermasters. ‘To obviate these and realize 
early supplies, invitations were extended to all producers to deliver 
spontaneously to the quartermasters and commissaries what they con- 
sidered as their tithes, for which receipts would be given, to be allowed 
in evidence of delivery on the future reception of the assessors’ lists. 
To some extent this invitation has been responded to, and has 
relieved, so far, the Department from the necessity of impressing 
supplies, and has lightened the labor of future deliveries. Owing to 
reluctance, however, generally felt by producers either to indicate 
the extent of their crops or to prepare them for market, from both 


1012 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


the fear of 1mpressment and the indisposition to sell, deliveries before 
assessment have been less prevalent than was anticipated. It is yet 
too early to form any reliable estimates of the amounts of supplies 
that may be counted on from this tax, but it is certain that the loss 
of several productive districts, the wanton ravages of the enemy in 
others, and an unfavorable season for growth in considerable regions 
of the Confederacy, must materially lessen the supplies that were 
calculated on from this source. Enough has been realized to justify 
the wisdom of the imposition of this tax, and as earnest injunctions 
have been given to both assessors and collectors to expedite, as far as 
practicable, their operations, it is hoped sufficient returns may be 
obtained at an early day to direct the future legislation of Congress 
to the attainment of larger supplies by this mode of taxation. Its 
increase would evidently contribute to the financial relief of the Goy-" 
ernment, while a larger-contribution in kind, if only equitably appor-. 
tioned in comparison with the impositions on other classes, would 
probably prove to the producers the most acceptable mode of 
taxation. 

The inflation of the currency and inordinate prices of all supplies 
have caused to the Department a painful embarrassment from the 
inadequacy of the salaries and allowances to its clerks and employés 
to maintain them. Single men in such positions are barely able to 
subsist on their official compensation, and those with families, when 
without other means, have been obliged to yield their places, depend 
on the charity of friends, or suffer dire privations. Cases of such 
real suffering have resulted from this cause that it would be culpable 
remissness or unfeeling obduracy not to urge earnestly a more just 
provision for them. Their whole time and labor are given, with a 
zeal, devotion, and industry rarely surpassed, to the toilsome and 
unostentatious duties of the bureaus and offices. Means, at least, of 
subsistence and lodging should be accorded without delay by the 
Government to such faithful laborers. 

The administration of the Department in all its extensive oper- 
ations has been greatly impeded by the deficiency of transportation, 
especially on railroads. Shut off from the ‘sea, and with command of 
very few of its rivers, the Confederacy is dependent almost wholly on 
the railroads for communication and transportation. The roads were 
not constructed with reference to such extensive needs, and even in 
time of peace, with all facilities of supplies and repairs, would have 
been inadequate to such duties. How much less in time of war, with 
every drawback of deficient labor, insufficient stock, defective machin- 
ery, and scant supplies, and with exposure often to seizures or spoli- 
ations by the enemy, could they be expected to meet such unexpected 
requirements. It must be matter of surprise and gratification that 
they have sustained themselves so well and have afforded to the Goy- 
ernment and the people the measure of accommodation they have. It 
is but a just tribute to them to say that in the main they have been 
managed in a patriotic spirit, and have rarely failed to meet the 
requirements of the Government with alacrity and zeal. It has not 
been necessary during the year to exercise the large discretionary 
powers of control vested by Congress in the Executive over the rail- 
roads, for if repugnancy existed to the just demands of the Govern- 
ment the known possession of such powers has sufficed to exact com- 
plianece. But while the dispositions of the railroad companies have 
been good, their means have gradually been becoming less. The Gov- 
ernment has already given to many some aid, but will have hereafter to 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1013 


render fuller and more constant assistance. Some of the minor roads 
will have to be sacrificed to keep up the tracks of the leading lines. 
Iron will have to be provided and rolled for machinery and the construe- 
tion and repair of locomotives and rolling-stock. Skilled mechanics, 
to some extent, will have to be furnished from the Army, and for 
some of the more delicate machinery needed by them importations 
from abroad may have to be attempted. With these aids it is hoped 
they may not only be maintained, but improved in their means of 
transportation. The lowest point of depression has probably passed. 
For the first year or more, under the delusive expectation of the early 
termination of the war, the companies relied almost wholly on their 
-. existing stock, and made few efforts at supply or reparation. They 
searcely husbanded their resources, which, under the exhausting 
demands made on them, became greatly diminished. Of late, with 
more experience, a wiser prescience guides their management, and 
besides practicing economy of means they are sedulously engaged in 
endeavoring to increase their stock, and to provide for the contingen- 
cies of future service or loss. In their best estate they will not be 
able to furnish adequate facilities of transportation for both the Gov- 
ernment and the people. From considerations of public utility and 
supreme duty, as well i from their dependence on the aid of the 
Government, they should be required by law, as nearly all have 
engaged by contract to give preference. in all cases to Government 
freight, so as to command all their means of transport when neces- 
sary. Beyond that it is the fixed rule of the Department to make no 
exaction on them, and to attempt no regulation of their surplus means 
of transportation, or to award no special privileges to any in their 
use, but leave such free to the discretion and management of their 
officers. On this subject misconception has often: prevailed, and the 
charge of favoritism has been alleged against the Department, but 
on no point has inflexibility been more steadfastly maintained and 
all special privileges denied. 

It will have been noted that in nearly all the branches of supply we 
are not yet. exempt from dependence to a greater or less extent on 
foreign importations. These can only be obtained by the command 
of sterling funds or exchanges on foreign countries, and be introduced 
by evasion of the existing blockade. Without credit in foreign coun- 
tries, so established as to enable the Government to borrow without 
great sacrifice, if at all, and with the difference of exchange appreci- 
ating daily to a ruinous rate, it becomes early apparent to me that 
recourse must be had to our great staple products, which, in the 
markets of the world, were readily exchangeable for coin. They had 
only to be placed abroad, and the same means which exported them 
would serve for the necessary importations. The business of evading 
the blockade had previously been in private hands alone, and while 
precarious had been under skillful charge a source of enormous 
profits. So excessive had become the rates of freight and exchange, 
that on calculation it was found that the mere charge, independent 
of the cost of the cargo, for the freightage of a steamer of 300 
tons from the West India Islands to one of our ports were to the 
Government upward of two millions of dollars in its currency. 
Under these circumstances the Department did not hesitate to inau- 
~ gurate the plain policy of evading the blockade with steamers pur- — 
chased and run by its officers. The limited means at the command 
of the Department abroad, which could be spared from the necessity 
of procuring immediate supplies, were employed in purchasing several 


1014 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


steamers. These, under competent officers, were at once engaged in 
exporting cotton and importing supplies. The number which the 
means of the Department could command were far too few to meet its 
requirements, and contracts were made with capitalists to provide 
and engage in the trade other steamers in which the Department took 
an interest, to be paid for in cotton, either to be delivered here-or to 
be exported in them. In this way, while more vessels were induced to 
venture in the business of evading the blockade, a controlling influ- 
ence was secured over the importations made in them for private 
account. This constituted an important consideration for the public 
good, as under the temptations merely of private interest it had been 
found toa great extent articles of mere luxury or noxious use, as 
liquors, from the superior profits they afforded, rather than goods of 
real utility to the people were introduced by the steamers of private 
traders. The steamers owned by the Department, four in number, 
were for a long time run between Wilmington and the islands with 
signal success and almost the regularity of packets. The profits by 
the outward and the saving by the inward trips to the Department 
were very great, as at each trip, according to the current rates, the 
value of the vessel was fully reimbursed. It is a moderate caleula- 
tion to estimate the gain thus effected for thesDepartment as upward 
of twenty millions of dollars in currency. Still the quantity of cotton 
which could be carried out by the steamers, owned or held in part by 
the Department, by no means supplied the sterling which was required 
abroad for the wants of the Government, and the experiments made 
had only served to demonstrate what resources for establishing credit 
and commanding funds abroad could be afforded by larger exporta- 
tions of our staple products—cotton and tobacco. About the same 
time, too, the closing of the port of Charleston by the successful 
operations of the enemy on Morris Island, caused apprehensions that 
the business of evading the blockade would soon become more diffi- 
cult and precarious. This made it more important to place abroad, 
as rapidly as possible, a stock of cotton which would afford means of 
commanding large supplies while they could be introduced. The 
Department, therefore, in conjunction with the Honorable Secretary 
of the Navy, who fully appreciated this mode of supplying the 
demands of his Department for sterling, proposed and succeeded in 
effecting arrangements with the companies and merchants engaged in 
evading the blockade on private account by which, on fair terms of 
freight payable partly in cotton here and partly in drafts on the cot- 
ton taken out by them, they undertook on every voyage to take out 
some a third and some one-half of their cargoes of cotton for the Gov- 
ernment, and likewise placed at the command of the Government a 
fair proportion of their capacities for freight on the return trip for 
the importation of its supplies. The Department was aided in effect- 
ing this arrangement, not only by the patriotic feelings of the private 
owners, but also by the facilities it was enabled to afford them in com- 
manding cargoes of cotton without unnecessary delays through the 
preference in transportation given by the railroads to cotton ordered 
by the Government. Hence, in view of the importance of continuing 
these arrangements with private merchants, it has become more than 
ever essential that the priority of transportation on the railroads 
should be maintained to the Government, for under present laws by 
that preference alone can these arrangements for the exportation of 
cotton be continued. . 

_ These arrangements were made in good time, for, as anticipated, 
the blockade of Wilmington, the port of the Confederacy best adapted 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1015 


for evading the blockade, has been of late more stringent. All the 
blockading ships of the enemy have been transferred from Charleston, 
and within the last two months a considerable number of steamers, 
among them those belonging to the Department, have been captured 
or destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. 
While the risk is now certainly increased, still, with the additional 
steamers which the contracts with the Government or the tempta- 
tions of private gain has brought into the trade, it is believed the 
blockade may be evaded so far as to add greatly to our resources 
abroad from the exportation of our staple and to bring in the supplies 
needed by the Government. Measures, meantime, are being taken to 
increase the facilities of entrance into the port by the use of mov- 
able batteries of Whitworth guns of long range along the coast and 
to endanger the safety of the blockading vessels. 

So long as our staples can be exported and supplies introduced. 
with reasonable exemption from capture there cannot be a question of 
the policy of pursuing the venture, and when all the advantage to our 
credit abroad and to our means of resistance within the Confederacy 
are estimated, it may be well questioned whether the whole trade 
should not be subjected by law to equitable regulation, so as to Secure 
to the Government a fair proportion of the profits resulting from all 
shipments. As the trade could not be carried on at all except to for- 
tified cities and through the special. protection afforded by the arma- 
ments of the Government, the benefits derived by the Government 
would be only a reasonable return. The regulation of the trade, both 
to secure a participation in the profits to the Government and to 
require the introduction mainly of articles of use or necessity instead 
of luxuries and noxious liquors, it is believed is demanded by the gen- 
eral sentiment of the country, and would be readily acquiesced in by 
the sense of justice and patriotic feelings of the merchants engaged 
in the trade. 

The business of export and import for the Department became so 
large and important that it was found necessary to devote officers 
of the Department and special agents at Wilmington to its manage- 
ment. It has grown almost a separate branch of administration in the 
Department, and to be nearly assimilated to a separate bureau. While 
thus it has been conducted with success, some serious practical incon- 
veniences have resulted from not having a separate office or bureau 
established by law and specially charged with the whole business. 
All the bureaus depending in some measure on foreign supplies have 
been interested in the operations thus conducted, and all have had to 
contribute out of their appropriations, according to their interest, in 
providing means for the purchase of ships and cargoes; and as under 
the interruptions of the blockade the exact proportions in which car- 
goes are furnished are not known for a long time, and when the ves- 
sels are lost can never be precisely ascertained, great difficulties exist 
in settling and apportioning the credits and charges to each. This is 
apt to create dissatisfaction: as well as irregularities in the accounts 
of each bureau. It would manifestly be simpler and more satisfac- 
tory that the business should be made a separate one under the con- 
trol of a competent head; that appropriations should be made directly 
for its operations; all sales and purchases abroad be made under his 
instructions; and that, providing means abroad, it should be only 
called on by the Bureau for their appropriate supplies. When it is 
considered to what extent cotton and other staples have to be pur- 
chased and forwarded in the Confederacy, arrangements for procur- 
ing and running ships or contracting with the owners of vessels in the 


1016 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


trade to be negotiated, shipments, and sales in foreign countries to be 
effected, and purchases and importations made from abroad, it will 
be readily seen that the business requires an able head and will con- 
stitute by no means the least important branch of the administration 
pertaining to the Department. 

A proper officer as well as judicious regulations are likewise desira- 
ble for the conduct of the trade in cotton and supplies between Texas 
and Mexico. The law leaves the trade entirely free, but as the export 
of cotton affords almost the only means of obtaining supplies for the 
Trans-Mississippi Department, the generals commanding there have 
felt themselves under the necessity of prescribing regulations and 
conditions for the conduct of the trade. This was rendered the 
more necessary from the limited means of transport which could be 
commanded, and which, without some restriction, there was danger 
would be engrossed by private parties eager to participate in a most 
lucrative trade or to remove beyond the contingencies of war the 
funds realized by them from the conversion of their property in 
the Confederacy. The regulations imposed by military authority 
were, however, regarded by many whose pursuit of gain was hindered 
as vexatious and illegal, and produced such complaint and dissatis- 
faction that they were abrogated by the Department. The necessities 
of that command now more than ever require the control of this trade 
and its direction to the supply of funds and stores for its military 
needs. The trade should be either carried on directly by competent 
officers of the Department, or conducted on conditions or by permits 
that’ would secure to the Government as its results necessary credits 
and supplies from abroad. 

In other points, likewise, comprehensive legislation will be required 
for the proper administration of the military affairs in the Trans-Mis- 
Sissippi Department, since by the interruption of command over the 
Mississippi River by the enemy facilities of communication with the 
more eastern States and the seat of government are greatly dimin- 
ished. In anticipation of such contingency as already stated, arrange- 
ments, mon is prior to our reverses in Mississippi, had been initiated 
by this Department to make as far as practicable the Trans-Mississippi 
Department self-sustaining and capable of separate administration. 
Foundries, manufactories of arms, powder mills, and workshops, as 
well as explorations for mines and nitrous earths had been instituted, 
and while some have been already in successful operation others 
were in progress of early completion. 

To conduct and further complete these various branches of military 
administration it is desirable that separate offices under competent 
heads should be established. Indeed, so far is this Department 
isolated and severed from direct communication with the Department 
here, that it is deemed judicious some extraordinary powers of mili- 
tary administration should be intrusted to the general commanding, 
and that officers assimilated to the Bureau of the Department here 
under his immediate supervision, yet reporting as opportunities offer 
to the heads of the corresponding bureaus here, so as to preserve har- 
mony and conformity of action, should be constituted by law. A 
Separate office should certainly be established there for the conscript 
service, and either the conscripts be directed to be appropriated 
entirely to the organizations-west of the Mississippi River, or some 
ratio of apportionment, as well as mode of sending recruits to the 
organizations on this side, be prescribed. It may be necessary, too, 
to give some unusual power of recommending and assigning officers 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1017 


to service, subject to the future approval and action of the Executive. 
By these means it is believed that serious embarrassments and incon- 
veniencies from the isolation of that Department will be remedied. 

It is gratifying to know that the severance of the States west of the 
Mississippi from those of the East has caused no abatement in their 
devotion to the Confederacy, their confidence in its cause, or in their 
spirit or resolution to achieve a common independence. Entire har- 
mony and co-operation prevail between the Confederate and State 
authorities there, and in the valor of their soldiers, the ability of 
their generals, the patriotism and hardy, resolute character of their 
people, the wide expanse and impracticable nature of their territories, 
and the great though only partially developed resources of their 
country, all find an assured augury of ultimate triumph. 

It is gratifying to be able to state that our relations with the 
Indians, under the protection of this Government, continues to be of 
a satisfactory character. Though there have been some instances of 
disturbances among individuals, as was to be expected under the 
machinations of our enemies, and the withdrawal of our troops from 
the coterminous territory under military operations in adjoining 
States, yet Mr. Scott, our Indian agent, who has just returned from a 
visit to and a sojourn among them of some months, gives assurance 
that they continue unshaken in their loyalty to the Government and 
in their devotion to our cause and sacred rights. His report accom- 
panying this will furnish details of interest. - 

The estimates for the expenditures of this Department for the Six 
months, from January 1 to June 30, 1864, are herewith transmitted. * 
The amount is large, but at the existing rate of prices certainly not 
greater than is required to maintain the armies of the Confederacy in 
a state of efficiency. Indeed, if there be a continuance of the con- 
stantly accelerating advance in the cost of all supplies that has 
attended the inflation of the past year, these estimates will scarce 
prove adequate to the wants of the Department. Should, however, 
there be a reduction of the currency to the actual needs of the coun- 
try and its maintenance on a stable basis, these estimates may be 
largely reduced. Such policy is the only mode of correcting this as 
[well as] the many other resulting evils of our redundant currency. 

Since the foregoing was written the shifting fortune of war has 
brought reverse to our army in Northern Georgia near the theater of 
its great triumph. While a large portion of our forces were engaged 
in improving their victory by the expulsion of the enemy from Kast 
Tennessee, and on the eve, as appeared, of entire success, the enemy 
accumulated large reinforcements within their beleaguered lines at 
Chattanooga. With overwhelming numbers they assailed our army 
in position before them, and, though meeting bloody repulses on 
either wing, carried the position when weakened in the center. This 
unexpected reverse seems to have caused something of panic in a 
portion of our troops dreading to be cut off, and led to a hasty retreat 
of the whole army with considerable loss, both in men and material. 
The enemy pressed their advantage with alacrity, and were pursuing 
with exultation and confidence, when they were encountered by one 
of our unshaken divisions and driven back, with fearful loss, in con- 
fusion and dismay. This more than checked their advance, for it 
compelled the rapid retreat of their whole army, with all the attendant 
indications of dreaded pursuit, behind the lines of Chickamauga, 


* Not found as inclosures, 


1018 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


where they have since remained. Meantime, deep interest concen- 
trates on the events occurring in East Tennessee, where it is yet 
uncertain whether our disasters in front of Chattanooga may not 
have compelled the sudden retreat of our forces, when on the eve of 
consummating their work by the capture of Knoxville, with General 
Burnside and his army. 

Movements of the enemy on the Rappahannock have again proven 
the invincible Army of Northern Virginia, under its consummate 
commander, the sure bulwark of the Capital. Emboldened by some 
partial suecess, the results to us of incaution or overeconfidence, the 
Federal army crossed the Rapidan in full force, and with every 
indication of making by battle an open way to Richmond. General 
Lee was prompt to offer them the coveted opportunity, but while 
they ventured to confront they dared not encounter the veterans 
before whom they had so often recoiled in defeat and humiliation. 
Atter their vaunting manifestation they have ignominiously slunk 
off under cover of night, and again sought an inglorious shelter in 
their lines beyond the river. 

A fair review of the varied events of the year should cause no 
abatement of confidence in the ultimate triumph of our cause. Our 
very reverses, as already stated, will only demonstrate to our enemies 
the futility of their aims and the vanity of their hopes. A brave — 
people, commanding a territory of such extent and resources, never 
have been, and, while true to themselves and their liberties, never 
can be subjugated. Those reverses, however, admonish our people, 
as they would avoid the desolating ravages and costly bloodshed of 
protracted war, to unite their wills and concentrate their energies 
and resources to the grand aim of expelling the invader. We have 
only to will and to dare as one man, and our work is sure of accom- 
plishment. Every motive or incentive that can fire the soul or nerve 
the arm of man are urgent upon us. All that is dear to humanity— 
property, honor, wives, children, and homes—nay, the very lives of the 
present and the hopes of future generations, for us are staked on suc- 
cess. The malignant intents of the foe would exterminate or debase 
us, through the insolent lordship of our slaves, to the mastery of his 
brutal despotism. No alternative exists but stern defiance and 
unflinching resistance. Our only as our certain safety is in victory. 
Every impediment should be cast aside. The insatiate spirit of greed 
must be exorcised. Distrust and despondency be displaced by the 
confidence of invincible resolve and the might of a firm faith. Our 
means without stint, and our men without favor or affection, must 
be rendered to the cause. Each man should rise to the height of a 
supreme duty, counting all cost as gain, and exulting in every sac- 
rifice that shall free us forever from loathsome association with a 
despicable people, and establish the Confederacy of our choice on 
the basis of approved strength, in permanent fruition of peace, pros- 
perity, and independence. 

Respectfully submitted. 

JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


GENERAL ORDERS, Abst. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, 
No. 154. Richmond, November 26, 1863. 
I. No ordnance or ordnance stores other than those prescribed in 
the Ordnance Manual, edition of 1863, or specially approved by the 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. _ 1019 


Ordnance Bureau, are allowed to be purchased or fabricated. The 
permission given to officers by paragraph 1232, Army Regulations 
(paragraph 9, Ordnance Regulations), to provide ordnance and ord- 
nance stores, ‘‘in case of urgent necessity,” is to be exercised, subject 
to the above restrictions. 

II. Accounts paid by disbursing officers for the purchase, fabrica- 
tion, or repair of ordnance and ordnance stores contrary to the fore- 
going order will not be admitted in the settlement of their accounts. 

By order: 

Ss. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


Hpers. Vou. AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, DEPT. No. 2, 
Montgomery, November 27, 1863. 
General S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va.: 


GENERAL: In sixty days the work of this bureau will have so far ex- 
hausted the conscript population of Alabama and Mississippi, and will 
also so far have restored the stragglers to the Army from those States, 
as to make it unnecessary to retain the companies of supporting forces 
of this bureau on that duty. They will constitute a force for the gen- 
eral service, and I apply for authority of Secretary of War to organ- 
ize them, in anticipation of approaching necessity for field service. 
In the present threatening attitude of the enemy on Georgia this 
force, if organized and thrown into a body, would render most efficient 
service on the enemy’s flank and rear and line of communication 
extended into the interior. The officers of this bureau who are per- 
manently supernumeraries could be assigned to the command by the 
orders of Secretary of War, and in some cases they might be advanced 
a grade or two in rank. If the application is approved and the 
authority granted to make the organization, I would combine the 
companies to constitute the regiments and give the names of field 
officers for each, and forward the whole through General Johnston 
for consideration of the Honorable Secretary. This would not disturb 
the work of the bureau until it became necessary to order the concen- 
tration; everything would remain in statu quo. In view of the con- 
tingencies of the future, a wise forecast would indicate the necessity 
of this organization. It will be necessary for the Secretary of War to 
issue this order to prevent the supernumerary officers, some of whom 
belong to General Bragg’s army and some to General Johnston’s, from 
being withdrawn from the commands to which they may be attached 
in this organization. 

Respectfully, | 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, d&c. 


[First indorsement. ] 
DECEMBER 9, 1863. 

Respectfully submitted to Secretary of War. 

I was informed by the Secretary of War some short time since that 
Brigadier-General Pillow would be relieved from conscription duty. 
I think this letter affords a convenient opportunity to carry that 
intention into execution, and I would recommend that this bureau be 
closed at once, and that General Pillow be ordered to report for duty 


1020 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


to General Hardee. ‘Two bureaus on the same subject, each. acting 
independently of the other, are, I think, calculated to produce con- 
fusion. I think the suggestion of General Pillow in regard to the 
companies within referred to is not consistent with law. If they are 
composed of conscripts, as I suppose them to be, the men should be 
distributed amongst the companies requiring recruits to fill their 
ranks, and in that case I would recommend that they be sent to the 
army under General Hardee for that purpose. The supernumerary 
officers referred to by General Pillow would of course vacate their 
commissions, and such of them as are of age of conscription would be 
liable to be conscribed. 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[Second indorsement. | . 
DECEMBER 12, 1863: 


I concur in the Adjutant-General’s indorsement. Relieve General 
Pillow and transfer control to Colonel Preston. Order General Pillow 
to report to General Hardee. The conscripts must be sent equally to 
all the armies, not to General Hardee alone. The supernumerary 
officers, as far as they hold commissions, will not lose them, but may 
be used by Colonel Preston. 

NWP. Ve fv 


Secretary. 
[Third indorsement. | : 
ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
December 16, 1863. 
Respectfully referred to the chief of Bureau of Conscription. 
Please note and return. acon 
By command of Secretary of War: 
H. L. CLAY, 


Assistant Adjutant- General. 


[Fourth indorsement. } 


BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, December 17, 1868. 
Respectfully returned to the Adjutant and Inspector General. 
Contents noted and copied. 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


[NOVEMBER 27, 1863.—For Magruder to citizens of Western Texas, 
calling upon all capable of bearing arms to proceed to the camp of 
General Bee, see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, p. 452. | 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 155. Richmond, November 28, 1868. 


I. In order that detachments unaccompanied by quartermasters 
may be supplied with the means of obtaining forage, quartermasters 
of the regiments or commands to which they belong are hereby author- 
ized to furnish to the officer in command, or such other officer as may 
be designated, sufficient funds for that purpose, upon duplicate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1021 


receipts being given therefor. Upon the return of the detachment 
the officer receiving such funds shall return to the quartermaster an 
account of the expenditures for forage, which will exhibit the amount 
expended, the number of animals, and the time during which they 
shall have been subsisted. Upon the rendition of such accounts and 
the repayment of any unexpended balance in his hands, the officer 
will be entitled to the return of his original receipts, and the quarter- 
master will account for the forage so obtained as if the same had been 
purchased and issued by him. 

II. When small detachments are sent off unaccompanied by a com- 
missioned officer, quartermasters are authorized to commute their for- 
age rations in advance for the time designated in the order for such 
detached service, filing a certified copy of such order in support of the 
voucher; or upon the return of detachments to their commands, when 
no funds shall have been supplied under the foregoing provisions, 
expenditures incurred for forage by the officer in command of such 
detachments, within the regulation allowance, may be reimbursed by 
the quartermaster of the command, upon accounts supported by affi- 
davits and approved by the commanding officer. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 157. Richmond, December 1, 18638. 


I. The provisions of paragraph I, General Orders, No. 67, current 
series, are hereby extended so as to include officers of the Commissary 
Department and such agents of that department as have been 
appointed by the Secretary of War. 

Il. When a soldier ordered before a ‘‘board of examiners for con- 
scripts” or a “hospital examining board,” in pursuance of paragraph 
III, General Orders, No. 141, current series, is unable to appear by 
reason of physical disability, he will forward to the enrolling officer a 
certificate to this effect, signed by his attending physician, which cer- 
tificate will also embrace a full and accurate statement of the case. 
The enrolling officer will submit the certificate to either board, who, in 
conference with him, will make upon it such recommendation as may 
be warranted by the facts ascertained and the character of the par- 
ties. This recommendation, with the statement, will be forwarded as 
directed in the paragraph above quoted. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, | 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


WAR DEPARTMENT, SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, December 2, 1868. 
Medical directors of hospitals will instruct surgeons in charge of 
hospitals not to use coffee as an article of diet for the sick. In con- 
sequence of the very limited supply, it is essential that it be used 
solely for its medicinal effects as a stimulant. 
S. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon-General C. S. Army. 


1022 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[ DECEMBER 3, 1863.—General Orders, No. 158, Adjutant and Inspec- 


tor General’s Office (here omitted), publishes a schedule of the average 
cost of arms, parts of arms, and accouterments. | 


CIRCULAR CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
No. 59. Richmond, Va., December 4, 1863. 


1. The superintendent renews his appeal to the commandants of 
conscripts for continued and increased vigilance and energy in the 
execution of the various and most important duties intrusted to them. 
On your efforts now mainly depends the supply of material for the 
vital struggle for liberty. To you the Government and people look 
for those judicious and effective measures which will send the armies 
into the field and maintain them there. 

The agencies have been placed in your hands for sending forward 
at once every man legally subject to military service. If one escapes, 
unless by order of our superiors, we are derelict. You are charged, 
then, to use these agencies to their utmost capacity for the work. 
Send out competent, trustworthy inspectors, and supply every defect 
and cure every evil. 

Be relentless in your demands on your officers for the complete and 
rigorous performance of their duties. Instantly suspend and report 
every incompetent man. Our organization is sufficient for the func- 
tions prescribed, and if it fails to perform them Congress will not and 
ought not to sanction its continuance. If we fail to replenish the 
armies to the full extent of the supply now existing, or to send back 
the deserters and absentees, these armies will be disintegrated before 
the next campaign, and our cause is lost. An effort to prevent this 
result by a resort to military force we know will hasten the catas- 
trophe. On the present system, in the hands of the commandants of 
conscripts, largely depends our preservation of the armies from 
utter ruin. 

2. The matter of subsistence of the armies is one which ought seri- 
ously to engage the attention of commandants of conscripts in recom- 
mending and adjusting exemptions. The superintendent desires your 
most earnest deliberation concerning this matter, and believes you 
will observe the public interest by reporting to the Bureau succinctly 
any suggestions on the topic. 

3. During the present session of Congress commandants will be 
careful to make their reports prompt, full, accurate, and minute, and 
in forms easily intelligible. They will require each Congressional 
district officer to make such frequent periodical reports as will exhibit 
the ‘exact condition of the service in their respective districts, and in 
such form as may be used whenever called for by the Bureau. 

The import of this requisition will readily suggest itself to 
commandants. 

4. Use the most energetic measures to organize the supporting force 
provided for in Circular No. 39. It is essential to the due execution 
of your duties. You cannot fulfill them without it. But it is of 
further import; it will prevent desertion. The day it is known in the 
field that a vast net-work of officers and forces cover the whole 
country, the sole duty of which is to gather in the culprits, desertion 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1023 


will cease. Deserters will not incur the certainty of arrest, and this 
supporting force, properly organized and handled, attains that 
certainty. | 

5. It would be impossible, if it were desirable, for the superin- 
tendent justly to prescribe minute details of regulation adapted to 
the various localities, which must be and is confidently left to the 
intelligence of the commandants. 

The superintendent deems it proper to warn these officers to avoid 
cumbrous, expensive, and ineffectual arrangements, not warranted 
by law or the permission of the Bureau, and it will not be permitted 
that one idle and unnecessary officer or man be kept in the service. 
You are emphatically cautioned on this point, and it is earnestly 
hoped that the inspectors of the Bureau about to be sent will have 
no ease to report on this point. 

By command of Colonel Preston, superintendent: 

C. B. DUFFIELD, 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 


_ 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 5, 1863. 


His Excellency J. KE. BROWN, 
Governor of Georgia, Milledgeville, Gia.: 

Str: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the resolution 
of the General Assembly of Georgia transmitted by Your Excellency. 
Feeling much surprise and regret at the grave complaints against 
the officers of the Department presented in them, I directed that they 
should be referred to Major Locke, chief commissary of the State of 
Georgia, for investigation and report. A copy of his response is 
herewith inelosed for the information of Your Excellency and the 
General Assembly.* 

Great deference is felt for the opinion and wishes of the Legisla- 
ture, but the exigency which now exists of supplying the Army pre- 
eludes the Department from revoking the appointment of all the 
impressing officers in Georgia liable to conscription, as requested. 
Earnest effort has been made in the past and renewed exertion will 
be used in the future to remove all just cause of complaint, and the 
orders of the Department have always been that so far as practicable 
persons not liable to military duty should be employed by the various 
bureaus in preference to able-bodied men capable of service in the 
field. It has likewise been the policy of the Department to give pref- 
erence in making such appointments to those who, by nativity and 
past association, are presumed to be_ better acquainted with the 
resources of the State and more acceptable to the people than strangers 
from other States, and in deference to the wishes of the General 
Assembly that policy will be even more rigidly adhered to in the 
future. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


eee ee eS on nn 
* Not found as an inclosure, but see Locke’s indorsement of December 3, p. 989. 


1024 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SURGEON-GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
; Richmond, Va., December 5, 1863. 
sure. Rh. POTTS, 
Medical Purveyor, Macon, Ga.: 

Sir: Below you will find a formula for a compound tincture of the 
indigenous barks to be issued as a tonic and febrifuge and substitute 
as far as practicable for quinine. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
8S. P. MOORK, 
Surgeon-General C. S. Army. 


Dried dogwood bark, 30 parts; dried poplar bark, 30 parts; dried 
willow bark, 40 parts; whisky, 45 degrees strength; two pounds of the 
mixed bark to one gallon of whisky. Mascerate fourteen days. 
Dose for tonic and anti-febrifuge purposes, one ounce three times 
a day. 


[DECEMBER 6, 1863.—For Magruder to Murrah, in relation to pro- 
viding troops to resist invasion, see Series I, Vol. XXVI, Part I, 
p. 486. | | 


RICHMOND, VA., December 7, 1863. 


THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFED- 
ERATE STATES: 


The necessity for legislative action arising out of the important 
events that have marked the interval since your adjournment, and 
my desire to have the aid of your counsel on other matters of grave 
public interest, render your presence at this time more than ordinarily 
welcome. Indeed, but for serious obstacles for convoking you in extra- 
ordinary session and the necessity for my own temporary absence from 
the seat of government, I would have invited you to an earlier meet- 
ing than that fixed at the date of your adjournment. 

Grave reverses befell our arms soon after your departure from 
Richmond. Early in June [July] our strongholds at Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson, together with their entire garrisons, capitulated to the 
combined land and naval forces of the enemy. ‘The important inte- - 
rior position of Jackson next fell into their temporary possession. 
Our unsuccessful assault upon the post at Helena was followed at a 
later period by the invasion of Arkansas, and the retreat of our army 
from Little Rock gave to the enemy the control of, the important 
valley in which it is situated. 

The resolute spirit of the people soon rose superior to the temporary 
despondency naturally resulting from these reverses. The gallant 
troops, so ably commanded in the States beyond the Mississippi, 
inflicted repeated defeats on the invading armies in Louisiana and on 
the coast of Texas. Detachments of troops and active bodies of parti- 
sans kept up so effective a war on the Mississippi River as practically 
to destroy its value as an avenue of commerce. 

The determined and successful defense of Charleston against the 
joint land and naval operations of the enemy afforded an inspiring 
example of our ability to repel the attacks even of the iron-clad fleet 
on which they chiefly rely, while on the northern frontier our success 
was still more marked. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1025 


The able commander who conducted the campaign in Virginia 
determined to meet the threatened advance on Richmond, for which 
the enemy had made long and costly preparations, by forcing their 
armies to cross the Potomac and fight in defense of their own capital 
and homes. Transferring the battle-field to their own soil, he suc- 
ceeded in compelling their rapid retreat from Virginia, and in the 
hard-fought battle of Gettysburg inflicted such severity of punishment 
as disabled them from early renewal of the campaign as originally 
projected. Unfortunately the communications on which our general 
relied for receiving his supplies of munitions were interrupted by 
extraordinary floods, which so swelled the Potomac as to render 
impassable the fords by which his advance had been made, and he 
was thus foreed to a withdrawal, which was conducted with delibera- 
tion after securing large trains of captured supplies, and with a con- 
stant and unaccepted tender of battle. On more than one occasion 
the enemy has since made demonstrations of a purpose to advance, 
invariably followed by a precipitate retreat to intrenched lines on the 
approach of our forces. 

The effective check thus offered to the advance of the invaders at 
all points was such as to afford hope of their early expulsion from 
portions of the territory previously occupied by them, when the 
country was painfully surprised by the intelligence that the officer in 
command of Cumberland Gap had surrendered that important and 
easily defensible pass without firing a shot, upon the summons of a 
force still believed to have been inadequate to its reduction and when 
re-enforcements were in supporting distance and had been ordered to 
his aid. The entire garrison, including the commander, being still 
held prisoners by the enemy, I am unable to suggest any explanation 
of this disaster, which laid open Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern 
Virginia to hostile operations and broke the line of communication 
between the seat of government and Middle Tennessee. This easy 
suecess of the enemy was followed by an advance of General Rose- 
crans into Georgia; and our army evacuated Chattanooga and availed 
itself of the opportunity thus afforded of winning, on the field of 
Chickamauga, one of the most brilliant and decisive victories of the 
war. This signal defeat of General Rosecrans was followed by his 
retreat into Chattanooga, where his imperiled position had the 
immediate effect of relieving the pressure of the invasion at other 
points, forcing the concentration for his relief of large bodies of 
troops withdrawn from the armies in the Mississippi Valley and in 
Northern Virginia. The combined forces thus accumulated against 
us in Tennessee so greatly outnumbered our army as to encourage the 
enemy to attack. After a long and severe battle, in which great car- 
nage was inflicted on him, some of our troops inexplicably abandoned 
a position of great strength, and by a disorderly retreat compelled 
the commander to withdraw the forces elsewhere successful, and 
finally to retreat with his whole army to a position some twenty or 
thirty miles to the rear. It is believed that if the troops who yielded to 
the assault had fought with the valor which they had displayed on pre- 
vious occasions, and which was manifested in this battle on the other 
parts of the line, the enemy would have been repulsed with very great 
slaughter, and our country would have escaped the misfortune and 

the Army the mortification of the first defeat that has resulted from 
' misconduct by the troops. In the meantime the army of General 
Burnside was driven from all its field positions in Eastern Tennessee 


65 R R—SERIES IV, VOL If 


1026 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


and foreed to retreat into its intrenchments at Knoxville, where for 
some weeks it was threatened with capture by the forces under Gen- 
eral Longstreet. No information has reached me of the final result 
of the operations of our commander, though intelligence has arrived 
of his withdrawal from that place. 

While, therefore, our success in driving the enemy from our soil 
has not equaled the expectations confidently entertained at the com- 
mencement of the campaign, his progress has been checked. If we 
are forced to regret losses in Tennessee and Arkansas, we are not 
without ground for congratulation on successes in Louisiana and 
Texas. On the sea-coast he is exhausted by vain efforts to capture 
our ports, while on the northern frontier he has in turn felt the 
pressure and dreads the renewal of invasion. The indomitable cour- 
age and perseverance of the people in the defense of their homes 
have been nobly attested by the unanimity with which the Legislatures 
of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia have recently given expres- 
sion to the popular sentiment, and like manifestations may be antici- 
pated from all the States. Whatever obstinacy may be displayed by 
the enemy in his desperate sacrifices of money, life, and liberty in the 
hope of enslaving us, the experience of mankind has too conclusively 
shown the superior endurance of those who fight for home, liberty, 
and independence to permit any doubt of the result. 


FOREIGN RELATIONS. 


I regret to inform you that there has been no improvement in the 
state of our relations with foreign countries since my message in 
January last. On the contrary, there has been a still greater diver- 
gence in the conduct of Kuropean nations from that practical impar- 
tiality which alone deserves the name of neutrality, and their action 
in some cases has assumed a character positively unfriendly. 

You have heretofore been informed that by common understanding 
the initiative in all action touching the contest on this continent had 
been left by foreign powers to the two great maritime nations of 
Western Europe, and that the Governments of these two nations had 
agreed to take no measures without previous concert. The result of 
these arrangements has, therefore, placed it in the power of either 
France or England to obstruct at pleasure the recognition to which 
the Confederacy is justly entitled, or even to prolong the continuance 
of hostilities on this side of the Atlantic, if the policy of either could 
be promoted by the postponement of peace. Each, too, thus became 
possessed of great influence in so shaping the general exercise of 
neutral rights in Europe as to render them subservient to the purpose 
of aiding one of the belligerents to the detriment of the other. I 
referred at your last session to some of the leading ‘points in the 
course pursued by professed neutrals which betrayed a partisan lean- 
ing to the side of our enemies, but events have since occurred which 
induce me to renew the subject in greater detail than was then 
deemed necessary. In calling to your attention the action of those 
Governments I shall refer to the documents appended to President 
Lincoln’s messages, and to their own correspondence, as disclosing the 
true nature of their policy and the motives which guided it. To this 
course no exception can be taken, inasmuch as our attention has been 
invited to those sources of information by their official publication. 

In May, 1861, the Government of Her Britannic Majesty informed 
our enemies that it had not “ allowed any other than an intermediate 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1027 


position on the part of the Southern States,” and assured them ‘‘ that 
the sympathies of this country (Great Britain) were rather with the 
North than with the South.” 

On the Ist day of June, 1861, the British Government interdicted 
the use of its ports ‘‘to armed ships and privateers, both of the United 
States and the so-called Confederate States,” with their prizes. The 
Secretary of State of the United States fully appreciated the character 
and motive of this interdiction when he observed to Lord Lyons, who 
communicated it, ‘‘that this measure and that of the same character 
which had been adopted by France would probably prove a death- 
blow to Southern privateering.” 

On the 12th June, 1861, the United States minister in London 
informed Her Majesty’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs that the fact of 
his having held interviews with the commissioners of this Govern- 
ment had given “great dissatisfaction,” and that a protraction of this 
relation would be viewed by the United States ‘‘ as hostile in spirit, and 
to require some corresponding action accordingly.” In response to this 
intimation Her Majesty’s Secretary assured the minister that ‘“‘he had 
no expectation of seeing them any more.” 

By proclamation issued on the 19th and 27th April, 1861, President 
Lincoln proclaimed the blockade of the entire coast of the Confed- 
eracy, extending from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, embracing, 
according to the returns of the United States Coast Survey, a coast 
line of 3,549 statute miles, on which the number of rivers, bays, har- 
bors, inlets, sounds, and passes is 189. The navy possessed by the 
United States for enforcing this blockade was stated in the reports 
communicated by President Lincoln to the Congress of the United 
States to consist of twenty-four vessels of all classes in commission, 
of which half were in distant seas. The absurdity of the pretension 
of such a blockade in face of the authoritative declaration of the 
maritime rights of neutrals made at Paris in 1856 was so glaring 
that the attempt was regarded as an experiment on the forbearance 
of neutral powers which they would promptly resist. This conclusion 
was justified by the facts that the Governments of France and Great 
Britain determined that it was necessary for their interests to obtain 
from both belligerents ‘‘securities concerning the proper treatment of 
neutrals.” In the instructions which ‘‘confided the negotiations on 
this matter” to the British consul in Charleston, he was informed 
that “‘the most perfect accord on this question exists between Her 
Majesty’s Government and the Government of the Emperor of the 
French,” and these instructions were accompanied by a copy of the 
dispatch of the British Foreign Office of the 18th May, 1861, stating 
that there was no difference of opinion between Great Britain and the 
United States as to the validity of the principles enunciated in the 
fourth article of the declaration of Paris in reference to blockades. 
Your predecessors of the Provisional Congress had, therefore, no 
difficulty in proclaiming, nor I in approving, the resolutions which 
abandoned in favor of Great Britain and France our right to capture 
enemy’s property when covered by the flags of those powers. The 
‘‘securities” desired by these Governments were understood by us to 
be required from both belligerents. Neutrals were exposed on our 
part to the exercise of the belligerent right of capturing their vessels 
when conveying the property of our enemies. They were exposed on 
the part of the United States to interruption in their unquestioned 
right of trading with us by the declaration of the paper blockade 
above referred to, We had no reason to doubt the good faith of the 


1028 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


proposal made to us, nor to suspect that we were to be the only parties 
bound by its acceptance. It is true that the instructions of the 
neutral powers informed their agents that it was ‘‘essential under 
present circumstances that they should act with great caution in order 
to avoid raising the question of the recognition of the new Confed- 
eration,” and that the understanding on the subject did not assume, 
for that reason, the shape of a formal convention. But it was not 
deemed just by us to decline the arrangement on this ground, as little 
more than ninety days had then elapsed since the arrival of our com- 
missioners in Europe, and neutral nations were fairly entitled to a 
reasonable delay in acting on a subject of so much importance, and 
which from their point of view presented difficulties that we, perhaps, 
did not fully appreciate. Certain it is that the action of this Govern- 
ment on the oceasion and its faithful performance of its own engage- 
ments have been such as to entitle it to expect on the part of those 
who sought in their own interests a mutual understanding the most 
scrupulous adherence to their own promises. I feel constrained to 
inform you that in this expectation we have been disappointed, and 
that not only have the governments which entered into these arrange- 
ments yielded to the prohibition against commerce with us which has 
been dictated by the United States in defiance of the law of nations, 
but that this concession of their neutral rights to our detriment 
has on more than one occasion been claimed in intercourse with our 
enemies as an evidence of friendly feeling toward them. A few 
extracts from the correspondence of Her Majesty’s Chief Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs will suffice to show marked encouragement 
to the United States to persevere in its paper blockade, and unmis- 
takable intimations that Her Majesty’s Government would not con- 
test its validity. 

On the 21st of May, 1861, Earl Russell pointed out to the United 
States minister in London that ‘‘the blockade might no doubt be 
made effective, considering the small number of harbors on the South- 
ern coast, even though the extent of 3,000 miles were comprehended 
in terms of that blockade.” On the 14th of January, 1862, Her 
Majesty’s minister in Washington communicated to his Government 
that, in extenuation of the barbarous attempt to destroy the port of 
Charleston by sinking a stone fleet in the harbor, Mr. Seward had 
explained ‘‘that the Government of the United States had last spring, 
with a navy very little prepared for so extensive an operation, under- 
taken to blockade upward of 3,000 miles of coast. The Secretary of 
the Navy had reported that he could stop up the ‘large holes’ by 
means of his ships, but that he could not stop up the ‘small ones.’ 
It had been found necessary, therefore, to close some of the numerous 
small inlets by sinking vessels in the channel.” 

On the 6th of May, 1862, so far from claiming the rights of British 
subjects as neutrals to trade with us as belligerents, and to disregard 
the blockade on the ground of this explicit confession by our enemy 
of his inability to render it effective, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State 
for Foreign Affairs claimed credit with the United States for friendly 
action in respecting it. His Lordship stated that ‘‘the United States 
Government, on the allegation of a rebellion pervading from nine to 
eleven States of the Union, have now for more than twelve months 
endeavored to maintain a blockade of 3,000 miles of coast. This 
blockade, kept up irregularly, but when enforced, enforced severely, 
has seriously injured the trade and manufactures of the United King- 
dom. ‘Thousands are now obliged to resort to the poor rates for sub- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1029 


-sistence, owing to this blockade. Yet Her Majesty’s Government have 
never sought to take advantage of the obvious imperfections of this 
blockade in order to declare it ineffective. They have, to the loss and 
detriment of the British nation, scrupulously observed the duties of 
Great Britain toward a friendly State.” 

Again, on the 22d of September, 1862, the same noble earl asserted 
that the United States were ‘‘ very far indeed” from being in ‘‘a con- 
dition to ask other nations to assume that every port of the coasts of 
the so-styled Confederate States is effectively blockaded.” 

When, in view of these facts, of the obligation of the British nation 
to adhere to the pledge made by their Government at Paris in 1856, 
and renewed to this Confederacy in 1861, and of these repeated and 
explicit avowals of the imperfection, irregularity, and inefficiency of 
the pretended blockade of our coast, I directed our commissioner at 
London to call upon the British Government to redeem its promise 
and to withhold its moral aid and sanction from the flagrant violation 
of public law committed by our enemies, we were informed that 
Her Majesty’s Government could not regard the blockade of the 
Southern ports as having been otherwise than ‘‘ practically effective ” 
in February, 1862, and that ‘‘the manner in which it has since been 
enforced gives to neutral governments no excuse for asserting that 
the blockade has not been efficiently maintained.” We were further 
informed, when we insisted that by the terms of our agreement no 
blockade was to be considered effective unless ‘‘sufficient really to 
prevent access to our coast,” ‘‘that the declaration of Paris was, in 
truth, directed against the blockades not sustained by any actual 
foree, or sustained by a notoriously inadequate force, such as the 
occasional appearance of a man-of-war in the offing, or the like.” 

It was impossible that this mode of construing an agreement so 
as to make its terms mean almost the reverse of what they plainly con- 
veyed could be considered otherwise than as a notification of the refusal 
of the British Government to remain bound by its agreement or longer 
to respect those articles of the declaration of Paris which had been 
repeatedly denounced by British statesmen and had been character- 
ized by Earl Russell as ‘‘ very imprudent,” and ‘‘ most unsatisfactory.” 

If any doubt remained of the motives by which the British ministry 
have been actuated in their conductit would be completely dissipated 
by the distinct avowals and explanations contained in the published 
speech recently made by Her Majesty’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs. 
In commenting on the remonstrances of this Government against the 
countenance given to an ineffective blockade, the following language 
is used: 

It is said we have, contrary to the declaration of Paris, contrary to interna- 
tional law, permitted the blockade of 3,000 miles of American coast. It is quite 
true we did so, and the presumable cause of complaint is quite true, that although 
the blockade is kept up by a sufficient number of ships, yet these ships were 


sent into the U. 8S. Navy in a hurry, and are ill-fitted for the purpose and did not 
keep up so completely and effectively as was required an effective blockade. 


This unequivocal confession of violation, both of agreement with 
us and of international law, is defended on grounds the validity of 
which we submit with confidence to the candid judgment of mankind. 

These grounds are thus stated: 

Still, looking at the law of nations, it was a blockade we, as a great belligerent 
power in former times, should have acknowledged. We ourselves had a block- 
ade of upward of 2,000 miles, and it did seem to me that we were bound in jus- 
tice to the Federal States of America to acknowledge that blockade. But there 
was another reason which weighed with me. Our people were suffering severely 


1030 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


for the want of that material which was the main staff of their industry, and it 

was a question of self-interest whether we should not break the blockade. But 

in my opinion the men of England would have been forever infamous if, for the 

sake of their own interest, they had violated the law of nations and made war, in 

eee with these slave-holding States of America, against the Federal 
tates. 


In the second of these reasons our rights are not involved, although 
it may be permitted to observe that the conduct of governments has 
not heretofore to my knowledge been guided by the prineiple that it 
is infamous to assert their rights whenever the invasion of those 
rights creates severe suffering among their people and injuriously 
affects great interests. But the intimation that relations with these 
States would be disereditable because they are slave-holding would 
probably have been omitted if the official personage who has pub- 
lished it to the world had remembered that these States were, when col- 
onies, made slave-holding by the direct exercise of the power of Great 
Britain, whose dependencies they were, and whose interests in the 
slave trade were then supposed to require that her colonies should 
be made slave-holding. 

But the other ground stated is of a very grave character. It asserts 
that a violation of the law of nations by Great Britain in 1807, when 
that Government declared a paper blockade of 2,000 miles of coast (a 
violation then defended by her courts and jurists on the sole ground 
that her action was retaliatory), affords a justification for a similar 
outrage on neutral rights by the United States in 1861, for which no 
palliation can be suggested; and that Great Britain ‘tis bound, in 
justice to the Federal States,” to make return for the war waged 
against her by the United States in resistance of her illegal blockade 
of 1807, by an acquiescence in the Federal illegal blockade of 1861. 
The most alarming feature in this statement is its admission of a just 
claim on the part of the United States to require of Great Britain 
during this war a disregard of the recognized principles of modern 
public law and of her own compacts, whenever any questionable con- 
duct of Great Britain, ‘‘in former times,” can be cited as a precedent. 
It is not inconsistent with respect and admiration for the great peo- 
ple whose Government have given us this warning, to suggest that 
their history, like that of mankind in general, offers exceptional 
instances of indefensible conduct ‘‘in former times,” and we may 
well deny the morality of violating recent engagements through def- 
erence to the evil precedents of the past. 

After defending, in the manner just stated, the course of the Brit- 
ish Government on the subject of the blockade, Her Majesty’s 
foreign secretary takes care to leave no doubt of the further purpose 
of the British Government to prevent our purchase of vessels in Great 
Britain, while supplying our enemies with rifles and other munitions 
of war, and states the intention to apply to Parliament for the further- 
ance of this design. He gives to the United States the assurance that 
he will do in their favor not only ‘‘everything that the law of nations 
requires, everything that the present foreign enlistment act requires,” 
but that he will ask the sanction of Parliament ‘‘to further measures 
that Her Majesty’s ministers may still add.” This language is so 
unmistakably an official exposition of the policy adopted by the Brit- 
ish Government in relation to our affairs that the duty imposed on 
me by the Constitution of giving you, from time to time, ‘‘informa- 
tion of the state of the Confederacy,” would not have been performed 
if I had failed to place it distinctly before you. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1031 


I refer you for fuller details on this whole subject to the corre- 
spondence of the State Department which accompanies this message. 
The facts which I have briefly narrated are, I trust, sufficient to enable 
you to appreciate the true nature of the neutrality professed in this 
war. Itis not in my power to apprise you to what extent the Govern- 
ment of France shares the views so unreservedly avowed by that of 
Great Britain, no published correspondence of the French Government 
on the subject having been received. No public protest nor opposition, 
however, has been made by His Imperial Majesty against the prohibi- 
tion to trade with us imposed on French citizens by the paper block- 
ade of the United States, although I have reason to believe that an 
unsuccessful attempt was made on his part to secure the assent of 
the British Government to a course of action more consonant with the 
dictates of public law and with the demands of justice toward us. 

The partiality of Her Majesty’s Government in favor of our enemies 
has been further evinced in the marked difference of its conduct 
on the subject of the purchase of supplies by the two belligerents. 
This difference has been conspicuous since the very commencement 
of the war. As early as the Ist of May, 1861, the British minister in 
Washington was informed by the Secretary of State of the United 
States that he had sent agents to England, and that others would go 
to France to purchase arms; and this fact was communicated to the 
British Foreign Office, which interposed no objection. Yet in October 
of the same year Ear! Russell entertained the complaint of the 
United States minister in London that the Confederate States were 
importing contraband of war from the island of Nassau, directed 
inquiry into the matter, and obtained a report from the authorities 
of the island denying the allegations, which report was inclosed to 
Mr. Adams and received by him as satisfactory evidence to dissipate 
‘‘the suspicion naturally thrown upon the authorities of Nassau by 
that unwarrantable act.” So, too, when the Confederate Government 
purchased in Great Britain, as a neutral country (and with strict 
observance both of the law of nations and the municipal law of Great 
Britain), vessels which were subsequently armed and commissioned 
as vessels of war, after they had been far removed from English 
waters, the British Government, in violation of its own laws and in 
deference to the importunate demands of the United States, made an 
ineffectual attempt to seize one vessel, and did actually seize and 
detain another which touched at the island of Nassau on her way to 
a Confederate port, and subjected her to an unfounded prosecution 
at the very time when cargoes of munitions of war were being openly 
shipped from British ports to New York, to be used in warfare 
against us. Even now the public journals bring intelligence that 
the British Government has ordered the seizure in a British port of 
two vessels, on the suspicion that they may have been sold to this 
Government and that they may be hereafter armed and equipped in 
our service, while British subjects are engaged in Ireland by tens of 
thousands to proceed: to the United States for warfare against the 
Confederacy, in defiance both of the law of nations and of the express 
terms of the British statutes, and are transported in British ships, 
without an effort at concealment, to the ports of the United States, 
there to be armed with rifles imported from Great Britain and to be 
employed against our people in a war for conquest. No royal pre- 
rogative is invoked, no executive interference is interposed against 
this flagrant breach of municipal and international law on the part of 


10325": CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


our enemies, while strained constructions are placed on existing stat- 
utes, new enactments proposed, and questionable expedients devised 
for precluding the possibility of purchase by this Government of 
vessels that are useless for belligerent purposes, unless hereafter 
armed and equipped outside of the neutral jurisdiction of Great 
Britain. 

For nearly three years this Government has exercised unquestioned 
jurisdiction over many millions of willing and united people. It has 
met and defeated vast armies of invaders, who have in vain sought 
its subversion. Supported by the confidence and affection of its 
citizens, the Confederacy has lacked no element which distinguishes 
an independent nation according to the principles of public law. Its 
legislative, executive, and judicial departments, each in its sphere, 
have performed their appropriate functions with a regularity as 
undisturbed as in a time of profound peace, and the whole energies 
of the people have been developed in the organization of vast armies, 
while their rights and liberties have rested secure under the protec- 
tion of the courts of justice. This Confederacy is either independent 
or it is a dependency of the United States, for no other earthly power 
claims the right to govern it. Without one historic fact on which the 
pretension can rest, without one line or word of treaty or covenant 
which can give color to title, the United States have asserted and the 
British Government has chosen to concede, that these sovereign States 
are dependencies of the Government which is administered at Wash- 
ington. Great Britain has accordingly entertained with that Govern- 
ment the closest and most intimate relations, while refusing, on its 
demands, ordinary amicable intercourse with us, and has, under 
arrangements made with the other nations of Europe, not only denied 
our just claim of admission into the family of nations, but interposed 
a passive though effectual bar to the acknowledgment of our rights 
by other powers. So soon as it had become apparent by the declara- 
tions of the British ministers in the debates of the British Parliament 
in July last that Her Majesty’s Government was determined to persist 
indefinitely in a course of policy which under professions of neu- 
trality had become subservient to the designs of our enemy, I felt it 
my duty to recall the commissioner formerly accredited to that Court, 
and the correspondence on the subject is submitted to you. 

It is due to you and to our country that this full statement should 
be made of the just grounds which exist for dissatisfaction with the 
conduct of the British Government. I am well aware that we are 
unfortunately without adequate remedy for the injustice under which 
we have suffered at the hands of a powerful nation, at a juncture 
when our entire resources are absorbed in the defense of our lives, 
liberties, and independence, against an enemy possessed of greatly 
Superior numbers and material resources. Claiming no favor, desir- 
ing no aid, conscious of our own ability to defend our own rights 
against the utmost efforts of an infuriate foe, we had thought it not 
extravagant to expect that assistance would: be withheld from our 
enemies, and that the conduct of foreign nations would be marked 
by a genuine impartiality between the belligerents. It was not sup- 
posed that a professed neutrality would be so conducted as to justify 
the foreign secretary of the British nation in explaining, in corres- 
pondence with our enemies, how ‘‘the impartial observance of neutral 
obligations by Her Majesty’s Government has thus been exceedingly 
advantageous to the cause of the more powerful of the two contending 
parties.” The British Government may deem this war a favorable 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1033 


occasion for establishing, by the temporary sacrifice of their neu- 
tral rights, a precedent which shall justify the future exercise of 
those extreme belligerent pretensions that their naval power renders 
so formidable. The opportunity for obtaining the tacit assent of 
European governments to a line of conduct which ignores the obliga- 
tions of the declaration of Paris, and treats that instrument rather as 
« theoretical exposition of principle than a binding agreement, may 
be considered by the British ministry as justifying them in seeking 
a great advantage for their own country at the expense of ours. 
But we cannot permit, without protest, the assertion that interna- 
tional law or morals regard as ‘‘impartial neutrality” the conduct 
avowed to be ‘‘exceedingly advantageous” to one of the belligerents. 

I have stated that we are without adequate remedy against the 
injustice under which we suffer. There are but two measures that 
seem applicable to the present condition of our relations with neutral 
powers. One is to imitate the wrong of which we complain, to retal- 
iate by the declaration of a paper blockade of the coast of the United 
States, and to capture all neutral vessels trading with their ports that 
our cruisers can intercept on the high seas. This measure I cannot 
recommend. It is true that in so doing we should but follow the 
precedents set by Great Britain and France in the Berlin and Milan 
decrees, and the British orders in council at the beginning of the pres- 
ent century. But it must be remembered that we ourselves protested 
against those very measures as signal violations of the law of nations, 
and declared the attempts to excuse them on the ground of their 
being retaliatory utterly insufficient. Those blockades are now 
quoted by writers on public law as a standing reproach on the good 
name of the nations who were betrayed by temporary exasperation 
into wrong-doing, and ought to be regarded rather as errors to be 
avoided than as examples to be followed. 

The other measure is not open to this objection. The second article 
of the declaration of Paris, which provides “‘that the neutral flag 
covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war,” was 
a new concession by belligerents in favor of neutrals, and not simply 
the enunciation of an acknowledged pre-existing rule like the fourth 
article, which referred to blockades. To this concession we bound 
ourselves by the convention with Great Britain and France, which 
took the shape of the resolutions adopted by your predecessors on the 
13th of August, 1861. The consideration tendered us for that con- 
cession has been withheld. We have therefore the undeniable right 
to refuse longer to remain bound by a compact which the other party 
refuses to fulfill. But we should not forget that war is but tempo- 
rary, and that we desire that peace shall be permanent. The future 
policy of the Confederacy must ever be to uphold neutral rights to 
their full extent. The principles of the declaration of Paris commend 
themselves to our judgment as more just, more humane, and more 
consonant with modern civilization than those belligerent pretensions ° 
which great naval powers have heretofore sought to introduce into 
the maritime code. ‘To forego our undeniable right to the exercise of 
those pretensions is a policy higher, worthier of us and of our cause, 
-than to revoke our adherence to principles that we approve. Letour 
hope for redress rest rather on a returning sense of justice which 
cannot fail to awaken a great people to the consciousness that the 
war in which we are engaged ought rather to be made a reason for 
forbearance of advantage than an occasion for the unfriendly con- 
duct of which we make just complaint. 


1034 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The events of the last year have produced important changes in 
the condition of our Southern neighbor. The occupation of the 
eapital of Mexico by the French army, and the establishment of a 
provisional government, followed by a radical change in the consti- 
tution of the country, have excited lively interest. Although prefer- 
ring our own Government and institutions to those of other countries, 
we can have no disposition to contest the exercise by them of the 
same right of self-government which we assert for ourselves. If the 
Mexican people prefer a monarchy to a republic, it is our plain 
duty cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and to evince a sincere 
and friendly interest in their prosperity. If, however, the Mexicans 
prefer maintaining their former institutions we have no reason to 
apprehend any obstacle to the free exercise of their choice. The 
Emperor of the French has solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose 
on Mexico a form of government not acceptable to the nation; and 
the eminent personage to whom the throne has been tendered declines 
its acceptance unless the offer be sanctioned by the suffrages of the 
people. In either event, therefore, we may confidently expect the con- 
tinuanee of those peaceful relations which have been maintained on 
the frontier, and even a large development of the commerce already 
existing to the mutual advantage of the two countries. 

It has been found necessary since your adjournment to take action 
on the subject of certain foreign consuls within the Confederacy. 
The nature of this action and the reasons on which it was based are 
so fully exhibited in the correspondence of the State Department, 
which is transmitted to you, that no additional comment is required. 

In connection with this subject of our relations with foreign coun- 
tries, it is deemed opportune to communicate my views in reference 
to the treaties made by the Government of the United States at a date 
anterior to our separation, and which were consequently binding on 
us as well as on foreign powers when the separation took effect. It 
was partly with a view to entering into such arrangements as the 
change in our government had made necessary that we felt it our duty 
to send commissioners abroad for the purpose of entering into the 
negotiations proper to fix the relative rights and obligations of the 
parties to those treaties. As this tender on our part has been declined; 
as foreign nations have refused us the benefit of the treaties to which 
we were parties, they certainly have ceased to be binding on us, and 
in my opinion our relations with European nations are therefore now 
controlled exclusively by the general rules of the law of nations. It 
is proper to add that these remarks are intended to apply solely to 
treaty obligations toward foreign governments, and have no reference 
to rights of individuals. 


FINANCES. 


The state of the public finances is such as to demand your earliest 
and most earnest attention. I need hardly say that a prompt and 
efficacious remedy for the present condition of the currency is neces- 
sary for the successful performance of the functions of government. 
Fortunately the resources of our country are so ample and the spirit 
of our people so devoted to its cause that they are ready to make any” 
necessary contribution. Relief is thus entirely within our reach if 
we have the wisdom to legislate in such manner as to render available 
the means at our disposal. 

At the commencement of the war we were far from anticipating the 
magnitude and duration of the struggle in which we were engaged. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1035 


The most sagacious foresight could not have predicted that the pas- 
sions of the Northern people would lead them blindly to the sacrifice 
of life, treasure, and liberty in so vain a hope as that of subjugating 
thirteen independent States inhabited by many millions of people 
whose birthright of freedom is dearer to them than life. A long 
exemption from direct taxation by the General Government had created 
an aversion to its raising revenue by any other means than by duties 
on imports, and it was supposed that these duties would be ample for 
current peace expenditure, while the means for conducting the war 
could be raised almost exclusively by the use of the public credit. 

The first action of the Provisional Congress was therefore confined 
to passing a tariff law, and to raising a sum of $15,000,000 by loan, 
with a pledge of a small export duty on cotton to provide for the 
redemption of the debt. At its second session war was declared to 
exist between the Confederacy and the United States, and provision 
was made for the issue of $20,000,000 in Treasury notes, and for bor- 
rowing $30,000,000 on bonds. The tariff was revised and preparatory 
measures taken to enable Congress to levy internal taxation at its 
succeeding session. ‘These laws were passed in May, and the States 
of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas having joined 
the Confederacy, the Congress adjourned to meet in the city of Rich- 
. mond in the folowing month of July. 

Prior to the assembling of your predecessors in Richmond at their 
third session, near the end of July, 1861, the President of the United 
States had developed in his message the purpose ‘‘ tomake the contest 
a Short and a decisive one,” and had called on Congress for 400,000 men 
and $400,000,000. The Congress had exceeded the Executive recom- 
mendation, and had authorized the levy of half a million of volunteers, 
besides largely increasing the regular land and naval forces of the 
United States. The necessity thus first became urgent that a financial 
scheme should be devised on a basis sufficiently large for the vast 
proportions of the contest with which we were threatened. Knowing - 
that the struggle, instead of being ‘‘short and decisive,” would be 
indefinite in duration, and could “only end when the United States 
should awaken from their delusion of conquest, a permanent system 
was required, fully adapted to the great exigencies before us. 

The plan devised by Congress at that time was based on the theory 
of issuing Treasury notes convertible at the pleasure of the holder 
into 8 per cent. bonds, the interest of which was to be payable in coin, 
and it was correctly assumed that any tendency to depreciation that 
might arise from overissue of the currency would be checked by the 
constant exercise of the holder’s right to fund the notes at a liberal 
interest payable in specie. This system depended for success on the 
continued ability of Government to pay the interest in specie, and 
means were therefore provided for that purpose in the law authorizing 
the issues. An internal tax, termed a war tax, was levied, the pro- 
ceeds of which, together with the revenue from imports, were deemed . 
sufficient for the object.designed. This scheme required for its oper- 
ation that our commerce with foreign nations should not be sus- 
pended. It was not to be anticipated that such suspension would be 
permitted otherwise than by an effective blockade; and it was absurd 
to suppose that a blockade ‘‘ sufficient really to prevent access” to 
our entire coast could be maintained. 

We had the means, therefore (if neutral nations had not combined 
to aid our enemies by the sanction of an illegal prohibition on their 
commerce), to secure the receipt into the Treasury of coin sufficient to 


1036 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


pay the interest on the bonds, and thus maintain the Treasury notes 
at rates nearly equal to parin specie. So long as the interest con- 
tinued to be thus paid with the reserve of coin pre-existing in our 
country, experience sustained the expectations of those who devised 
the system. Thus, on the Ist of the following December coin had 
only reached a premium of about 20 per cent., although it had already 
become apparent that the commerce of the country was threatened 
with permanent suspension by reason of the conduct of neutral 
nations, and that the necessary result must be the exhaustion of our 
specie reserve. Wheat in the beginning of the year 1862 was selling 
at $1.30 per bushel, not exceeding therefore its average price in time 
of peace. The other agricultural products of the country were at 
similar moderate rates, thus indicating that there was no excess of 
circulation, and that the rate of premium on specie was heightened 
by the exceptional causes which tended to its exhaustion without the 
possibility of renewing the supply. 

This review of the policy of your predecessors is given in justice to 
them, and it exhibits the condition of the finances at the date when 
the permanent government was organized. 

In the meantime the popular aversion to internal taxation by the 
General Government had influenced the legislation of the several 
States, and in only three of them, South Carolina, Mississippi, and 
Texas, were the taxes actually collected from the people. The quotas 
devolving upon the rémaining States had been raised by the issue of 
bonds and State treasury notes, and the public debt of the country 
was thus actually increased instead of being diminished by the taxa- 
tion imposed by Congress. 

Neither at the first nor second session of the present Congress were 
means provided by taxation for maintaining the Government, the 
legislation being confined to authorizing further sales of bonds and 
issues of Treasury notes. Although repeated efforts were made to 
frame a proper system of taxation, you were confronted with an 
obstacle which did not exist for your predecessors, and which created 
graye embarrassment in devising any scheme of taxation. About 
two-thirds of the entire taxable property of the Confederate States 
consist of lands and slaves. The general power of taxation vested in 
Congress by the provisional constitution (which was to be only tem- 
porary in its operation) was not restricted by any other condition 
than that “all duties, imposts, and excises should be uniform through- 
out the States of the Confederacy.” But the permanent Constitution, 
sanctioning the principle that taxation and representation ought to 
rest on the same basis, specially provides that ‘‘representatives and 
direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States according 
to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole number of free persons, including those’ bound to service 
for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of 
all slaves.” 

It was further ordered that a census should be made within three 
years after the first meeting of Congress, and that ‘‘no capitation 
or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or 
enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken.” 

It is plain that under these provisions capitation and direct taxes 
must be levied in proportion to the census when made. It is also 
plain that the duty is imposed on Congress to provide for making a 
census prior to the 22d of February, 1865. It may further be stated 
that according to the received construction of the Constitution of the 


_ 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1037 
United States (a construction acquiesced in for upward of sixty years) 
taxes on lands and slaves are direct taxes, and the conclusion seems 
“necessarily to be that, in repeating without modification in our Con- 
stitution this language of the Constitution of 1787, our convention 
intended to attach to it the meaning which had been sanctioned by 
long and uninterrupted acquiescence. 

So long as there seemed to be a probability of being able to carry out 
these provisions of the Constitution in their entirety and in con- 
formity with the intentions of its authors there was an obvious diffi- 
culty in framing any system of taxation. A law which should exempt 
from the burden two-thirds of the property of the country would be 
as unfair to the owners of the remaining third as it would be inade- 
quate to meet the requirements of the public service. 

The urgency of the need was such, however, that after very great 
embarrassment and more than three months of assiduous labor you 
succeeded in framing the law of the 24th April, 1863, by which you 
sought to reach, so far as was practicable, every resource of the coun- 
try except the capital invested in real estate and slaves, and by means 
of an income tax and a tax in kind on the produce of the soil, as well 
as by licenses on business occupations and professions, to command 
resources sufficient for the wants of the country. But a very large 
proportion of these resources could only be made available at the close 
of the present and the commencement of the ensuing year, while the 
intervening exigencies permitted no delay. In this state of affairs, 
superinduced almost unavoidably by the fortunes of the war in which 
we are engaged, the issues of Treasury notes have been increased until 
the currency in circulation amounts to more than $600,000,000, or more 
than threefold the amount required by the business of the country. 

I need not enlarge upon the evil effects of this condition of things. 
They are unfortunately but too apparent. In-addition to the diffi- 
culty presented to the necessary operations of the Government and 
the efficient conduct of the war, the most deplorable of all its results 
is undoubtedly its corrupting influence on the morals of the people. 
The possession of large amounts of Treasury notes has naturally led 
to a desire for investment, and with a constantly increasing volume 
of currency there has been an equally constant increase of price in 
all objects of investment. This effect has stimulated purchase by the 
apparent certainty of profit, and a spirit of speculation has thus been 
fostered which has so debasing an influence and such ruinous conse- 
quences that it is our highest duty to remove the cause, and no meas- 
ures directed to that end can be too prompt or too stringent. 

Reverting to the constitutional provisions already cited, the ques- 
tion recurs whether it be possible to execute the duty of apportioning 
taxation in accordance with the census ordered to be made asa basis. 
So long as this appeared to be practicable, none can deny the propri- 
ety of your course in abstaining from the imposition of direct taxes 
till you could exercise the power in the precise mode pointed out by 
the terms of the fundamental law. But it is obvious that there are 
many duties imposed by the Constitution which depend for their fulfill- 
ment on the undisturbed possession of the territory within which they 
are to be performed. The same instrument which orders a census to 
be made in all the States imposes the duty on the Confederacy ‘‘ to 
guarantee to every State a republican form of government.” It 
enjoins on us ‘‘to protect each State from invasion,” and while declar- 
ing that its great objects and purposes are ‘“‘to establish justice, 
insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to 


1038 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ourselves and our posterity,” it confers the means and thereby imposes 
on us the paramount duty of effecting its intent by ‘‘laying and col- 
lecting taxes, imposts, and excises necessary to pay the debts, provide 
for the common defense, and carry on the Government of the Confed- 
erate States.” 3 

None would pretend that the Constitution is violated because, by 
reason of the presence of hostile armies, we are unable to guarantee 
a republican form of government to these States or portions of States 
now temporarily held by the enemy, and as little justice would there 
be in imputing blame for the failure to make the census when that 
failure is attributable to causes not foreseen by the authors of the 
Constitution and beyond our control. The general intent of our con- 
stitutional charter is unquestionably that the property of the country 
is to be taxed in order to raise revenue for the common defense, and 
the special mode provided for levying this tax is impracticable from 
unforeseen causes. It is in my judgment our primary duty to execute 
the general intent expressed by the terms of the instrument which we 
have sworn to obey, and we cannot excuse ourselves for the failure to 
fulfill this obligation on the ground that we are unable to perform it 
in the precise mode pointed out. Whenever it shall be possible to 
execute our-duty in all its parts we must do so in exact compliance 
with the whole letter and spirit of the Constitution. Until that 
period shall arrive we must execute so much of it as our condition 
renders practicable. Whenever the withdrawal of the enemy shall 
place it in our power to make a census and apportionment of direct 
taxes, any other mode of levying them will be contrary to the will of 
the lawgiver, and incompatible with our obligation to obey that will; 
until that period the alternative left is to obey the paramount precept 
and to execute it according to the only other rule provided, which is 
to ‘‘make the tax uniform throughout the Confederate States.” 

The considerations just presented are greatly enforced by the 
reflection that any attempt to apportion taxes amongst States, some 
of which are wholly or partially in the occupation of hostile forces, 
would subvert the whole intention of the framers of the Constitution, 
and be productive of the most revolting injustice instead of that 
just correlation between taxation and representation which it was 
their purpose to secure. With large portions of some of the States 
occupied by the enemy, what justice would there be in imposing on 
the remainder the whole amount of the taxation of the entire State 
in proportion to its representation? Whatelse would this be in effect 
than to increase the burthen of those who are the heaviest sufferers 
by the war, and to make our own inability to protect them from inva- 
sion, aS we are required to do by the Constitution, the ground for 
adding to their losses by an attempted adherence to the letter, in 
violation of the spirit of that instrument? No such purpose could 
have been entertained and no such result contemplated by the framers 
of the Constitution. It may add weight to these considerations if we 
reflect that although the Constitution provided that it should go into 
operation with a representation temporarily distributed among the 
States, it expressly ordains, after providing for a census within three 
years, that this temporary distribution of representative power is to 
endure ‘until such enumeration shall be made.” Would any one 
argue that because the census cannot be made within the fixed 
period the Government must at the expiration of that period perish 
for want of a representative body? In any aspect in which the sub- 
ject can be viewed I am led to the conclusion already announced, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. . 1039 


and which is understood to be in accordance with a vote taken in one 
or both Houses at your last session. I shall, therefore, until we are 
able to pursue the precise mode required by the Constitution, deem 
it my duty to approve any law levying the taxation which you are 
bound to impose for the defense of the country in any other practi- 
cable mode which shall distribute the burthen uniformly and impar- 
tially on the whole property of the people. 

In your former legislation you have sought to avoid the increase in 
the volume of notes in circulation by offering inducements to vol- 
untary funding. The measures adopted for that purpose have been 
but partially successful, and the evil has now reached such a magni- 
tude as to permit no other remedy than the compulsory reduction of 
the currency to the amount required by the business of the country. 
This reduction should be accompanied by a pledge that under no 
stress of circumstances will that amount be exceeded. No possible 
mode of using the credit of the Government can be so disastrous as 
one which disturbs the basis of all exchanges, renders impossible all 
calculations of future values, augments, in constantly increasing 
proportions, the price of all commodities, and so depreciates all 
fixed wages, salaries, and incomes as to render them inadequate to 
bare subsistence. If to these be added the still more fatal influence 
on the morals and character of the people, to which I have already 
adverted, I am persuaded you will concur in the conclusion that an 
inflexible adherence to a limitation of the currency at a fixed sum is 
an indispensable element of any system of finance now to be adopted. 

The holders of the currency now outstanding can only be protected 
in the recovery of their just claims by substituting for their notes 
some other security. If the currency is not greatly and promptly 
reduced the present scale of inflated prices will not only continue to 
exist, but by the very fact of the large amounts thus made requisite 
in the conduct of the war, those prices will reach rates still more 
extravagant, and the whole system will fall under its own weight, 
thus rendering the redemption of the debt impossible, and destroy- 
ing its whole value in the hands of the holder. If, on the contiary, 
a funded debt, with interest secured by adequate taxation, can 
be substituted for the outstanding currency its entire amount will 
be made available to the holder, and the Government will be ina 
condition enabling it, beyond the reach of any probable contingency, 
to prosecute the war to a successful issue. It is therefore demanded, 
as well by the interest of the creditor as of the country at large, that 
the evidences of the public debt now outstanding in the shape of 
Treasury notes be converted into bonds bearing adequate interest, 
with a provision for taxation sufficient to insure punctual payment 
and final redemption of the whole debt. 

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury presents the outlines of 
a system which, in conjunction with existing legislation, is intended to 
secure the several objects of a reduction of the circulation within fixed, 
reasonable limits; of providing for the future wants of the Govern- 
ment; of furnishing security for the punctual payment of interest 
and final extinction of the principal of the public debt, and of placing 
the whole business of the country on a basis as near a specie standard 
as is possible during the continuance of the war. I earnestly recom- 
mend it to your consideration, and that no delay be permitted to inter- 
vene before your action on this vital subject. I trust that it will be 
suffered to engross your attention until you shall have disposed of it 
in the manner best adapted to attain the important results which 
your country anticipates from your legislation. 


1040 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


It may be added that in considering this subject the people ought 
steadily to keep in view that the Government in contracting debt is 
but their agent; that its debt is their debt. As the currency is held 
exclusively by ourselves, it is obvious that if each person held Treas- 
ury notes in exact proportion to the value of his own means, each 
would in fact owe himself the amount of the notes held by him, and 
were it possible to distribute the currency among the people in this 
exact proportion, a tax levied on the currency alone, to an amount 
sufficient to reduce it to proper limits, would afford the best of all 
remedies. Under such circumstances the notes remaining in the 
hands of each holder after the payment of his tax would be worth 
quite as much as the whole sum previously held, for it would pur- 
chase at least an equal amount of commodities. This result cannot 
be perfectly attained by any device of legislation, but it can be 
approximated by taxation. A tax on all values has for its effect not 
only to impose a due share of the burden on the note holder, but to 
force those who have few or none of the notes to part with a share of 
their possessions to those who hold the notes in excess in order to 
obtain the means of satisfying the demands of the tax-gatherer. This 
is the only mode by which it is practicable to make all contribute as 
equally as possible in the burden which all are bound to share, and 
it is for this reason that taxation adequate to the public exigencies, 
under our present circumstances, must be the basis of any funding 
system or other remedy for restoring stability to our finances. 


THE ARMY. 


To the report of the Secretary of War you are referred for details 
relative to the condition of the Army and the measures of legislation 
required for maintaining its efficiency, recruiting its numbers, and 
furnishing the supplies necessary for its support.* 

Though we have lost many of the best of our soldiers and most 
patriotic of our citizens (the sad but unavoidable result of the battles 
and toils of such a campaign as that which will render the year 1863 
ever memorable in our annals), the Army is believed to be in all 
respects in better condition than at any previous period of the war. 
Our galiant defenders, now veterans, familiar with danger, hardened 
by exposure, and confident in themselves and their officers, endure 
privations with cheerful fortitude and welcome battle with alacrity. 
The officers, by experience in field service and the action of examin- 
ing boards in relieving the incompetent, are now greatly more efficient 
than at the commencement of the war. ‘The assertion is believed to 
be fully justified that, regarded as a whole, for character, valor, 
efficiency, and patriotic devotion, our Army has not been equalled by 
any like number of troops in the history of war. 

In view of the large conscription recently ordered by the enemy and 
their subsequent call for volunteers, to be followed if ineffectual by 
a still further draft, we are admonished that no effort must be spared 
to add largely to our effective force as promptly as possible. The 
sources of supply are to be found by restoring to the Army all who 
are improperly absent, putting an end to substitution, modifying the 
exemption law, restricting details, and placing in the ranks such of 
the able-bodied men now employed as wagoners, nurses, cooks, and 
other employés as are doing service for which the negroes may be 
found competent. 


* See p. 990, 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1041 


The act of 16th of April, 1862, provides “that persons not liable for 
duty may be received as substitutes for those who are, under such ° 
regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of War.” The 
policy of granting this privilege has not been sustained by experience. 
Not only has the numerical strength of the Army been seriously 
impaired by the frequent desertions for which substitutes have become 
notorious, but dissatisfaction has been excited among those who have 
been unable or unwilling to avail themselves of the opportunity thus 
afforded of avoiding the military service of their country. 

I fully concur in the opinion expressed by the Secretary that there 
is no ground for the objection that a new provision to include those 
who furnished substitutes under the former call would be a breach of 
contract. To accept a substitute was to confer a privilege, not to 
enter into a contract, and whenever the substitute is rendered liable 
to conscription, it would seem to follow that the principal, whose 
place he had taken, should respond for him, as the Government had 
received no consideration for hisexemption. Where, however, the new 
provision of law would fail to embrace a substitute now in the ranks, 
there appears, if the principal should again be conscribed, to be an 
equitable ground for compensation to the conscript, who then would 
have added to the service a soldier not otherwise liable to enrollment. 

On the subject of exemptions, it is believed that abuses cannot be 
checked unless the system is placed on a basis entirely different from 
that now provided by law. The object of your legislation has been 
not to confer privileges on classes, but to exonerate from military duty 
such number of persons skilled in the various trades, professions, and 
mechanical pursuits as could render more valuable service to their 
country by laboring in their present occupation than by going into 
the ranks of the Army. The policy is unquestionable, but the result 
would, it is thought, be better obtained by enrolling all such persons 
and allowing details to be made of the number necessary to meet the 
wants of the country. Considerable numbers are believed to be now 
exempted from the military service who are not needful to the public 
in their civil vocation. 

Certain duties are now performed throughout the country by 
details from the Army which could be as well executed by persons 
above the present conscript age. An extension of the limit so as to 
embrace persons over forty-five years and physically fit for service 
in guarding posts, railroads, and bridges, in apprehending deserters, 
and, where practicable, assuming the place of younger men detailed 
for duty with the Niter, Ordnance, Commissary, and Quartermaster’s 
Bureaus of the War Department, would, it is hoped, add largely to 
the effective force in the field without an undue burden on the pop- 
ulation. 

if to the above measures be added a law to enlarge the policy of 
the act of the 21st of April, 1862, so as to enable the Department to 
replace not only enlisted cooks, but wagoners and other employés in 
the Army, by negroes, it is hoped that the ranks of the Army will be 
so strengthened for the ensuing campaign as to put to defiance the 
utmost efforts of the enemy. 

In order to maintain unimpaired the existing organization of the 
Army until the close of the war, your legislation contemplated a fre- 
quent supply of recruits, and it was expected that before the expira- 
tion of the three years for which the men were enrolled under act 
of 16th of April, 1862, the majority of men in each company would 

66 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1042 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


consist of those who joined it at different dates subsequent to the 
original muster of the company into service, and that the discharge of 
those who had completed their term would at no time be sufficient to 
leave the company with a less number than is required to enable it 
to retain its organization. The difficulty of obtaining recruits from 
certain localities and the large number of exemptions from military 
service granted by different laws have prevented sufficient accessions 
in many of the companies to preserve their organizations after the 
discharge of the original members. The advantage of retaining tried 
and well-approved officers and of mingling recruits with experienced 
soldiers is so obvious and the policy of sucha course is so clearly 
indicated that it is not deemed necessary to point out the evil conse- 
quences which would result from the destruction of the old organiza- 
tions, or to dwell upon the benefits to be secured from filling up the 
veteran companies as long before the discharge of the earlier mem- 
bers as may be possible. In the cases where it may be found imprac- 
ticable to maintain regiments in sufficient strength as to justify the 
retention of the present organization, economy and efficiency would 
be promoted by consolidation and reorganization. This would 
involve the necessity of disbanding a part of the officers and making 
regulations for securing the most judicious selection of those who are 
retained, while least wounding the feelings of those who are dis- 
charged. 

Experience has shown the necessity for further legislation in relation 
to the horses of the cavalry. Many men lose their horses by casual- 
ties of service which are not included in the provisions made to com- 
pensate the owner for the loss, and it may thus not unfrequently 
happen that the most efficient troopers, without fault of their own— 
indeed, it may be because of their zeal and activity—are lost to the 
cavalry service. 

It would also seem proper that the Government should have com- 
plete contro! over every horse mustered into service, with the limita- 
tion that the owner should not be deprived of his horse except upon 
due compensation being made therefor. Otherwise mounted men 
may not keep horses fit for the service, and the question whether they 
should serve mounted or on foot would depend not upon the qualifi- 
eations of the men, but upon the fact of their having horses. 

Some provision is deemed requisite to correct the evils arising from 
the long-continued absence of commissioned officers. Where it is 
without sufficient cause, it would seem but just that the commission 
should be thereby vacated. Where it results from capture by the 
enemy, which under their barbarous refusal to exchange prisoners of 
war may be regarded as absence for an indefinite time, there is a 
necessity to supply their places in their respective commands. This 
might be done by temporary appointments to endure only until the 
return of the officers regularly commissioned. Where it results from 
permanent disability incurred in the line of their duty it would be 
proper to retire them and fill the vacancies according to established 
mode. I would also suggest the organization of an invalid corps, and 
that the retired officers be transferred to it. Such a corps, it is 
thought, could be made useful in various employments for which 
efficient officers and troops are now detached. 

An organization of the general staff of the Army would be highly 
conducive to the efficiency of that most important branch of the 
service. The plan adopted for the military establishment furnishes 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1043 


a model for the staff of the Provisional Army, if it be deemed advisa- 
ble to retain the distinetion; but I recommend to your consideration 
the propriety of abolishing it and providing for the organization of 
the several staff corps in such number and with such rank as will 
meet all the wants of the service. To secure the requisite ability for 
the more important positions it will be necessary to provide for officers 
of higher rank than is now authorized for these corps. To give to 
the officers the proper relation and co-intelligence in their respective 
corps, and to preserve in the chief of each the influence and control 
over his subordinates, there should be no gradation on the basis of the 
rank of the general with whom they might be serving by appoint- 
ment. ‘To the personal staff of a general it would seem proper to give 
a grade corresponding with his rank, and the number might be fixed 
to correspond with his command. ‘To avoid the consequence of dis- 
charge upon a change of duty the variable portion of the personal 
staff might be taken from the line of the Army and allowed to retain 
their line commissions. 

The disordered condition of the currency, to which I have already 
alluded, has imposed on the Government a system of supplying the 
wants of the Army which is so unequal in its operation, vexatious to 
the producer, injurious to the industrial interest, and productive of 
such discontent among the people as only to be justified by the exist- 
ence of an absolute necessity. The report of the Secretary on this 
point establishes conclusively that the necessity which has forced 
the bureaus of supply to provide for the Army by impressment has 
resulted from the impossibility of purchase by contract or in the 
open market, except at such rapidly increased rates as would have 
rendered the appropriations inadequate to the wants of the Army. 
Indeed, it is believed that the temptation to hoard supplies for the 
higher prices which could be anticipated with certainty has been 
checked mainly by the fear of the operation of the impressment law, 
and that commodities have been offered in the markets principally to 
escape impressment and obtain higher rates than those fixed by 
appraisement. The complaints against this vicious system have 
been well founded, but the true cause of the evil has been mis- 
apprehended. The remedy is to be found not in a change of the 
impressment law, but in the restoration of the currency to such a 
basis as will enable the Department to purchase necessary supplies in 
the open market, and thus render impressment a rare and exceptional 
process. | 

The same remedy will effect the result universally desired of an 
augmentation of the pay of the Army. -The proposals made at your 
previous sessions to increase the pay of the soldier by an additional 
amount of Treasury notes would have conferred little benefit on him, 
but a radical reform of the curreney will restore the pay to a value 
approximating that which it originally had and materially improve 
his condition. 

The reports froth the Ordnance and Mining Bureaus are very grati- 
fying, and the extension of our means of supply of arms and muni- 
tions of war from our home resources has been such as to insure our 
ability soon to become mainly, if not entirely, independent of sup- 
plies from foreign countries. The establishments for the casting of 
euns and projectiles, for the manufacture of small-arms and of gun- 
powder, for the supply of niter from artificial niter beds, and mining 
operations generally, have been so distributed through the country as 
to place our resources beyond the reach of partial disasters. 


1044 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


The recommendations of the Secretary of War on other points are 
minutely detailed in his report,* which is submitted to you, and 
extending as they do to almost every branch of the service, merit 
eareful consideration. 


EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS, 


I regret to inform you that the enemy have returned to the barbar- 
ous policy with which they inaugurated the war, and that the exchange 
of prisoners has been for some time suspended. ‘The correspondence 
of the commissioners of exchange is submitted to you by the Secre- 
tary of War, and it has already been published for the information 
of all now suffering useless imprisonment.+ The conduct of the 
authorities of the United States has been consistently perfidious on 
this subject. An agreement for exchange in the incipieney of the war 
had just been concluded when the fall of Fort Donelson reversed 
the previous state of things and gave them an excess of prisoners. 
The agreement was immediately repudiated by them and so remained 
until the fortune of war again placed us in possession of the larger 
number. A new cartel was then made and under it, for many months, 
we restored to them many thousands of prisoners in excess of those 
whom they held for exchange, and encampments of the surplus 
paroled prisoners delivered up by us were established in the United 
States, where the men were able to receive the comforts and solace of 
constant communication with their homes and families. In July last 
the fortune of war again favored the enemy, and they were enabled 
to exchange for duty the men previously delivered to them against 
those captured and paroled at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The 
prisoners taken at Gettysburg, however, remained in their hands, and 
should have been at once returned to our lines on parole, to await 
exchange. Instead of executing a duty imposed by the plainest dic- 
tates of justice and good faith, pretexts were instantly sought for 
holding them in permanent captivity. General orders rapidly sue- 
ceeded each other from the bureaus at Washington, placing new con- 
structions on an agreement which had given rise to no dispute while 
we retained the advantage in the number of prisoners. With a dis- 
regard of honorable obligations almost unexampled the enemy did 
not hesitate, in addition to retaining the prisoners captured by them, 
to declare null the paroles given by the prisoners captured by us in 
the same series of engagements and liberated on condition of not 
again serving until exchanged. They have since openly insisted on 
treating the paroles given by their own soldiers as invalid, and those 
of our soldiers, given under precisely similar circumstances, as bind- 
ing. A succession of similar unjust pretensions has been set up in a 
correspondence tediously prolonged, and every device employed to 
cover the disregard of an obligation which, between belligerent 
nations, is only to be enforced by a sense of honor. 

No further comment is needed on this subject, but it may be per- 
mitted to direct your special attention to the close of the correspond- 
ence submitted to you, from which you will perceive that the final 
proposal made by the enemy, in settlement of all disputes under 
the cartel, is that we should liberate all prisoners held by us without 
the offer to release from captivity any of those held by them. 

In the meantime a systematic and concerted effort has been made 
to quiet the complaints in the United States of those relatives and 


* See p. 990. +See Series LI, Vol. VI, p. 654. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1045 


friends of the prisoners in our hands, who are unable to understand 
why the cartel is not executed in their favor, by the groundless 
assertion that we are the parties who refuse compliance. Attempts 
are also made to shield themselves from the execration excited by 
their own odious treatment of our officers and soldiers, now captive 
in their hands, by misstatements, such as that the prisoners held by 
us are deprived of food. To this Jast accusation the conclusive 
answer has been made that in accordance with our law and the gen- 
eral orders of the Department the rations of the prisoners are pre- 
cisely the same, in quantity and quality, as those served out to our own 
gaNant soldiers in the field, and which have been found sufficient to 
support them in their arduous campaigns, while it is not pretended by 
the enemy that they treat prisoners by the same generous rule. By 
an indulgence, perhaps unprecedented, we have even allowed the 
prisoners in our hands to be supplied by their friends at home with 
comforts not enjoyed by the men who captured them in battle. In 
contrast to this treatment the most revolting inhumanity has charac- 
terized the conduct of the United States toward prisoners held by 
them. One prominent fact, which admits no denial nor palliation, 
must suffice as a test. The officers of our Army, natives of southern 
and semi-tropical climates, and unprepared for the cold of a northern 
winter, have been conveyed for imprisonment during the rigors of the 
present season, to the most northern and exposed situation that could 
be selected by the enemy. There, beyond the reach of comforts, and 
often even of news from home and family, exposed to the piercing 
cold of the northern lakes, they are held by men who cannot be igno- 
rant of, even if they do not design, the probable result. How many 
of our unfortunate friends and comrades, who have passed unscathed 
through numerous battles, will perish on Johnson’s Island, under the 
cruel trial to which they are subjected, none but the Omniscient can 
foretell. That they will endure this barbarous treatment with the 
same stern fortitude that they have ever evinced in their country’s 
service we cannot doubt. But who can be found to believe the 
assertion that it is our refusal to execute the cartel, and not the 
malignity of the foe, which has caused the infliction of such intoler- 
able cruelty on our own loved and honored defenders ? 


TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT. 


Regular and punctual communication with the Trans-Mississippi is 
so obstructed as to render difficult a compliance with much of the 
legislation vesting authority in the Executive branch of the Govern- 
ment. To supply vacancies in office; to exercise discretion on cer- 
tain matters connected with the military organizations; to control 
the distribution of the funds collected from taxation or remitted from 
the Treasury; to carry on the operations of the Post-Office Depart- 
ment, and other like duties, require, under the Constitution and 
existing laws, the action of the President and heads of departments. 
The necessities of the military service frequently forbid delay, and 
some legislation is required providing for the exercise of temporary 
authority until regular action can be had at the seat of government. 
I would suggest, especially in the Post-Office Department, that an 
assistant be provided for the States beyond the Mississippi, with 
authority in the head of that Department to vest in this assistant all 
such powers now exercised by the Postmaster-General as may be 
requisite for provisional control of the funds of the Department in 


1046 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


those States and their application to the payment of mail contract- 
ors; for superintendence of the local post-offices and the contracts 
for ‘carrying the mail; for the temporary employment of proper per- 
sons to fulfill the duties of postmasters and contractors in urgent 
cases, until appointments can be made, and for other like purposes. 
Without some legislative provision on the subject there is serious 
risk of the destr uction of the mail service by reason of the delays and 
hardships suffered’ by contractors under the present system, which 
reyuires constant reference to Richmond of their accounts, as well as 
of the returns of the local postmasters, before they can receive pay- 
ment for services rendered. Like provision is also necessary in the 
Treasury Department, while for military affairs it would seem to be 
sufficient to authorize the President and Secretary of War to delegate 
to the commanding general so much of the discretionary powers 
vested in them by law as the exigencies of the service shall require. 


NAVY. 


The report of the Secretary of the Navy gives in detail the opera- 
tions of that Department since January last, embracing information 
of the disposition and employment of the vessels, officers, and men, 
and the construction of vessels at Richmond, Wilmington, Charles- 
ton, Savannah, Mobile, Selma, and on the rivers Roanoke, Neuse, 
Pedee, Chattahoochee, and Tombigbee; the accumulation of ship- 
timber and supplies, and the manufacture of ordnance, ordnance 
stores, and equipments. The foundries and workshops have been 
greatly improved, and their capacity to supply all demands for heavy — 
ordnance for coast and. harbor defenses is only limited by our defici- 
ency in the requisite skilled labor. The want of such labor and of 
seamen seriously affects the operations of the Department. 

The skill, courage, and activity of our cruisers at sea cannot be too 
highly commended. ‘They have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy 
without suffering a single disaster, and have seriously damaged the 
shipping interests of the United States by compelling their foreign 
commerce to seek the protection of neutral flags. 

Your attention is invited to the suggestions of the report on the 
subject of supplying seamen for the service, and of the provisions of 
the law in relation to the Volunteer Navy. 


POST-OFFICE. 


The Postmaster-General reports the receipts of that Department for 
the fiseal year ending the 30th of June last to have been $3,337,853.01, 
and the expenditures for the same period $2,662,804.67. The state- 
ment thus exhibits an excess of receipts amounting to $675,048.44, 
instead of a deficiency of more than $1,000,000, as was the case 
in the preceding fiscal year. It is gratifying to perceive that the 
Department has thus been made self-sustaining in accordance with 
sound principle, and with the express requirement of the Constitu- 
tion that its expenses should be paid out of its own revenues after 
the Istof March, 1863. 

The report vives a full and satisfactory account of the operations 
of the Post-Office Department for the last year, and explains the 
measures adopted for giving more certainty and regularity to the 
service in the States beyond the Mississippi, and on which reliance is 
placed for obviating the difficulties heretofore encountered in that 
service. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1047 


The settlement of the accounts of the Department is greatly 
delayed by reason of the inability of the First Auditor to perform all 
the duties now imposed on him by law. The accounts of the Depart- 
ment of State, of the Treasury, of the Navy, and of Justice, are all 
supervised by that officer, and more than suffice to occupy his whole 
time. The necessity for a third auditor to examine and settle the 
accounts of a department so extensive as that of the Post-Office 
appears urgent, and his recommendation on that subject meets my 
concurrence. 


CONDUCT OF HNEMY. 


I cannot close this message without again adverting to the savage 
ferocity which still marks the conduct of the enemy in the prosecution 
of the war. After their repulse from the defenses before Charleston 
they first sought revenge by an abortive attempt to destroy the city 
with an incendiary composition thrown by improved artillery from a 
distance of four miles. Failing in this they changed their missiles, 
but fortunately have thus far succeeded only in killing two women in 
the city. Their commanders, Butler, McNeil, and Turchin, whose 
terrible barbarities have made their names widely notorious and 
everywhere execrable, are still honored and cherished by the authori- 
ties at Washington. The first named, after having been withdrawn 
from the scenes of his cruelties against women and prisoners of war, 
in reluctant concession to the demands of outraged humanity in 
Europe, has just been put in a new command at Norfolk, where help- 
less women and children are again placed at his merey. 

Nor has less unrelenting warfare been waged by these pretended 
friends of human rights and liberties against the unfortunate negroes. 
Wherever the enemy have been able to gain access they have forced 
into the ranks of their army every able-bodied man that they could 
seize, and have either left the aged, the women, and the children to 
perish by starvation, or have gathered them into camps where they 
have been wasted by a frightful mortality. Without clothing or shel- 
ter, often without food, incapable without supervision of taking the 
most ordinary precautions against disease, these helpless dependents, 
accustomed to have their wants supplied by the foresight of their 
masters, are being rapidly exterminated wherever brought in contact 
with the invaders. By the Northern man, on whose deep-rooted prej- 
udices no kindly restraining influence is exercised, they are treated 
with aversion and neglect. There is little hazard in predicting that 
in all localities where the enemy have gained a temporary foothold 
the negroes, who under our care increased six-fold in number since 
their importation into the colonies by Great Britain, will have been 
reduced by mortality during the war to no more than one-half their 
previous number. 

Information on this subject is derived not only from our own obser- 
vation and from the reports of the negroes who succeed in escaping 
from the enemy, but full confirmation is afforded by statements pub- 
lished in the Northern journals by humane persons engaged in making 
appeals to the charitable for aid in preventing the ravages of disease, 
exposure, and starvation among the negro women and children who 
are crowded into encampments. 

The frontier of our country bears witness to the alacrity and effi- 
ciency with which the general orders of the enemy have been executed 
in the devastation of farms, the destruction of the agricultural imple- 
ments, the burning of the houses, and the plunder of everything moy- 
able. Its whole aspect is a comment on the ethies of the general order 


1048 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


issued by the United States on the 24th of April, 1863, comprising 
‘Instructions for the government of armies of the United States in 
the field,” and of which the following is an example: 

Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb of armed ene- 
mies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable in the 
armed contests of the war; it allows of the capturing of every armed enemy, 
and every enemy of importance to the hostile Government, or of peculiar danger 
to the captor ; it allows of all destruction of property, and obstructions of the ways 
and channels of traffic, travel, or communication, and of all withholding of suste- 
nance or means of life from the enemy; of the appropriation of whatever an 
enemy’s country affords necessary for the subsistence and safety of the Army, 
and of such deception as does not involve the breaking of good faith either posi- 
tively pledged regarding agreements entered into during the war, or supposed by 
the modern law of war to exist. Men who take up arms against one another in 
public war do not cease on this account to be moral beings, responsible to one 
another and to God. 


The striking contrast to these teachings and practices presented by 
our army when invading Pennsylvania illustrates the moral charac- 
ter of our people. Though their forbearance may have been unmer- 
ited and unappreciated by the enemy, it was imposed by their own 
self-respect which forbade their degenerating from Christian warriors 
into plundering ruffians, assailing the property, lives, and honor of 
helpless non-combatants. If their conduct, when thus contrasted 
with the inhuman practices of our foe, fail to command the respect and 
sympathy of civilized nations in our day, it cannot fail to be recog- 
nized by their less deceived posterity. 

The hope last year entertained of an early termination of the war 
has not been realized. Could carnage have satisfied the appetite of 
our enemy for the destruction of human life, or grief have appeased 
their wanton desire to inflict human suffering, there has been blood 
shed enough on both sides, and two lands have been sufficiently 
darkened by the weeds of mourning to induce a disposition for peace. 

If unanimity in a people could dispel delusion, it has been displayed 
too unmistakably not to have silenced the pretense that the Southern 
States were merely disturbed by a factious insurrection, and it must 
long since have been admitted that they were but exercising their 
reserved right to modify their own government in such manner as 
would best seeure their own happiness. But these considerations 
have been powerless to allay the unchristian hate of those who, long 
accustomed to draw large profits from a union with us, cannot control 
the rage excited by the conviction that they have by their own folly 
destroyed the richest sources of their prosperity. They refuse even 
to listen to proposals for the only peace possible between us—a peace 
which, recognizing the impassable gulf which divides us, may leave © 
the two peoples separately to recover from the injuries inflicted on 
both by the causeless war now waged against us. Having begun the 
war in direct violation of their Constitution, which forbade the attempt 
to coerce a State, they have been hardened by crime until they no 
longer attempt to veil their purpose to destroy the institutions and 
subvert the sovereignty and independence of these States. We now 
know that the only reliable hope for peace is in the vigor of our resist- 
ance, while the cessation of their hostility is only to be expected from 
the pressure of their necessities. 

The patriotism of the people has proved equal to every sacrifice 
demanded by their country’s need. We have been united as a people 
never were united under like cireumstances before. God has blessed 
us with success disproportionate to our means, and under His divine 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1049 


favor our labors must at last be crowned with the reward due to men 
who have given all they possessed to the righteous defense of their 
inalienable rights, their homes, and their altars. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


GENERAL ORDERS, } ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 160. \ Richmond, December 7, 1868. 


I. The following schedules of prices for articles named therein, 
adopted by commissioners appointed pursuant to law, for the State of 
Virginia, are announced for the information of all concerned, and the 
special attention of officers and agents of the Government is directed 
thereto: 

II. 


RICHMOND, December 4, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON: 


Str: In revising and preparing the schedules of prices for December and Janu- 
ary, we requested the aid of Mr. William B. Harrison, and it is proper to add 
that the prices agreed upon received the unanimous approval of the commission- 
ers. We respectfully offer the accompanying Schedules A and B, with the 
understanding that the prices therein indicated are to remain for the months of 
December and January, unless in the interval it should be deemed by us neces- 
sary to modify them. : 

The following schedules present the maximum prices to be paid for the articles 
appraised at all cities and usual places of sale, and when impressed elsewhere 
the same prices are to be paid elsewhere, less the cost of transportation to the 
city or usual place of sale to which the article would go ordinarily for sale from 
that neighborhood, or less the cost of transportation to the point at which the 
Government needs the article and wishes it to be sent, provided that in no case 
the amount deducted for transportation as above shall exceed 25 cents per bushel 
for grain and 25 cents per hundredweight for long forage, fiour, bacon, iron, &c. 
In addition to the established price of transportation, the Government to pay all 
legal tolls, and, where farmers cannot procure nails for baling forage, Govern- 
ment to furnish the same at cost, which will be deducted from the established 
price for baling: 


SCHEDULE A. 


Articles. Quality. Description. Quantity. Price. 

pia wWilteateoceeteca. oto. Primeys. ss .<. White or red. 222.202. Per bushel of 60 pounds.| $5. 00 
PROUT = sno sees oe ote Siu eesonese Winehes ace teenies Per barrel of 196 pounds 22. 00 
Sarge CDR teres Noe tee OO es oer) DUPOLUNG te aes oo eee oes eit UOwaias ecm esp ees aae 25. 00 
ere MOE a eet seen nares 2) AO eae pete set) LIROLA BAPOLMNO sco cec} s+ <7 Oba ds ours cele mnets ohne) eee 
epee Wie Gee ries Gate ap el sees MGs sare sey AINE sos. Vase tee isan OO! yen ates cane cee teen 

i CHUTE ae ani as CRE ied Pane) RoR eS White or yellow...--. Ter bushel of 56 pounds. 4.00 
4 | Unshelled corn ....--- ae DOGee ad ae} eee se UG ey este seen ee DOe Sas. Reta ae 3. 95 
SRM OOLD MCAT 22 ae o-oo RARPOU eigen a vie | Seixas, on tame seme a a eo Per bushel of 50 pounds. 4, 20 
Aa aU DBs ee eae Se PUNO lew step PN erties Mem eee are Na | Ter bushel of 56 pounds. 3. 20 
7 | Cleaned oats........--. hee Ge CO Tae 2 oan hen cen. seecentaspie nen ee | er bushel of 32 pounds. 2. 00 
8 | Wheat bran ...--..--. OAC Pe weirs fed Rae Spe es as mom mri cee tne | Per bushel of 17 pounds. 50 
PAMEPAOKGS Goes oe os on OPEL od enw el l'on a cencstnel © oes otro aes f’er bushel of 22 pounds. 70 
i brown stuff .<..-.-..% rs dQ... 525 ste lejaininteceiile x aaa ins Sits heetciernty Per bushel of 28 pounds. 90 
Lit) iO GU Gael oe anes BaBee OLS leercidl Bem cecttnrn enero nascar: Per bushel of 37 pounds. 1. 40 
12 Bacom .....-3 ‘Scan espe Waceaae lowe s22 5s: Hos round .s ae tee s2 |e ely POUNC = mare erc eee 1. 25 
Ton malt POLK «eee ne =~ alee =): dotccres te ete strate Mania wialae diate oa Ae eee pare Ose tectum ues 1.10 
Wreashiporkes. =. 20 =) Pb ANE POOU.. Lluctae ras a teecanaseae a | Per pound, net weight .. 80 

fv bard seese nets chee ee Coody 5 3: iste Sacto int welche bot elaltoeeaaae | Per pound 5 2.sa tc eee Ts 
ED C RLOVSGS' ae e-sco- oo ereon, First class....|/ Artillery, &ce...-...... Average price per head .| 350. 00 
TOTMNVOOIE: Seciact tacks Wair or merino | Washed -...........-- ew pOUNd asec asec ees 3. 00 
iV Cree DOM ostee dete rh wns ies te CO sSe ene Unwashed 227s e.5- waht aene GOs ty, TEE LE es 2.00 
TStl WP OAS 22 suc as a5 oie ot COOU ge 2 as. <einl| Sonim simce oie a alata eta a eieieie Bien Per bushel of 60 pounds 4, 00 
TOs PCAs cetera sc ome ss ieoeee CM ONeios a area tetris ees tails area ae O02 sce setissseese eas 4. 00 
20 | Potatoes ...-.... Mae soe dOnn2-eoa.. Trishig scene. shat gee. LO ene an ola aoe aes 4.00 
VARA rae GO) 22S. c eee te ee es hee oe MORmSas cin OWED. cence ete se onan mc te Wms. oeneca shise se 5. 00 
Ae Y RIDAO TIS fa cee. bene oer. PE eens COTM eta Pea ane in grabredls wen ou ternary NOE CUP As aereld Aas 5. 00 
23) Dried peaches 35.02.13 S45 MOnetae aalei2 Peeled .......-----.---| Per bushel of 38 pounds. 8. 00 
DA ie (OS RoR eo Se an ero CORES oe enersrs Unpeeled }. 225%. onc cee heen CO ae cin aed sent kee 4.50 
25 Dried apples:-:-....--|-6 se- Gives = ccc cia POOIO0s oe an ean aes Per bushel of 28 pounds. 3. 00 


1050 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ScHEDULE A—Continued. 


Description. 


Quantity. 


Articles. Quality. 
26.) day naledsccsccy sce Goode ase -cet 
2g plereere dO 2.2cbSetere pre eele eens COs. aoe 
Onl EELay. nun baled eerie ee ee CO sapere at 
29 | Sheaf oats, baled......|....- CL.Oree Oats 
30 | Sheaf oats, unbaled --..|..... COueeaet oes 
31 | Blade fodder, baled ...|.-... COreece ee 
32 | Blade fodder, unbaled.|.-...- ORNL, Ae Ae 
33. |hohueks; balediveses..:lsseer Oss thts 
34 | Shucks, unbaled ...---.|.-..- Ops e5 eee 
35 | Wheat straw, baled...|..... COnseeeen. 
36 | Wheat straw, unbaled |..... QORe. brane 
Sie eb asturagerscce estas ocsi eee ee Ome Sees rn 
38 | ene doe: 2 forsee SUperloOLesee: | 
SH lease CO ec ote ee eer ‘First rate... .. 
AQUI Sr tt eeriac Spinto: Good. essee-6e4 
AL ls carchces MO ease ee eee: DUpPeLiOl= sea 
AD eer Owe yes sae cee First rate..... 
AST SAltitetee Sou aseiiek hes Good meee: 
AED IORD woos ois amare tain a Neg oh LO settee 2s 
45 eCandles 2552 3 biaciaea aes CO sces:. 
46.) a Vine gat. see och see Sas oe CORE zeae 
47 ONY AB ELY eee s aceon + area OO cctenpice 
48.(eSugan arose - Maer as ciee| - ane COk one es 
49%| Molasses 22. -220. 244 cnle = son GO tase eee 
50 ICO kecs Leas eee see | eee dome eee 
51 t| Comee. 2a: gas atae Ge So leete dope eee.) 
Sy let Wy: ae eae a i ie Nise Chas a 
Dos VINCLAT, Sateen eaten oleae dots edocs. 
Sesh) Pig-IOn ose sewn tales DO" eee = oe 
HOMlee ene GO bak oboe Seemed =| a ne: dowareee 
O67 26 eae LO, ee ee ees a | eae domaes £22 
bi) Bloom Irons eee oo eee dOge ee cete 
DSi) Smiths ron e-eeeee sees doztesc 
59 jp Railroad trons Sass) see dorescees 
GOs) Mueather nescence = 4 eee (0 deers ae 
615) Fe5es dO Reser seine sens dO gas cnso 
G25 Seman (Ne CRSA Ee ae dOvse ees: 
O559/EDeel-Cabulene. ase sale eee Mors sees oe 
C40 Rees do tesitien fete Superior...... 
Olay 4 Race GO SoS Ae ere First rate..... 
GGtitSheepeecrs tec ae aces JY Wie pees ie c= 
67 | Army woolen cloth, 3-4} Good ......... 
yard. 
68 | Army woolen cloth ...|..... OM Seen ce 
69 | Army woolen cloth, 6-4|..... OO eee 
yard. 

70 | Army woolen cloth ...|..... dOmsseeltes 
Ag enlanm Olsi3-4 oe sees | Seek ils ee oe 
72 | Cotton shirting, 3-4 ...]..... do gets: 
73 | Cotton shirting, 7-8 ...!.....do ........ 
74 | Cotton sheeting, 4-4...|..... Coes aes 
75 | Cotton, Osnaburg, 3-4 .|..... Osan. ces 
76 | Cotton, Osnaburg. 7-8 .|.-... dO. geeteese 
i | Cotton drills, 7-8 22.25.1202. - LOB e cee ee 
78 | Cotton shirting, stripes]. .... dO: S525... 2 
79 | Cotton tent cloths ....}..... Cert re 
BO sli fee sicenies Scie emcee eet eel fo ett eae ane 
81 | Cotton warps......... Goodies ek: 
Be (MATEY GhOOS hea: eencs face Gd eee 
Soa| OnOe thveadenes sates lee re CO gear a 
84 | Wool socks, men’s....]..... COs 
S53) PM niles meee pe res oe First rate..... 
86 | Corn-top fodder, baled| Good ......-.. 

Corn-top fodder, un- |..... G10) acseramee 
87 baled. 
88 | Wheat chaff, baled....|....- io Ms Saakcss ge 
89 | Wheat chatf, unbaled .|..-..-. Ome eee 
90 | Sorghum molasses.-...|... .do ..-..... 
91 | Pasturage for sheep ..|....- (LO teeter 
UP il nese O24 20. ees de bares Superior ..---- 
Sbralen ae OUss ean ooh, eee Mirstrateza--- 


Timothy or clover.... 
Gamat or herd grass. 
0 


ee ee (UU wm m men eee nee cee 
i 
eeee ee wee ee cease ce ee ee ee 
Sieeieces oes e esc sus wewie cs =e 
er 


oO 


Brown 6-e ee eee 


Manufactured 
No. 1 quality 
No. 2 quality.........- 
No.3 quality 


ee 


Harness 
Sole 
Upper 
Gross weight 


ee 
eoceee een ee et ewe ees 
ee i ed 
~eceeeeee 

ee 
wee UU pee eee eee eee cease 


a ee ey 
ee ee 


6 ounces per yard 
434 yards to pound 
33 yards to pound 
3 yards to pound 
6 ounces per yard 
8 ounces per yard 
3 yards to pound 
do 
10 ounces per yard.... 


seeee 


i a 


Per 100 pounds 
ce) 


ty) 
Per bushel of 50 pounds. 
Per pound 
do 
Per gallon 
See (loser 
Per pound 
Per gallonesess- ee eee 
Per pound=s2-- eee ace 


do 
Per gallon 
Per ton 


2 ee eUU~- cece eee eee cee eee eee 
ee eee ee ewe em ee ew es 
ee ee UU. ee ee ee ew tee 
wee e -UU- ce ece nes cence ne nae 
eee e -UU~ 2 ee ee ee ee eee eee eee 
eco tee ee ewe owe 
wee e UU... cee eee eee ee eee eee 
eee e -UU.~- een eee cere eer ew oe 
ee ad 


es 


Per pound 
Per pair 
Per pound: ). 232) .eeeeee 
Per pair 
Average price per head - 
Per a pounds 

0 


Per gallon 
Per head 


a Pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 
b On the above enumerated cotton cloths, pro rata as to greater or less width or weight. 


Price. 


In assessing the average value of “first-class artillery and wagon horses at $350,” 
we designed that the term should be accepted and acted upon according toits obvi- 
ous common-sense import ; in other words, that horses should be selected and then 
impressed accordingly as their working qualities and adaptation to army service, 
together with their intrinsic value, would Warrant a judicious purchaser in con- 
sidering them as coming within the contemplation of the commissioners when 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1051 


they assessed the average value of such horses as the Government needed at $350. 
But cases might arise, however, when the public exigencies would be so urgent 
as to demand that all horses at hand should be impressed. Yet, under ordinary 
circumstances, when family, or extra-blooded horses, or brood mares of admitted 
high value are impressed, we respectfully suggest to the Secretary of War to have 
instructions forwarded to the impressing officers to propose and allow the owners 
to substitute in their stead such strong, sound, and serviceable horses or mules as 
shall be considered and valued by competent and disinterested parties as first- 
class artillery horses or first-rate wagon mules. 

The term ‘‘ average value per head” was used in contradistinction to a fixed and 
uniform price for each horse or mule. We supposed that in impressing a number 
of horses or mules, whether owned by several persons or one individual, that some 
might be estimated at $250, or even at less, and others at different advanced 
rates, according to their worth, up as high as $450, or above that amount, thus 
making an average value or price for a number of good, sound, and efficient 
horses $350 each, and mules $300 each. 

In illustration of our views, we will add that a horse with only one eye sound 
might,in all other respects, be classed as a first-rate artillery horse, yet the loss of 
one eye would justly and considerably curtail his value. So a horse from ten to 
eighteen yearsof age might be deemed in all other particulars as a first-class artil- 
lery horse, but, of course, however efficient or able to render good service for a 
year or so, yet his advanced age would justly and materially impair his value. 
Any horse, however he may approximate the standard of a first-class artillery 
horse, must, according to deficiencies, fall below the maximum price ; and as few, 
comparatively, exactly come up to the standard, and therefore are entitled to the 
maximum price, so, of course, in all other instances the price should be propor- 
tionately reduced as imperfections place them below the standard of first-class, &c. 


SCHEDULE B.—Hire of labor, teams, wagons, and drivers. 


: Quantity and time. | Price. 
Ro RE NOUNS 1OTAGE .. cuvitmar cee hana a abs o8 0s ye ie aig we emaikovete wae ¢ Per 100 pounds ....... $0. 50 
2 | Shelling and bagging corn; sacks furnished by Government ....| Per 56 pounds ...-.--. . 05 
Sed URAL Oe he Pi ieiee es cea kag aes ae As os oa ce 5 wee sana deiee na-- 2 oe ess Per cwt. per mile ....- . 08 
4 | Hauling grain.......--.-..-2---02--+2---0- 22 seer ree Per busheleeeesseeeee . 04 
5 | Hire of 2-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by | Per day.....--.-...--- 10. 00 
owner. 
6 | Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government...-....--.-...|---.- dOvecosere ceaees mete 5. 00 
7 | Hire of 4-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by |...--. dO"Ss seo: Splat ae 13. 00 
owner. 
8 | Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.........-..-|.---- GOns eatetcacuatesst 6. 50 
9 | Hire of 6-horse team, wagon, and driver; rations furnished by |---.- LOMES cere nie -| 16.00 
owner. 
10 | Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government.............|.-..- Oy Pee asect eee seees 8. 00 
11 | Hire of laborer; rations furnished by owner ..-....-....---------|----- dow Bez assss eee 2. 50 
12 | Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government....-...-----|.-.--- COg. canes Somes eete 1.50 
13 | Hire of same; rations and clothing furnished by owner......-... Per'monthes 2 eee 50. 00 
14 | Hire of same; rations furnished by the Government......--..--.!....- (i iaeeneermeie donor 30. 00 
15 | Hire of teamsters; rations furnished by Government. .-...--..--.|----- GOR. se steck ees 40. 00 
16 | Hire of laborer; clothing and rations furnished by Government.| Per year..-.--.....--- 300. 00 
17 | Hire of same; clothing and rations furnished by owner .........|-.--- dO 2aiencs cone esas 550. 00 
18 | Hire of same; rations only furnished by Government ........-..|.--.- dO) se shee es cceeee ee 400. 00 


Upon further consideration we have concluded to value sheaf oats, hay, and 
blade fodder east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, when baled, at $5 per 100 pounds, 
and unbaled at $4.50 per 100 pounds. 

EK. W. HUBBARD, 


ROBERT GIBBONEY, 
WM. B. HARRISON, 
Commissioners for Virginia. 
By order: 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


[DECEMBER 7, 1863.—For Greer to Boggs, in regard to certain ob- 
structions in the execution of the laws of conscription, see Series I, 
Vol. XXVI, Part II, p. 493. ] 


1052 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


JOINT RESOLUTIONS of confidence in His Excellency President Davis. 


Whereas, it is grateful to a public servant whilst engaged in the 
honest and faithful discharge of his duties in the midst of the weighty 
and perplexing cares of state to be assured of the sympathy and con- 
fidence of his fellow-citizens; and whereas, it is just that this Legis- 
lature, as the representative of the people of the State of Mississippi, 
should give expression of their estimate of their fellow-citizen, Jeffer- 
son Davis, President of the Confederate States: Therefore, 

Resolved, first, That although in the pending gigantic war the bril- 
liant successes of our arms have not been without occasional reverses, 
yet we repose full confidence m the patriotism, integrity, and ability 
of President Davis to preside at the helm of state, and with the bless- 
ing of Heaven, as our chosen leader, to conduct us eventually to the 
triumph of the prineiple of constitutional liberty for which we are 
contending. 

Resolved, second, That the faith of the people of Mississippi in the 
justice of t] 1eir cause is unshaken, and their determination unabated 
to sustain to the utmost the principles that led to their separation 
from the United States and the establishment of the Confederate 
Government. 

Resolved, third, That the Governor is requested to forward a copy 
of these resolutions to His Excellency President Davis. 

JAMES DRANE, 
President of the Senate. 


LOCK E. HOUSTON, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 


Approved December 9, 1863. 
CHARLES CLARK, 
Governor. 


STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE. 


I, Charles A. Brougher, secretary of state, do hereby certify that 
the foregoing preamble and resolutions are truly copied from the 
original, now on file in my office. 

Given under my hand and the great seal of the State of Mississippi, 
at Macon, this 19th day of December, A. D. 1863. 

[SEAT C. A. BROUGHER, 

Secretary of State. 


GENERAL ORDERS, | ADJT: AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 161. j Richmond, December 10, 1863. 


The folowing order is published as an amendment of the regula- 
tions in respect to impressments, as a substitute for paragraph II, 
section 5, General Orders, No. 37, current series. All officers and 
agents who have been or shall be empowered to make impressments 
shall conform to the provisions of this order in respect to impress- 
ments hereafter to be made, and also in cases where the property may 
have been heretofore taken and the price has not been fully adjusted: 

In the event of the refusal by the owner, his bailee, or other agent 
of the price offered, the impressing officer shall proceed to settle the 
compensation to be paid according to the first section of the act of 
March 26, 1863, if the property impressed belongs to an owner who 

as grown, raised, or produced the same, or who holds or has pur- 
ee the same for his own use or consumption. But if the property 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1053 


impressed has not been grown, raised, or produced by the owner, nor 
been purchased for his own use or consumption, it shall be the duty 
of the impressing officer to offer the price fixed by the commissioners 
who may be appointed under the fifth section of the act of Congress of 
the 26th of March, 1863, to regulate impressments; and if the owner 
shall object to receive the said price as not being a just compensa- 
tion, it shall be the duty of the impressing officer to cause the value 
to be ascertained by the appointment of a board similar to that desig- 
nated in the first section of the act aforesaid; that is, by the judg- 
ment of two loyal and disinterested citizens of the county or parish 
in which such impressments may be made—one to be selected by the 
owner and one by the impressing officer—and in the event of their 
disagreement, these two shall choose an umpire of like qualification. 
The persons thus selected shall proceed to assess just compensation 
for the property so impressed, whether the absolute ownership or the 
temporary use thereof only is required: Provided, however, if the 
impressing officer in any of the cases mentioned shall believe that the 
appraisement is fair or just, he shall indorse upon it his approval; 
and the property in the object impressed shall thereupon be vested in 
the Confederate States; but if he does not approve the appraisement 
as aforesaid, he shall indorse upon the appraisement his objection 
thereto, and deliver the same, with a receipt for the property 
impressed, to the owner, his bailee, agent, or attorney, and as soon 
as practicable forward a copy of the receipt and appraisement, and 
his indorsement thereon, to the Board of Appraisers appointed by the 
President and Governor of the State, who shall revise the same and 
make a final valuation, so as to give just compensation for the prop- 
erty taken; which valuation shall be paid by the proper department 
for the use of which the property was taken, on the certificate of the 
appraisers, aS provided in the acts of Congress on the subject. 
By order: 
8S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 162. Richmond, December 11, 1863. 


I. Quartermasters at posts will afford all the accommodation in their 
power to persons in charge of stock traveling under the orders of offi- 
cers of Lieut. Col. A. H. Cole’s department. Forage and shelter for 
the animals and subsistence for the men will be furnished by them 
upon the requisition of any officer, or of his authorized agent, of Colonel 
Cole’s department, who will receipt for the same. 

II. To prevent claims for commutation of rations which may have — 
been previously drawn, surgeons in charge of hospitals will indorse on 
the furlough of enlisted men who leave a hospital on furlough a state- 
ment of the number of days and the dates he has drawn rations for 
the enlisted men. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


Whereas, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, is 
entitled to the gratitude of the people and the commendation of every 


1054 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


enlightened patriot for his unselfish patriotism and untiring devotion 
to the interests of the whole country: Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
State of South Carolina in General Assembly met, That the State of 
South Carolina, fully appreciating the trials and onerous duties 
devolving upon the Chief Magistrate of the Confederate States and 
his self-denying sacrifices, tender to him the assurances of unabated 
confidence. 

Resolved, further, That they maintain an unalterable determination 
to sustain him in his efforts to conquer an honorable peace and main- 
tain the liberties of the people. 

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to trans- 
mit to the President a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolu- 
tions. 


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
December 11, 1863. 


I hereby certify that the foregoing preamble and resolutions were 
agreed to by the House and concurred in by the Senate. ; 
JOHN T. SLOAN, 
Clerk House of Representatives 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, EXECUTIVE DEPT., 
Richmond, Va., December 12, 1863. 
Honorable SECRETARY OF WAR: , 


Str: I have the honor, by direction of the President, to forward for 
your attention and the proper action the following copy of a resolution 
of the House of Representatives of the 10th instant: 

Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to communicate to this 


House the number of substitutes in the armies of the Confederate States and what 
portion of them is from foreign countries. 


Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
BURTON N. HARRISON, 
Prwate Secretary. 


x 


[| Indorsement. | 


DECEMBER 14, 1863. 
Adjutant-General for special attention and early report, giving this 
information if obtainable; if not, showing the inability and the cause. 
Jo ke 
Secretary. 


—_—-—___——_— 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 14, 1865. 


The PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


Str: The resolution of the House of Representatives of the Congress 
of the Confederate States, inquiring whether contractors for carrying 
the mails of the Confederate States, exempt from the performance of 
military duty in the armies of the Confederate States under the act 
of April 14, 1863, have been retained in the Army and held subject to 
the performance of military duty since the passage of said act, and 
if so, upon what ground the same is done, has been referred by you 
to this Department for reply. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1055 


In reply I have to say that the conscription act of April 16, 1862, is 
the foundation of the legislation of Congress on the subject of pro- 
viding for the further defense of the Confederate States. It declares 
as its course or motive “‘the exigencies of the country and the abso- 
lute necessity of keeping in the service our gallant Army, and of plac- 
ing in the field a large additional force to meet the advancing col- 
umns of the enemy now invading our soil.” It enacts ‘that all 
persons (between the ages of eighteen and: thirty-five) who are now 
in the armies of the Confederacy, whose term of service will expire 
before the end of the war, shall be continued in the service for three 
years from the date of their original enlistment, unless the war shall 
have sooner ended.” It further enacted ‘‘that the President might 
call out and place in the service for three years, unless the war shall 
have sooner ended, all persons between the ages of eighteen and 
thirty-five years at the time the call or calls may be made, who are 
not legally exempted from military service.” The only persons who 
were exempted from military service were those designated in the act 
of Congress of the 21st of April, 1862, and comprised such persons as 
_are usually exempt from militia duty, with a-few exceptions. The 
‘‘exigencies of the service,” and ‘‘the necessity for keeping our gal- 
lant Army in the field,” and for the addition of re-enforcements, were 
greatly increased by the events of the campaign in the spring, sum- 
mer, and early part of the autumn of 1862. 

The battles before and around Richmond, on the Potomac, and in 
Maryland had diminished the strength of the Army of Virginia; New 
Orleans and Memphis had capitulated; Western Tennessee, Northern 
Mississippi, and Northern Alabama were possessed by the enemy, and 
the United States had called for an increase to their Army [of] more 
than half a million men, and the preliminary proclamation of a gen- 
eral emancipation of the slave population of the Confederacy by the 
President of the United States had been made at the time when the 
Confederate Congress were required to make further provision for 
the public defense. On the 27th of September, 1862, under the dic- 
tate of this necessity, the President was authorized by Congress to call 
out and to place in the military service persons between thirty-five 
and forty-five years of age who at the date of his call were not 
legally exempted from military service, and the President ‘‘ during 
the present war” was then vested with the same authority ‘‘as to all 
persons who then were or who might attain the age of eighteen years; ” 
and ‘* when enrolled, all persons between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five were required to serve their full term;” and the Congress 
further provided ‘‘that nothing contained in this enactment shall be 
understood as repealing or modifying any part of the act of the 16th 
April, 1862.” The act of the 13th October, 1862, was passed to desig- 
nate the persons who were to be exempted from military service 
under the Presidential calls. These acts have been construed by 
this Department as parts of the same system and with the object to 
give full effect to every portion according to the intention of Con- 
gress. It is clear that this exemption act was not intended to dis- 
charge from any part of the Army the members belonging to it at its 
date. That portion of the Army which had been enlisted for the war 
remained in service under their contract, to answer the exigencies of 
the service, and that whose term of service was about to expire was 
continued in the service by the conscription act of 1862, under an 
inexorable, absolute necessity. It is also clear that it did not apply 
to such as have been legally enrolled for service, ‘‘for they were 


1056 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
required by the conscription act of September, 1862, to serve their 
full term.” . 

The persons who were to be exempted were those who at the date 
of. the call, or were claimed for enrollment, were not in the Army, 
and who belonged to the class of exempts as designated by the act of 
exemption. 

This construction was adopted by the Department after mature 
consideration of the various enactments, and has been applied in its 
ordinary administration, and in the opinion of the Department this 
construction is demanded by their language and the motives which 
induced Congress to adopt them to provide for the publie defense. 

The act of “Congr ess of April 14, 1863, relative to mail contractors, 
is an fieeng es act. The title of the act is similar to that of October 
13, 1862, the one being ‘An act to exempt certain persons from military 
aviee the other being ‘‘An act to exempt contractors for carrying 
the mails of the Confederate States and the drivers of post coaches 
and hacks from military service.” This Department has not sup- 
posed that the act last mentioned was designed to withdraw any 
portion of the gallant Army from the field, in the face of the declara-. 
tion that there was ‘‘an absolute necessity” for its continued employ- 
ment to resist the invader, to carry the mail on routes of ten miles in 
length on horse, or to drive post coaches or hacks. 

The act of April 14, before mentioned, has been regarded as form- 
ing a part of the act of October, relative to exemptions, and to be. 
applied to all such persons as were not enlisted or enrolled’in the 
military service previous to its adoption. The Bureau of Conscrip- 
tion, under instructions from the Department, has determined *‘ that 
the cause of exemption should exist at the time that military service 
is claimed. If a person otherwise subject to conscription before or at 
the time of enrollment claims exemption by reason of being such a 
mail contractor as is mentioned in the act, exemption must not be 
refused, even though the contract was obtained since the passage of 
the act. If the contract is obtained subsequent to the enrollment, 
the party virtually becomes a member of the Army, and a release 
from service is of the nature of a discharge from the Army, which is 
not contemplated in the act of Congress.” 

It is proper to state that one or more of the judges of the district 
courts of the Confederate States and one or more of the judges of 
State cireuit courts have decided that the acts of exemption of Octo- 
ber and April authorized discharges from the Army, and under the 
act of April one of these judges granted discharges to three members 
of the same company who had taken mail contracts for one mill, one 
cent, and ten cents, respectively. The advertisements of the Post- 
Office Department have represented the exemption from military 
service (including a discharge from the Army if enlisted) as a part 
of the benefit to be obtained by a contract for carrying the mails. 
The result has been that a competition among officers and men has 
to some extent been produced to obtain such contracts at nominal 
prices, by which they might abandon the flag of the Confederacy in 
the hour of its extreme peril to carry the mail in obscure districts and 
upon unimportant routes. 

Such consequences were too serious to permit the Department to 
hesitate in the performance of its duty. It could not regard the 
opinion of one or more of the judges of these inferior tribunals as 
final and authoritative expositors of the statute. These statutes-are 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1057 


especially of an administrative character, and are particularly ad- 
dressed to the Executive Department for its guidance. The Depart- 
ment has constantly te determine upon the signification of the terms 
and to ascertain the intention of Congress. Its opinion on the act of 
October was fully known and had been generally acquiesced in, and 
particularly so by Congress itself. 

While, therefore, the Department respects the decisions of the 
courts as final in the case before it, it does not look to the opinions of 
the judges of the inferior court as furnishing the rule of interpreta- 
tion they must bear in the action of the Department. The Depart- 
ment has not interfered with any of the soldiers who have been fairly 
discharged by judicial authority under the construction that the act 
is applicable to the Army, and has not discharged any other soldiers 
from the Army who may have obtained mail contracts in deference 
to the judicial opinion contained in such judgments. 

The Department is confirmed in the accuracy of its opinion by con- 
sidering the terms of the only act of Congress which has authorized 
it to give discharges from the Army. This act is entitled ‘“‘An act to 
authorize the discharge of certain civil officers from the military 
service of the Confederate States,” passed 2d of April, 1863. It pro- 
vides that if any officer or soldier shall be elected or appointed to cer- 
tain offices named, upon furnishing the Secretary of War with evidence 
of such election or appointment, if an officer, his resignation shall 
‘be accepted, and if a non-commissioned officer or private, he shall be 
honorably discharged by the Secretary of War. The distinction 
made between acts of exemption and acts for the discharge of officers 
and soldiers from the Army is plainly manifested by comparing the 
statutes before referred to and seems to have been fully appreciated 
by Congress. . 

Respectfully submitted. JAMES A. SEDDON, 

Secretary of War. 


RICHMOND, VA., December 16, 1868. 
His Excellency M. L. BoNHAM, 
Columbia, S. C.: 


Str: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 11th instant 
inclosing certified copy of a preamble and resolutions adopted by the 
General Assembly of South Carolina at its present session. 

It is most gratifying to me to receive this expression of its commen- 
dation of my official conduct, and that appreciating the trials and 
duties devolved upon me as Chief Magistrate of the Confederate 
States they have tendered to me in the name of the State the assur- 
ance of its unabated confidence, together with its ‘‘ unalterable 
determination to sustain the Government in its efforts to conquer 
an honorable peace and maintain the liberties of the people.” I am 
cheered by this approval and patriotic resolution. No efforts on my 
part shall be wanting to aid in the achievement of that independence 
which South Carolina has ever been so prompt to vindicate, and sooner 
or later must be ours. I desire through you to express to the govern- 
ment and General Assembly of your State my grateful acknowledg- 
ments for the generous support of a people determined to uphold the 
hands of the Chief Magistrate in the hour of trial and whose courage 
ever rises with the increase of danger. 

Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS, 
67 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1058 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Columbia, December 17, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR Sir: In your communication of 6th of June last, calling upon 
me for 5,000 troops, you conclude as follows: 

In pursuance of the views thus imperfectly presented, and to reconcile greater 
concentration to our armies, with adequate internal protection to your State, I 
am instructed by the President, ir his name, to make on you a requisition for 5,000 
men, to be furnished by your State, for service therein, for the period of six 
months from the ist day of August next, unless in the intermediate time a volun- 
teer force, organized under the law for local defense and special service, of at 
least an equal number be mustered and reported as subject to his call for service 
within your State. 


Upward of 5,000 were organized and ready by the Ist of August, 
with the exception of some Charleston companies (when in the field 
in their militia capacity), though many of them have since been 
found to be exempt or have been discharged. The regiments were, 
however, not put into camp for six weeks or two months after, and 
when mustered in they were mustered in for six months from the day 
they went into camp, although, I believe, in each case they entered 
their protest against it and claimed that the six months began on the 
Ist of August. 

In their construction of their rights under the call I coneur, and 
submit that the language as above quoted warrants it. 

My object in writing is not only to call your attention to this point, 
but also to suggest that timely steps should be taken for organizing 
a force to take the place of these troops. In such organization many 
of those now in the field will, of course, be included, as the resources 
of the State in this respect are now much reduced. 

Very respectfully, yours, 
M. L. BONHAM. 


{ Indorsement. ] 
DECEMBER 22, 1863. 
Referred to the Military Committee of the House, to show the 
approaching necessity for legislation on the subject of conseript or 
reserve forces. 
J. A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 18, 1863. 
The PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: 


Str: In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives 
calling for a statement of the number of substitutes in the armies of 
the Confederate States, and the proportion received from foreign 
countries, I have the honor to transmit the ineclosed report of the 
Adjutant-General. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretury of War. 


[Indorsement. ] 
SECRETARY OF WAR: 


The letter of the Adjutant-General, cannot be regarded as a response. 
Laka 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1059 


[Inclosure.] 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Richmond, December 16, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: In reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives 
requiring a statement of the number of substitutes in the armies of 
the Confederate States, and the proportion received from foreign 
countries, I have the honor to state that to answer this call will - 
require much time and labor, and even then the result, owing to the 
imperfect returns received, will be very unsatisfactory. A full 
examination will involve reference to every company muster-roll for 
two years past or more. These rolls have not been received with any 
degree of regularity, notwithstanding they are required by the Army 
Regulations to be forwarded every twomonths. The failure to receive 
them is attributable partly to the neglect of the officers, but often, no 
doubt, results from losses incident to sudden movements of troops, 
conflicts with the enemy, and other difficulties in the way of their 
transmission to the Department. And not only must the company 
rolls referred to be examined, but those of the conscription bureaus 
of this city and in the south and southwest. To these difficulties I 
may add that the clerical force in this office is barely sufficient for its 
current business, while the numerous and increasing calls for infor- 
mation from various sources necessarily interferes with the regular 
routine of duty. Within the past two years one officer and six clerks 
in this Bureau have died while on duty. Twelve others have broken 
down and been forced to resign. The obstacles in the way of the pro- 
posed inquiry are thus quite obvious. Nevertheless, I will endeavor 
to meet the requirements of the resolution, if under the circumstances 
detailed you deem it expedient so to direct, but in that event I shall 
be compelled to defer other and important work. With that portion 
of the resolution, however, which refers to the number of substitutes 
received from foreign countries, it will be impossible to comply, as 
the muster-rolls do not furnish the desired information. 

With great respect, your obedient servant, 
S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Columbia, December 19, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Str: By direction of His Excellency the Governor I send you a 
certified copy of a resolution of the General Assembly of this State, to 
which your attention is respectfully invited. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
B. Foo ARTHUR, 
Private Secretary. 
[Indorsement. } 


DECEMBER 27, 1863. 


This must be deferred till the action of Congress can be taken. 
Retain for future answer. . 
3 SSRIS), 


Secretary. 


1060 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 
[Inclosure. ] 


Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to cor- 
respond with the authorities at Richmond urging them to forego the 
right heretofore exercised of shipping cotton and bringing freight on 
the boats owned by the Importing and Exporting Company of South 
Carolina in consequence of the ownership by the State of a part of 
those boats, and that he set forth the great wants of our soldiers and 
citizens which the shipment of cotton and other produce and the 
importation of supplies and the implements of agricultural and man- 
ufactory industry alone can relieve. 

I certify that the foregoing is a correct copy of the resolution as it 
passed the General Assembly at the late session. 

WM. E. MARTIN, 
Clerk of the Senate. 
DECEMBER 18, 1863. 


[DECEMBER 19, 1863.—For Magruder to Murrah, requesting that 25 
per cent. of the Texas militia remaining at home may be called out, 
see Series I, Vol. XX VI, Part II, p. 514. | 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Milledgeville, Ga., December 20, 1563. 
[His Excellency JEFFERSON DAvIs:| 


Str: As requested by the General Assembly, I have the honor here- 
with to transmit to you a copy of the following resolutions passed by _ 
the Legislature of this State, and respectfully invite your attention to 
the same. 

Very respectfully, &e., 
JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure. | 
RESOLUTIONS. 


Resolutions expressive of the determination of Georgia to prosecute 
the present war with the utmost vigor and energy. 


Whereas, at a session of the General Assembly of the State of 
Georgia, in the year 1861, the following resolutions were adopted: 


Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Assembly that the separation of 
those States now forming the Confederate States of America from the United 
States is and ought to be final and irrevocable, and that Georgia will, under no 
circumstances, entertain any proposition from any quarter which may have for 
its object a restoration or reconstruction of the late Union on any terms or con- 
ditions whatever. 

Resolved, That the war which the United States are waging upon the Con- 
federate States should be met on our part with the utmost vigor and energy, until 
our independence and nationality are unconditionally acknowledged by the United 
States. 

Resolved, That Georgia pledges herself to her sister States of the Confederacy 
that she will stand by them throughout the struggle, she will contribute all the 
means which her resources will supply, so far as the same may be necessary, to 
the support of the common cause, and will not consent to lay down arms until 
peace is established on the basis of the foregoing resolutions. 


Whereas, the enunciation of said resolutions is as truly expressive 
of the position of Georgia to-day as at the time of their adoption; and 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1061 


whereas, the meeting of another General Assembly of the State, after 
a lapse of two years more of struggle for independence, presents an 
occasion peculiarly appropriate to the renewal of these declarations, 
and that the world may know that Georgia does not tire of the war 
until her purpose is accomplished, nor abate anything of the Spirit 
and determination manifested by said resolutions: Therefore 
_ Resolved, That the Senate and House of Representatives in General 
Assembly met, with a fixed and unaltered purpose to stand by them, 
do reaffirm and readopt said resolutions in their letter and spirit. 
Resolved further, That the Governor cause copies of these resolu- 
tions to be transmitted to the President of the Confederate States, and 
the Governors of the several States of the Confederacy, and also to 
the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Confederate Congress, with the request that they 
cause said resolutions to be read before their respective bodies. 
Aa K. sW RIGHT; 
President of the Senate. 
L. H. KENAN, 
Secretary of the Senate. 
THOMAS HARDEMAN, Jr., 
Speaker of the House. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk of the House. 


JOSEPH E. BROWN, 
Governor. 


Assented to November 24, 1863. 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE’ DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, December 21, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

DEAR SIR: I desire to call your attention to an evil which is inflict- 
ing great distress upon the people of this State and contributing 
largely to the public discontent. I allude to illegal seizures of prop- 
erty and other depredations of an outrageous character by detached 
bands of troops, chiefly cavalry. The Department, Iam sure, can have 
no idea of the extent and character of this evil. It is enough in many 
cases to breed a rebellion in a loyal county against the Confederacy, 
and has actually been the cause of much alienation of feeling in many 
parts of North Carolina. It is not my purpose now to give instances 
and call for punishment of the offenders—that I do to their command- 
ing officers—but to ask if some order or regulation for the govern- 
ment of troops on detached service, the severe and unflinching execu- 
tion of which might not check this stealing, pilfering, burning, and 
sometimes murderous conduct. I give you my word that in North 
Carolina it has become a grievance, intolerable, damnable, and not to 
be borne. If God Almighty had yet in store another plague worse 
than all others which he intended to have let loose on the Egyptians 
in case Pharaoh still hardened his heart, I am sure it must have been 
a regiment or so of half-armed, half-disciplined Confederate cavalry. 
Had they been turned loose among Pharaoh’s subjects, with or without 
an impressment law, he would have become so sensible of the anger of 
God that he never would have followed the children of Israel to the 
Red Sea! No, sir; not aninch! Cannot officers be reduced to the 


1062 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


ranks for permitting this? Cannot afew men be shot for perpetrat- 
ing these outrages, as an example? Unless something can be done I 
shall be compelled in some sections to call out my militia and levy 
actual war against them. I beg your early and earnest attention to 
this matter. 
Very respectfully, yours, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[Indorsement. ] 


DECEMBER 25, 1863. 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL: 


Can you suggest, or do you advise, a general order to avert the 
threatened disasters which so affect Governor Vance’s imagination ? 
4% 


Ko) 


Secretary. 
GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
No. 163. Richmond, December 23, 1863. 


The attention of officers of the Army is again directed to paragraph 
VI, General Orders, No. 28, requiring that in all recommendations 
for military appointments the name of the State be given of which 
the person is a citizen. No applications will hereafter receive atten- 
tion in which this rule is not observed. 

By order: 

S. COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
- Milledgeville, Ga., December 23, 1863. 
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS: 


SiR: I have the honor herewith to inclose you a copy of resolutions 
passed almost unanimously by the General Assembly of Georgia, 
affirming the constitutional right of Georgia troops in the service of 
the Confederate States, who were tendered by the Governor of this 
State, in response to the requisitions of the President, to elect their 
own Officers. 

It is earnestly hoped that Congress will, in reponse to the demand 
of the Legislature of this State, remove all obstructions which it has 
thrown in the way of the free exercise of this clear constitutional 
right of the gallant troops of this State, who have endured and sacri- 
ficed so much for our glorious cause, and that the troops of all the 
States may have the same just recognition of their constitutional 
rights. | 

JOSEPH E. BROWN. 


[Inclosure. |] 
RESOLUTIONS. 


Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, That 
believing it to be the constitutional right of all soldiers who went 
from Georgia through the agency of the State to elect their regimental, 
battalion, and company officers, we request our Representatives in 
Congress, aS a proper appreciation of the patriotic devotion, patience, 
and toil of our gallant soldiers in this sanguinary struggle for inde- 
pendence, to use their zealous efforts to procure, at the earliest prac- 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1063 


ticable day, such a change in existing Confederate laws as shall 
secure the right of all regiments battalions, and companies in the 
Confederate service from this State to elect all their regimental, bat- 
talion, and company officers. 

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor is hereby requested to 
furnish a copy of this resolution to each of our Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress. 

THOS. HARDEMAN, JR., 
Speaker of the House. 
L. CARRINGTON, 
Clerk of the House. 
A. R. WRIGHT, 
President of the Senate. 
L. H. KENAN, 
Secretary of the Senate. 

Assented to December 14, 1863. 

JOSEPH E. BROWN, 


Governor. 
{First indorsement. } 


Secretary of War will please note the statements in the printed letter 
on the first page and compare them with the records of the War Office 
that the ease may be fully understood before it is acted on by the 
Congress or responded to by the Executive. 
Ahead & 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Respectfully submitted to the President. 

The President will perceive that this complaint is of the action of 
Congress and not of this Department. . 

There has been some correspondence with Governor Brown on the 
subject-matter of these resolutions. The complaint was at first 
directed against this Department, which was answered by the inclosed 
letter; and the Governor closed the correspondence by saying he 
should appeal to this Georgia Legislature. His letters are inclosed.* 
The Department did not consider it to be a part of its duty to vindi- 
eate to Governor Brown the legislation by which it was controlled, or 
to continue the correspondence further. 

It may be proper to add that the Department does not consider the 
claim to be well founded. The opinions of the Attorneys-General 
(three in number) are not harmonious, and the subject was finally 
submitted to you in a communication from this Department, and the 
existing practice conforms to the conclusion then made. 

[JAMES A. SEDDON.?] 


————$——$— — 


Hpers. VOLUNTEER AND CONSCRIPT BUREAU, DEPT. NO. 2, 
Montgomery, Ala., December 26, 1868. 
General SAMUEL COOPER, 
Adjutant and Inspector General: 
The ordert of the Secretary of War of the 15th [16th] instant 
relieving me from duty in this bureau and ordering me to report to 


* For inclosures mentioned, see Benjamin to Brown, February 2, 1862, Vol. I, 
this series, p. 902; Brown to Seddon, July 10, 1863, Vol. Il, this series, p. 620: 
Seddon to Brown, July 25, 1863, ibid., p. 671, and Brown to Seddon, August 21, 
1863, ibid., p. 737. One paper noted as an inclosure (Brown to Seddon, May 30, 
1863) is not found. 

+See Series I, Vol. XX XI, Part ITT, p. 836. 


1064 SORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Lieutenant-General Hardee, and the order* of the 18th directing me 
to turn over books, officers, supporting forces, &c., to Colonel Pres- 
ton, were duly received. I construe the second order as modifying 
the first, so far as to require me to remain here on duty until Colonel 
Preston, or some other officer designated by him, shall arrive to 
receive the transfer ordered. It is the only way I can conceive of to 
earry out the second order. I am disposing of such business as is 
most urgent and necessary to keep everything in active operation and 
to prevent injury to the service. General Johnston was here yester- 
day, and so directed me to act. He further ordered me to remain 
here until I received further instructions from the War Office. It is 
absolutely necessary, in my judgment, that I should remain here long 
enough to have closed up, with proper vouchers, the large expendi- 
tures of public money made by lieutenants of the line assigned to 
duty as acting assistant quartermasters and commissaries of subsist- 
ence at the various rendezvous of this bureau, and to settle the 
accounts for expenses of officers, which can alone be done by my 
examination and approval. If had given orders for the settlements of 
these accounts of acting assistant quartermasters and commissaries 
by which the whole expenditures would be presented in the consoli- 
dated reports of my bonded officer some time since, copies of which 
orders were submitted to and approved by General Johnston. Copies 
were also sent to the Secretary of War. . 

I do not know whether Colonel Preston intends coming on in per- 
son, or will designate some officer to receive the transfer. It is my 
duty to the Department and to the Government to say that in my 
judgment neither Colonel Preston nor any other officer can stay in 
Richmond and properly manage and work this organization. It must 
have a central head to provide for its absolute wants, to make the 
change of officers constantly going by orders from the generals of our 
armies, and to examine and settle the accounts of officers constantly 
coming in; to control the working force, upon the success of which 
depends the strength of the armies and the hopes of the country. 

Reports from army headquarters there that General Hardee’s army 
is receiving 300 men per day, while all the other armies are receiving 
a due proportion. I decidedly prefer going to the front if Iam placed 
in command of a respectable foree. If I am not to have such com- 
mand, I would prefer my present service, and that was what I meant 
to say, and think and did so express myself. I was willing to do duty 
wherever the Government thought my services most useful; that I 
was not content to stay on this duty and be debarred all chance of 
future promotion, while all those officers who formerly served under 
me would become my seniors. If I am to be forever overlooked (not- 
withstanding all my sacrifices, sufferings, and labors for the cause I 
have had so much at heart) I cannot but feel myself deeply aggrieved. 
As a soldier I know it is my duty to submit to the judgment of the 
President without murmuring, and I do not wish to be considered now 
as doing so; but I should be less than a mortal or more than a mortal if 
I could be always indifferent to the treatment I receive from my own 
Government. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
GID. J. PILLOW, 
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army, Superintendent, &c. 


* See Series I, Vol. XXXI, Part III, p. 844. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1065 


AN ACT to amend so much of section eleven of the tax law as requires one-tenth 
of the sweet potatoes produced this year to be paid to the Government. 


The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That 
so much of section eleven of ‘‘An act to lay taxes for the common 
defense, and carry on the Government of the Confederate States,” 
approved April twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, as 
requires farmers and planters to pay one-tenth of the sweet potatoes 
produced in the present year to the Confederate Government, be so 
amended as to authorize the producers of sweet potatoes, in the year 
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to make commutation by payment 
of the money value of the tithe thereof, instead of payment in kind, 
at rates to be fixed by the commissioners under the impressment act. 

Approved December 28, 1863. 


[DECEMBER 28, 1863.—For act of Congress to prevent the enlist- 
ment of substitutes in the military service, see General Orders, No. 3, 
January 9, 1864, Vol. III, this series, p. 11; and for act authorizing 
the tax in kind to be commuted by collection of salt pork as an 
equivalent, see General Orders, No. 4, January 11, 1864, cbid., p. 14.] 


RICHMOND, VA., December 28, 1868. 
His Excellency CHARLES CLARK, 
Governor of Mississippi: 

sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 19th 
instant covering resolutions of the Legislature of Mississippi passed 
at its recent session at Columbus. My heart responds to the senti- 
ment of the Legislature that it is grateful to a public servant, in the 
midst of the weight and perplexing cares of state, to be assured of the 
sympathy and confidence of his fellow-citizens. Next to the blessing 
of God, the cordial support of the people is most potential for the 
maintenance of our independence and the success of the principles 
for which we are contending. Upon that support I have always 
relied, and never, thus far, in vain. An entire co-operation between 
people and Government, with the same activity, valor, and endurance 
which have distinguished the past, will, under Divine favor, establish 
on the enduring basis of truth and justice the constitutional liberty 
of these Confederate States. | 

I am profoundly grateful to the Legislature of the State, of which 
it has ever been my pride to be a citizen, for the kindness which has 
induced them to tender to me this expression of their confidence. It is 
also gratifying to me to have so authoritatively and strongly expressed 
the unshaken faith of the people of Mississippi in the justice of their 
cause, and their resolve to uphold the principles upon which the Con- 
federate Government has been established. While making these 
acknowledgments through you to the Legislature I beg that you will 
accept for yourself my sincere thanks for the kind manner in which 
you have conveyed the resolutions. 

Very respectfully and truly, yours, 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


1066 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, NORTH CAROLINA, 
Raleigh, December 29, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 


DEAR SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit to you certain 
resolutions of the General Assembly of this State, passed at the recent 
extra session, upon the subject of illegal impressments and the scar- 
city of provisions, to which [ invite your early attention. 

There is great reason to believe that the supply of provisions is 
very limited, and I earnestly request that the Government will impress 
as small quantities as possible within our borders. Impressing agents 
in many instances act in such manner as to create great dissatisfac- 
tion among our people, and I sincerely hope that you will look to their 
conduct, and issue such instructions as will protect citizens from 
iNegal and unjust annoyance. Theseagents sometimes assume the right 
to judge of the quantity which the citizen needs for the use of his: 
family, and impress what they regard as the surplus, thus leaving 
him without an adequate supply. This erying evil and injustice 
should be corrected without delay. 

Many military officers also, in violation of the law of Congress, 
assume the right of impressment. This evil cannot longer be toler- 
ated, and I invoke your aid in its suppression. 

With sentiments of great respect, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[Inclosure. ] 
Resolutions in relation to impressment. 


Whereas, this Legislature has been informed that certain persons, 
claiming to be officers and soldiers in the military service of the Con- 
federate States, have been and are now going through portions of the 
State making impressments of corn, pork, and other articles of food 
essential to the support of the inhabitants of the said localities in 
addition to the tithes demanded by the Government, and before the 
tithes are collected; and whereas, it is the duty of the authorities of 
the State to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of their consti- 
tutional rights and privileges, as well as the subject to render obedi- 
ence to its constitutiona!: and legal requirements: Therefore, 

Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor is hereby requested 
to correspond with the authorities of the Confederate Government in 
regard to such impressments, and ascertain whether they are directed 
and countenanced by them, and to make an effort to prevail upon said 
authorities to put a stop to all such illegal proceedings and public 
nuisances. 

Resolved further, That in consideration of the scarcity of provisions 
after the tithes shall be withdrawn from the State, His Excellency the 
Governor be respectfully requested to use every honorable means to 
keep in the State the balance of provisions; otherwise great and almost 
universal suffering must ensue. 

Read three times and ratified in General Assembly this the 12th 
day of December, A. D. 1863. 

R. 8. DONNELL, 

Secretary of House of Commons. 
GILES MEBANE, 

Secretary of Senate. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1067 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 


I, John P. H. Russ, secretary of state in and for the State of North 
Carolina, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the 
original on file in this office. 

Given under my hand this 29th of December, 1863. 

JNO. P. H. RUSS, 
Secretary of State. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, WAR DEPARTMENT, 
Richmond, Va., December 29, 1863. 
Hon. C. J. MCRAE, 
Burlington Hotel, London: 


Sir: I sent, by a late opportunity, a copy of my letter of September 
26, which I regretted to learn had not reached you. Lest that like- 
wise should have miscarried I inclose a further copy of the same,* 
as it gave general instructions, which it is important should reach 
and be perused by you. 

I learn, with less surprise than regret, of the discoveries which 
have been made in the examination of the accounts of Messrs. 8. 
Isaac, Campbell & Co. with Major Huse. For some time past I have 
had strong suspicions that the practices of that firm were more sharp 
than honest, and that Major Huse, through overconfidence or some 
other motive, was allowing the interests of the Department to suffer 
in his transactions with them. I had given on several occasions to 
the Ordnance Bureau, whose officer Major Huse was, and who con- 
ducted the correspondence with him, injunctions to bring all dealings 
with that firm to as early a close and settlement as possible; but in 
this, as in some other instances, Major Huse has seemed more inclined 
to thwart than carry out the wishes of the Department, and has so 
acted as to render the continuance of relations and dealings difficult 
of termination. I should have recalled him but for my apprehen- 
sions that, as some charges had been made against his integrity in 
connection with his transactions, they might appear to be counte- 
naneced by the conduct of the Department, and thus do, perhaps, 
injustice to a faithful officer. 

In consequence, I preferred the examination should be made of his 
accounts by persons having fully the confidence of the Department, 
and all the facts ascertained before any action was taken. I hope 
the result may yet indicate his fidelity and character, both as an 
officer and man of business; but the information given by your letter 
eannot fail to excite some doubts as to both. His conduct in regard 
to the Austrian rifles was certainly extraordinary remissness, to say 
the least. It has placed the Department in an awkward and embar- 
rassing position. : 

On the one hand it would be manifestly unjust that so large a sum 
as £25,000 should be lost to the Confederacy by the omission of one 
of its officers to express a ‘‘ desire” which it must have been known 
he felt, or ought to have felt, and when the circumstances rendering 
such desire an official obligation were fully known and understood 
by the other party to the contract. 

The expression of such desire could only have been omitted either 
from collusion or from full confidence on the part of Major Huse 
that, under the circumstances and with the knowledge possessed by 


* See p. 824. 


1068 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Messrs. S. Isaac, Campbell & Co., they fully understood that desire 
to exist, and that it would be recognized by them. On the other 
hand, the mere language of the contract, in the absence of such 
‘‘desire,” would seem to entitle these sharp dealers to the claim they 
make, and the Department is most reluctant to seem to violate its 
faith, or disregard the letter of a contract made by its agent. 

If bound to decide, the latter hazard must be encountered, for the 
claim is essentially too inequitable to be submitted to. Still, I much 
prefer the matter should be arranged by mutual consent, or, if need 
be, referred to equitable arbitrament, and I give to you the discretion 
of adopting either course if deemed advisable. 

I agree with you in thinking it would not be advisable to attach the 
cotton or other property held by 8S. Isaac, Campbell & Co. within the 
Confederacy, not obtained or held as the immediate result of transac- 
tions with the Department, in order to secure full indemnity for con- 
tingent balances that may be found against them. The case would be 
otherwise as to other property or money paid to their agent in settle- 
ment of theiraccount. It is feared that such has passed beyond our 
reach, but the gold may still be in the hands of our agent, who will 
respect our notice to hold it subject to the adjustment of their 
accounts, and Colonel Gorgas, of the Ordnance Department, has been 
directed to give an.intimation that such is the wish of the Depart- 
ment. If the £50,000 of bonds retained by you should prove inade- 
quate, this resource may yet avail. 

It was fortunate that you took the measure of calling in a public 
accountant to examine the books of this firm. They had evidently 
expected, by the appearance of great fairness and the proffer of every 
facility, to induce yourself and your assistants to take their accounts, 
on very cursory inspection, as satisfactory. They had no idea from 
the very first of submitting them to the observation of a practical 
accountant, versed in the shipping ways of mercantile usage, where 
false invoices and deceptive accounts are regular matters of trade. 

This firm have manifestly changed their whole face of proceedings, 
and, from an attempt to blind you into overconfidence, are now seek- 
ing, by effrontery and concealment, to obtain all possible advantages. 
The pretenses asserted for discounts and commissions can certainly 
not be countenanced by English justice or mercantile honor, and while 
you may have difficulty in ferreting out the truth, so far as you do 
succeed you have only to be firm in your demands, and the dread of 
exposure will compel their ready compliance. 

The course of the Department I would have determined by their 
own conduct. So far as they may have acted honestly, or in a liberal 
spirit, I would desire them to be liberally dealt by; but if they per- 
sist in knavery, and exhibit a refractory spirit, you should exact rigid 
justice. I shall await further developments of your examination with 
interest, and shall be pleased to be informed of its result when ascer- 
tained. 

I am pleased to see that the title has been made to the Harriet 
Pinckney, and consider it as indicative of the yielding that may be 
expected under the dread of exposure. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War. 


[DECEMBER 30, 1863.—For Vance to Davis, in relation to peace 
negotiations with the enemy, see Series I, Vol. LI, Part II, p. 807. | 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1069 


RICHMOND, VA., December 31, 1568. 
THE SENATE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA: 


The act entitled ‘‘An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to aid 
the State of Kentucky, and for other purposes,’” approved 29th of 
January, 1862, has been duly considered, and I find myself constrained, 
though very reluctantly, because of the purpose in view, to return the 
same to the House in which it originated with a statement of the 
objections which cause me to withhold my approval. 

The act to which this is amendatory was for the declared object of 
aiding the Governor and Council of Kentucky to raise and organize 
troops in that State for the Confederate service, and to supply them 
with clothing, subsistence, transportation, arms, and ammunition. 
The second section of that act carefully provided the manner of mak- 
ing requisitions on the appropriation, so as to secure its application 
to the object for which it was designed, viz, to provide for troops 
raised for the Confederate service anterior to their being mustered 
into the same, and therefore before they could be supplied by the 
officers of the Confederate Army. . 

The act now before me devotes one-half of that appropriation to a 
purpose entirely different from that originally contemplated, and 
authorizes the Governor and Council to draw from the ‘Treasury 
$1,000,000, to be expended in purchasing clothing for the use and 
benefit of the Kentucky troops now in the service. These already 
receive the same allowance of clothing as all other troops. The act 
under consideration makes an appropriation for an object for which 
other money is appropriated, and directs its expenditure by agents 
other than the bonded officers charged with supplying clothing to the 
whole Army. If it be designed, as equity would seem to require, to 
make a proportionate provision for all the other troops, the Senate 
will not fail to observe the very large expenditure which it would 
involve, and that the method is objectionable, because it would be to 
employ two sets of agents to perform the same duty, who, buying in 
the same market, would necessarily be bidders against each other. 

If the allowance of clothing be not sufficient, a better remedy would 
seem to be an increase of the appropriation for the clothing for the 
whole Army, that the grateful duty might in that case be performed 
by the Confederate authorities of issuing to the soldier whatever 
additional allowance the Government may be able to procure and his 
wants may require. 

It will be further perceived that to recognize as well founded the 
implication contained in this bill that extra supplies of clothing fur- 
nished to the soldiers ought to be paid for by the Confederacy would 
lay the foundation for large claims to be made hereafter by the States 
for reimbursement on account of clothing supplied by them to their 
soldiers. 

If the discrimination made by this act in favor of the gallant 
soldiers of our sister State of Kentucky originates from the natural 
sympathy excited by their separation from such comforts as they 
might expect to receive if able to communicate with their homes, 
Congress will not fail to perceive that there are many other troops in 
the service in like condition, whose claims to consideration stand on 


precisely the same footing. 
JEFFERSON DAVIS. 


1070 _ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
BUREAU OF CONSCRIPTION, 
Richmond, Va., December 31, 1868. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War: 

Sir: The following resolution of the House of Representatives has 
been referred to this Bureau: 

Resolved, That the President be requested to communicate to this House the 
number of officers and men, including the police and mounted guard, employed 
a as the conscript law, distinguishing the number in each Congressional 
district. 


In reply I have the honor to submit the accompanying papers 
marked, respectively, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia, the four States over which the jurisdiction of this Bureau 
extended at the date of the resolution. In addition to the matter of 
conscription proper this Bureau is charged with duties requiring per- 
haps tenfold the labor and force demanded for the full performance 
of that service. 

First. The arrest and return of all deserters and absentees without 
leave from the Army, amounting at this day to so frightful a percent- 
age that it may not be prudent to express even a conjecture. 

Second. The whole matter of furloughs and details outside of the 
Army, the details alone reaching 13,000. 

Third. The whole matter of substitution, of which there are now 
over 15,000 cases under investigation. 

Fourth. The general external police of the Army in all its branches. 

In the performance of these duties the officers and men herewith 
returned are employed and distributed. The following is the sum- 
mary of the matter demanded in the resolution. The specifie charac- 
ter may be seen by reference to the papers indicated. In addition to 
these returns I also inclose a part of the instructions of this Bureau 
concerning the matter involved. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JNO. S. PRESTON, 
Colonel and Superintendent. 


VIRGINIA. 
Ee Medical examining 
S . 
Si Enrolling officers. onra: 
Oo 2% 
oF : = 
eo" 2 bu 
5 ae One 5 
Districts. iS) F=| m3 n a 
~ — nD +n j=] 
i=) > . yy n i= q =| [=| & 
Ee, | 2 S| ta 3 iS) SS 5 
eae| 8 2.4/2.) phe 
qa 2 3 ro A BO a bs 
o- ce : 3 2 5 a a 
a) =) oa) a) 6) R < AY 
First pices. docs acters secre aacse ie a cesestee Bo Wate eee 3 AS al cee eae 1 2 
S@CONG eae cewcviS ane eec ae ens eee’ e aa eee Sioleensel ates 3 58 es Se, 2 
Thirdttte. Seer Aas eee ere ee eee ee Quis cee 8 36 be eS BE oe 2 
Mourth Uoaccscesenotecueace ae seer nee ere Goleenate 7 33 1 con ceee | See 
Pith: ics eee ee eee ee Cee ee ee 5 1 ia) 91 i loimeee 2 
Sixthite2 iso 22 eee af ie. Sera ees cee ret aes Es a 6 100 Livescan ees 2 
Seventh ssc oe sie ee eee oe 6 ih a5) 39 | eee 1 2 
Kighth and Ninth 2082 eee pe lee eee oe Giae oie 8 .dee 8 39 Ll loee saree 2 
Tenth songs. bee eet eee sees, Ie eee Baloeceeee + 1 26 |. $652, pol eee 2 
Hleventh cca saccace sens eee paneer TL elgate sree 15 D3 4). cometee ee Sear Be 
Eywel ith soso eres ne oe eee ce el eee 10 z 13 107 Vac eee 2 
Lhirteénthi, 10.08 feet eee eee ceeee is 2B 17 46. \nsncene sl 2 
Total: tebee: - teins eke ol 90 8 107 676 a 4 20 


Aggregate, 943. 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 


NORTH CAROLINA. 


Districts. 


Se ee 
i ee 
ee ee a ed 


Aggregate, 870. 


1071 


=< Medical exam 
: & Enrolling officers. ining board. 
oa 
Bea 2 D 
ee ho ees) 1 Seine pe 
me | 2 a 7 ° S) 
Sea o 4 s = 2 
aS S c q iy Bb 
eS ce fo) ° 3 oq 
=) @ 7) o 0) Ay 
ah cawiek Gil cs0es ioe Us eee, 1 vies! sasha 2 
Spee de. 2 « PT it 3 Bele 3 1 2 
RRA (6 ee, aes ee 1 2 
Sek ere 8 5 500 1 2 
pal res £4 GAle ackoate clircne oar 1 2 
See ag. a DW ae es aad it 2 
Sere Nae a 2 6 250 1 2 
Sling Ke os hana Mery i 2 
oc tee a es PA lhe eee ares ere aia i! 2 
32 47 14| 750 9 | 18 


The men at Camps Holmes and Vance are sent out to such sections of the State as occasion may 


require. 


From Camp Holmes sixty men, with Fifty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, under the com- 


mand of Brigadier-General Hoke, are used for arresting deserters in the Sixth and Seventh Districts. 


SOUTH CAROLINA. 


Be Medical examining 
3 * . 
3 & Enrolling officers. board. 
on. 
=e = 3 | 
5 ~ ° 4 
Districts. ow E r a 3 
& 9 . PA & g ag s 
Beeler ld) So odoin }io84 pie Sta 
Ass 3 s = bf 2 oD a 
Bos | g S a K S - 
') o) Nn oO op) <q Ay 
MATA t ee ob ae i eas tes bee esac remo e etal ae bee 8 3 5 1 1 1 
WOCOM Cee eters eee sea te we toe sei seme ecleiieesictcs 2 2 1 Ry emer se 2 
Pid Gao ee once Saclay he cate ate ne cae cette cla Oaltale ola inate 3 1 [Sh ccaee eee 1 9 
Oe hire eee nee Gates cae o rec sae hocivae cn eles oases 8 21 Ye pe ae oa 1 1 
PEPE SINE nec acai. oes ciss Sama e eae sae Soci neat es 9 30 55 ial ee eee 2 
Sinai ae soe arate wtdecs So clsk etoile! tetoc| Siem Alerts 9 vi 12 1 1 2 
lL cgi a Mall IS darth MI a ek 8 39 64 90 4 ra Cee 
Aggregate, 219. 
sing GEORGIA. 
ee Enrolling officers Medical exam- 
. fe & : ining board. 
os 
oAg , : 
Tistricta. 20 s Lee’s battalion. ‘ 
ee a2 a 5 a 8 
mcr | Z H He } S 
2fg S Be 3 ‘ } oat 
aE Ue  ee eek e SE 
(2) mal 
D rs) B 5 = B pu 
TRO PESS ites ite ates ia = aia =m erin = wiciareeivie =e afaih mie = ellie lm eine ciore 1 BO | nas oeaeetle erarAS 1 Be 
SEAN | Jan Oc Ge Rc JOCSNG ODO EDEO 6 SEUD BOONE Tel SCiree cia” 5 LG |ee sarees la errseiaee 1 9 
Uae eee tee ae alae ae ciclcuis ea oe clots pele eidirie mis = ere 3 18 (|e hac ee oiststeyeye ote 1 2 
OTe eee ee oars ae Sie ew nls cam ae ete eieieiniainiflee ates sae 3 LG Abs Sars erereiiseeetravete 1 2 
MOG aA os SO tore = AES) Ae One. 3 4E9e apie malice aoc u LG: Pie we free oleate 1 2 
SE eee ie sees ae ne wiriaiee ee wafer Smia'al ate (loPtvivicinls 3 22 PISA oes ste s titerel 1 Pe 
Sovenbivsccesae ss2ccs eee senile tae a2 vias e'a ainldloms oo ish 1 7A | PN ae Bal RRS SE 1 pe 
Highth .......-.-------- 22 eee eee e cece eee ene lee ee eens 2 15 }.-5.5---|.---0--- 1 2 
ANSTEY oie Oe ws eee rein = Sethe we aa we irte ates aleve a ea) lle mica’ fm oie 2 ZOVe.ce ci cae le emma i 2 
Peril Bee seek cements perie ih aiaerhoad eh ante cine 1 QO) tech oc ~S'aetae BA ] 2 
4 yay ft bay 9 et ere Cie Ee ee sr ate 36 22 208 30 455 10 20 


Aggregate, 781. 


A number of men in Major Lee's battalion have been detailed under General Orders, No. 96, Adju- 
tant and Inspector General’s Office, 1862, being unfit for field service by reason of wounds. This 
battalion is not distributed among the Congressional districts, but is ordered where most needed. It 
is composed of exempts and detailed men mostly. 


1072 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


SUMMARY. 
z 3 Enrolling department. Medical examining board. 
Sak 
HAS g 5 
tate. 2 ee g om ; a D © 
ae 23% Pe « a a | ae z 5 
- Ba | ze ) i | S aS 8 oo 
ga © o eo 9 My 2g ‘a ES 
2aS 2 2 3 4 - “= oh 80 
=e = wad =| fH mM be 
oer Esl + fo) =} i=] n =| o0 
6) ro) Nn RQ a RN <q py < 
WArginiatcess concent 31 90 8 107 676 7 4 20 943 
North Carolina............ 32 Aish cet ceriers 14 750 9 | eee 18 £70 
South Carolina ............ 8 BO Ais a sa eee 64 90 4 4 10 219 
Georgiasi sso eee ee 36 Oy tit eveier Sees 663 ste 10. |Sc-2oeee 20 781 
Mébalocvesugeres use t 107; 228] 8| 848| 1,516 30 8 68 | 2,813 


STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
Raleigh, December 31, 1863. 
Hon. JAMES A. SEDDON, 
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.: 


DEAR SIR: I learn that large distilleries are in operation at Char- 
lotte and Salisbury, in this State, making spirits of the tithe grain 
by order of the War Department. Upon application to the office of 
Major Badham, chief collector of tithes for this State, I learn that he 
has orders to deliver 30,000 bushels of grain to the distillers for this 
purpose. 

In addition to the many and weighty reasons which could be urged 
against the abstraction of this much bread from the Army or the poor 
I beg to inform you that the laws of this State positively forbid the 
distillation of any kind of grain within its borders under heavy penal- 
ties. It will, therefore, be my duty to interpose the arm of civil law 
to prevent and punish this violation thereof unless you will order it 
to cease. 

It seems to me that if spirits are so absolutely requisite to the Medi- 
cal Department that grain sufficient might be procured in remote and 
plentiful districts, and leave for the use of the people every grain 
which is accessible. Be this as it may, Iam sure you will agree with’ 
me in saying that no person can, under authority of the Confederate 
Government, violate State laws with impunity. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Z. B. VANCE. 


[First indorsement. | 2 
JANUARY 5, 1864. 
To SURGEON-GENERAL: 


Have you the contract for the manufacture of spirits referred to? 
If so, report on quantity of grain and the necessity of the supplies. 
| J «da had 


[Second indorsement. ] 


Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War with the information 
that the Medical Department has no contract for alcoholic stimulants 
in the State of North Carolina. 

The distillery at Salisbury referred to by Governor Vance is owned 
by the Medical Department and is engaged in the manufacture of 
whisky and alcohol for the sole use of the sick and wounded of the 
Army. This distillery was purchased by this department for the 
purpose of dispensing with the system of contracting for alcoholic 
stimulants, as it has been found that a Jarge quantity of whisky 


4 re eh. et 


a = 


CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 1073 


manufactured by contractors is of an inferior quality, and their con- 
tracts were not in other respects faithfully complied with. It is also 
believed that a large quantity of the whisky made by contractors has 
been sold to private parties when it should have been delivered to the 
Government, thereby consuming more grain than was required to fill 
their contracts. 

Major Badham has been instructed to turn over grain to the medi- 
cal purveyor in charge of the Government distillery at Salisbury in 
order to obviate the necessity of this department going into market 
to purchase, which would enhance the price paid for grain by the 
Quartermaster’s Department, and the 30,000: bushels referred to in 
the within communication is for a whole year’s supply for the distil- 
lery. There is no distillery at Charlotte, N. C., belonging to this 
department, nor am I aware that there is one there. The Attorney- 
General has decided that the Confederate Government has the express 
power to support armies; that any means may be used which are 
necessary and proper to obtain supplies for that support. Therefore 
a State has no power to interfere with the General Government in the 
manufacture or even contracting for such supplies. In conclusion I 
would state that it is absolutely necessary for the comfort and welfare 
of the sick and wounded of our Army that the Government distillery 
at Salisbury should not be interfered with or the supply of grain 
cut off. 

S. P. MOORE, 
Surgeon- General. 


Consolidated abstract from returns of the Confederate Army on or about December 
31, 1863. 


[Compiled from such returns as are on file in the War Department. ] 


| ra} 
Present for duty. a E | 
® o di 
m4 | tM 
. ae e 
cc0) 
Command. : 3 $2 = 
Z Sd ee ‘ 
3) PS a A 
° FI bh op S £ 
ee o &0 tot) Cy 
fo) a < 4 Qa 
Army of Northern Virginia a (Lee).........-.. 3, 530 42. 966 55, 995 90,055 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Department of Western Virginia and East 842 9, 803 11, 836 19,599 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Tennessee b (Jones). 
Department of Richmond (Elzey).........-.-.- 397 5, 900 7. 559 11,716 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Department of North Carolina (Pickett)...--. 706 10, 931 13, 239 18.763 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Defenses of Wilmington, N.C. (Whiting) .-.-. 306 5, 758 7, 299 9,215 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Forces in East Tennessee c (Longstreet) ...... 1, 502 15, 362 21, 286 44,173 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and 1 718 26, 591 34, 132 47,491 | Dec. 31, 1863 
Florida (Beauregard). 


Army of Tennessee (Johnston) ..........----- 4, 052 43, 564 57, 428 98,215 | Dec. 31, 1863 

Department of Mississippi and East Louisi- 1, 624 18, 813 24, 639 44,132 | Jan. 20, 1864 
anad (Polk). 

Department of the Gulf (Maury) .-... ........ 

Trans-Mississippi Department (E. K.Smith)..| , 


MET ee Seemed: ROSMAC Hor. OBOE Hine 17,726 | 215,860 | 277,970 | 464, 646 


| 247 4, 393 5, 570 7,998 | Dec. 31, 1863 
2. 802 31,779 40, 987 73,289 | Jan. 1,1864 


aExclusive of the Maryland Line, accounted for in the Department of Richmond, and Nelson’s 
battalion of artillery and troops in the Valley District, for which there are no returns of an 
approximate date. 

bIncluding Ransom's division, serving with Longstreet in East Tennessee. 

c Exclusive of Ransoms division, reported in the Department of Western Virginia and East 

nnessee. 
1a Designated December 23, 1863, by General Polk as the Department of the Southwest, but that 
designation was, on January 28 1864,changed by the C.S. War Department to the ‘‘ Department of 
Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.”’ 


68 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1074 


CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 


Principal officials of the War Department and its bureaus from July 1, 1862, to 
December 31, 1863. 


[Compiled from official records. ] 


SECRETARY OF WAR. 


George W. Randolph, to November 17, 
1862. 

Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith (assigned 
temporarily), November 17 to 21, 1862. 

James A. Seddon, from November 21, 
1862. 


ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR. 


Albert T. Bledsoe, to October 1, 1862. 
John A. Campbell, from October 21, 
1862. 
CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF WAR. 


Robert G. H. Kean. 


ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL. 
General Samuel Cooper. 


QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL. 


Col. Abraham C. Myers, to August 7, 
1868. (During a period of absence 
of the Quartermaster-General in the 
summer of 1862 Lieut. Col. Larkin 
Smith acted in that capacity.) 

Brig. Gen. Alexander R. Lawton, 
from August 10, 1863. 


COMMISSARY-GENERAL OF SUBSISTENCE. 

Col. Lucius B. Northrop. 
SURGEON-GENERAL. 

Surg. Samuel P. Moore. 


CHIEF OF ENGINEER BUREAU. 
Capt. Alfred L. Rives, to September 24, 
1862 


Lieut. Col. Jeremy F. Gilmer, from 
September 25, 1862, to August 17, 
1863. (Was promoted to colonel Oc- 
tober 4, 1862.) 

Lieut. Col. Alfred L. Rives (acting), 
from August 18, 1863. 


CHIEF OF BUREAU OF ORDNANCE. 


Lieut. Col. (subsequently colonel) 
Josiah Gorgas. 


SUPERINTENDENT OF NITER AND MINING 
BUREAU. 


Maj. Isaac M. St. John. (Was pro- 
mua to lieutenant-colonel May 28, 
863.) 


COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 


David Hubbard, to April, 1862[?]. 
S. S. Scott, from April 8, 1862. 


SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSCRIPTION. 


Brig. Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, from De- 
cember 16, 1862. 

Brig. Gen. Charles W. Field, May 25, 
1868, to July 30, 1863. (During the 
illness of General Field the Bureau 
was in charge of Lieut. Col. George 


W. Lay.) 
Col. John S. Preston, from July 30, 1863. 


ALTERNATE DESIGNATIONS 


OF 


ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED IN THIS VOLUME. 


Alternate designation in black-faced type, the official designation, reference, or State to which 
organization belongs follows in italics. 


Abe’s Rejecters, Inf., 41st Miss. 


Adams Light Guard No. 1, Inf., 16th Miss. 
Adams Light Guard No. 2, Inf., 16th Miss. 


Adams’ (R. L.) Cay., Mississippi State. 
Agency Rifles, Inf., 14th Miss. 

Alcorn Rifles, Inf., 1st Miss. 
Almutcha Inf., 73th Miss. 

Amite Defenders, Inf., 33d Miss. 
Amite Guards, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Amite Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Attala Guards, Inf., 40th Miss. 

Attala Yellow Jackets, Inf., 4th Miss. 
Avengers, Inf., 10th Miss. 

Avery’s (I. W.) Cav., 4th Ga. 

Bahala Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 
Bankston Guard, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Barr’s (A.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Barry Guards, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Barry Guards, Inf., 39th Miss. 
Beauregard Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Beauregard Rifles, Inf., 32d Miss. 
Beauregard Rifles No. 2, Inf., 14th Miss. 
Beckett’s Company, Inf., 41st Miss. 
Ben Bullard Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 
Benela Sharpshooters, Inf., 4th Miss. 
Benning’s (H.L.) Inf., 17th Ga. 
Benton Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 

Biffle’s (J. B.) Cav., 9th Tenn. 

Biloxi Rifles, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Blackland Gideonites, Inf., 23d Miss. 
Blount Guards, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Bogue Chitto Rangers, Inf., 5th Miss. 
Bogue Chitto Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 
Boomerangs, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 
Bowen Company, Inf., 34th Miss. 
Boykin’s (A. H.) Cav., South Carolina. 
Brent Rifles, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Brown Rebels, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Buckner Boys, Inf., 32d Miss. 
Buckner Rebels, Inf., 30th Miss. 
Buena Vista Hornets, Inf., 24th Miss. 
Buena Vista Rifles, Inf., 17th Miss. 


Buford’s (J. H.) Cay., Mississippi State. 
Burnsville Blues, Inf., 17th Miss. 

Burt Avengers, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Burt Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 

Burt’s (W.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Caledonia Rifles, Inf., 24th Miss. 
Calhoun Rifles, Inf., 2@ Miss. 

Camden Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Campbell Guards, Inf., 40th Miss. 
Capitol Guards, Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Carroll County Rebels, Inf., 4th Miss. 
Carroll County Rifles, Inf., 11th Miss. 
Carroll Minute Men, Inf., 30th Miss. 
Center Marksmen, Inf., 4th Miss. 
Charleston Batt., Inf., 1st S. C. Batt. 
Charley Clark Rifles, Inf., 12th Miss. 
Cherry Creek Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 
Chickasaw Guards, Inf., 11th Miss. 
Chickasaw Rifles, Inf., 1ith Miss. 
Choctaw Guards, Inf., 15th Miss. 
Choctaw Rangers, Cayv., 2d Miss. 
Choctaw Rebels, Inf., 24th Miss. 
Choctaw Reserves, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 


Choctaw Silver Grays, Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 


Chunkey Heroes, Inf., 3d Miss. 
Claiborne Guards, Inf., 12th Miss. 
Clanton’s (J. H.) Cay., 1st Ala. 
Clarke County Rangers, Inf., 8th Miss. 
Clarke County Rescuers, Inf., 37th Miss. 
Clopton’s (T. C.) Cay., Virginia. 
Coahoma Invincibles, Inf., 11th Miss. 
Cold Water Rebels, Inf., 34th Miss. 
Columbia Guards, Inf., 38th Miss. 
Columbus Riflemen, Inf., 14th Miss. 
Confederate Guards, Inf., 8th Miss. 
Confederate Guards, Inf., 17th Miss. 
Confederate Guards, Inf., 40th Miss. 
Confederate Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Confederates, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Coonewar Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 
Copiah Rebels, Inf., 36th Miss. 
Corinth Rifles, Inf., 9th Miss. 

(1075) 


1076 


Covington Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Crystal Springs Guard, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Crystal Springs Rifles, Inf., 16th Miss. 

Cumberland Guards, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Cummings Grays, Inf., 24th Miss. 

Dahlgren Guards, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Dahlgren Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Davenport’s (S.) Cay., Batt. Miss. State. 

Dave Rogers Rifles, Inf., 1st Miss. 

Davis Guards, Inf., 33a Miss. 

Debray’s (X. B.) Cav., 26th Tex. 

De Pass’ (W. L.) Art., South Oarolina Palmetto 
Batt., Batty. G. 

De Soto Brothers, Inf., 29th Miss. 

De Soto Guards, Inf., ist Miss. 

De Soto Guards, Inf., 9th Miss. 

De Soto Rifles, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Dibrell’s (G. G.) Cav., 8th Tenn. 

Dixie Boys, Inf., 30th Miss. 

Dixie Guards, Inf., 34th Miss. 

Dixie Guards, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Dixie Guards, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Dixie Heroes, Inf., 30th Miss. 

_ Dixie Rifles, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Dowd Rebels, Inf., 24th Miss. 

Downing Rifles, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Duke’s Company, Inf., 41s¢ Miss. 

Dunn’s (J. B.) Cav., Mississippi State. 

Durant Rifles, Inf., 12th Miss. 

East Mississippi Dragoons, Cay., 2d Miss. 

East Mississippi Grays, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Edwards Tigers, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Ellisville Invincibles, Inf., 8th Miss. 

Enterprise Guards, Inf., 74th Miss. 

Enterprise Tigers, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Fairview Rifles, Inf., 16th Miss. 

Fant’s (A. E.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 

Ferguson’s (T. B.) Art., South Oarolna. 

Fishing Creek Avengers, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Floyd County Legion, Georgia. 

Foote’s (H. W.) Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 

Forrest’s (A. H.) Cay., Mississippi State. 

Foster Creek Rangers, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 

Franklin Beauregards, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Franklin Guards, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Franklin Guards, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Franklin Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Gage’s (W. A.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 

Gainesville Volunteers, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Gaines Warriors, Inf., 24th Miss. 

Gale Reserves, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Gartley’s (W. F.) Cav., Mississippi State. 

Gholson Guards, Cay., Mississippi State. 

Goode Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Goodman Guards, Inf., 34th Miss. 

Grenada Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 

Hall’s (A. A.) Cay., Mississippi State. 

Hamer Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 

Hampton Guards, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Ham’s (IT. W.) Cay., 16th Batt. Miss. State. 

Hancock Rebels, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Hannon’s (M. W.) Cayv., Ist Ala. 

Harper Reserves, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Hartin’s (J. A.) Cay., Mississippi State. 

Hatchie Rifles, Inf., 32d Miss. 

Helen Johnston Guards, Inf., 24th Miss, 


ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED. 


Herndon Rangers, Cav., Mississippi State. 

Hicks’ Company, Inf., 41st Miss. 

Hightower’s (T.) Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 

Hill City Cadets, Inf., 10th Miss. 

Hillsborough Rebels, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Holcombe Legion, South Carolina. 

Holmes County Volunteers, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Holmesville Guards, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Home Guard, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Horn Lake Volunteers, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Invincibles, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Irrepressibles, Inf., 9th Miss. 

luka Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 

James Creek Volunteers, Inf., 1st Miss. 

Jasper Avengers, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Jasper Grays, Inf.,.16th Miss. 

Jasper Guards, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Jeff. Davis Legion, Mississippt. 

Jeff. Davis Rifles, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Jeff. Davis Sharpshooters, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Joe Mathews Rifles, Inf., 2¢ Miss. 

John M. Sharp’s Inf., 3d Miss. 

Johnson Guards, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Johnson’s (J. D.) Art., South Carolina Palmetto 
Batt., Batty. H. 

Johnston Avengers, Inf., 32d Miss. 

Johnston Avengers, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Johnston Avengers, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Jumper’s (J.) Cay., 1st Seminole (Indian) Batt. 

Keitt’s (L. M.) Inf., 20th S. 0. 

Kemper Dragoons, Cay., 2d Miss. 

Kemper Legion, Inf., 13th Miss. 

Kemper Rebels, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Kemper Rebels, Inf., 24th Miss. 

Knox’s (J.G.) Cav., Miss. Local Defense. 

Koger’s Company, Inf., 41st Miss. 

Kossuth Hunters, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Lafayette Guard, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Lafayette Rebels, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Lake Rebels, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Lamar Rifles, Inf., 11th Miss. 

Lauderdale Cay., 2d Miss. 

Lauderdale Guards, Inf., 13th Miss. 

Lauderdale Spring Grays, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Lawrence Rifles, Inf., 12th Miss. 

Leake Rangers, Cayv., Miss. Local Defense. 

Leake Rebels, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Lee’s (G. W.) Cav., 25th Ga. Balt. 

Littleton’s (J. K.) Cay., Virginia. 

Live Oak Rifles, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Local Guards, Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 

Long Creek Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 

Louisiana Zouaves, Inf., 1st Zouave Batt. 

Loula White Rebels, Cay., 2d Miss. 

Lowndes Southrons, Inf., 10th Miss. 

Lowrey Invincibles, Inf., 32d Miss. 

Lowrey Rebels, Inf., 32d Miss. 

Lowry Rifles, Inf., 6¢h Miss. 

McClung Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 

McClung Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. “4 

McLain Rifles, Inf., 37th Miss. 

McLemore Guards, Inf., 37th Miss. 

McWillie Blues, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Madison Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 

Magnolia Guards, Inf., 17th Miss. 


Magnolia Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 


ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED. 


Malone’s (J. C., jr.) Cav., 7th Ala. 

Marion Men, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Mathews’ (S.) Cay., Mississippi State. 
Maxwell’s (W.C.) Cav., Mississippi State. 
Meridian Invincibles, Inf., 14th Miss. 
Minute Men of Attala, Inf., 13th Miss. 
Mississippi, 42d Regt. See 2d Miss. Cav. 
Mississippi Avengers, Inf., 34th Miss. 
Mississippi College Rifles, Inf., 18th Miss. 
Mississippi Confederates, Inf., 24th Miss. 
Mississippi Defenders, Inf., 33d Miss. 
Mississippi Rangers, Cav., Mississippi State. 
Mississippi Rangers, Inf., 17th Miss. 
Mississippi Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 
Mississippi Rip Raps, Inf., 41st Miss. 
Mississippi Yankee Hunters, Inf., 1st Miss. 
Molino Rifles, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Monroe Guards, Inf., 14th Miss. 

Monroe Quin Guards, Inf., 39th Miss. 
Monroe Volunteers, Inf., 14th Miss. 
Montgomery True Blues, Art., Alabama. 
Moody True Blues, Inf., 8th Miss. 
Mooresville Blues, Cav., 2d Miss. 
Mooresville Darts, Inf., ist Miss. 

Morgan Riflemen, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 
Mount Zion Guards, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Mrs. Body Guard, Cay., 2d Miss. 

Natchez Fencibles, Inf., 12th Miss. 

Neill Guards, Inf., 30th Miss. 

Nelson Grays, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Neshoba Rangers, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 
Neshoba Rifles, Inf., 11th Miss. 

New Guard, Inf., 6ih Miss. 

New Prospect Grays, Inf., 5th Miss. 
Newsom’s (J. F.) Cay., 18th Tenn. 

Newton Hornets, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Newton Rangers, Cay., 2d Miss. 

North Carolina, 59th Regt. See 4th N.C. Cav. 
Noxubee Blues, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Noxubee Home Guards, Cav., Miss. Local Defense. 
Noxubee Rifles, Inf., 11th Miss. 

Oak Bowery Invincibles, Inf., 40th Miss. 
Oakland Rebels, Inf., 29th Miss. 

0’Connor Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 

Okolona Guards, Inf., 41s¢ Miss. 
Oktibbeha Plowboys, Inf., 15th Miss. 
Palmetto Batt. Light Art., South Carolina. 
Panola Guard, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Panola Patriots, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Panola Vindicators, Inf., 17th Miss. 

Paris Rebels, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Parrott Rifles, Inf., 40th Miss. 

Patton’s Company, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Pearl River Guards, Inf., 39th Miss. 
Perrin’s (R. O.) Cay., Batt. Miss. State. 
Pettus Guard, Inf., 13th Miss. 

Pettus Rebels, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Pettus Relief, Inf., 12th Miss. 
_ Pettus Rifles, Inf., 17th Miss. 

Pinckney Guard, Inf., Sth Miss. 

Plentitude Invincibles, Inf., 23d Miss. 
Point Mount Rifles, Inf., 1st Miss. 
Pontotoc Grays, Inf., 41st Miss. 

Pontotoc Minute Men, Inf., 2d Miss. 
Pontotoc Rangers, Cav., 2d Miss. 

Port Gibson Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 


1077 


Prairie Guards, Inf., 11th Miss. 

Price Rebels, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Price Relief, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Prince’s (W.B.) Cay., Mississippi State. 

Quitman Grays, Inf., 17th Miss. 

Quitman Guards, Inf., 16th Miss. 

Quitman Invincibles, Inf., 14th Miss. 

Quitman Rifle Guard, Inf., 9th Miss. 

Quitman Rifles, Inf., 7th Miss. 

Quitman Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 

Quitman Southerns, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Rankin Grays, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Rankin Rebels, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Rankin Rifles, Inf., 10th Miss. 

Rankin Rough and Readies, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Raymond Fencibles, Inf., 12th Miss. — 

Rebel Avengers, Inf., 33d Miss. 

Red Invincibles, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Red Rovers, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Red’s (S. W.) Cav., Mississippi State. 

Reube Davis Rebels, Inf., 1st Miss. 

Richardson’s (R. V.) Cay., 12th Tenn. 

Richardson’s (S.M.) Art., South Carolina Pal- 
metto Batt., Batty. K. 

Rifle Scouts, Inf., 1st Miss. 

Robson Rifles, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Rockport Steel Blades, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Rough and Readies, Inf., 17ih Miss. 

Ruffin’s Company, Cay., 2d Miss. 

Rutledge Mounted Riflemen, Cay., South Caro- 
lina. 

Samuel Benton Relief Rifles, Inf., 17th Miss. 

Sardis Blues, Inf., 12th Miss. 

Satartia Rifles, Inf., 12th Miss. 

Saunders’ (T.) Cay., Mississippi State. 

Scotland Guards, Inf., 5th Mies. 

Seawell’s (J. T.) Cav., Virginia. 

Secessionists, Inf., 13th Miss. 

Semple’s (R.) Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 

Shieldsborough Rifles, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Shubuta Guards, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Shubuta Rifles, Inf., 14th Miss. 

Simpson Fencibles, Inf., 6th Miss. 

Simpson Guards, Inf., 39th Miss. 

Slate Springs Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 

Smith Rifles, Inf., 34th Miss. 

Smith’s (J. F.) Cav., 2d Miss. State T~oops. 

Sons of Liberty, Inf., 34th Miss. 

Sons of the South, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Southern Farmers, Inf., 32d Miss. 

Southern Sentinels, Inf., 8th Miss. 

Spartan Band, Inf., 13th Miss. 

Standefer’s (J. J.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 

Standing Pine Guards, Inf., 40th Miss. 

Starke’s (P. B.) Cav., 28th Miss. 

Stephen Guards, Inf., 4th Miss. 

Stillwell’s Cav., Mississippi State. 

Stubbs Rifles, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Summit Rifles, Inf., 16th Wiss. 

Sunflower Dispensers, Inf., 3d Miss. 

Terry’s (P. P.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 

Thames’ Cay., Mississippi State. 

The Defenders, Inf., 16th Miss. 

Thompson Invincibles, Inf., 23d Miss. 

Tippah Farmers, Inf., 34th Miss. 

Tippah Rangers, Inf., 34th Miss. 


1078 


Tippah Rebels, Inf., 34th Miss. 
Tippah Riflemen, Inf., 23d Miss. 
Tippah Tigers, Inf., 23d Miss. 
Tishomingo Avengers, Inf., 32d Miss. 
Tishomingo Rebels, Inf., 32d Miss. 
Tishomingo Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 
Tolson Guards, Inf., 8th Miss. 

Town Creek Rifles, Inf., 2d Miss. 


Tredegar Batt., Inf., 6th Va. Batt., Local Defense. 


True Confederates, Inf., 8th Miss. 

True Mississippians, Inf., 30th Miss. 
Tullahoma Hardshells, Inf., 8th Miss. 
University Grays, Inf., 11th Miss. 

Vaiden Quards, Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Van Dorn Guards, Inf., 38th Miss. 

Van Dorn Reserves, Inf., 11th Miss. 
Verona Rifles, Inf., 41st Miss. 

Vicksburg Sharpshooters, Inf., 12th Miss. 
W. R. Nelson Guards, Inf., 32d Miss. 
Walker Reserves, Inf., 1st Miss. 

Walthall Rebels, Inf., 29th Miss. 

Ward’s (M. S.) Batt., Art., 14th Miss. 
Water Valley Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 
Wayne Rifles, Inf., 13th Miss. 
Weatherall’s (J. T.) Cay., Mississippi State. 


ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED. 


Wesson Art., Miss. Local Defense. 
Westville Guards, Inf., 16th Miss. 

White Rebels, Inf., 38th Miss. 

White’s (E. B.) Art., 3a S. O. Batt.’ 
Wigfall Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 
Wilkinson Guards, Inf., 38th Miss. 
Wilkinson Rifles, Inf., 16th Miss. 
Williams’ Company, Inf., 41st Miss. 
Williams’ (T.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Wilson’s (A. N.) Cav., 16th Tenn. 
Wilson’s (H. C.) Inf., Miss. Local Defense. 
Winona Stars, Inf., 15th Miss. 

Winston Guards, Inf., 13th Miss. 
Winston Rifles, Inf., 5th Miss. 

Wirt Adams’ Cay., 1st Miss. (Adams). 
Withers’ (W. T.) Art., 1st Miss. 

Wolf Creek Marksmen, Inf., 38th Miss. 
Yalobusha Rangers, Cay., Miss. Local Defense. 
Yalobusha Rifles, Inf., 15th Miss. 
Yancey Guards, Inf., 37th Miss. 

Yankee Hunters, Inf., 36th Miss. 

Yankee Terrors, Inf., 8th Miss. 

Yazoo Grays, Inf., 30th Miss. 

Yazoo Minute Men, Inf., 10th Miss. 
Zollicoffer Avengers, Inf., 36th Miss. 


INDEX. 


Brigades, Divisions, Corps, Armies, and improvised organizations are “Mentioned” under name of com- 
manding officer; State and other organizations under their official designation. 


Abbay, George F., 935. 

Abney, Joseph, 815. 

Adaire, Thomas N., 929. 
Adams, Charles Francis, 346, 1027, 1028, 1031. 
Adams, Fleming W., 934. 
Adams, George W., 273, 274, 277. 
Adams, R. L., 936. 

Adams, Wirt, 935. 

Adderly, H., 9. 

Adderly, H., & Co., 9. 

Addison, Mr., 854, 856. 
Adirondack, U.S.S., 18. 


Adjutant and Inspector General’s Dept., C. S. A. 


Appropriations, 120, 531. 


Cooper, S., Adjutant and Inspector General,1074. 


Increase of establishment, 202. 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, C. S, A. 
Appropriations, 532. 
Condition, needs, etc., 944-946. 
Correspondence: 
Alabama, Governor of, 258. 
Bate, W. B., 670, 695. 
Beauregard, G. T., 121, 553. 
Bragg, B., 6, 553, 656, 670, 695, 752. 
Brown, J. C., 670, 695. 
Buckner, S. B., 563. 


Bureau of Conscription, C.S, A., 607, 722, 723, 


736, 965, 1020. 
Carter, J. C., 670, 695. 
Churchill, T. J., 670, 685. 
Clayton, H. D., 670, 695. 
Cleburne, P. R., 670, 695. 
Cobb, H., 798, 807, 831, 834. 
Cockrell, F. M., 805. 
Collins, N. D., 639. 
Deas, Z. C., 670, 695. 
Elzey, A., 241. _ 
Engineer Department, C.S. A., 241. 
French, S. G., 553. 
Georgia, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 711, 800, 802. 
Hannon, M. W.., 258. 
Hill, D. H., 553, 670, 695. 
Johnston, J. E., 553, 752, 783, 867, 868, 873, 885. 
Lee, R. E., 553, 723. 
Liddell, St. J. R., 670, 695. 
Lowrey, M. P., 670, 695. 


Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. S. A.x—Cont’d. 


Correspondence: 

Manigault, A. M., 670, 695. 

Maury, D. H., 941. 

Ordnance Department, C.S. A., 241. 

Pemberton, J. C., 403. 

Pillow, G. J., 681, 751, 775, 805, 859, 873, 884, 963, 
1019, 1063. 

Polk, L., 656, 670, 695. 

Polk, L. E., 670, 695. 

Powell, R. H., 258. 

Preston, J.S., 155, 176. 

Price, H. J., 639. 

Q. M. General’s Office, C.S. A., 122, 241. 

Rains, G. W., 642. 

Shields, J. C., 157, 171, 172. 

Smith, E. K., 190, 553, 680. 

Smith, P., 670, 695. 

Stewart, A. P., 670, 695. 

Strahl, O. F., 670, 695. 

Subsistence Department, C.S. A., 241. 

Surgeon-General’s Office, C. 8. A., 241. 

Wadley, W. M., 270. 

War Department, C.S., 82, 153, 218, 220, 241,272, 
359, 390, 445, 620, 623, 656, 682, 695, 705, 711, 748, 
877, 941, 1019, 1020, 1054, 1059, 1062. 

Withers, J. M., 670, 695. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1862: July 14,5; Nov. 
29, 217; Dec. 15, 241. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1863; Jan. 8, 305; June 
16, 595. 

Orders, General, series 1862: No. 46,1; No. 47, 2; 
No. 48, 3, 195; No. 49,5; No. 50,8; No. 52, 14; 
No. 53, 26; No. 55, 32; No. 56,39; Nos. 57, 
58, 51; No. 61, 69; No. 62,70; No. 68, 76; 
No. 64, 78; No. 65, 79; No. 66, 83; No. 67, 
84; No. 68, 85; No. 69, 86; No. 70, 92; No. 
71, 96; No. 72, 98; No. 78, 105; No. 74, 106; 
No. 76, 126; No. 77, 138; No. 78, 149; No. 
80, 150; No. 81, 153; No. 82, 160; No. 89, 191; 
No. 90, 194; No. 91,195; No. 92, 197; No. 98, 
198; No. 95, 209; No. 96, 214; No. 97, 219; 
No. 98, 225; No. 99, 228; No. 100, 229; No. 
101, 232; No. 104, 234; No. 105, 237; No. 
107, 248; No. 109, 248; No. 110, 252; No. 
112, 266, 


(1079) 


1080 


Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. S. A.—Cont’d. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 1, 294; No. 2, 
295; No. 3, 308; No. 4, 350; No. 6, 358; No. 
7, 363; No. 8, 364; No. 9, 365; No. 10, 371; 
No. 11, 375; No. 12, 377; No. 13, 379; No. 
14, 380; No. 15, 388; No. 16,389; No. 17, 
395; No. 18, 400; No. 19, 401; No. 20, 406; 
No. 21, 407; No. 22, 408; No. 28, 410; No. 
24,418; No. 25, 420; Nos. 26, 28, 424; No. 
30, 430; No. 31, 441, 937; No. 82, 448; No. 
33, 458; No. 84, 466; No. 36, 468; No. 37, 
469; No. 88, 472; No. 39, 477; No. 44, 496; 
No. 45, 497; No. 47, 498; No. 48, 499; No. 
49,511; No. 51,527; No. 53, 534; No. 57, 
549; Nos. 58, 59, 551; No. 60, 552; No. 61, 
554; No. 62, 555; No. 65, 559; No. 66, 565; 
No. 67, 568; No. 69, 570; No. 70,571; No. 
71,572; No. 74, 573; No. 75,577; No. 76, 
579; No. 77, 580; No. 80, 584; No. 82, 585; 
No. 84, 593; No. 85, 594; No. 86, 602; No. 
88, 607; No. 89, 608; No. 90, 609; No. 92, 
611; No. 93, 612; Nos. 94, 96, 618; No. 98, 
648; No. 99, 651; Nos. 102, 103, 675; No. 104, 
678; No. 105, 683; No. 107, 688; No. 108, 
689; Nos. 109, 110, 707; No. 111, 709; No. 
118, 731; No. 114, 739; No. 115, 743; No. 
116, 777; No. 117,786; No. 118,777; No. 
119, 793; No. 121, 796; No. 122, 801; No. 
124, 822; No. 125, 827; No. 126, 828; No. 
127, 834; No. 128, 836; No. 129, 842; No. 
180, 846; Nos. 182, 133, 853; No. 185, 875; 
No. 136, 878; No. 187, 879; No. 188, 897; 
No. 140, 910; No. 141, 913; No. 142, 914; 
Nos. 344, 145, 937; No. 146, 942; No. 147, 
962; No. 148, 965; No. 149, 966; Nos. 150, 
151, 972; No. 153, 990; No. 154, 1018; No. 
155, 1020; No. 157, 1021; No. 158, 1022; No. 
160, 1049; No. 161, 1052; No. 162, 1053; No. 
168, 1062. 
Orders, General, series 1864: Nos. 8, 4, 1065. 
Orders, Special, series 1862: No. 163,6; No.174, 
20; No. 186, 42; No. 194, 67; No. 224, 95; 
No. 234, 110; No. 240, 122; No. 245, 133; 
No. 285, 228; No. 294, 241; No. 297, 246; 
No. 298, 249; No. 299, 253; No. 806, 270. 
Orders, Special, series 1863: No. 1, 279; No. 11, 
357; Nos. 12, 18, 359; No. 18, 365; No. 19, 
367; No. 28, 381; No. 36, 393; No. 51, 415; 
No. 52, 416; No. 124, 568; Nos. 183, 1384, 
579; No. 140, 585; No. 165, 631; No. 174, 
660; No. 180, 684; No. 187, 697; No. 189, 
703; No. 198, 713; No. 2138, 796, 818; No. 298, 
1063; No. 800, 1064. 
Aiken, Hugh K., 82, 815. 
Ailsworth, Josiah D. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 304. 
Mentioned, 303. 
Ai-o-nais Indians. 
Affairs, condition, ete., 354. 
Akin, Warren, 208, 264, 358, 486. 
Alabama. 
Blockade-runners, 461-463, 472, 473. 
Creole troops, 197, 941. 
Deserters, 258, 638, 680, 681. 


INDEX. 


Alabama—Continued. 
Disaffection, 141, 142, 726. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 20, 21, 87, 141- 
144, 207, 208, 211-213, 228, 258. 334, 335, 367, 419, 
420, 632, 726, 727, 754, 859-863, 867, 910-912. 
See also West, Department of the (C.). Oper- 
ations Volunteer and Conscription Bureau. 
Guarantee of Confederate debt, 376. 
Influence of paroled prisoners on elections, 727. 
Local defense troops, 334, 580-582, 593-595, 603- 
605, 689. 
Measures for defense, 70, 71, 632. 
Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959. 
Men for old regiments, 20, 21. 
Militia, 71, 148, 144, 212, 213, 226, 228. 
Niter caves, 29. 
Orgn., equip., ete., of vols., 32, 70, 71, 196, 197, 
232, 235, 593-595, 612-614, 632. 
Partisan rangers, 82. 
Peace party, 726. 
Pillow’s call for negro teamsters, 421. 
Reimbursement by C. S. Government, 232, 407. 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582. 
Reserve corps, 253-256. 
Salt, 21, 22, 175, 243. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 324, 332, 333, 407, 575. 
Alabama, Adjutant and Inspector General of. 
Correspondence: 
; , 612. 
Kerr, W., 70. 
Rodes, R. E., 20. 
Alabama, Governor of. 
Appeal to the people, 253-256. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt.and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A., 258. 
Buckner, S. B., 462. 
Davis, Jefferson, 211, 334, 376. 
Johnston, J. E., 689. 
Mobile (Ala.) Committee of Safety, 462. 
Moore, A. B., 148. 
Quartermaster-General’s Office, C.S. A., 232. 
Smith, R. H., 911. 
War Department, C.S., 21, 32, 87, 106, 143, 148, 
175, 196, 212, 226, 235, 242, 243, 258, 357, 367, 419, 
461, 472, 582, 593, 595, 632, 754, 910. 
Response to requisitions for troops, 593. 
Trade with enemy, 21, 22. 
Alabama and Florida Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Impressment of rolling-stock, etc., 655. 
Alabama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Capacity, 486. 
Construction for military purposes, 106. 
Alabama and Tennessee Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Alabama Legislature. 
Conscription of militia officers, 213, 226. 
Exemptions and details from the Army, 767. 
Guarantee of Confederate debt, 219, 238. 
Shoes for Alabama soldiers, 196, 197, 232, 235. 
Alabama Shelby Coal Mine Branch Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 


INDEX. 


Alabama Troops (C.). 

Artillery, Light—Batteries: Montgomery True 
Blues, 808. ‘ 

Cavalry—Battalions: 12th, 82. 

Cavalry— Companies: De Bardeleben’s, 82; 
Lewis’, 82; West’s, 82. 

Cavalry—Regiments: Ist, 258, 419; 7th (Ma- 
lone), 361; 51st, 82. 

Aldrich, A. P., 269. 

Aldridge, F. M., 931. 

Alexander, Edward P., 65, 66, 615. 

Alexander, P. W. 

Correspondence, Savannah (Ga.) Republican, 
489, 490. 
Mentioned, 489, 490. 

Alford, E. L., 930. 

Aliens. See Foreigners. 

Allan, VYhompson. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 63, 323. 

Allen, A. M., 989. 

Allen, B. F., 403. 

Allen, Henry W., 395. 

Allen, John K., 933. 

Allen, John R., 936. 

Allen, L. W., 334. 

Allen, R. B., 929, 932. 

Anderson, Samuel 8S. 

Correspondence. See #. Kirby Smith. 

Anderson, W. P., 934. 

Andrews, William G., 808. 

Ann, Steamer, 52. 

Annexation of the Northwestern States. 
Remarks, P. W. Alexander, 489-495. 

Ann McGinn, Vessel, 173. 

Antietam, Md. 

Battle, Sept. 16-17, 1862, 283. 

Antonica, Steamer, 233, 234, 335, 336. 

Appropriations. 

Adjt.and Insp. Gen.’s Dept., C.S. A., 120, 531. 

Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. 8. A., 532. 

Bounty, 112, 120, 392. 

Bureau of Indian Affairs, C.S., 532. 

Contract surgeons, 112, 120, 392. 

Cooks, 112, 120. 

Deficiencies, 120. 

Engineer Dept., C.S. A., 112, 120, 392, 531, 532. 

Estimates, 294, 310, 418, 938, 939, 1017. 

Expenses of funding Treasury notes, 533. 

Foreign relations, commissioners, etc., 120. 

Horses killed in battle, property of soldiers, 119, 
392, 531. 

Hospitals, 112, 120, 392, 393, 532. 

Impressed property, 112, 120, 392, 531. 

Indian treaty stipulations, 352, 532. 

Interest on loan of Branch Bank of Tennessee, 
120. 

Iron, 119, 392. 

Legislative, executive, and judicial expenses, 
112, 118. 

Medical Dept., C.S. A., 112, 120, 392, 393, 531, 532. 

Munitions of war, 112. 

Niter, 119, 392, 532. 

Nurses, 112, 120. 

Ordnance Dept.,C. S. A., 112, 119, 120, 392, 531,532. 

Pay of the Army, 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532; 


See War-Taz Office, O. S. 


1081 


Appropriations—Continued. 
Prisoners of war, 112, 120, 392. 
Public buildings, ete., 533. 
Q. M.’s Dept., C. S. A., 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Railroads, 200, 201. 
Reimbursement of States, 407, 538. 
Relief of troops from Missouri, 496. 
River defense service, 531. 
Salaries, War Dept., C.S., 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Subsistence Dept., C.S. A., 112, 118, 120, 392, 531. 
Support of the Army, 112, 119, 120, 392, 393, 531, 
532. 
Archer, Alexander, 933. 
Archer, Hugh, 50. 
Archer, Robert S8., 240. 
Ark, Vessel, 173. 
Arkansas, C.S.5S., 252. 
Arkansas. 
Address of Trans-Mississippi Governors, 731. 
Calls for troops, 704. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 211, 212, 698. 
Measures for defense, 788, 789. 
Militia, 808. 
Niter production, 29. 
Operations in. See— 
Arkansas Post. Engagement, Jan. 10-11, 1863. 
Helena. Attack, July 4, 1863. 
Little Rock. Advance of Union forces upon, 
etc., Aug. 1-Sept. 14, 1863. 
Prairie Grove. Battle, Dec. 7, 1862. 
Orgn., equip., ete., of vols., 704, 788, 789, 877, 898. 
Price’s proclamation to people of Pulaski 
County, 788. 
Taxation, 63, 325, 332, 333, 576. 
Arkansas, Governor of. 
Agreement with E. Kirby Smith to raise volun- 
teers, 704. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 211. 
Holmes, T. H., 877, 898. 
Johnson, R. W., 698. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 6, 8(8. 
; Proclamations, 704. 
Arkansas Post, Ark. 
Engagement, Jan. 10-11, 1863, 990. 
Armat, Mr., 982. 
Armesy, Thomas D., 381. 
Armories, C. 8. 

Pay of enlisted men detailed to, 459. ° 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Arms, Ammunition, etc. 

Armstrong, James D. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 76. 
Armstrong, R. J., 930. 
Armstrong, William M., 18. 
Army of the Confederate States. 
Appropriations for support, 112, 119, 120, 392, 393, 
531, 532. 
Condition, needs, etc., 944-953. 
Congress, C. S., 205. 
Depletion of ranks by details, furloughs, etc., 
678, 680, 696, 704, 709, 767, 792, 997, 998. 
Details to Navy, 90. 
Disabled, disqualified, or incompetent oflicers, 
205, 206, 
Drunkenness, 466, 467. 


See Munitions of War. 


1082 


Army of the Confederate States—Continued. 

Flogging abolished, 496. 

Increase of efficiency, 109-111. 

Increase of establishment, 47, 48, 54, 55, 199, 202, 
206, 207, 259-261, 334, 445, 446, 691, 692, 767. 

Lieutenant-generals authorized, 198. 

Measures to fill ranks, 678, 680, 689, 695, 696, 698, 
706, 767, 946-948. 

Measures to preserve health, 467. 

Niter Corps, 47. 

Operations, 1862-63, 281-285, 293, 294, 990, 991, 993, 
1017, 1018, 1024-1026. 

Organization, strength, etc. : 

Dee. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
Jan. 16, 1863, 359, 390. 
Apr. 30, 1863, 530. 
June 30, 1863, 615. 
Dec. 31, 1863, 1073. 

Pay, etc., 91, 112, 119, 120, 194, 200-202, 205, 209, 
210, 261, 300, 301, 377, 392, 396, 441, 442, 446, 459, 
485, 486, 496, 531, 532, 565, 571, 577-580, 584, 606, 
607, 618, 690-693, 796, 797, 822, 966, 1043. 

Promotion for distinguished service, 14, 252. 

Purveyor-General’s Dept. proposed, 421-424. 

Regular or provisional rank, 76, 198. 

Regulations. See Regulations, 0. S. Army. 

Returns of troops, 78. 

Sources of disorganization, 16. 

Transfers generally, 98, 198, 201, 875. 

Transfers to naval service, 138, 191, 192, 242, 662- 
664, 693, 697, 705. 

Vacancies, 14, 45-47, 108, 109, 113, 206, 364, 365, 446, 
610, 1001, 1002. 

See also— 
Orgn., Equip., ete., of Army. 
Provisional Army, O. 8. 
Army Regulations. See Regulations, OC. S. Army. 
Arsenals, C. S. 
Pay of enlisted men detailed to, 459. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Arthur, B. F. 

Correspondence. See South Oarolina Conven- 
tion; also South Carolina, Hxecutive Council 
of, and South Oarolina, Governor of. 

Mentioned, 135, 136. 

Artillery Corps, C. 8S. A. 
Ordnance duty, 198, 458. 
Regulations, 194. 
Arundel, Vessel, 173. 
Ashcraft, Thomas C., 934. 
Ashe, Thomas §S. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.5S., 409, 
Ashmore, John D. 
Correspondence, C. D. Melton, 771, 773, 774. 
Mentioned, 769. 
Asylums. 
Exemption from conscription, 161. 
Atlanta and La Grange Railroad. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Atlanta and West Point Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Atlanta Arsenal, Ga. 

Regulations, 379, 380. 

Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 


INDEX. 


Attorney-General, C. S. 
Opinions, etc.: 
Conscription acts, 15, 33, 34, 41, 42. 
Exemption acts, 126-128, 212. 
Private property seized or destroyed, 124, 125. 
Scope of term ‘‘ army supplies,’’ 212. 
Attorney-General’s Office, C. S._ 
Correspondence, War Dept.,C. S., 15, 124,126, 212. 
August, Thomas P. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription, C.S8. A., 717, 761. 
War Department, C.5., 433. 
See also Bureau of Conscription, 0. 8. A. 
Mentioned, 375, 378, 411, 458, 466, 761, 763. 
Augusta, Ga. 
Convention of commissioners to regulate im- 
pressments, 898-906, 915, 916. 
Convention of railroad officials, Dec. 15,1862, 
270-278. 
Local defense troops, 636, 660-662, 684, 705. 
Augusta Arsenal and Powder Works, Ga. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Austin, R. P., 930. 
Autry, James L., 930, 932. 
Avegno, Bernard. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 257. 
Avery, Isaac W., 361, 362, 374. 
Badham, Henry A., 1072, 1073. 
Bahama, Steamer, 177. 
Baird, J. S. T., 734. 
Baker, Daniel C. 
Correspondence, J efferson Davis, 839. 
Baker, James M. 
Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 56, 93. 
Baker, Samuel F., 931. 
Baldwin, Briscoe G., 958. 
Baldwin, William E., 931. 
Balfour, John W., 931, 934. 
Ball, Lewis, 934. 
Bank of Louisiana. 
Seizure of coin, etc., by C.S. authorities, 116, 121- 
123, 132, 152, 310, 685, 710, 711, 789. 
Banks, C. B., 934. 
Banks, Nathaniel P., 282. 
Bankston, Jeff., 931. 
Barbe Silvery, Vessel, 173. 
Barbour, John S., 158. 
Barksdale, Ethelbert. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S. , 655. 
Barksdale, H. H., 936. 
Barksdale, James A., 936. 
Barksdale, William, 931. 
Barnard, Edward. 


Correspondence. See Florida, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 651. 

Barnes, David A. 
Correspondence. See North Carolina, Gov. of. 


Barnett, N. C., 361. 

Baroche, E., 25. 

Barr, Allen, 936. 

Barr, James, 930. 

Barriere, Charles A., 173, 174. 

Barriere, Charles A., & Bro. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S. , 178, 174. 
Mentioned, 173, 174. ; 


Barriere, Francois G., 173, 174. 


INDEX. | 


Barry, William S., 933. 

Barton, John S., 963. 

Barton, Robert M. 
Correspondence, B. H. Hill, 367. 

Baskerville, Charles, 935. 

Bate, William B. 


Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 


eral’s Office, C.S. A. , 670, 695. 

Battersby, William, 887, 890. 

Battle, R. H., jr., 214, 596. 

Baylor, C. G., 105. 

Bayne, Thomas L. 

Assignments, 660. 
Correspondence: 

Beauregard, G. T., 714. 

Q. M. General’s Office, C.S. A., 833, 874. 
Mentioned, 660, 715, 829, 834, 955. 

Beard, William K. 
Corresponcence. 
Mentioned, 436. 

Beatty, Taylor, 396. 

Beauregard, G. T. 
Correspondence: 

Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 121, 553. 
Bayne, T. L., 714. 
Colcock, W. F., 562. 
Finegan, J., 215. 
Florida, Governor of, 138, 651. 
Georgia, Governor of, 138, 179. 
Jordan, T., 803. 
Miles, W. P., 137. 
Rice, A. G., 152. 
South Carolina, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 702. 
South Carolina, Gov. of, 138, 665, 793, 803. 
South Carolina Convention, 133. 
Villeré, C.J., 391. 
War Dept., C.S., 116, 121, 122, 216, 714, 715. 
Mentioned, 90, 116, 121-123, 216, 248, 278, 281, 380, 
525-527, 530, 615, 634, 649, 678, 705, 812, 817, 968, 
978, 1073. 
Proposed peace propositions, 137, 138, 179, 180. 
Seizure of bank funds, 116, 121-123, 132, 152. 

Beck, William D., 929. 

Beck, William G., 934. 

Beckett, Newton J., 934. 

Beckham, 5 220, 221. 

Bee, Hamilton P., 399, 793, 1020. 

Begley, T. Stirling. 

Correspondence, T. F, Smith, 19. 
Mentioned, 19. 

Bell, Marmaduke, 931. 

Bell, Tyree H., 884. 

Benezet, Samuel. 
Correspondence. 

Benjamin, Judah P. . 
Correspondence. See State Department, O.S.; 

also War Department, CO. 8. 
Mentioned, 12, 57, 335, 366, 621, 635, 649, 658, 674, 
685, 688, 824, 979, 990. 

Bennett, E. R., 930. 

Benton, Samuel, 930, 933. 

Bermuda, Steamer, 87. 

Berry, C. C., 732. 

Betts, Edward C., 142. 

Bickel, Mr., 355. 


See Braxton Bragg. 


See Florida, Governor of. 


1083 


Billups, John, 208, 264, 358, 397, 486. 
Bird, H. D., 274. — 
Bird, W. Capers, 248. 
Bishop, W. H., 930. 
Blackburn, E. M., 931. 
Blackburn, Luke P., 924. 
Black Dog (Indian), 354. 
Blackford, Charles M., 248. 
Blackstocks, R. V., 899, 900, 903. 
Blake, Edward D. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription, C.S. A., 439, 440. 
War Department, C.S., 433. 
Mentioned, 212, 404, 433, 443, 800, 805, 820. 
Blanchard, Albert G. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 7. 
Blandford, Mark H., 177. 
Bledsoe, Albert T. 
Assistant Secretary of War, C.S., 1074. 
Mentioned, 1074. 
Blincoe, James D., 931. 
Blockade. 
Attitude of Great Britain, 342, 1027-1033. 
Collie-Crenshaw contract for running, 244, 245, 
449, 478-482, 497, 498, 525-527, 535-547, 554, 555, 
565-567, 586-590, 599-602, 623-631, 646, 647, 658, 
659, 682, 683, 826, 870, 871, 874, 875, 896, 910. 
Construction, purchase, etc., of vessels to run, 
244, 245, 461-463, 472, 473, 478, 479, 535-539, 541, 
542, 567, 634, 826, 1013-1016. 
Contracts with foreign firms to run, 8, 9, 88, 89, 
244, 245, 
European policy, 340-342, 488, 489. 
Evasion through Mexican ports, 257, 258. 
Freight rates through, 9, 19, 88,89, 234,335, 336,634. 
Measures to evade, 105,461—463, 472,473, 1013-1016. 
Negotiations with foreign Governments, 342, 343. 
Pilot charges, 19, 20. 
Profit from importations through, 30, 31, 89, 585, 
1014, 1015. 
Protest of Mobile Committee of Safety, 461-463, 
472, 473. 
Remarks: 
Davis, Jefferson, 340-343. 
Georgia, Governor of, 700, 701. 
Secretary of War, C.5S., 547, 548. 
Sinking: of stone fleet in Charleston Harbor, 
S. C., 1028. 
West Indian shipments, 18-20, 335, 336, 658, 659, 
870-875, 877, 895, 896, 909, 910. 
Bloodgood, M. Hildreth. 
Correspondence, C. Huse, 893, 894. 
Mentioned, 885, 886, 889, 891-893, 918. 
Blount, C. G., 929, 932. 
Blum, Vessel, 173. 
Blumfield, Henry 8., 934. 
Blythe, A. K., 934. 
Blythe, Green L., 935. 
Boards of Officers. 
Delay in action on reports, 950. 
Efficiency examinations, 97,98, 205,206, 1001, 1002, 
1005. 
Examination of officers for ordnance duty, 85, 
92, 96, 97, 110, 118, 150, 151, 248, 288, 289, 377. 
Hospital consulting, 723. 
Iron for naval construction, 365, 366, 393, 


1084 


Boards of Officers—Continued. 
Medical examining, 98, 99, 163, 165, 232, 243, 365, 
388, 408, 409, 528, 570, 605, 606, 693, 913. 
Bocock, Thomas S. 
Correspondence. See Congress, C. S. 
Mentioned, 1061. 
Boggan, H. H. W., 862. 
Boggs, William R. 

Correspondence. See E. Kirby Smith. 
Bonaparte, Charles L. N. See Napoleon ILI. 
Bonds. See Finance. 
Bone, Vessel, 173. 
Bonham, Milledge L. 

Correspondence. See South Carolina, Gov. of. 

Mentioned, 405, 665, 666, 702, 768-770, 863, 866, 867, 

876, 1054, 1059, 1060. 
Bookter, Thomas C., 936. 
Boon, William J., 929. 
Boone, Bartley B., 929. 
Boone, F. M., 932. 
Booth, A. R., 933. 
Booth, John F., 929. 
Booth, Thomas, 931. 
Booth, William J., 936. 
Bosher, €. H., 539, 540, 554, 586, 588-590, 600, 624, 
627, 628, 630. 

Bostick, T. C. K., 930. 
Boston, John, 116, 121, 122. 
Boteler, Alexander R. 

Correspondence : 

Chambliss, J. R., jr., 718. 
War Department, C.5., 718. 

Bounty. 

Act of C.S. Congress, Oct. 11, 1862, 205. 

Appropriations, 112, 120, 392. 

Deceased officers and soldiers, 205, 691. 

Rendition of accounts, 139. 

Bourne, U., 920, 921. 
Bowdre, A. R., 930. 
Bowen, Charles L., 935. 
Bowen, Henry J., 933. 
Bowen, Robert J., 931. 
Bowie, Andrew W., 862. 
Bowman, Robert, 935. 
Boykin, A. H., 248, 770. 
Bozman, P. H., 931. 
Bradford, Alsey H., 899, 905, 906. 
Bradford, J. D. 

Correspondence. See Joseph E. Johnston. 

Bradford, J. L., 935. 
Bradley, John M., 931. 
Bradley, Joseph E., 324. 

Bragg, Braxton. 

Correspondence: 

Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 6, 553, 656, 670, 695, 752. 

Johnston, J. E., 638, 639. 

Marchbanks, G., 436. 

Pillow, G. J., 361, 3871, 387, 442, 449, 637, 638. 

War Department, C. S., 433, 434, 444, 482. 

Mentioned, 28, 76, 138, 142,159,278, 284-286, 293, 351, 

359, 362, 374, 380, 403, 404, 416, 430, 431, 435, 436, 
442-444, 450, 456, 475, 530, 613, 615, 636-639, 667, 
678, 680, 681, 685, 707, 711, 742, 749-751, 753, 754, 
775, 782, 800, 805, 806, 820, 821, 823, 824, 830-832, 
853, 884, 915, 921, 968, 989, 993, 1019, 1025. 


INDEX. 


Brandon, William L., 932. 
Branner, John R., 273. 
Brantly, William F., 931, 932. 
Brashear City, La. 

Capture, June 23, 1863, 991. 
Breckinridge, John C., 193. 
Brenizer, Addison G., 958. 
Brent, George W. 

Correspondence. 

Mentioned, 482. 
Brent, Preston, 934. 
Brewer, H. 0., 886, 889, 891, 909, 980. 
Brewer, James F., 367. 

Bright, John, 103. 

Brister, J. Milton, 930. 
British Consuls. See Consuls. 
British Foreign Office. 

Correspondence, Lord Lyons, 342. 
Brittan, P. H., 197, 213, 256. 
Broadwell, W. A., 173. 

Bromley, W. C., 929, 935. 
Brooks, George W., 906, 907. 
Brougher, Charles A., 1052. 
Brown, Albert G., 932. 
Brown, Drury J., 933. 
Brown, H. B., 936. 
Brown, Hezekiah G. D., 936. 
Brown, John C, 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Brown, Joseph E. 
Correspondence. See Georgia, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 23, 170, 177, 216, 264, 265, 358, 361, 397, 
485-487, 569, 603, 621, 641, 660, 672, 746, 747, 750, 
768, 781, 791, 792, 798, 800-803, 807, 811, 818, 819, 
831, 832, 835, 854, 867, 877, 912, 977, 988, 989, 1023, 
1061-1063. 
Brown, Thomas J., 388. 
Brown, Thomas W., 248. 
Brown, W. H., 928. 
Brown, W. Le Roy, 85, 150, 243, 958. 
Brown, William N., 932. 
Browne, William M. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 216. 
See also Jefferson Davis. 
Mentioned, 217. 
Brunswick and Albany Railroad. 

Sequestered stock and bonds, 495, 496. 
Brunswick and Florida Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274 
Bryson, J. N. 

_Correspondence, W.C. Walker, 732. 
Buchanan, Franklin. 

Correspondence, Navy Department, C. 5S., 663. 

Mentioned, 90, 242, 662, 697. 
Buchanan, J. H., 929. 
Buchanan, J. Ws, 932. 
Buck, Charles F., 152. 
Buckman, Thomas E., 650. 
Buckner, Simon B. 

Correspondence: 

Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A., 563. 
Alabama, Governor ot, 462. 
Mentioned, 278, 380, 437, 438, 461, 462, 530, 615, 733, 
734, 785. 
Buell, Don Carlos, 142, 284, 285. 


See Braxton Bragg 


INDEX. 


Buford, James H., 936. 
Bullard, James G., 930. 
Bulloch, James D., 479, 536, 544, 545, 547, 554, 557, 
887, 908, 909, 980-982, 987. 
Bull Run, Va. 
Battle, Aug. 30, 1862, 282. 
Bunch, Robert. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 238. 
. Mentioned, 67, 1027. 
Burdett, J. D. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 221. 
Bureau of Conscription, €.S. A. 
Appointment of agents and officers of, 686. 
Arrest and collection of deserters and stragglers, 
679, 722, 723, 726, 762, 763, 768-774, 777, 781, 783- 
786, 796, 798-801. 
Assignments of conscripts, 910. 
Conflicting rank of conscription officers, 659, 660. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 607, 722, 723, 736, 965, 1020. 
August, T. P.,717, 761. 
Blake, E. D., 439, 440. 
Clark, M. R., 432, 437. 
Davis, Jefferson, 811. 
Harris, C. J., 747. 
Johnston, J. E., 849, 852, 859, 869. 
Lander, W., 411. 
Lay, G. W., 735, 783. 
McLaws, A. H., 781. 
Mallett, P., 734. 
Melton, C. D., 769, 812, 815. 
Melton, S. W., 939. 
North Carolina, Governor of, 458, 465. 
Shields, J. C., 722. 
Swanson, W.G., 440. 
Walthall, W. T., 435, 438, 726. 
War Department, C. S., 375, 378, 411, 430, 438, 
445, 473, 573, 582, 608, 694, 716, 723, 731, 747, 749, 
752, 761, 768, 786, 811, 812, 867, 966, 1070. 
Weems, J. B., 812. 
Field, C. W., Superintendent, 568, 1074. 
Force employed by, 1072-1074. 
Lay, G. W., Acting Superintendent, 1074. 
Measures to increase efficiency, 723-728, 867, 868, 
1022, 1023. 
Medical examinations, 605, 606. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Feb. 27, 412; Mar. 
24, 456; Mar. 80, 463; May 14, 553; May 19, 
558; May 80, 573; June 8, 582; June 28, 605, 
606; June 26, 611; July 7, 618; July 21, 654; 
July 22, 659; July 28, 662; July 25, 675; July 
28, 679; July 30, 685; July 31, 686; Aug. 10, 
703; Aug. 11, 706; Aug. 18, 710; Aug. 15, 
716; Aug. 17, 728; Aug. 19, 731; Aug. 20, 
736; Sept. 5, 792; Sept.. 10, 798, 800; Sept. 


14, 808; Sept. 22, 822; Sept. 28, 822; Sept.’ 


28, 830; Oct. 21, 879; Nov. 15, 966; No. 56, 
967; No. 59, 1022. 

Organization, etc., 286. 

Pay, allowances, etc., of officers, 853, 875. 

Powers, duties, etc., of officers, 246, 266, 286, 456- 
458, 463, 611, 618, 660, 662, 675, 679, 685, 703, 704, 
706, 710, 716, 728, 729, 731, 736, 781, 792, 798-800, 
808, 822, 823, 830, 879, 966-968, 1022, 1023, 1070. 

Preston, J.S., Superintendent, 684, 1074. 

Rains, G. J., Superintendent, 1074. 


1085 


Bureau of Conscription, C. 8S. A.—Continued. 
Reports from camps of instruction, 266. 
Substitutes, 611. 

Troops for service under, 796, 798, 799, 868, 1022, 
1023, 1072-1074. 

Bureau of Indian Affairs, C. S. 
Appropriations, 531. 

Hubbard, D., Commissioner, 1074. 
Operations, 1862, 352-357. 
Scott, S.S., Commissioner, 1074. 

Bureau of War, €. S. 

Kean, R. G. H., Chief, 1074. 

Burger, Dennis, 366. 

Burger, Herbert, 366. 

Burgin, Thomas A., 935. 

Burgwyn, Henry K., 899, 902. 

Burke, Frank E., 253. 

Burnside, Ambrose E., 336, 1018, 1025. 

Burt, E. R., 931. 

Burt, William, 936. 

Burton, James H., 645, 646, 957, 958. 

Burton, John B. 

Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C.S.A., 483. 
Mentioned, 453. 

Bushwood, J. G., 172. 

Butler, Benjamin F. 

. Comments of Jefferson Davis, 53, 1047. 
Mentioned, 22, 53, 258, 345, 1047. 
Proclaimed a felon by Jefferson Davis, 258, 345. 

Butler, J. J., 439. 

Butler, Lawrence L., 861, 964. 

Butler, Samuel F., 931. 

Butler, William, 815. 

Byrne, Richard 0., 933. 

Cabell, George C., 171. 

Caddo Indians. 

Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Cadets, C. 8. Military. 
Congress, C. S., 205. 
Examination for promotion, 472. 
Pay, 205. 
Personal descriptive reports, 79, 853. 

Cage, John B., 964. 

Cahaba, Marion and Greensborough Railroad. 
Impressment of rolling-stock, etc., 655. 

Cai-a-wa Indians. 

Treaty with Confederate States, 356. 

Calhoun, Steamer, 88. 

Calhoun, Henry D., 816. 

Calhoun, James L. 

Correspondence, Quartermaster-General’s Oftice, 
CG. S. A., 483, 655, 
Mentioned, 453. 
Calhoun, John C., 103. 
Calls for Troops (C.). 
June 6, 1863, 580-582. 

Calypso, Steamer, 336. 

Campbell, Alexander W. 

Correspondence, G. J. Pillow, 374. 
Mentioned, 362. 
Campbell, John A. 
Assistant Secretary of War, C.S., 1074. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 179. 
War Department, C. S., 623, 656, 662, 674, 695, 
716, 743, 763, 786, 979, 987, 988. 
See also War Department, O. 8. 


1086 


Campbell, John A.—Continued. 
Mentioned, 178, 224, 227, 573, 1074. 
Resignation as Assistant Secretary of War, 
C.S., 179. 
Campbell, John N., 933. 
Campbell, Josiah A. P., 248, 934. 
Campbell, Parker, 193. 
Campbell, Robert B., 934. 
Camps of Instruction. See Rendezvous. 
Cannon, J. M., 930. 
Cape Fear, District of the. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops, January, 
1863, 380. 
Carmouche, P., 152. 
Carolina, Vessel, 173. 
Carrington, Charles S., 372, 413, 455, 971. 


Carrington, L., 208, 264, 358, 397, 486, 988, 1061, 1063. 


Carrington, William A., 616. 
Carter, C. H., 936. 

Carter, David M., 248. 
Carter, James W., 931. 
Carter, John C. 


Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 


eral’s Office, C. 8. A., 670, 695. 

Carter, R. 8., 930. 

Cash, Ellerbee B. C., 156. 

Cason, John A., 931. 

Cavalry. 

Clothing and equipage, 718-721, 921. 
Desertion from infantry to join, 774-777. 
Details from commands, 364. 

Men unable to provide horses, 568. 
Preference for service in, 774-777, 794. 
Remarks, J. R. Chambliss, jr., 718-721. 

Cavour, Camillo Benso di, 391. 

Cecile, Steamer, 52. 

Cedar Mountain, Va. 

Battle, Aug. 9, 1862, 282. 

Chaires, G. D. 

Correspondence, A. B. Noyes, 973. 

Chalmers, James R. 

Correspondence, G.J. Pillow, 794. 
Mentioned, 615, 775, 930. 

Chamberlain & Co., 106. 

Chambliss, John R., jr. 

Correspondence, A. R. Boteler, 718. 

Mentioned, 718, 720, 721. 
Chambliss, Nathaniel R., 438. 
Chancellorsville, Va. 

Battle, May 1-3, 1863, 990. 

Chandler, G. C., 930. 

Charleston, Steamer, 664. 

Charleston, 8. C. 

Foreign commerce, July 1,1861-May 20, 1863, 
562, 563. 

Charleston and Savannah Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Capacity, 486. 

Charleston Arsenal, S. C. 

Regulations, 379, 380. 

Charleston Harbor, 8S. C. 

Engagement, Apr. 7, 1863, 990, 1024. 

Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Chattahoochee, C.S. 8., 90, 215. 

Cheatham, Benjamin F., 371. 


INDEX. 


Cheatham, Edward 8., 669. 
Cheraw and Darlington Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Cherokee Indians. 
Disaffection among, 349, 353, 354. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of troops, 467. 
Chesnut, James, jr. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 152, 156. 
Mentioned, 155. 
Chickamauga, Ga. 
Battle, Sept. 19-20, 1863, 993, 1025. 
Chickasaw Indians. 
Disaffection among, 353, 354. 
Childress, James R., 934. 
Childs, Frederick L., 233, 335, 958. 
Chiles, Mr., 982, 985. 
Chilton, William P. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C. 8. A.,108. 
Chisolm, J. J., 233. 
Choctaw Indians. 
Loyalty to Confederacy, 353. 
Chrisman, Thomas J., 933. 
Churchill, Thomas J. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Citizens. 
Held in confinement, monthly reports of, 459. 
Liable to military duty, arrest of, 777. 
Registration, 706. 
Removal beyond lines, 142. 
Visiting hostile territory, 10. 
Civil Courts. 
Authority under martial law, 32. 
Counsel in habeas corpus cases, 967, 968. 
Sequestered property, 468. 
Suspension of sessions, 187, 188. 
Clanton, James H., 419, 420. 
Clapp, J. W. , 
Correspondence, War Department,C. S., 381, 388. 
Clark, Charles. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 1052. 
Clark, Henry T. 
Correspondence. See North Carolina, Gov. of. 
Mentioned, 40, 68, 69, 182, 183. 
Clark, Michael R. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription, C. 8. A., 432, 437. 
War Department, C.S., 149, 433. 
Mentioned, 682, 761. 861. 
Clark, William L., 273, 274. 
Clarke, Robert, 931. 
Clarkson, John N., 309. 
Clay, Clement C., jr. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S8., 141. 
Clay, Hugh L. 
Correspondence. See Adjutant and Inspector 
General's Office, C. S.A. 
Clay, James B., 391. 
Clayton, Edwin M., 861. 
Clayton, Henry D. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
~ eral’s Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. 
Clayton, Rufus K., 934. 
Cleburne, Patrick R. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen. 
eral’s Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. 


See Mississippi, Governor of. 


INDEX. 


Clements, Nelson, 983. 
Clergymen. See Ministers of the Gospel. 
Clifton, James M., 862. 
Clingman, Thomas L., 770. 
Clitherall, A. B., 605. 
Clopton, Thomas C., 302, 303, 334. 
Clothing and Equipage. 
Accounts of soldiers, 229, 230. 
Acts of C.S. Congress, 111, 202, 204, 229, 529. 
Cavalry, 718-721, 921. 
Commutation or money value, 202, 229, 529, 878, 
879. 
Competition between State and C.S.agents, 183. 
Convict labor, 96. 
Damaged or unserviceable, 230, 231. 
Deceased soldiers, 511, 568, 612. 
Deserters, 230, 801. 
Details to manufactories, 204. 
Encouragement of manufacture, 111. 
Enlisted men detailed from discontinued organi- 
zations, 584. 
Furnished by troops, 365. 
Hides, 455, 467, 794. 
Hospital, 199, 209. 
Impressment, 109, 654. 
Measures to provide supplies, 30, 31, 183. 
Militia, while in C.S. service, 529. 
Prisoners and convicts, 230. 
Purchases, regulations governing, 453-456, 483. 
Purchases abroad, 30, 31, 133, 173-175, 177,178, 190, 
191, 233, 234, 336, 382-384, 555-558, 564, 828, 829, 
870-873, 895, 896, 909, 910, 985, 986. 
Regulations, 229-231. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.S., 292. 
Req aisitions, 380. 
Returns, 230, 231. 
Sale to private parties, 386, 387. 
Schedules of prices, 653, 743-745, 836-838, 937, 938, 
942, 1050. 
Seizure of State supplies by C.5. officers, 8, 26. 
Speculation, 183, 184, 214. 
Supply by States, 196, 197, 232, 235. 
Trading with enemy, 151. 
Uniform, 202. 
W ool, 358, 654, 655. 
Cobb, Howell. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 798, 807, 831, 834. 
Davis, Jefferson, 810. 
Georgia, Governor of, 878. 
War Department, C.S., 34, 365, 854, 877, 912. 
Mentioned, 649, 746, 802, 804, 810, 818, 819, 823, 824, 
878, 880, 953. 
Organization, etc., Georgia local defense troops, 
810, 811, 818, 819, 823, 824, 831-835, 854, 877, 878. 
Repeal of conscription act, 34, 35, 
Cobb, J. L., 403, 404. 
Cockrell, Francis M. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 805. 
Cockrill, 8. R. 
Correspondence, Impressment Commissioners’ 
Convention, 916. 
Mentioned, 899, 900, 903, 916. 
Coghill, R, A., 846. 


1087 


Colbert, Wallace B., 934. 
Colbert, Winchester, 353, 355. 
Colcock, Charles J., 815. 
Colcock, W. F. 
Correspondence, G. T. Beauregard, 562. 
Cole, A. H. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office,C. 8. A., 615. 
Mentioned, 126, 552, 875, 914, 1053. 
Cole, Robert G., 574. 
Collie, Alexander. 
Correspondence: 
Crenshaw, W.G., 630. 
Mason, J. M., 542. 
Mentioned, 478, 480, 481, 537, 542, 544, 554, 588, 625. 
Collie, Alexander, & Co., 478, 482, 497, 498, 525-527, 
535-5387, 540, 541, 544, 546, 554, 586-590, 602, 624- 
629, 647, 825, 826, 829, 852, 871, 874, 892, 982. 
Collie & Crenshaw, 482, 870. 
Collins, B. H., 931. 
Collins, Nathaniel D, 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C. S. A., 639. 
Mentioned, 639. 
Collum, Milledge V., 934. 
Colston, Raleigh E. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 433. 
Coltart, John G., 440, 441. 
Columbia, Steamer (Blockade-runner), 9,19, 177, 
955. 
Columbia, Steamer (U.S. Mail), 58. 
Columbus Arsenal, Ga. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Comanche Indians. 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Comfort, J. A., 930. _ 
Commandants of Conscripts. 
Duties, etc., 163, 286, 458, 611, 618, 659, 660, 662, 675, 
679, 685, 703, 704, 706, 710, 716, 728, 729, 731, 736, 
781, 792, 798-800, 808, 822, 823, 830, 879, 966,967, 
1022, 1023. 
Enrolling officers to be subordinate to, 659, 660. 
Increase of force at disposal of, 618. 
Monthly reports, 163. 
Office created, 163. 
Regulations, C.S. Army, 163. 
Standing counsel for habeas corpus cases, 967, 
968. 
Commerce. See Trade and Intercourse. 
Commissioners. 
Removal of negroes from exposed districts, 133- 
137. 
To foreign countries, 120. 
Compton, W. F., 931. 
Conduct of the War. 
Communications from: 
Alexander, P. W., 489-495. 
Beauregard, G. T., 391. 
Dargan, E. §., 550, 585, 664, 713. 
Davis, Jefferson, 52-56, 211, 279-294, 336-350, 
475-477, 687, 688, 766, 1024-1049. 
Georgia, Governor of, 699-701. 
Gladney, J. B., 40-42. 
Lee, R. E., 334. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 279, 294, 990-1018. 
Resolutions of State Legislatures, 233,258, 259, 
378, 1052-1054, 1057, 1060, 1061, 1065. 


1088 


Cone, Aurelius F., 828. 
Conerly, James M., 935. 
*¢Confederate.”’ 
_ Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 495. 
Confederate Seal. 
Adoption, 529, 530. 
Confederate Society, Enterprise, Miss. 


Efforts to maintain standard of currency, 809, 


810. 
Confederate States Government. 
Adoption of seal, 529, 530. 


Annexation of the Northwestern States, 489-495. 


Flag, 534. 


Guarantee of debt by States, 219, 237, 238, 258, 


259, 314, 320, 321, 323, 376. 


Party in opposition to Administration, 489-495. 


Confidence, Schooner, 169, 173. 
Congress, C. S. 


Absence of officers and soldiers without leave, 


690. 

Appropriations: 
Adjt.and Insp. Gen.’s Dept., C.5. A., 120, 531. 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A., 532. 
Bounty, 112, 120, 205, 392. 
Bureau of Indian Affairs, C.S., 532. 
Contract surgeons, 112, 120, 392. 
Cooks, 112, 120. 
Deficiencies, 120. 
Engineer Dept., C.S. A., 112, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Expenses of funding Treasury notes, 533. 
Foreign relations, commissioners, etc., 120. 


Horses killed in battle, property of soldiers, 


119, 392, 531. 
Hospitals, 112, 120, 392, 393, 532. 
Impressed property, 112, 120, 392, 531. 
Indian treaty payments, 352, 532. 


Interest on loan of Branch Bank of Tennessee, 


120. 
Tron, 119, 392. 


Legislative, executive, and judicial expenses, 


112, 113. 


Medical Dept.,C.S. A., 112, 120, 392,393,531, 532. 


Munitions of war, 112. 
Niter, 119, 392, 532. 
Nurses, 112, 120. 


Ordnance Dept., C.S.A.,112,119,120,392,531,532. 


Pay of the Army, 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Prisoners of war, 112, 120, 392. 
Public buildings, 533. 


Q. M.'s Dept., C. S. A., 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 


Railroads, 200, 201. 

Reimbursement of States, 407, 533. 
Relief of troops from Missouri, 496. 
River defense service, 531. 


Salaries, War Dept., C.S., 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Subsistence Department, C.S. A., 112, 113, 120, 


392, 531. 


Support of the Army, 112, 119, 120, 392, 393, 531, 


532. 


Bonds, C. S., 90, 91, 320, 406, 407, 450-453, 524, 525, 


529. 
Bounty, 112, 120, 205, 392. 
Cadets, C. 8S. military, 205. 
Camps of instruction, 77, 78, 202. 
Clerks, etc., of staff departments, 577, 683. 


Clothing and equipage, 111, 202, 204, 229, 529, 801. 


Collectors of war tax, 115, 118, 


INDEX. 


Congress, C. S.—Continued. 


Commissaries, 571. 

Compensation for private property seized or 
destroyed, 124, 125. 

Conscription, 2, 3, 10-13, 15, 33-35, 41-46, 53, 54, 95, 
96, 106, 160-165, 199, 204, 206, 456, 496, 497, 553, 
554, 690, 691, 1056, 1065, 1070. 

Consolidation of reduced organizations, 110, 111. 

Corps organizations, 198. 

Correspondence: 

Davis, Jefferson, 59, 77, 80, 82, 107, 358, 389, 495. 
Treasury Department, C.S., 59. 
War Department, C.S., 1058. 

Cotton, 73, 451. 

Counterfeiting by enemy, 118, 119. 

Cultivation of food crops, 468, 475. 

Detail of enlisted men, 577, 683. 

Disabled, disqualified, or incompetent officers, 
205, 206. 

Discharge of enlisted men, 499, 693. 

Efficiency reports, 205, 206. 

Election of regimental officers, 690. 

Engineer Corps, Provisional Army, C.S., 198. 

Engineer troops, 445, 446. 

Enlistments in Navy and Marine Corps, 191, 192, 
456, 457. 

Enticement of soldiers to desert, 801. 

Exemption from conscription, 160-162, 496, 497, 
558, 554, 690, 691, 1055, 1056. 

Extra compensation of detailed men, 577. 

Finance, 90, 91, 320, 406, 407, 450-453, 524, 525, 529. 

Flag of Confederate States, 534. 

Flogging in the Army, 496. 

Fugitive or recaptured slaves, 420. 

Furloughs to enlisted men, 693. 

General staff, C.S. Army, 690. 

Habeas corpus, writ of, 121. . 

Hospitals and supplies, 199-201, 533, 534, 572, 693. 

Impressment, 124, 125, 469-471, 534. 

Increase of military establishment, 198-202, 445, 
446, 691, 692. 

Kentucky, aid for, 1069, 

Lease or purchase of real estate, 530. 

Lieutenant-generals, 198. 

Local defense troops, 206, 207, 603. 

Machinery imported to be duty free, 111, 527. 

Medals and badges, 206. 

Medical Department, C.S. A., 117, 118. 

Members of, exemption from conscription,161. 

Messages of Jefferson Davis, 52-56, 80-82, 107, 
110,111, 114, 117, 118, 336-350, 389, 495, 1024- 
1049, 1069. 

Military courts, 202, 203, 691. 

Military store- keepers, 691, 692. 

Militia, 529. 

Minors as commissioned officers, 495. 

Mississippi River, 82. 

Munitions of war, 80, 85, 299, 801. 

Negroes, 420, 534, 691. 

Niter and Mining Bureau, C. 8. A., 594, 595. 

Officers or enlisted men officers of courts, 499. 

Organization, strength, etc., of Army, 359, 390. 

Partisan rangers, 48, 82, 83. 

Pay, etc., of the Army, 91, 205, 446, 690-693. 

Pay and allowances of deceased soldiers, 201, 202, 

691. 

Penalty for desertion, 496. 


INDEX. 


Congress, ©. S.—Continued. 
Ports of delivery, 533. 
Presidential appointments, 1138, 205, 534. 
Prevention of frauds in staff departments, 692. 
Promotions, 206. 
Quartermaster’s Dept., C. S. A., 571, 683, 690, 692. 
Railroads, 73, 107, 108, 200, 201. 
Rendezvous, 77, 78, 202. 
Resignation of army officers, 499. 
Retaliation, 534, 691. 
Sale of arms, equipments, ete., by soldiers, 801. 
Seal of the Confederate States, 529, 530. 
Seizure or confiscation of private property, 124, 
125, 389. 
Sick, convalescent, aud wounded soldiers, 199- 
201, 209, 533, 534, 572. | 
Signal Corps, C.S. A., 199. 
Staff departments, C.S. A., 202. 
Subsistence Department, C. S. A., 571, 683, 692. 
Substitutes, 73, 161, 1054, 1058, 1059, 1065. 
Supernumerary officers, 571. 
Taxation, 111, 112, 513-524, 1065. 
Transfers from Army to naval service, 693, 705. 
Transfers of enlisted men, 98, 198, 201. 
Transportation of the Army, 201, 689, 692. 
Treasury notes, 90, 91, 406, 407, 450-453, 529. 
Troops furnished, 77, 80. 
Uniforms, 202. 
Conrad, Charles M. 
Correspondence, F. D. Conrad, 854. 
Conrad, F. D. 
Correspondence: 
Conrad, C. M., 854. 
Kenner, D. F., 854. 
Perkins, J., jr., 854. 
Sparrow, E., 854. 
Conscription. 
A bsentees, 214, 215. 
Acts of C.S. Congress: 
Apr. 16, 1862, 2,3, 10-13, 15, 33-35, 41-46, 53, 54, 
106, 128-131. 
Sept. 27, 1862, 160. 
Oct. 2, 1862, 456. 
Oct. 8, 1862, 162. 
Oct. 11, 1862, 160-163, 204. 
Oct. 13, 1862, 206. 
Apr. 14, 1863, 496, 497, 1056. 
May 1, 1863, 553, 554, 690, 691. 
Dec. 28, 1863, 1065. : 
Age limit, 132, 133, 160, 390, 426, 635, 648. 
Arrest of stragglers and deserters by ofticers, 
5-7, 217, 607, 608, 618, 679. 
Call for men between ages of 18 and 45 years, 635. 
Clerks, etc., in Quartermaster’s and Subsistence 
Departments, C.S. A., 709, 710, 716, 767, 792. 
Constitutionality of conscription acts, 2, 3, 10-13, 
1238, 124, 128-131. 
Controversy between Jefferson Davis and Gov- 
ernor of Georgia, 2, 3, 10-13, 128-181, 216, 217. 
Demoralization by recruiting in the field, 307, 
389, 694, 695, 724, 727. 
Duty by partially disabled officers and enlisted 
men, 217. 
Employés engaged on Government work, 642. 


69 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1089 


Conscription—Continued. 

Enforcement, 22, 23, 32, 33, 43-45, 78, 195, 211, 243, 
246, 266, 285-288, 305-307, 389, 400, 401, 416-418, 
448, 463, 607, 608, 648, 654, 656, 685, 696, 703, 704, 
706, 710, 716, 723-731, 735, 736, 768-774, 777, 792, 
798, 799, 808, 822, 823, 828, 830, 856-858, 867, 868, 
875, 910,939, 940, 995-1001, 1022, 1023, 1070-1072. 

Enlisted men outside age limit, 15, 33, 34, 41, 42, 
139. 

Enrolling officers, 44, 95, 96, 164, 165, 659, 660, 675. 

Enrollment and disposition of recruits, 228. 229, 
367, 688, 885, 910, 939, 940. 

Evasion of military duty, 9, 10. 

Exemptions, 17, 22, 23, 45, 73-75, 160-162, 164-168, 
218, 220-222, 262, 263, 286-288, 398, 399, 401, 403, 
408, 409, 425, 426, 478, 496, 497, 553, 558, 573, 582, 
662, 690, 691, 867, 1054-1057. 

See also Exemptions from Conscription. 

Exhibits: 

Officers and men employed in executing con- 
scription acts, 1070-1072. 
Results accomplished, 132, 939, 940. 

Expenditures connected with, 377. 

Expiration of term of service, 403. 

Foreigners, 39, 67,70, 84, 85, 164, 238-240, 366, 367, 
463, 641, 642, 657, 658, 698-701, 729, 730, 755-758. 

Free negroes for mechanical, ete., service, 978, 
979, 1041. 

Investigations by C.S. Congress, 95, 96, 359, 390. 

Liability of Kentuckians, 403. 

Local defense troops, 256, 257, 648, 684, 972. 

Marylanders found in Virginia, 302, 303, 335. 

Measures to systematize, 723-728. 

Medical examinations, 51, 79, 80, 163, 165, 232, 365, 
388, 408, 409, 478, 605, 606, 677, 688, 731, 913. 
Memorial from officers of Army of. Tennessee, 

670, 671. 

Men for old regiments, 20, 21, 305-307. 

Military colleges, 123, 124, 154. 

Militia, 148, 144, 156, 157, 212, 218, 219, 220, 225, 226, 
228, 398, 399, 464-466, 634, 681, 682, 881, 882, 906, 

Officers discharged, resigning, etc., 243, 290, 295, 
419. 

Opinions of Attorney-General, C.S.: 

Act of Apr. 16, 1862, 15, 33, 34, 41, 42. 
Exemption acts, 126-128, 212. 

Partisan rangers to be composed of exempts, 26. 

Plantation owners and overseers, 220, 221, 244, 
401-403, 553, 558, 573, 582, 662, 690, 691, 728, 729, 
777, 830, 848, 849, 864, 865, 874. 

Power of States to exempt, 22, 23, 73-75, 464-466, 
617, 632, 633. 

Provision against extortion, 166, 167. 

Regulations, 8, 51, 83, 85, 98, 133, 160-168, 232, 243, 
294, 295, 363, 365, 389, 400, 401, 408, 409, 412, 413, 
419, 478, 648, 777, 827, 875, 910, 913, 972. 

Religious sects and societies, 122, 161, 166. 

Remarks: 

Assistant Secretary of War, C. S., 220-222. 

Barton, R. M., 367-371. 

Beauregard, G. T., 391. 

Cobb, H.,, 34, 35. 

Davis, Jefferson, 53-55, 218, 226, 632, 633, 680, 
1040-1042. 


1090 


Conscription—Continued. 


Remarks: 
Hudson, R. S., 856-858. 
Lee, R. E., 678. 


Melton, S. W., 946-942. 

Preston, J. S., 307, 694, 695, 723-726. 

Ruggles, D., 677, 678. 

Secretary of War, C.S., 42-46, 280, 281, 285-288, 
995-1001. 

Resistance to enrollment, 87, 207, 208, 258, 607, 608, 
638, 680, 681, 731-734, 741, 765, 768-774, 783-786, 
794.-796, 1022, 1023. 

Retention of men in service, 15, 33, 34, 41, 42, 403, 
425, 426, 1000, 1001. 

Statement of population, 132. 

Students, 297, 298, 308. 

Substitutes, 2, 6, 7, 45, 73, 75, 78, 161, 168, 197, 239, 
412, 413, 553, 582, 583, 608, 611, 618, 614, 648, 654— 
656, 670, 671, 696, 712, 730, 747, 748, 801, 808, 822, 
823, 827, 828, $30, 911-913, 946, 947, 996, 997, 1040, 
1041, 1054, 1058, 1059, 1065. 

Superintendent for Provisional Army, C. S., 241. 

Suspension of conscription acts, 106, 126, 188, 160, 
162, 204, 206, 357, 365, 697, 701, 707. 

Territory occupied by enemy, 218, 298, 299, 301, 
302, 308, 309, 334, 685, 686. 

Volunteer regiments organized prior to, 204. 

See also— 
Trans-Mississippt Department. 
West, Depariment of the (C.). 
And respective States. 
Conscripts. A 

Acceptance as volunteers, 93, 97, 116, 168, 204, 228, 
256, 257, 305, 400, 635, 694, 695, 731, 811-817, 827, 
865. 

Assignment and organization, 20, 21, 43, 44, 76, 
114, 115, 146, 148, 160, 163-165, 731, 885, 910. 
Collection in camps of instruction, 43, 44, 77, 78, 

163, 202, 350. 
Commandants of, 163. 
Disability, 51, 79, 80, 84, 95, 98, 163, 165, 166. 
Discharge, 688. 
Engaged on Government work, 8, 51, 78, 83, 167, 
430, 448, 449, 792. 
Enlistment in Navy or Marine Corps, 191, 192, 
456, 457. 
Enlistment in new regiments, 827. 
Enrollment, 162, 164. 
Examination, 51, 168, 165, 688. 
Extra compensation of detailed, 579. 
Furloughs, 677. 
Invalid, etc., as overseers, 731. 
Leaving regular command and joining others, 
401. 
Liability as deserters, 78, 168, 430. 
Members of State organizations, 677, 678. 
Payment, 8. 
Permits to visit homes, etc., forbidden, 875. 
Proportion to volunteers, 995. 
Railroad employés, 296. 
Regulations, 8, 78. 
Returns, etc., 78, 155-157, 163. 
Constitution, C. 8. 

Appointments of army or navy officers, 82. 
Consuls, British. 

Charleston, S.C. See Robert Bunch. 


INDEX. 


Consuls, British—Continued. 


Mobile, Ala. See James Magee. 
Savannah, Ga. See A. Fullarton. 
Contracts. 


Appropriations for payment, 119. 
Detail of enlisted men to work on, 194, 792. 
Ordnance officers, 151. 
Paper materials, collection, ete., 584. 
Power of the President, C.S., 363. 
Regulations, 150. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.5., 363. 
Contract Surgeons. 
Appropriations, 112, 120, 392. 
Compensation, 688, 822. , 
Examination of conscripts, 232, 365, 388, 677, 688, 
822. 
Convicts. 
Clothing and equipage, 230. 
Cook, Henry F., 935. 
Cooks, Army. 
Appropriations, 112, 120. 
Partially disabled conscripts as, 95. 
Cooper, Duncan B., 884. 
Cooper, Samuel. 
Adjutant and Inspector General, C.S. A., 1074. 
Correspondence. See Adjutant and Inspector 
General's Office, C. 8. A. 
Mentioned, 4, 5, 8, 14, 35, 73, 79, 84, 99, 163-165, 169, 
212, 225, 232, 291, 304, 363, 371, 390, 398, 403, 415, 
425, 473, 528, 571, 579, 679, 722, 749, 754, 774, 775, 
816, 821, 823,845, 848, 849,869, 913,945, 1058, 1074. 
Copper. 
Measures to provide supplies, 30. 
Corinth, Miss. 
Battle, Oct. 3-4, 1862, 285. 


| Corley, M. M., 929, 932. 


Cornubia, Steamer, 538. 
Correspondence. 
Regulations governing oficial, 308, 425. 


| Corwin, Thomas, 104. 


Cotton. p 

Collie-Crenshaw contract, 497, 498, 526, 527, 535- 
547, 565, 566, 601. 

Destruction to avoid capture, 229. 

Diversion of industries, 376, 468, 475-477, 487- 
489, 611, 612. 

Duty on exportations, 451. 

Export on Government account, 670, 714-716, 824— 
826, 829, 833, 870-875, 890, 979-985, 1013-1016. 

Inducement to European intervention, 488, 489. 

Ordnance purchases, 550, 551. 

Payment for supplies with, 173-175, 257, 416, 
793, 970. 

Payment of bond coupons in, 452, 453. 

Produce loan, 322, 333. 

Proposed exchange with enemy for salt, 21, 22. 

Provision of funds for agents abroad, 644-647, 
682, 683, 824-827, 829, 833, 834, 873, 887, 890, 924. 
925, 1013-1016. 

Resolutions South Carolina Legislature, 1059, 
1060. 

Restriction of exportation, 21, 22, 57, 58, 105, 126, 
306, 381, 382, 388, 389, 399, 400, 462, 463, 472, 473., 
547, 548, 854-856, 983, 1016. 

Seizure in Trans-Mississippi District, 73. 

South Carolina foreign loan, 194, 195. 


INDEX. 


Courts-Martial. 
Remarks of Jefferson Davis, 80, 81. 
See also Military Courts. 
Covey, Ed. N., 787. 
Cowan, James J., 935. 
Cox, Major, 964. 
Craig, Mr., 895. 
Craig, William B., 932. 
Cram, Daniel H., 274. 
Creek Indians. 
Disaffection among, 353, 354. 
Crenshaw, James R. 
Correspondence: 
Ordnance Department, C.S. A., 498. 
War Department, C. S., 497, 525, 565. 
Mentioned, 481, 587, 602. 
Crenshaw, William G. 
Correspondence: 
Collie, A., 630. 
Huse, C., 482, 536, 537, 539, 540. 
* McRae, C. J., 626-628, 892. 
Mason, J. M., 541, 542, 588, 590, 628. 
War Department, C.S., 449, 478, 480, 535, 543, 
554, 586, 587, 599, 623, 625. 
Mentioned, 244, 245, 395, 498, 540, 566, 567, 646, 647, 
826, 885, 887, 889, 891-893, 908, 909, 970, 981. 
Crenshaw Brothers, 852. 
Crenshaw & Co., 497, 498, 525, 526, 566, 633. 
Crenshaw & Hobson, 481. 
Creoles. 
Acceptance as volunteers, 941. 
Enrollment for militia duty, 197. 
Crockett, S. 0. B., 930. 
Crossan, T. M., 195. 
Cruger, Lewis, 124. 
Cuba, Steamer, 52. 
Culbertson, William P., 934. 
Cumberland Gap, Tenn. 
Capture, Sept. 9, 1863, 993, 1025. 
Cummings, J. F., 159, 193, 351, 574, 746, 989, 
Cunliffes & Co., 627. 
Curry, Jabez L. M., 726. 
Customs. See Trade and Intercourse. 
Cuyler, R. M. 
Correspondence, Ordnance Dept., C.S. A., 416. 
Mentioned, 958. 
Cuyler, R. R. 
Correspondence. See Railroad Convention. 
Mentioned, 2738, 274. 
Dameron, William H. 
Correspondence, G. J. Pillow, 850. 
Mentioned, 848, 852, 971. 
Daniel, P. V., jr. 
Correspondence, War Department,C. S., 394,395, 
499, 511, 841, 852, 866. 
Rail supply and demand, 511-513. / 
Richmond convention of railroads, 395, 499-510. 
Dantzler, Absalom F., 933. 
Danville Depot, Va. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Dargan, Edward 8S. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 220,550, 
585, 664, 713. 
Dauro, Ship, 336. 
Davenport, M., 862. 
Davenport, Stephen, 707, 936. 


1091 


Davidson, A. T., 248. 
Davidson, George S., 583. 
Davidson, Henry B., 278, 530. 
Davidson, Thomas J., 929, 932. 
Davis, Alfred W. G., 769. 
Davis, Jack, 18. 
Davis, Jefferson. 
Address to Army of Tennessee, 873. 
Appeal for cultivation of food crops, 475-477, 
611, 612. 
Conscription act, Apr. 16, 1862, 33, 34, 41, 42. 
Constitutionality of secession, 337, 338. 
Controversy with Governor of Georgia, 2, 3, 10- 
13, 128-131, 216, 217. 
Correspondence: 
Alabama, Governor of, 211, 334, 376. 
Arkansas, Governor of, 211. 
Baker, D. C., 839. 
Browne, W.M., 216. 
Bureau of Conscription, C. 8. A., 811. 
Campbell, J. A., 179. 
Cobb, H.., 810. 
Congress, C.S., 59, 77, 80, 82, 107, 358, 389, 495. 
Dickerson, M. O., 247. 
Enterprise (Miss.) Confederate Society, 809. 
Fife, S. P., 839. 
Florida, Governor of, 92, 212, 256, 258, 401, 487, 
808, 838. 
Georgia, Governor of, 2, 10, 128, 208, 211,217,263, 
376, 404, 406, 430, 485, 583, 746, 755, 798, 804, 810, 
823, 952, 1060, 1062. 
Gladney, J. B., 39, 41. 
Hamilton, J.S., 697. 
Hawes, R., 211, 417. 
Henderson, R., 839. 
Hendry, N., 839. 
Hill, B. H., 140. 
Hodge, G. B., 72. 
Howry, J. M.., 766. 
Hudson, R. S., 856. 
Jackson, C. F., 211. 
Johnston, J. E., 885. 
Jones, J. B., 405. 
Jordan, E., 839. 
Lee, R. E., 78, 447, 678, 680, 689, 698, 706. 
Louisiana, Governor of, 152, 212. 
Machen, W.B., 72. 
MeMillen, W., 839. 
Mississippi, Governor of, 126, 212, 468, O97 Ul 
707, 712, 754, 765, 766, 1065. 
Navy Department, C. S., 662. 
Neal, S. J., 247. 
North Carolina, Governor of, 32, 40, 67, 146, 153, 
154, 210, 212, 218, 246, 464, 552, 565, 617, 619, 631, 
632, 644, 665, 675, 684, 766, 801, 1068. 
O'Hara, C. F., 839. 
(. M. General’s Office, C.S. A., 386, 417. 
Shipp, W.M.., 247. 
Shorter, A., 144. 
Smart, W.J., 839. 
Smith, C, D., 247. 
Smith, E. K., 804. 
South Carolina, Executive Council of, 73. 
South Carolina, Governor of, 73, 152, 212, 234, 
642, 644, 657, 1057. 
Subsistence Department, C. S. A., 405. 


1092 


Davis, Jefferson—Continued. 
Correspondence: 

Swan, W.G., 138. 

Tennessee, Governor of, 21, 41, 99, 148, 211. 

Texas, Governor of, 178, 211, 461. 

Virginia, Adjutant-General of, 592, 597. 

Virginia, Governor of, 211, 426, 430, 642. 

War Department, C. S., 33, 41, 68, 78, 77, 80, 95, 
107, 109, 113, 126, 132, 145, 148, 151, 153, 175, 178, 
246, 370, 402, 424, 619, 643, 644, 663, 713, 714, 763, 
780, 786, 811, 858, 918, 953, 1054, 1058, 1063. 

West, A. M., 697. 

Wren, W., 708. 

Criticisms of Administration, 489-495. 
Lee’s request to be relieved from command, 698, 


INDEX. 


Denis, Jules C. 


Correspondence, D. H. Maury, 710. 
Mentioned, 849, 852. 
Dennis, James B., 931. 
Denson, T. J., 9383. 
Department No. 2. 
De Pass, W. L., 816. 
Depots of Supplies. 
Establishment, etc., 182, 453, 454, 960. 
Requisitions, 380. 
Under control of Q. M. Gen., C. 5. A., 380, 739. 
De Saussure, Douglass B., 817. 
De Saussure, Wilmot G., 16, 156. 
Descada, Vessel, 173. 
Deserters. 


See Western Department (C.). 


706. 
Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, 345-347. 
Mentioned, 16, 24, 35,40,45, 46, 73, 76,77, 80, 82,93,97, 
98, 102, 105-107, 114, 125, 127, 130, 145, 148, 170, 


176, 178, 179, 188, 189, 198, 200, 208, 218, 219, 225, | 


226, 233, 238, 244, 248, 252, 253, 256-258, 262, 298, 
299, 306-308, 335, 357, 359, 362, 363, 368-370, 372- 
376, 378, 386, 389, 400, 405, 412, 429, 430, 460, 468, 
472, 486, 491, 496, 499, 534, 550, 561, 563, 572, 580— 
582, 584, 585, 590-593, 595-599, 602-604, 606, 610, 
611, 614, 620-623, 635, 637, 641, 642, 654, 655, 657, 
660, 665, 667, 668, 670, 672, 673, 676, 677, 680, 681, 
685, 688, 696, 697, 704, 705, 711-713, 716, 727, 733, 
737-739, 746, 747, 761, 767, 769, 772, 787, 788, 790, 
798, 802, 803, 811, 813, 818, 824, 825, 831, 832, 835, 
849, 854, 858, 873, 878, 880, 885, 912, 918, 921, 922, 
926, 944-946, 948, 953,954,973,976,986, 1002,1005, 
1052-1055, 1058, 1061, 1062, 1064, 1070. 

Messages to Congress, 52-56, 80-82, 107, 108, 110, 
111, 114, 117, 118, 336-350, 389, 465, 1024-1049, 
1069. 

Policy and sentiments, 550. 

Proclamations: 

Amnesty to absentees without leave, 687, 688. 
Call for conscripts between ages of 18 and 45, 

635. 

Denouncing B. F. Butler as a felon, 258. 
Proposed Purveyor-General’s Dept.,C. 5.A., 424. 
Resolutions of confidence, ete., in, 378, 1052-1054, 

1057, 1065. 
Davis, John C., 931. 
Davis, Joseph R., 930. 
Davis, R. M., 128. 
Davis, W. V., 933. 
Dawkins, James B. 
Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 5€, 93. 
Day, W. C., 930. 
Dayton, William L., 346. 
Deas, George. 
Actg. Asst. Secty. of War, C.5., 189. 
Mentioned, 139. 
Deas, Zach. C. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Deason, J. B., 929. 
De Bow, J. D. B., 41. 
Dee, Steamer, 870. 
Delany, Samuel N., 930. 
Delay, William, 930. 
De Leon, Edwin. 
Correspondence, State Department, C.S., 23, 99. 
De Leon, Edwin, Mrs., 25.. 


Absence without leave, 214, 215, 687-689, 736, 801, 
828. 

Amnesty, 674, 687, 688, 707, 708. 

Apprehension and punishment, 5-7, 14, 186, 217, 
496, 607, 608, 618, 676, 677, 679, 723, 726, 750-754, 
764, 765, 768-774, 777, 782-786, 798-801, 805, 806, 
819, 820, 827, 828, 830, 831, 853, 854, 963, 964. 

Arms, etc., carried off by, 736, 793, 794. 

Circular to Governors of States, 7. 

Clothing and equipage, 230. 

Combination to resist authorities, 258, 360, 361, 
460, 461, 607, 619, 638, 674, 680, 681, 721, 722, 741, 
765, 768-774, 783-786, 1000, 1022. 

Conscripts, 78, 168, 430. 

Elected to public offices, 879, 880, 914. 

Enticement, 801. 

Joining other commands, 401, 674, 708, TT4-T77. 

Lawless conduct, etc., 607, 638, 721, 722. 

Mississippi and East Louisiana, Dept. of, 717. 

Monthly reports of, 801, 828. 

Permits to visit homes, ete., prohibited, 875. 

Proclamation Governor of North Carolina, 375, 
551. 

Publication of names, 215. 

Recaptured, sent to distant armies, 742, 743, 830, 
831, 853, 854, 869. 

Remarks: 

August, T. P., 717. 
Joyner, J. E., 721, 722. 

Transportation, 14. 

Treatment of exempts as, 23. 


Diana, Steamer, 554, 586-589, 625. 
Dickerson, M. 0. 


Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 247. 


| Dickins, John R., 931. 
Dillard, F. W., 455. 
Dilworth, A. B., 924. 
Disbursing Officers. 


Bonds, 796, 797. 
Charges against, 388. 


Discharge of Enlisted Men. 


Appointed or elected to public office, 231, 499, 
879, 880, 914. 

By general officers, 3. 

Conscripts, 688. 

Disability, 3,4, 92, 98, 99, 527, 528, 570, 571, 608, 693, 

Forms, 192. 

Outside conscription age, 1, 15, 33,34,41,42,51,139. 

Regulations, 1, 3, 39, 51, 87, 92, 98, 99, 192, 527-529, 
570, 571, 608. 

Seamen required for naval service, 90. 

Settlement of accounts, 230. 


INDEX. 


Discharge of Enlisted Men—Continued. 
Transportation to homes, 92. 
Unnaturalized foreigners, 39. 

Dishman, Jerry, 934. 

Dixon, R. 0., 923. 

Dixon, Robert E. 
Correspondence. See Congress, 

Dockery, Thomas C., 932. 

Donelson, Daniel §., 461. 

Donelson, Fort, Tenn. 

Siege and capture, Feb. 12-16, 1862, 65, 281. 

Donnell, R. S., 378, 1066, 

Donovan, Colonel, 931. 

Doran, S. A., 359. 

Dortch, William T. 

Correspondence: 
Treasury Department, C. S., 364. 
Worth, J., 364, 

Doss, Washington L., 931. 

Douglas, Ship, 336. 

Douglass, Samuel J., 248. 

Dowd, William F., 822, 932. 

Downer, W. S., 958. 

Drake, Jabez L., 933. 

Drake, Joseph, 929. 

Drane, G. W. C., 936. 

Drane, James, 936, 1052. 

Drill-Masters. 

Appointment, etc., 686. 
Removal, resignation, etc., 675. 
Rendezvous, 163. 

Dudgeon & Bro., 480. 

Dudley, Peyton G. 

Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 304. 
Mentioned, 303. 

Duffield, C. B. 

Correspondence. 
OSS.:A:. 

Duke, H. J., 934. 

Dunkards. 
Exemption from conscription, 122, 161, 163. 

Dunn, Ambrose C., 583. 

Dunn, J. B., 936. 

Dunovant, John, 815. 

Dunwody, John, 6, 96, 219, 225. 

Durr, R. J., 934. 

Duvall, John R., 929, 932. 

Dyer, S. M., 929. 

Eager, Robert, 929. , 

Eagle, Steamer, 234, 336. 

East Tennessee. 

Civil conditions, 563, 564. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 126, 138, 140 
141, 190, 243, 367-371, 563, 564, 800.» 

East Tennessee, Department of. 
Instructions to enrolling officers, 246. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 

Dec. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
Apr. 30, 1863, 530. 
May 31, 1863, 615. 
Dee. 31, 1863, 1073. 

East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 


0.8. 


See Bureau of Conscription 


273. 


} 
Lame | 


’ 


1093 


East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Kast Tennessee Campaign. Aug. 16-Oct. 19, 1863. 
Proclamation of Governor of Georgia, 789, 790. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.S., 993. 

Request for Georgia local troops to resist, 777, 
780, 788-790. 
See also Cumberland Gap. Capture, Sept. 9, 
1863. 

Echols, Captain, 860. 

Echols, James W., 438, 440, 860, 963. 

Echols, John, 159. 

Kekford, W. J., 931. 

Eclair, Vessel, 173. 

Felard, Vessel, 173. 

Edmondson, A. C., 935. 

Edmundson, Henry A., 82. 

Edney, General, 460. 

Edwards, Weldon N. 

Correspondence, Gov. of North Carolina, 85. 

Elford, Charles J. 

Correspondence. See Impressment Commis- 
stoners’ Convention. 
Mentioned, 156, 899, 903, 905, 906. 

Elkin, M.S. 

Correspondence. See A. B. Noyes. 

Ella and Annie, Steamer, 956. 

Elliott, John T., 907. 

Elliott, William, 773. 

Ellis, Charles, 274, 277. 

Ellis, John W. 

Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 231. 

Elmer, John P., 929. 


| Elmore, F. H., 817. 


Elzey, Arnold. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 241. 
Mentioned, 278, 380, 530, 615, 1073. 
Emanuel, M., 274. 
Emma Emilia, Vessel, 173. 
Enders, John. 
Correspondence, J. A. Weston, 735. 
Mentioned, 735. 
Engineer Corps, C. 8. A. 
Congress, C.S., 198. 
Increase of establishment, 47, 259-261. 
Organization, equipment, etc., 259-262, 289, 
Provisional Army, C.S., 198. 
Provisional to conform to regular, 47. 
Rank, 198. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.S., 259-262, 289, 
Engineer Department, ©. S. A. 
Appropriations, 112, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Condition, needs, ete., 259-262, 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, 0.8. A., 241, 
Grant, L. P., 139. 
War Department, C. S., 145, 259. 
Duties of officers in the field, 609, 610. 
Estimates of appropriations, 294, 
Gilmer, J. F., Chief of Engineer Bureau, 1074, 
Increase of establishment, 259-261. 
Iron impressment, 594, 595. 
Purchase of supplies, etc., abroad, 409, 410, 845, 


1094 


Engineer Department, U. 8. A.—Continued. 
Regulations, 609, 610. 
Rives, A. L., Chief of Engineer Bureau, 1074. 
Enlisted Men. 
Absence without leave, 690, 707, 828. 
Appointed or elected to public office, 499, 879, 
880, 914. 
Bounty, 112, 120, 205, 691. 
Commutation of rations, 209, 619, 972, 1053. 
Conscription duty by partially disabled, 217. 
Cowardice or inefficiency, 252, 243. 
Deceased, clothing, money, and effects, 150, 511, 
568, 612. 
Deceased, pay, and allowances, 201, 202, 205, 441, 
442, 459, 691. 
Details, 84, 95, 194, 204, 459, 571, 577-580, 606, 607, 
618, 619, 683, 767, 781, 792, 808, 822, 966, 997, 998. 
Disability, 217, 527, 528, 570, 571, 618, 619. 
Discharge, 1, 3, 4, 39, 51, 87, 90, 139, 192, 229-231, 
499, 527, 528, 570, 571, 879, 880, 914. 
Employés or officers of States, 499. 
Employment as servants, 406. 
Enticement to desert, 801. 
Extra duty pay, 194, 204, 459, 571, 577-580, 606,607, 
822, 966. 
Extraordinary skill and valor, 14, 252, 290. 
Flogging abolished, 496. 
Foreigners, 39. 
Furloughs, 3, 4, 16, 92, 98, 99, 106, 243, 380, 406, 441, 
442, 459, 527-529, 570, 571, 619, 677, 693, 696, 731, 
846, 847, 913, 1021, 1053. 
Increase of pay, 485, 486, 1043. 
Medical examination, 92. 
Monuments, etc., to deceased, 357. 
Mortality reports, 150. 
Pay, allowances, etc., 201, 202, 205, 441, 442, 446, 
459, 486, 577-579, 584, 691-693, 878, 879, 966, 972. 
Railroad duty, 225. 
Rates of charges for clothing, 942. 
Relief of families of deceased, 924. 
Retained by conscription acts, 15, 33, 34, 41, 42, 
408, 425, 426, 1000, 1001. 
Return home of detailed, to harvest crops, 595, 
596. 
Return of absentees to command, 5, 7, 211, 214, 
215, 618, 687, 689, 707, 723, 736, 777, 799-801. 
Richmond details to serve with local defense 
troops, 631. 
Serving before muster in, 692, 693. 
Supplying their own arms, 365. 
Transfers generally, 92, 98, 138, 198, 201. 
Transfers to Navy, 242, 662-664, 693, 697, 705. 
Enrolling Officers. 
Appointment, removal, etc., 44, 164, 165, 675. 
Duties, etc., 70, 286, 703, 704, 736, 798, 799, 879, 881. 
Enrollment and Conscription of C.S. Forces. See 
Oonscription. 
Enterprise (Miss.) Confederate Society. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 809. 
Erlanger, Eniile, 481, 540, 626, 981. 
Erlanger, Emile, & Co. 
Correspondence, C. Huse, 888. 
Mentioned, 539, 543, 557, 629, 644, 645, 646, 825, 826, 
887, 888, 907. 908, 918, 980, 986, 987. 
Estelle, William M., 934. 
Estes, B. H., 936. 


INDEX. 


Estes, John W., 860. 
Eugenie, Steamer, 538, 955. 
Eustis, George, 104. 
Evans, Lieutenant, 727. 
Evans, Nathan G., 769, 813, 815. 
Ewell, Benjamin S. 
Correspondence. 
Ewing, Andrew, 248. 
Exchange, Delivery, etc., of Prisoners. 
Remarks: 
Davis,.Jefferson, 55, 1044, 1045. 
Secretary of War, C.5., 1006, 1007. 
Exemptions from Conscription. 
Abuse, 696, 704, 709, 767, 792, 856-858, 946, 947, 997, 
1041. 
Acts of ©. S. Congress, 126-128, 160-162, 244, 496, 
497, 553, 554, 690, 691, 1055, 1056. 
After enrollment, 294. 
A ge limit, 426. 
A pothecaries, 161. 
Applications, 168, 654. 
Assessors and collectors of C.S. revenue, 716. 
Asylums, 161. 
Clerical or other Government employés, 160, 161, 
212, 240, 241, 670, 716, 767. 
Disability, 301, 408, 875. 
Dunkards, 122. 
Editors and employés of newspapers, 161, 731. 
Educational institutions, 152,153, 161,297,298, 308. 
Employésor officers of State governments, 22, 23, 
160, 161, 301, 464-466, 553, 554, 617, 632, 633, 691. 
Express companies, 792. 
Firemen, 221, 222, 262, 263. 
Foreigners, 67, 70, 84, 238-240, 366, 367. 
Government contracts, 161, 162, 212, 240, 241. 
Hospitals, 161. 
Interpretation and construction of exemption 
acts, 126-128, 165, 212, 425, 426. 
Judicial officers, 160, 161. 
Lunatics, custodians, ete., 161, 218. 
Mail contractors, 496, 497, 1054-1057. 
Mechanics, artisans, etc., 17, 45, 161, 162, 166, 167, 
212, 221, 222, 240, 241, 262, 263, 301, 670. 
Members of C.S. Congress, 161. 
Men in service, 425, 426. 
Merchant marine service, 161. 
Military colleges, 152, 153. 
Miners, etc., 162. 
Ministers of the Gospel, 161, 301. 
Navigation companies, 161. 
Niter workers, 50. 
Number and causes, 301, 822, 830. 
Opinions of Attorney-General, C. S.,126-128,212. 
‘Physicians, 17, 161, 301. 
Pilots, 161. 
Plantation owners, overseers, etc., 127, 128, 162, 
220, 221, 244, 287, 288, 401-4038, 553, 558, 573, 582, 
662, 690, 691, 728, 729, 777, 830, 848, 849, 864, 865, 
874. 
Postal employés, 161, 363, 496, 497, 1054-1057. 
Powers of State governments, 22, 23, 73-75, 553, 
554. 
Purchasing agents, 709, 710. 
Railroad employés, 161, 870, 792. 
Regulations, 363, 389. 
Religious societies, 122, 161, 166. 


See Joseph E. Johnston. 


INDEX. 


ixemptions from Conscription—Continued. 
Remarks: 
Davis, Jefferson, 348. 
Magruder, J. B., 685. 
Secretary of War, C. S., 262, 263, 286-288, 655, 
656. 
Salt makers, 45. 
State Legislatures, 161, 231. 
Stock raisers, 162. 
Substitutes, 2,412, 413, 553, 582, 583, 608, 611, 648, 
654-656. 
Tax, 691, 777. 
Telegraph employés, 161, 670, 792. 
Temporary, 478. 
Volunteer troops, 161. 
See also the respective States. 
F. Marquez, jr., Schooner, 173. 
Fairly, J. T., 930. 
Falconer, Kinloch. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 473. 
Falconer, Thomas A., 933. 
Falconnet, Eugene F., 860. 
Falkner, William C., 381, 929. 
Fant, Albert E., 930, 936. 
Fariss, Robert C., 899, 900, 903. 
Farley, John D., 935. 
Farragut, David G., 22. 
Farrell, Michael, 931. 
Farris, W. L., 936. 
Faucett, 8S. F. M., 930. 
Fayetteville Arsenal, N. ©. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Fearn, George R., 930. 
Fearn, Walker, 23, 99. 
Featherston, John S., 930. 
Featherston, Winfield S., 931. 
Feltus, Abram M., 931. 
Ferebee, Dennis D., 72, 82. 
Ferguson, Captain, 862. 
Ferguson, J. B., jr. 
Correspondence: 
McRae, C. J., 892. 
North, J. H., 558. 
(). M. General’s Office, C.S. A., 556, 870, 895. 
War Department, C.S., 895. 
Mentioned, 31, 133, 158, 191, 236, 479, 498, 535, 537, 
538, 544, 545, 555, 556, 564, 567, 589, 601, 624-626, | 
629, 872, 885, 886, 891, 893, 894. 
Ferguson, Samuel W. 
Correspondence, W.J. Hardee, 681. 
Mentioned, 932. 
Fernandez, L. G,, 152. 
Field, Charles W. 
Mentioned, 568, 632, 684, 1074. 
Relieved from control of Bureau of Conscrip- 
tion, C.S. A., 684. 
Superintendent Bureau of Conscription, C.S.A., 
568, 1074. 
Fielder, Herbert. 
Correspondence. 
Fife, S..P. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Finance. 
Bonds, C.S.: 
Acts of C.S. Congress, 90, 91, 320, 406, 407, 450- 


See Braxton Bragy. 


See Governor of Georgia. 


453, 524, 525, 529. 


1095 


Finance—Continued. 
Bonds, C.8.: 
Payment of coupons in cotton, 452, 453. 
Payments for supplies with, 683. 
Statements of funded debt, 60, 310, 311, 320. 
Call deposits, 59-63, 451. 
Compensation of collectors of war tax, 115. 
Cotton loan, 924, 925. 
Erlanger loan, 480, 538-540, 545, 625-627, 629, 644— 
647, 825, 845, 887-891, 907-909, 918, 979-982, 985— 
988. 
Expenditures, 1861-62, 59-65, 310. 
Foreign exchange, 236, 313. 
Funds for agents abroad, 25, 105, 133, 178, 227, 236, 
237, 416, 449, 479-481, 535, 536, 538-547, 586-590, 
600, 623-631, 644-647, 658, 659, 682, 683, 735, 824— 
829, 833, 834, 845, 870-873, 886-888, 907-909, 941, 
942, 980, 986-988, 1013; 1016. 
Guarantee of debt of Confederacy, 219, 237, 238, 
258, 259, 314, 320, 321, 323, 376. 
Investigation of charges against purchasing 
agents, 885-894, 918, 1067, 1068. 
Loan of Branch Bank of Tennessee, 120. 
Overpayments of war tax, 63, 111, 112, 326, 407. 
Premium on specie, 1036. 
Produce loan, 322, 323. 
Proposed schemes, 313-323. . 
Public depositories, 63. 
Railroad loans, 139, 140, 144-146, 200, 201. 
Remarks: 
Davis, Jefferson, 54, 347, 348, 1034-1040. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 59-65, 292, 293, 309-323. 
South Carolina foreign loan, 194, 195. 
Standards of value, 312, 313. 
Taxation, 61-65, 111, 112, 115, 118, 185, 186, 314, 315, 
317-321, 323-834, 407, 518-524, 575-577, 675, 698, 
709, 786, 787, 822, 853, 1011, 1012, 1035 -1040, 
1065. 
Treasury notes: 
Acts of C. S. Congress, 90, 91, 406, 407, 450-453, 
529. 
Amounts realized from, 59, 310. 
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 62, 322. 
Circulation, 311, 312, 317. 
Counterfeiting, 53, 54, 62,118, 119. 
Depreciation, 142. 
Funding, 54, 311-317, 406, 407, 450-453, 529, 533, 
1035,1039. 
Inflation, 292, 293, 1013, 1037, 1039. 
Measures to prevent depreciation, 61, 62, 312- 
: 317, 809, 810, 1035-1040. 
Negotiation or sale abroad, 941, 942, 980. 
Redemption, 113, 310, 313. 
Refusal to receive as legal tender, 116, 124. 
Statement of, Aug. 1, 1862, 59-62. 
Treasury statements: 
Aug. 1, 1862, 59-65. 
Jan. 10, 1863, 309-323. 
Finch, William J., 930. 
Finegan, Joseph. 
Correspondence, G. T. Beauregard, 215. 
Mentioned, 90, 93, 649-651. 
Fingal, Steamer, 88. 
Fisk, Stuart W., 248. 
Flags. 
Adopiion of Confederate, 534. 
Battle inscriptions, 14. 


1096 


Flanagin, Harris. 
Correspondence. See Arkansas, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 704, 731, 808. 
Fleming, L. J., 274, 277. 
Fleming, P. W. 
Correspondence, H. W. Mercer, 36. 
Flemming, Captain, 782. 
Fletcher, L. D., 931. 
Flora, Steamer, 336, 480. 
Florentin, Charles, 366, 367. 
Florida. 
Enforcement of conscription actis, 56, 57, 92-95, 
97, 109, 211, 212, 215, 216, 365, 838-840. 
Enlistment of conscripts in local defense troops, 
256, 257. 
Impressment of iron from railroads, 809. 
Independent acceptances, 249. 
Local defense troops, 256, 257, 580-582. 
New men for old regiments, 808. 
Niter production, 29. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 38, 365, 648, 649, 839, 
879, 880, 914. 
Partisan rangers, 83. 
Production of subsistence instead of cotton, etc., 
487-489. 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582. 
Suspension of conscription act, 365. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 325, 332, 333, 576. 
Troops furnished, 648. 
Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Florida, Governor of. 
Call for recruits, 49, 50. 
Correspondence: 
Baker, J. M., 56, 98. 
Beauregard, G. T., 138, 651. 
‘‘ Confederate,’’ 495. 
Davis, Jefferson, 92, 212, 256,258, 401,487,808, 838. 
Dawkins, J. B., 56, 98. 
Hilton, R. B., 56, 93. 
Houstoun, E., 651. 
Lee, R. E., 838. 
Maxwell, A. E., 56, 98. 
Perry, E. A., 839. 
War Department, C.S., 38, 97, 109, 582, 648, 650, 
879, 914. 
Cotton traffic, 57, 58. 
Florida railroads, 648-651. 
-Impressment, 972-976. 
Messages to the Legislature, 972-976. 
Regulation of crops, 487-489. 
Response to calls for troops, 648, 649. 
Thanksof Jefferson Davis for co-operation, 809. 
Florida Legislature. 
Guarantee of Confederate debt by States, 237, 
238, 258, 259. 
Messages from the Governor, 972-976. 
Owners or overseers of plantations, 402, 403. 
Resolutions concerning the war, 233, 258, 259. 
Florida Railroad. 
Removal of rails, wire, etc., 648-651. 
Florida Troops (C.). 
Cavalry—Companies: Bird’s, 83; Mays’, 83; 
Robinson’s, 83; Stewart’s, 83; Westcott’ s, 83. 


i 
| 
i} 


Infantry— Regiments: Ist, 2d, 49, 50. 


INDEX. 


| Floyd, John B. 


Correspondence, War Department, C.8., 195. 
Mentioned, 50, 76, 309. 
Floyd, Richard F., 57. 
Flynt, G. G., 930. 
Foard, Thomas B., 862, 936. 
Fontainebleau, Vessel, 173. 
Foote, George P., 931. 
Foote, H. W., 936. 
Ford, John S. 
Correspondence, J. B. Magruder, 659. 
Foreacre, Green J. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.5., 9. 
Foreigners. 

Compulsory enlistment, 67, 70, 84, 85, 164, 238-240, 
366, 367, 463, 641, 642, 657, 658, 698-701, 729, 730, 
755-758. 

Impressment of property of neutrals, 835. 

Substitutes, 2, 45, 239, 611, 1054, 1059. 

Foreign Relations. 

Appropriations, commissioners, etc., 120. 

Attitude of Great Britain, 24-26, 100, 102, 339, 344, 
1026--1034. 

Efforts to secure influence of foreign press, 24. 

France, 24, 25, 99-105, 339, 341, 344, 366, 367, 835. 

Negotiations respecting blockade, 340-343. 

Occupation of Mexico by French army, 1034. 

Opening of diplomatic intercourse, 338. 

Passports, 990. 

Policy of European powers, 338-340. 

Privateers, 339-841. 

Recruiting in Ireland (U.), 26. 

Remarks: 

Davis, Jefferson, 1026-1034. 
De Leon, E., 23-26, 95-105. 
Views of Lord Palmerston, 24. 
Forey, Elie Frederic, 104. 
Forney, John H., 246, 248, 438. 
Forno, Henry, 585, 586. ° 
Forrest, A. H., 936. 
Forrest, Nathan B., 371. 
Fort, William, 788. 
Fortifications. 

Duties of engineer officers, 609, 610. 

Inspections, 70. 

Negro laborers upon, 35, 266-270, 298, 306, 307, 390, 
426-430, 470, 840, 841, 897, 898. 

Foster, R. T., & Co., 735. 
Fould, Achille, 25, 105. 
Fowle, Daniel G., 765. 
Fowler, Matthew C., 732. 
Fowlkes, J., 151. 

Foxworth, A. E. S., 934. 
Foxworth, Franklin W., 934. 
France. 

Attitude toward Confederacy, 24, 25, 990-15, 344. 

Compulsory enlistmeut of subjects, 366, 367. 

Impressment of property of citizens of, 835. 

Occupation of Mexico, 1034. 

Propositions for adoption of declaration of Con- 
gress of Paris, 341. 

Recognition of Confederacy as a belligerent, 339. 

Franklin, Alexander H., 930. 

Fraser, John, & Co., 8, 9, 19, 336. 

Fraser, Trenholm & Co., 336, 384, 646, 825, 826, 870, 
871, 895, 986. 


INDEX. 


Frazer, John W., 993, 1025. 
Frederick, A. D., 815. 
Fredericksburg, Va. 
Battle, Dec. 11-15, 1862, 293, 336. 
Fremont, S. L., 274, 276. 
French, S. Bassett. 
Correspondence, Subsistence Dept., C.S. A., 960. 
See also Virginia, Governor of. 
French, Samuel @. | 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office,C. S. A., 553. 
Mentioned, 146, 154, 278, 350, 530. 
Friends, Society of. 
Exemption from conscription, 122, 161, 166. 
Frinkel, Louis, 655. 
Fruitier, Vessel, 173. 
Fullarton, A. 
Correspondence: 
Georgia, Governor of, 657, 698, 729, 755. 
War Department, C. S., 835. 
Fulton, G. I., 274. 
Funchess, George J. D., 931. 
Furgerson, Jeremiah, 929. 
Furloughs. 
Acts of C.S. Congress, 693. 
By general officers, 3. 
By post commanders, 380. 
Commutation of rations, 619, 1053. 
Conscripts, 677. 
Deceased soldiers, commutation due,441, 442, 459. 
Depletion of ranks by, 696. 
Promoted enlisted men, 442, 459. | 
Regulations, 3, 92, 98, 99, 106, 380, 406, 441, 442, 459, | 
527-529, 570, 571, 619, 731, 913. 
Remarks, Adjt. and Insp. Gen., C.S. A., 696. 
Reports and registers, 913, 1021. 
Sick, convalescent, and wounded soldiers, 4, 16, 
98,99, 106, 243, 380, 406, 527-529, 570, 571, 693, | 
846, 847, 913, 1021, 1053. 
Soldiers on, not to go within enemy’s lines, 913. 
Transportation, 106, 406. 


| 
j 


Furman, Charles M., 137. 
Gaddis, John, 934. 
Gage, W. A., 926. 
Gaillard, Peter C., 815. 
Gaines, A. S., 106. 
Gale, E. R., 931. 
Gallaher, Captain, 964. 
Gano, Richard M. 
Correspondence, J. B. Magruder, 709. 
Gardner, Franklin, 615. 
Gardner, William M., 974. 
Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 100, 103. 
Garland, Samuel, 353. 
Garlington, A. C. 
Correspondence. See South Carolina, Adjutant | 
and Inspector General of. 
Mentioned, 803. 
Garner, George G. 


Correspondence. See Dabney H. Maury. 
Garnett, H. T., 328, 329, 333. 
Garnett, J. J., 615. 


Gartley, W. F., 9:6. 
Gates, J. T., 930. 
Gaulhac, Edward, 102. 


1097 


Gautherin, Emile, 88. 
General Officers. 
Aides-de-camp, 26, 689. 
Appointment, etc., 3, 114. 
Appointments of officers by, 690. 
Casualties temporarily vacating commands, 114. 
Congress, C. S., 207. 
Detachment from commands, 424. 
Discharges, furloughs, etc., by, 3. 
Duty as chief of staff, separate army, 446, 447. 
Incomplete organizations, 204. 
Increase, 207. 
Lieutenant-generals authorized, 198, 288. 
Staff, 26, 56, 446-448, 593, 1043. 
General Worth, Vessel, 173. 
George, James Z., 707, 928. 
Georgia, Barge, 173. 
Georgia, Vessel, 173. 
Georgia. 
Complimented by Jefferson Davis for patriot- 
ism, 798, 823. 
Compulsory enlistment of foreigners, 641, 642, 
657, 658, 698-701, 729, 730, 755-758. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 2, 3, 10-18, 95, 
96, 128-131, 140, 141, 169, 170, 177, 216, 217, 219- 
222, 225, 228, 229, 569, 590-592, 614, 639-642, 693, 
735, 736, 739-741, 747, 748, 768, 781, 796, 812, 861, 
867, 939, 940, 1070-1072. 
Estimate of available military force, 739-741. 
“I mpressment, 404-406, 988, 989, 1023. 
Local defense troops, 580-584, 586, 590-592, 595- 
591, 603, 614, 636, 660-662, 684, 705, 711, 712, 746, 
747, 777, 780, 788-792, 796, 798, 800-804, 807, 810, 
811, 818, 819, 823, 824, 831-835, 854, 877, 878, 912, 
~ 952-955. 
Measures for defense, 632. 
Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959. 
Memorial respecting runaway slaves, 35-38. 
Militia, 219, 220, 225, 263-266, 586, 610, 611, 620-623, 
671-674, 737-739. 
Niter caves, 27. 
Operations in. See Chickamauga. Battle, Sept. 
19-20, 1868. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 365, 583, 584, 590-592, 
595, 610, 611, 620-623, 632, 660-662, 671-674, 711- 
713, 737-741, 746, 747, 768, 796, 801, 802, 804, 810, 
818, 819, 912, 1062, 1063. 
Partisan rangers, 82, 83. 
Production of subsistence instead of cotton, 
etc., 376, 468, 611, 612. 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582, 777. 
Schedules of prices, 561, 562. 
Seizure of Georgia State Railway by Bragg, 430. 
Suspension of conscription act; 365. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 325, 326, 332, 333. 
Troops furnished, 95, 96, 939, 940. 
Troops to resist invasion of East Tennessee, 
Aug. 16-Oct. 19, 1863, 777, 780, 788-792, 800. 
Wild cattle, 746, 755. 
Georgia, Adjutant and Inspector General of. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s 
C. S. A., 711, 800, 802. 
Harris, C. J., 569. 
Weems, J. B., 170. 


Oftice, 


1098 


Georgia, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of—Continued. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Aug. 13, 711. 
Orders, General, series 1862: No. 23, 265. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 16, 641 

24, 791. 

Georgia, Governor of. 

Compulsory enlistment of foreigners, 641, 642, 
657, 658, 698-701, 729, 730, 755-758. 
Controversies with C.S. authorities: 

Appointment, etc., of army officers, 12, 610, 611, 
620-628, 671-674, 737-738, 834, 835, 854, 877, 878, 
912, 1062, 1063. 

Conscription acts, 2, 3, 10-13, 22, 23, 128-131, 216, 
217, 539. 

Correspondence: 

Beauregard, G. T., 138, 179. 

Cobb, H.., 878. 

Davis, Jefferson, 2, 10, 128, 208, 211, 217, 263, 376, 
404, 406, 430, 485, 583, 746, 755, 798, 804, 810, 823, 
952, 1060, 1062. 

Fullarton, A., 657, 698, 729, 755. 

Lewis, M. W.., 953. 

South Carolina, Governor of, 802. 

War Department, C. S., 22, 23, 218-220, 225, 262, 
582, 584, 586, 590, 592, 595-597, 610, 614, 620, 632, 
671, 737, 758, 777, 780, 788, 915, 943, 988, 1023, 
1063. 

Deserters and absentees, 22, 23, 360, 361. 

Impressment, 915, 943, 944. 

Proclamations, 360, 361, 603, 614, 640, 641, 789, 790. 

Request of Jefferson Davis for conference, 804, 
805, 823. 

Response to requisitions for troops, 584, 590-592, 
595-597, 780, 789-792. 

Georgia and Alabama Railroad. 

Government loan for construction purposes, 
139, 140, 144-146, 200, 201. 

Georgia Central Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 

Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Georgia Landing, La. 

Action, Oct. 27, 1862, 153. 

Georgia Legislature. 

Abuses in Confederate staff departments, 396- 
398. 

Distillation of grain, 218. 

Election of officers of Georgia troops, 1062, 1063. 

Increase of pay of enlisted men, 485, 486. 

Joint resolution on conduct of the war, 233, 
1060, 1061. 

Militia, 264. 

Register of Georgia military organizations, 358. 

Resolutions of thanks to Georgia soldiers, 357, 
358. 

Return of powder loaned C.S. Gov’t, 208, 262. 

Georgia Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Georgia Troops (C.). 

Cavalry—Battalions: 
82; 25th, 1071. 
Cavalry—Oompanies: Anderson’s, 83; Marler’s, 

83. 
Cavalry—Regiments : 1st (Partisan Rangers),82; 
2d (Partisan Rangers), 82; 4th, 361, 362, 374. 
Infantry— Regiments : 9th (State Gward) ,952,953; 
17th, 622; 51st, 610, 611, 620-623, 672, 673, 739. 


> No. 


15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 


INDEX. 


Georgia Troops (C.)—Continued. 
Miscellaneous—Floyd County Legion ( State 
Guard), 791. 
Germany. 
Impressment of property of citizens of, 835. © 
Getty, G. Thomas, 958. 
Gettysburg, Pa. 
Campaign, June 3-Aug. 1, 1863, 990, 1025. 
Gholson, Samuel J. 
Correspondence, G. J. Pillow, 759. 
Mentioned, 396, 758, 760, 931. 
Gibboney, Robert. 
Correspondence. See Virginia, Impressment 
Oommissioners of. 
Mentioned, 899, 903. 
Gibbons, W. McD., 934. 
Gibbs, Octavius T., 930. 
Gibbs, Q. D., 933. 
Gifford, A. T. D., 87, 88. 
Gilleylin, D. C., 936. 
Gilmer, George R., 131. 
Gilmer, Jeremy F. 
Assignments, 95, 393. 
Chief of Engineer Bureau, C.S. A., 95, 1074. 
Correspondence. See Engineer Dept., C. S.A. 
Mentioned, 95, 294, 393, 655, 1074. 
Giraffe, Steamer, 335, 538, 602. 
Girard, C., & Co., 105. 
Girard, Charles, 102. 
Gist, States R., 815. 
Gladney, J. B. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 39, 41. 
Glenn, D. C., 169, 655. 
Glover, James. 
Correspondence, Quartermaster-General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 483, 655. 
Mentioned, 453. 
Godwin, David J. 
Correspondence, War Department,C. S.. 301, 334. 
Goldthwaite, George. 
Correspondence. See Alabama, Adjutant and 
Inspector General of. 
Good, John J., 395. 
Goode, Charles T., 82. 
Goode, E. J., 930. 
Goodman, Walter. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 382. 
Mentioned, 381, 388. 
Gordon, George H., 936. 
Gordon, James, 934. 
Gordon, William F., 381. 
Gordon, William F., jr., 430. 
Gorgas, Josiah. 
Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, C.S. A., 1074. 
Correspondence. See Ordnance Dept., CO. 8. A, 
Mentioned, 26, 30, 52, 83, 84, 88, 167, 207, 208, 236, 
237, 241, 262, 294, 304, 406, 437, 539, 540, 550, 556, 
565, 567, 586, 587, 589, 590, 600, 626-628, 630, 631, 
634, 645, 702, 721, 827, 879, 885, 889, 891, 909, 945, 
965, 982, 1068, 1074. 
Gorsuch, R. B. 
Correspondence, W. R. Hunt, 778. 
Gourdin, R. N., 137. 
Governors of States. 
Appeal of Jefferson Davis for co-operation, 211, 
212, 216. 217, 417, 418. 
Call for local defense troops, 580-584, 586, 590-599. 


INDEX. 


Governors of States—Continued. 
Convention of Trans- Mississippi, Marshall, 
Tex., Aug. 15, 1863, 680, 698, 723, 731, 804. 
Deserters, 7, 16, 17, 22, 23. 
Proposed conference of Union and Confederate, 
137, 138, 179, 180. 
Refusal to honor Lincoln’s call for troops, 491. 
Return of absentees to commands, 7, 16, 17, 211. 
Supplies for the C.S. Army, 211. 
See also Governors of respective States. 
Graham, Robert F., 815. 
Grant, L. P. 
Correspondence, Engineer Dept., C.S. A., 139. 
Mentioned, 145. 
Grant, U. S., 664, 766. 
Graves, Leander M., 934. 
Great Britain. 
ttitude toward Confederacy, 24-26, 100, 102, 339, 
344, 1026-1034. 
Blockade, 342, 1027-1033. 
Compulsory enlistment of subjects, 67, 70, 74, 84, 
238-240, 641, 642, 657, 658, 698-701, 729, 730, 755- 
758. 
Impressment of property of neutrals, 835. 
Propositions for adoption of declaration of Con- 
gress of Paris, 341-343. 
Views of Lord Palmerston, 24. 
Great Osage Indians, 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Green, Ashbel, 929. 
Greensborough Depot, N. C. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Greenwall, Morris, 582. 
Greenwood, Moses, 685. 
Greer, A. M., 934. 
Greer, Elkanah. 
Correspondence, EK. K. Smith, 1051. 
Gregory, Edward H., 930. 
Greyhound, H. B. M.5., 18, 19. 
Grice, George W. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C.S.A., 483. 
Mentioned, 453. 
Grierson, Benjamin H., 921. 
Griffin, Joel R., 82. 
Griffin, Thomas M., 931, 932, 936. 
Griffith, Lieutenant, 853. 
Griffith, Richard, 931. 
Guerrillas. 
Authorization, 21. 
See also Partisan Rangers. 
Gulf, Department of the (C.). 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
January, 1863, 380. 
Apr. 30, 1863, 530. 
June 8, 1863, 615. 
Dec. 31, 1863, 1073. 
Gulf, District of the. 
Instructions to enrolling officers, 246. 
Orgn., strength, etc., of troops, Dee. 20, 1862, 278. 
Gulick, William B., 364. 
Habeas Corpus, Writ of. 
Congress, C. S., 121. 
Standing counsel for Government, 967, 968. 
Suspension, 39, 83. 
Hagan, James, 935. 
Hairston, J. T. W., 930. 


1099 


Hale, Major, 861, 964. 
Hale, W. B., 929. 
Raley, A. G., 417. 
Haley, James E., 238, 239. 
Hall, A. A., 936. 

Hall, Robert J., 933. 
Hall, W. M., 930. 
Halleck, Henry W., 53. 
Ham, T. W., 936. 
Hamer, C. F., 932. 
Hamilton, A. S., 929. 
Hamilton, Jones 8S. 

Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 697. 

See also Mississippi, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of. 

Mentioned, 251, 697, 707, 762, 922. 

Hamilton, Peter. 

Correspondence. 

of Safety. 

Mentioned, 461, 462. 

Hampton, James M., 932. 
Hampton, Wade, 815. 
Hancock, Judge, 655. 
Handy, John, 330. 
Hannon, John H., 258. 
Hannon, Moses W. 

Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 

eral’s Office, C.S. A., 258. 
Mentioned, 258. 
Hanrahan, Walter S., 415. 
Hanser, L. P., 366. 
Hardeastle, Aaron B., 861, 934, 964. 
Hardee, William J. 

Correspondence, 8. W. Ferguson, 681. 

Mentioned, 371, 388, 396, 1020, 1064. 
Hardeman, Thomas, jr., 1061, 1063. 
Hardy, W. W., 9386. 

Hardy, William H., 931. 
Harkaway, Vessel, 589. 
Harlin, J. A., 935. 
Harman, Michael G., 171. 
Harmon, J. W. 
Correspondence. See Hnterprise (Miss.) Con- 
federate Society. 
Harper, A. Y., 930. 
Harper, 8. G., 933. 
Harper, Sterling, 862. 
Harper, W. B., 935. 
Harper’s Ferry, W. Va. 

Siege and capture, Sept. 12-15, 1862, 283. 
Harriet Pinckney, Steamer, 227, 1068. 
Harrington, J. F., 932. 

Harris, Charles J. 

Correspondence : 

Bureau of Conscription, C. 8. A., 747. 

Georgia, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 569. 
Mentioned, 747. 
Harris, Isham G. 

Correspondence. See Tennessee, Governor of. 

Mentioned, 323, 327, 369, 750, 753. 
Harris, J. L., 934. 

Harris, L. B., 933. 
Harris, Merry B., 931. 
Harris, Nathaniel H., 932. 
Harris, Thomas W., 930. 
Harris, Wiley P., 169. 
Harrison, soba 


See Mobile (Ala.) Committee 


1100 


Harrison, Burton N. 


Correspondence. See Jefferson Davis. 
Harrison, William B. 
Correspondence. See Virginia, Impressment 


Oommissioners of. 
Mentioned, 559, 652, 1049, 
Hart, Benjamin W. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.§., 190. 
Mentioned, 8, 9. 
Hart, Simeon. 
Correspondence: 
Quartermaster-General’s Office, C.S. A., 483. 
War Department, C.S., 793. 
Hartin, J. A., 936. 
Hasell, B. D., 273. 
Hatch, Frank H. 
Correspondence: 
Pemberton, J. C., 169, 172. 
Treasury Department, C. S., 459. 
War Department, C.S., 242. 
Mentioned, 459. 
Hawes, Richard. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 211, 417. 
Hawkins, W. J., 274. 
Hawthorne, James G., 773, 774. 
Haynes, Milton A., 65. 
Haynes, W. H., 982, 985. 
Hays, Harry T., 586. 
Hebe, Steamer, 535, 536, 554, 589, 658, 829, 834, 870, 
895, 896, 910. 
Hébert, Paul O., 548. 
Heinrich, 0. G., 143. 
Helena, Ark. 
Attack, July 4, 1863, 990, 1024. 
Helm, Charles J. 
Correspondence, Treasury Department,C. S.,942. 
Mentioned, 890, 908, 941. 
Hemphill, J. W., 931. 
Henderson, Robert. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Hendry, Neal. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Henrico, Department of. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops, Dec. 10, 
1862, 278. 
Henry, Fort, Tenn. 
Capture, Feb. 6, 1862, 65, 66, 281. 
Henry, General, 381. 
Henry McGinn, Vessel, 173. 
Herald, Steamer, 18, 19, 52, 177, 233. 
Hero, Steamer, 18, 52. 
Herod, A. J., 935. 
Herring, John B., 929. 
Herron, 8S. B., 932. 
Heyliger, Louis. 
Correspondence: 
Q. M. General’s Office, G..S. A., 659, 834, 896. 
War Department, C.5., 8, 18, 177, 233, 335, 633, 
852, 877, 897. 
Mentioned, 658, 826, §29, 833, 896. 
Hickley, Henry D., 1c. 
Hickman, William £; ., 650. 
Hicks, James M., 0.4. 
Hightower, Thovias, 936. 
Hill, Albert P.. 2.3. 


INDEX. 


Hill, Benjamin H. 
Correspondence: 
Barton, R. M., 367. 
Davis, Jefferson, 140. 
Hill, Daniel H. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 553, 670, 695. 
War Department, C.S., 21. 
Mentioned, 21, 68, 72, 283, 530, 615. 
Hill, Robert J., 929, 932. 
Hilton, Robert B. 
Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 56, 93. 
Mentioned, 880. ; 
Hindman, Thomas C., 7, 73, 120, 325, 637. 
Hinton, James W. 
Correspondence, Gov. of North Carolina, 906. * 
Mentioned, 686, 906. ; 
Hitchcock, Dexter H. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 399. 
Hobson, Charles L., 481. 
Hobson, Maurice L., 588, 625. 
Hodge, George B. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 72. 
Hogan, James W., 934. 
Hoke, Robert F., 768, 786, 1071. 
Holcombe, Philip, 929, 932. 
Holder, William D., 931. 
Holland, Orlando S., 933. 
Holmes, Benjamin R., 935. 
Holmes, Theophilus H. 
Correspondence, Governor of Arkansas, 877,898. 
Mentioned, 68, 72, 163, 248, 278, 380, 399. 
Hood, John B., 530. 
Hoomes, H. B., 158. 
Hopkins, John L., 861. 
Ho-po-eith-le-yo-ho-la (Indian), 354. 
Horne, J. U., 274. 
Horses. 
Abandoned by enemy, 554. 
Allowance for use and risk, 580, 976, 1002, 1003. 
Artillery, 552. 
Difficulty in procuring, 1002, 1003. 
Forage or commutation, 972, 1008. 
Impressment, 921. 
Killed in battle, property of soldiers, 119, 300, 
301, 392, 531, 1002, 1008, 1042. 
Measures to provide, 417, 615, 616, 914, 915. 
Private property of cavalrymen, 392,568,719,799, 
Schedules of prices, 745, 746, 837, 844, 845, 1050, 
1051. 
Substitution of mules for, 552. 
Transportation of cavalry and artillery, 51. 
Hospitals. 
Appropriations, 112, 120, 392, 393, 532. 
Clothing and equipment, 199, 209, 511. 
Coffee, use restricted, 1021. 
Congress, C. §., 199-201, 538, 534, 572, 693. 
Consultation boards of medical officers, 723. 
Examining boards, 570. 
Exemption from conscription, 161. 
Funds, 199, 209. 
Laundresses, 120, 533, 555. 
Matrons, 199, 200, 209. 
Medical officers, 570, 571. 


INDEX. 


Hospitals—Continued. 

Names and numbering, 200, 210. 

Nurses, 199, 200, 210. 

Payments to troops in, 549, 550, 847. 

Provision returns, 552. 

Rations, 98, 552, 555, 1053. 

Regulations, 98, 209, 210, 552, 555, 1021, 1053. 

Sick and wounded officers, 572. 

Stewards, 120, 393. 

Supervision and control, 149, 425. 

Supplies, 467, 497, 532, 793, 822. 

Way, 533, 534. 

Hotze, Henry, 25, 102, 979. 
Houston, Lock K., 1052. 
Houstoun, E. 

Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 651. 
Howry, J. M. 

Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 766. 
Howry, J. M., Mrs., 766. 
Howze, Thomas T., 933. 
Hubard, E. W. 

Correspondence. See Virginia, 
Commissioners of. 

Mentioned, 899, 906. 
Hubbard, David. 

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, C.S., 1074. 

Mentioned, 1074. 

Huddleston, John B., 933. 
Hudson, Robert 8S. 

Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 856. 
Hue-cos Indians. 

Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 

Huff, Captain, 930. 
Huger, Benjamin. 

Inspector of ordnance and artillery, 70. 

Mentioned, 65, 66, 70. 

Hughes, Henry, 931. 

Hughes, John, 26. 

Hull, George G., 273, 274. 
Humphreys, Benjamin G., 932. 
Humphreys, David W., 929. 
Humphreys, Frederick C., 958. 
Hundley, William H., 82. 
Hunt, Major, 861, 964. 

Hunt, A. A., 82. 

Hunt, J. E., 862. 

Hunt, William Richardson. 

Correspondence, R. B. Gorsuch, 778. 

Mentioned, 65. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Sept. 1, 778. 
Hunter, William W., 662, 664. 

Huntsville, Steamer, 663. 
Huntt, William R., 270, 866. 
Hurlbut, E., 274. 
Hurst, David W., 933. 
Huse, Caleb. 
Correspondence: 
Bloodgood, M. H., 893, 894. 
Crenshaw, W. G.., 482, 536, 537, 539, 540. 
Erlanger, E., & Co., 888. 
McRae, C. J., 645, 891-894. 
Ordnance Dept., C.S. A. , 539, 567, 645, 670. 
War Department, C.S., 106. 

Mentioned, 9, 25, 105, 227, 237, 382, 384, 395, 410, 
449, 478-481, 535, 536, 541-547, 554-557, 564, 567, 
586-590, 600, 601, 624-631, 644, 826, 885-893, 908, 
909, 918, 955, 956, 980, 981-986, 1067. 


Impressment 


1101 


Hutter, E. S., 958. 
Hutton & Freligh, 924. 
Icho Hacho (Indian), 353. 
Imboden, John D., 82, 530. 
Impressment Commissioners’ Convention. 
Correspondence: 
Cockrill, S. R., 916. 
War Department, C.S., 915. 
Impressments. 
Abuse, 9438, 944. 
Atlanta convention of commissioners, 617, 631, 
632. 
Augusta convention of commissioners, 898-906, 
915, 916. as 
Compensation, 120, 399, 531, 534. 
Concealed supplies, 612; ~ 
Congress, C. S., 124, 125, 469-471, 534. 
Horses, 921. 
Instructions, regulations, etc., 36, 39, 255, 441, 
445, 469-472, 477, 478, 511, 594, 595, 786, 787, 897, 
898, 912, 937, 1052, 1053. 
Tron, 365, 366, 393, 511, 594, 595. 
Negroes, 35, 175, 176, 181, 211, 266-270, 278, 279, 
296-298, 306, 307, 385, 386, 390, 393, 394, 426-430, 
470, 471, 840, 841, 897, 898. 
Property of neutrals, 835. 
Protest of Governor of Florida, 972-976.-— 
Remarks: 
Georgia, Governor of, 943, 944. 
Secretary of War, C. S., 875-877, 915, 1008-1011. 
Resolutions of State Legislatures, 863, 864, 875- 
877, 988, 989, 1028, 1066, 1067. 
Schedules of prices, 470, 559-562, 616, 617, 631, 632, 
651-653, 743-746, 836-838, 842-816, 937, 938, 969, 
1009, 1010, 1049-1051. 
State property, 26, 69%. 
Independent Acceptances. 
Authorization, 21,218, 249, 253, 308,304, 357, 367, 
381, 415, 697, 739, 740, 768. 
Creoles, 941. 
From within enemy’s lines, 415. 
Indians, 467. 
Local defense troops, 602, 603. 
Partisan rangers, 31, 48, 303, 304, 359, 639. 
Proposition to raise troops in Europe, 777. 
Protests of Governors, 81. 
Indians. 
Address by Governors of Trans—Mississippi 
States, 731. 
Fidelity to Confederacy, 56. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of troops, 467. 
Payments under treaties, 352, 532. 
Relations with, generally, 349, 352-355, 1017. 
Remarks: 
Scott, S.S., 852-357. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 293. 
Treaties, 356. 
Indian Troops (€.). 
Seminoles—Battalions : 1st, 354. 
Ingraham, Duncan N. 
Correspondence, Navy Department, C. S., 664. 
Mentioned, 90, 662, 697. 
Intercourse. See Trade and Intercourse. 
Irions, William M., 933. 
fron. 
Appropriations, 119, 392. 
Deficiency, 291. 


1102 


Tron—Continued. 
Impressment, 365, 366, 393, 511, 594, 595. 
Labor for mines, 148. 
Measures to provide supplies, 291, 292, 501, 502, 
505-508. 
Process of production and remelting of pig-iron, 
778-780. 
Schedules of prices, 744. 
Irwin, David. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 262. 
Isaac, S., Campbell & Co., 8, 9,19, 190, 191, 478, 539, 


540, 544, 545, 556, 558, 589, 590, 600, 629-631, 644- 


647, 886-890, 894, 909, 981, 982, 985, 986, 1067, 
1068. 
Isaac, Saul, 8, 544, 558, 630, 890. 
Isbell, George, 936. 
Isom, Newton A., 932. 
Iuka, Miss. 
Engagement, Sept. 19, 1862, 285. 
Ives, Joseph C. 
Correspondence. See Jefferson Davis. 
Jackson, Alfred E., 733, 734. 
Jackson, Claiborne F. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 211. 
Jackson, Henry R., 810, 832. 
Jackson, J. M., 930. 
Jackson, James, Governor, 131. 
Jackson, James, Judge, 248. 
Jackson, Miss. 
Campaign, July 5-25, 1863, 991, 1024. 
Jackson, Moses, 933. 
Jackson, Thomas J., 102, 171, 248, 282, 283; 994. 
Jackson Arsenal, Miss. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Jamison, D. F., 135, 187, 248. 
Jamison, Henry, 929. 
Jayne, Joseph M., 931. 
Jenkins, Micah, 813, 815. 
Jennings, Charles A., 862. 
Jenny Swaine, Vessel, 173. 
Johns, B. F., 930. 
Johns, E. W., 410, 411. 
Johnson, Vessel, 173. 
Johnson, Bradley T., 248. 
Johnson, Bushrod R. 
Correspondence, W.C. Walker, 732. 
Johnson, Herschel V. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 244. 
Johnson, James M., 933. 
Johnson, John D., 816. 
Johnson, Joseph A., 936. 
Johnson, R. G., 932. 
Johnson, Robert W. 
Correspondence, Governor of Arkansas, 698. 
Johnson, Wiley B., 929. 
Johnson, William B., 933. 
Johnston, Albert S., 65, 281. 
Johnston, George, 270. 
Johnston, J. C. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 236. 
Mentioned, 800. 
Johnston, Joseph E. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.5. A., 553, 752, 783, 867, 868, 873, 885. 
Alabama, Governor of, 689. 


INDEX. 


Johnston, Joseph E.—Continued. 
Correspondence: 
Bragg, B., 638, 639. 
Bureau of Conscription, C.S.A.,849,852,859, 869, 
Davis, Jefferson, 885. 
Mississippi, Governor of, 885, 898, 976. 
Pillow, G. J., 636, 680, 685, 693, 748, 774, 777, 782, 
847, 852, 859. 
Ruggles, D., 677. 
War Department, C. S., 415, 445,449, 682, 748, 
797, 806, 868. 
Mentioned, 125, 236, 278, 281, 282, 396, 431, 433, 434, 
442, 456, 482, 574, 613, 615, 636, 638, 655, 675, 680, 
681, 686, 693, 694, 707, 742, 748, 750-752, 754, 761, 
774, 775, 782, 819-821, 847, 849-851, 859, 862, 873, 
884, 885, 910, 921, 926, 976, 1019, 1064, 1073. 
Johnston, T. H., 929. 
Johnston, William Preston, 248. 
Joinville, Vessel, 173. 
Jones, A. C. 
Correspondence. 
O.8.A. 
Mentioned, 279. 
Jones, Catesby Ap R., 90. 
Jones, Charles. 
Correspondence. See Charles A. Barriere & Bro. 
Jones, Edward P., 932. 
Jones, George W., 404. 
Jones, J. B. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 405. 
War Department, C.S., 412. 
Jones, James H., 934. 
Jones, Samuel. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. 8., 126. 
Mentioned, 138, 248, 278, 380, 530, 615, 841, 1073. 
Jones, Samuel G@., 273, 274. 
Jones, Thomas M., 932. 
Jones, Walter, 710. 
Jordan, Edward. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Jordan, Thomas. 
Correspondence, G. T. Beauregard, 803. 
See also G. 7. Beauregard. 
Mentioned, 803. 
Joyner, J. KE. 
Correspondence, 8. Smith, 721. 
Judge, Thomas J., 248. 
Jumper, John, 353. 
Justice, Department of, C. S. 
Estimates, 310. 
QGpinions. See Attorney General, 0. S. 
See also Attorney-General’s Ofice, O. S. 
Justitia, Steamer, 557. 
Karr, F. C., 933. 
Kate, Steamer, 18-20, 52, 177, 233, 480. 
Kean, Robert G. H. 
Chief of the Bureau of War, C.S., 1074. 
Correspondence. See War Department, O. S. 
Mentioned, 1074. 
Keeble, Edwin A., 669. 
Keirn, Walter L,, 934. 
Keitt, Ellison S., 816. 
Keitt, Lawrence M., 815-817. 
Kells, Robert, 920. 
Kenan, L. H., 988, 1061, 1063. 


See Bureau of Conscription, 


INDEX. 


Kennedy, J. H., 929, 932. 
Kenner, Duncan F. 
Correspondence, F. D. Conrad, 854. 
Kenney, D. H. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 655. 
Kentucky. 
Aid from C. S. Government, 1069. 
Camps of instruction for recruits from, 236. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 72, 73, 106, 211, 
403, 417, 418, 800. 
Invasion of, Aug. 16-Oct. 24, 1862, 284, 285. 
Operationsin. See— 


Kentucky. Inva-ion of, Aug. 16-Oct. 24, 1862. | 
| Lee, A. S., 931. 


Perryville. Battle, Oct. 8, 1862. 
Richmond. Battle, Aug. 30, 1862. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 367, 381. 
Suspension of conscription act, 106. 
Kerr, William. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral of Alabama, 70. 
Kerrison, Charles, 137. 
Kershaw, Joseph B., 8138, 815. 
Ki-chais Indians. 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Kilgore, B. M., 935, 936. 
Kilpatrick, William H., 935. 
King, Benjamin, 935. 
King, John P., 273, 274. 
Kinnaird, Motey, 353. 
Kirkpatrick, William H., 930. 
Kittreil, J. C., 936. 
Kizers Benjamin J., 933. 
Kizer, Thomas N., 884. 
Knight, R. R., 929, 932. 
Knox, J. G., 930, 936. 
Knox, W. 8., 273. 
Knoxville, Tenn. 
Campaign, Nov. 4-Dee. 23, 1863, 1018, 1025, 1026. 
Knoxville (Tenn.) Register, 138. 
Koger, Thomas J., 934. 
Kyle, Thomas J., 936. 
Ladona, Steamer, 20. 
Lafitte, Charles, 987. 
Lafitte, J. B., 9. 
Lalierstedt, Lawrence D., 711. 
Lamar, L. M., 248. 
Lamar, Lucius Q. C., 587, 624, 629, 981, 985, 986. 
Lamkin, John T., 933. 
Lander, William. 
Correspondence, Bureau of Conscription,C.S.A., 
411. 
Lane, George W., 142. 
Lane, George W., Mrs., 142. 
Lassiter, R. W., 378. 
Latimer, Montgomery 8., 934. 
Laurence, B. G., 931. 
Laushe, Lewis M., 929. 
Lawhon, J., 935. 
Lawrence, Robert J., 931. 
Lawton, Alexander R. 
Correspondence. See Q. M. Gen.’s Office, O. S.A. 
Mentioned, 697, 739, 777, 778, 787. 792, 797, 826, 883, 
914, 945, 1007, 1008, 1074. 
Quartermaster-General, C.S. A., 697, 698, 1074. 
Lay, George W. 
Acting Supt. of Conscription, C. S.A., 1074. 


1103 


Lay, George W.—Continued. 
Correspondence, Bureau of Conscription,C.S.A., 
735, 783. 
See also Bureau of Conscription, O. 8. A. 
Mentioned, 279, 596, 732, 819, 849, 867, 868,879, 1074. 
Layton, P. S., 929. 
Lea, Benjamin J., 388, 404, 860, 963. 
Lead. 
Importation from Mexico, 122. 
Measures to provide supplies, 29, 30. 
Leaves of Absence. 
Disability, 92. 
Regulations, 92, 571, 619. 


Lee, Charles H. 
Correspondence. See Adjutant and Inspector 
General's Office, C. S.A. 
Lee, Edwin G., 379. 
Lee, George W., 361, 781, 1071. 
Lee, George W. C. 
Correspondence. 
Lee, Hutson. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A. 654. 
Mentioned, 453. 
Lee, James A., 437. 
Lee, R. E., Steamer, 735, 955. 
Lee, Richard H., 248. 
Lee, Robert E. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.5. A., boa, eae 
Davis, Jefferson, 78, 447, 678, 680, 689, 698, 706. 
Florida, Governor of, 828. 
Sparrow, E., 446. 
Subsistence Department, C.S. A., 694. 
War Department, C. S., 75, 97, 116, 124, 334, 768, 
786, 807. 
Election of officers, 736. 
Inefficient or incompetent officers, 736. 
Mentioned, 53, 96, 97, 102, 115, 158, 159, 193,261,278, 
282, 283, 286, 293, 303, 372, 380, 424, 512, 530, 574, 
613, 615, 616, 664, 680, 681, 698, 707, 730, 736, 751, 
804, 807, 808, 811, 831, 838, 853, 854, 869, 950, 960, 
971, 1018, 1025, 1073. 
Necessity for increase of C.S. armies, 334. 
Organization of staff of C.S. Army, 446-448. 
Peace propositions, 78. 
Request to be relieved from command of Army 
of Northern Virginia, 698, 706. 
Le Mat, A., 105. 
Lemmon, Mr., 735. 
Leopard, Steamer, 20, 52, 177, 233, 335. 
Lesesne, Henry D., 864. 


See Jefferson Davis. 


‘Lesley, John T., 650. 


Lesseps, M. Ferdinand de, 24. 
Lester, George W., 774. 


Lester, James D., 932. 

Letcher, John. 
Correspondence. See Virginia, Governor of. 
Mentioned,7,33, 50,73, 96, 147, 350, 480, 643,768, 880. 

Levy, Lionel L., 248. 

Lewis, James S., 930. 

Lewis, M. W. 
Correspondence, Governor of Georgia, 953. 
Mentioned, $52. 

Lewis, Thomas H., 438. 


| Liddell, Philip F., 930. 


1104 


Liddell, St. John R. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Lilla, Brig, 19. 
Lincoln, Abraham. 
Emancipation proclamation, 345-347. 
Mentioned, 13, 53, 55, 146, 283, 308, 345, 346, 362, 368, 
402, 491, 665, 918, 1026, 1027, 1035, 1055. 
Response of Southern Governors to call for 
troops, 491. 
Lindsay, William S., 24. 
Lindsay, William S., & Co., 88. 
Lipscomb, George H., 930, 932. 
Lipscomb, Thomas C., 862. 
Little Rock, Ark. 
Advance of Union forces upon, etc., Aug. 1- 
Sept. 14, 1863, 1024. 
Little Rock Arsenal, Ark. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Littleton, John K., 303. 
Livingston, Vessel, 173. 
Loans to C. S. Government. 
Local Defense Troops. 
Acts of C.S. Congress, 206, 207, 603. 
Augusta, Ga., 636, 660-662, 684, 705. 
Conscription, 256, 257, 648, 684, 972. 
Enlistment of deserters for, 674. 
Orgn., equip., etc., 156, 157, 206, 207, 579-586, 590- 
599, 602-605, 631,648, 674, 696,796,798, 1005, 1006. 
Organization of exempts as, 648, 696. 
Partisan rangers, 113. 
Transfers from general service, 875. 
War Department’s call on Governors of States, 
580-584, 586, 590-599. 
See also the respective States. 
Locke, J. L. 
Correspondence, Subsistence Dept., C.S. A., 989. 
Mentioned, 180, 915, 1021. 
Lockhart, Harrison C., 637, 964. 
Locust Tree, Vessel, 173. 
Logan, John L., 615, 782. 
Logan, John W., 936. 
London (Eng.) Armory Company, 646. 
London (Eng.) Daily Star, 102. 
London (Eng.) Herald, 102. 
London (Eng.) Index, 25. 
London (Eng.) News, 102. 
London (Eng.) Post, 102. 
London (Eng.) Telegraph, 24. 
London (Eng.) Times, 24, 102. 
Longstreet, James, 248, 1026, 1073. 
Lookout Mountain, Tenn. 
Battle, Nov. 24, 1863, 1017, 1025. 
Looney, Robert F., 766. 
Loper, Francis B., 933. 
Loring, William W. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 50. 
Mentioned, 171. 
Louisiana. 
Address of Trans-Mississippi Governors, 731. 
Cotton trading with New Orleans, 306. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 20, 152, 153, 
198, 211, 212, 218, 357, 398, 399, 416, 585, 586. 
Impressment of slaves, 278, 279. 
Measures for defense, 789. 


See Finance. 


INDEX. 


Louisiana—Continued. 
Militia, 398, 399. 
Niter production, 29. 
Operations in. See— 

Brashear Oity. Capture, June 23, 1863. 

Georgia Landing. Action, Oct. 27, 1862. 

Milliken’s Bend. Attack, June 7, 1863. 

New Orleans. Operations against and capture, 

Apr. 18-May 1, 1862. 

Port Hudson. Surrender, July 8, 1863. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 218, 398, 399, 789. 
Overpayment of war tax, 111, 112, 326, 533. 
Partisan rangers, 82, 83. 

Salt, 242. 
Seizure of funds, etc., of banking institutions, 
116, 121-123, 132, 152, 310, 685, 710, 711, 789. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 111, 112, 326, 332, 333, 576. 
Louisiana, Adjutant-General of. 
Orders, series 1863: No. 2, 357. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 8, 398. 
Louisiana, District of. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops, January, 
1863, 380. 
Louisiana, Governor of. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 152, 212. 
War Department, C.S., 306. 
Louisiana Legislature. 
Impressment of slaves, 278, 279. 
Louisiana Military Academy. 
Exemption from conscription, 152. 
Louisiana State Bank. 
Seizure of funds, etc., by C.S. authorities, 685, 
TOV Tale 
Louisiana Troops (C.). 
Cavalry—Battalions : 9th, 82. 
Cavalry—Oompanies : Denson’s, 83. 
Infantry— Battalions : 1st (Zouaves), 808. 
Infantry—Regiments: 9th, 10th, 808; 
24th, 33d, 153. 
Love, Andrew P., 862. 
Love, James R., jr., 72. 
Love, Peter E., 397. 
Love, R. C., 934. 
Lowe, A. B., 930. 
Lowrey, J. G., 933. 
Lowrey, Mark P. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral's Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. ; 
Mentioned, 933. 
Lowry, R., 930. 
Lowry, W. L., 935, 936. 
Lowry, William B., 930, 931. 
Lubbock, Francis R. 
Correspondence. See J'exas, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 731. 
Luder, Auguste, 366. 
Luse, William H., 932. 
Lusher, Robert M., 326. 
Lyles, John M., 931. 
Lyles, William L., 932. 
Lynam, Thomas H., 930. 
Lynch, William F., 662. 
Lynchburg Depot, Va. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 


18th, 


INDEX. 


Lyon, Francis S. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 425. 
Mentioned, 820. 
Lyons, Lord. 
Correspondence, British Foreign Office, 342. 
Mentioned, 1027, 1028, 1031. 
Mabel, Vessel, 173. 
McCarty, J. L., 934. 
McClellan, George B., 282, 283, 336. 
Me€lung, P. M., 65. 
McCord, T. K., 936. 
McCoy, Henry, 787. 
McCoy, R. C., 934. 
McCulloch, Henry E. 
Mentioned, 17, 18, 937. 
Seizure of Texas war tax, 17, 18. 
McCullough, James, 769. 
McDonald, Enoch, 934. 
McDonell, Thaddeus A., 963. 
MeDowell, Irvin, 336. 
McElroy, J. C., 934. 
McElroy, Kennon, 931. 
MeFadden, Enoch E., 929. 
McGee, John, 933. 
McGehee, Edward F., 932. 
McGhee, E. A. C., 964. 
McGinn, Ann, Vessel, 173. 
McGinn, Henry, Vessel, 173. 
McGowan, John P., 931. 
McGowan, Robert, 930. 
McGowan, Samuel, 813, 815. 
McGuirk, John, 931, 936, 976. 
Machen, Willis B. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 72. 
McHenry, George, 102. 
McIntosh, D. R., 931. 
Melver, E. J., 421. 
Mackall, William W. 
Correspondence. See Braxton Bragg. 
McKeever, William, 930. 
McKelvaine, Robert P., 932. 
McLain, Robert, 933. 
McLaws, A. H. 
Correspondence, Bureauof Conscription,C.S.A., 
781. 
McLean, George P., 964. 
McLean, John J., 931. 
McLelland, J. B., 936. 
McLemore, Amos, 861, 964. 
McLendon, J. M., 935. 
Maclin, Sackfield, 567. 
McMillan, John P., 395. 
MeMillen, William. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
MeNeil, John, 345, 1047. 
MeNeill, Aden, 930. 
MeNeill, C. W., 936. 
Macon and Western Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Macon Armory, Ga. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Macon Arsenal, Ga, 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Macon Laboratory, Ga. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 


70 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1105 


McPhail, J. B., 171. 
McRae, Colin J. 
Correspondence: 
Crenshaw, W. G., 626-628, 892. 
Ferguson, J. B., jr., 892. 
Huse, C.,-645, 891-894. 
Ordnance Department, C. S. A., 886, 889, 890. 
Quartermaster-General’s Office, C. S. A., 872. 
Treasury Department, C. S., 908, 980, 982, 986. 
War Department, C. S., 824, 845, 885, 918, 1067. 
Mentioned, 586, 587, 600, 624, 626, 629, 644-646, 870, 
871, 888, 893-895, 907, 979. 
McRae, James B., 929. 
McRae, James C. 
Correspondence: 
Mallett, P., 732. 
Pearson, D. C., 734. 
Mentioned, 68, 734. 
MeWillie, Adam, 932. 
Magee, Jacob 0., 935. 
Magee, James. 
Correspondence, War Dept., C. S., 67, 70, 84. 
Mageyney, Michael, jr., 861, 964. 
Magrath, Edward, 803. 
Magruder, J. M., 860. 
Magruder, John B. 
Correspondence: 
Ford, J.S., 659. 
Gano, R. M., 709. 
Smith, E. K., 777. 
Terry, N., 709. 
Texas, Governor of, 259, 548, 579, 685, 919, 944, 
1024, 1060. 
War Department, C.S., 366. 
Mentioned, 278, 281, 398, 399, 530, 548, 549, 568, 615, 
783, 793. 
Malcolm, George J., 234. 
Mallard, R. Q. 
Correspondence, H. W. Mercer, 36. 
Mallet, John W., 956-958. 
Mallett, Peter. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription; C.S. A., 734. 
McRae, J. C., 732. 
Mentioned, 68, 69, 114, 116, 146, 223, 379, 458, 734, 
784, 785. 
Mallory, Stephen R. 
Correspondence. See Navy Department, C. 8. 
Mentioned, 55, 57, 349, 479, 481, 526, 537, 546, 824, 
887, 1014, 1046, 
Mangum, Thomas H., 932. 
Manigault, Arthur M. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Mentioned, 815. 
Manigault, Edward, 815. 
Manning, Th. C. 
Correspondence. See Louisiana, Governor of. 
Marchbanks, George. 
Correspondence: 
Bragg, B., 436. 
Walthall, W. T., 436. 
Mentioned, 435, 436. 
Marine Corps, C. S. 
Congress, C.S., 191, 192, 456. 
Enlistment of conscripts, 191, 192, 456, 457. 


1106 


Marquez, F., jr-, Schooner, 169, 173. 
Marshall, C. K., 978. 
Marshall, Tex. 
Conference of Governors of Trans-Mississippi 
States, 680, 698, 723, 804. 
Martial Law. 
Congress, C.5., 73. 
Powers of civil courts under, 32. 
Regulations, 39, 83. 
Trans-Mississippi District, 73. 
Martin, A. H. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 616,631. 
Martin, Abram, 324. 
Martin, Alfred M., 899, 903. 
Martin, James G. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.5S., 115. 
Mentioned, 68, 69, 114, 146. 
Martin, John D., 9382. 
Martin, W. G., 935. 
Martin, William E., 864, 1060. 
Maryland. 
Citizens not to be taken as substitutes, 67. 


Conscription of citizens of, found in Virginia, | 


302, 303, 335. 
Maryland Line troops, 42, 67. 
Operationsin. See— 
Antietam. Battle, Sept.16-17, 1862. 
South Mountain. Battle, Sept. 14, 1862. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 42. 
Maryland Troops (C.). 
Infantry—Regiments: Ist, 42. 
Mason, Major, 860. 
Mason, James M. 
Correspondence : 
Collie, A., 542. 
Crenshaw, W. G., 541, 542, 588, 590, 628. 
War Department, C. S., 244. 
Mentioned, 9, 24, 25, 100, 449, 478-481, 497, 535, 536, 
540, 543-546, 567, 586-589, 599-602, 624-626, 646, 
826, 887, 889, 909, 980, 981, 986. 
Mason, Wylie W., 899-903, 905. 
Mathews, Major, 942. 
Mathews, Samuel, 936. 
Matthews, Beverly, 404, 443. 
Matthews, Samuel A., 931. 
Maupin, 8. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 297,308. 
Maury, Dabney H. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.5. A., 941. 
Denis, J. C., 710. 
War Department, C. S., 685, 710, 715. 
Mentioned, 530, 585, 615, 715, 789, 911, 1073. 
Maury, Matthew F., 557, 909, 980, 981, 982, 986. 
Maxwell, A. J., 931. 
Maxwell, Augustus E. 
Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 56, 93. 
Maxwell, William C., 936. 
May, Robert H., 906. 
Mayson, H., 930. 
Mebane, Giles, 1066. 
Mechanics. 
Discharge or detail from Army, 505. 
Exemption from conscription, 161, 162, 166, 167. 
Importation from abroad, 505. 
Organized as local defense troops, 642, 


INDEX. 


Medals and Badges. 
Act of C. S. Congress, Oct. 13, 1862, 206. 
Proposed, 48. 
Medical Department, C. S. A. 
Appropriations, 112, 120, 392, 393, 531, 532. 
Congress, C. S., 117, 118. 
Contract surgeons, 112, 120, 232, 365, 388, 392, 677, 
688, 822. 
Distillation of grain, 1072, 1073. 
Estimates of appropriations, 294. 
Hospital service, 393. 
Hospital stewards, 393. 
Moore, S. P., Surgeon-General, 1074. 
Organization, etc., 117, 118. 
Purveying Department, 421-424. 
Remarks, Jefferson Davis, 424. 
Resolutions of inquiry Georgia Legislature, 396- 
398. 
Medical Examinations. 
Boards of officers, 98, 99, 163, 165, 232, 248, 365, 388 
408, 409, 528, 570, 571, 605, 606, 693, 913. 
Conscription, 51, 79, 80, 163, 165, 166, 232, 365, 388, 
408, 409, 478, 605, 606, 677, 688, 731, 913. 
Recruits before muster, 2. 
Sick, wounded, etc., 528, 913, 1021. 
Medical Officers. : 
Assignment and organization, 117, 118. 
Certificates of disability, 2-4, 51, 98, 99, 163, 165, 
166, 243, 364, 380, 421-424, 533, 534, 570. 
Congress, C.S., 117, 118. 
Contract, 112, 120, 232, 365, 388, 392, 677, 688, 822. 
Examining boards, 98, 99, 163, 165, 232, 365, 388, 
408, 409, 478, 528, 570, 571, 605, 606, 677, 693, 913. 
Experimentation with medicinal plants, 13, 14, 
79, 467, 569, 1024. 
Hospital consultation boards, 723. 
Inspectors, 794. 
Medical directors, 56. 
Pay, etc., 822. 
Regulations, 56, 194, 364, 408-410, 570, 571, 822, 913. 
Senior to act as commandant of post, 98, 380. 
Statf, 56. 
Titles, 822. 
Medical Supplies. 
Appropriations, 532. 
Impressment of, in hands of speculators, 105. 
Measures to provide, 421-424, 442. 
Purchases abroad, 87, 106, 482, 538, 539, 845. 
Returns, 410. 
Substitutes for quinine, 1024. 
Melita, Steamer, 177, 233. 
Mellard, W., 931. 
Mellon, T. A., 929. 
Melson, S. H., 934. 
Melton, C. D. 
Correspondence: 
Ashmore, J. D., 771, 773, 774. 
Bureau of Conscription, C.S. A., 769, 812, 815. 
Perryman, W. W.., 817. 
Mentioned, 307, 741, 811, 864, 866, 874. 
Meiton, Samuel W. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription. C.S. A., 939. 
War Department, C.S., 944. 
See also Adjutant and Inspector General's 
Office, O. S. A. 


INDEX. 1107 


Memminger, Christopher G. 
Correspondence. See Treasury Dept., O. S. 


Mentioned, 54, 59, 65, 122, 132, 173, 329, 331, 332, 335, 
347, 348, 527, 546, 565, 566, 575, 644, 646, 824, 826, 


876, 886, 889, 891, 918, 1039. 
Memphis, Steamer, 52. 
Memphis and Charleston Railroad. 
Equipments, 484. 
Memphis (Tenn.) Appeal, 727. 
Mennonites. 
Exemption from conscription, 122, 161, 166. 
Mercer, Fleet C., 935. 
Mercer, Hugh W. 
Correspondence: 
Fleming, P. W.., 36. 
Mallard, R. Q., 36. 
Stacy, E., 36. 
War Department, C.S., 35. 
Mentioned, 35, 361. 
Merrimac, Steamer, 538, 955. 
Merwin, Daniel 0., 964. 
Metcalf, Thomas S., 122, 152. 
Metts, David W., 935. 
Metts, Michael A., 936. 
Mexico. 
Evasion of blockade through, 257, 258. 
Horses and mules from, 417. 
Occupation by French army, 1034, 
Payment in cotton for supplies from, 793. 
Trade with, excepted from restrictions, 399, 400. 
See also Trade and Intercourse. 
Middle and Eastern Florida, Department of. 
Orders, Special, series 1862: Nos. 90, 108, 650. 
Middleton, Robert, 929. 
Milam, Jackson J., 929, 
Miles, William Porcher. 
Correspondence: 
Beauregard, G. T., 137. 
Parker, F. S., 978. 
Preston, J.S., 307. 
War Department, C. S., 359, 390. 
Mentioned, 390, 665. 
Military Courts. 
Acts of C.S. Congress organizing, etc., 202, 203, 
691. 
Appointment of members, 248, 395, 396. 
Armies in the field, 80, 81, 202, 203, 248, 288, 395, 
396, 1003, 1004. 


Army Regulations and Articles of War to gov- 


ern, 375, 376. 
Review of proceedings, 376. 


Trial of incompetent or inefficient ofticers, 97, 98. 


See also Courts-Martial. 
Militia. 
Commutation of clothing, 529. 
Congress, C.S., 529. 


Conscription, 148, 144, 156, 157, 212, 213, 219, 220, 
225, 226, 228; 398, 399, 464-466, 654, 681, 682, 881, 


882, 906. 
Creoles, 197. 
In C. 58. service, 300, 301, 529, 618. 
Status as prisoners of war, 586. 
See also the respective States. 
Millen, John M., 82. 
Millen, M. B., 989. 


| Miller, G. N., 930. 
Miller, Horace H., 931, 932. 
Miller, Hugh R., 929. 
Miller, William, 860, 964. 
Milliken’s Bend, La. 
Attack, June 7, 1863, 991. 
Mills, A. G., 930. 
Millsaps, Jackson, 862. 
Milroy, Robert H., 345. 
Milton, John. 
Correspondence. See Florida, Governor of. 
_ Mentioned, 216, 238, 256-259, 403, 651, 838, 839. 
Mims, Livingston. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C. S. A., 655. 
Mentioned, 453. 
Minho, Steamer, 20, 52. 
Ministers of the Gospel. 
Exemption from conscription, 161, 301. 
Minnett, A., 923. 
Missionary Ridge, Tenn. 
Battle, Nov. 25, 1863, 1017, 1025. 
Mississippi. 
Confederate calls for militia, 33. 
Conscripts in State organizations, 334. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 16, 17, 149, 150, 
211, 212, 249, 250, 334, 681, 682, 697, 701, 707, q12; 
718, 748, 754, 758-766, 861, 921, 922. 
See also West, Department of the (C.). Opera- 
tions Volunteer and Conscription Bureau. 
Finance, 924, 925. 
Impressment, 921. 
Institutions for deaf and dumb, blind, insane, 
etc., 920, 921. 
Local defense troops, 580-582, 697, TOL 707s 712, 
713, 754, 765, 766, 936. 
Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959. 
Militia, 251, 300, 301, 468, 681, 682, 925-929, 
Negroes, 922, 923. 
Niter production, 29. 
Operations in. See— 
Corinth. Battle, Oct. 3-4, 1862. 
Iuka. Engagement, Sept. 19, 1862. 
Jackson Oampaign. July 5-25, 1863. 
Vicksburg: 
Operations against, Dec. 20, 1862-Jan. 3, 1863. 
Surrender, July 4, 1863. 
Orgn., equip,, ete., of vols., 178, 179, 681, 682, 697, 
701, 707, 708, 712, 713, 921, 922. 
Partisan rangers, 83. 
Penitentiary and convicts, 919, 920. 
Prevention of distillation of grain, etc., 510, 511, 
513. 
Printing, etc., of currency, 924, 925. 
Removal of seat of government, 919. 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582, 926. 
Salaries of State officers, 927. 
Salt, 126, 250, 923, 924. 
State armory, 921. 
State troops, 178, 179, 976-978. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 328, 329, 331-333, 576. 
Transfer of State troops to C. S. service, 783, 885, 
898, 976. 
Troops furnished, 178, 251, 922, 927-936. 
Mississippi, Adjutant and Inspector General of. 
Correspondence, Governor of Mississippi, 927. 


1108 moe 


Mississippi, First Military District of (C.). 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops, May 24, 
1863, 615. 
Mississippi, Governor of. 
Address to the people of Mississippi, 960-962. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 126, 212, 468, 697, 701, 707, 712, 
754, 765, 766, 1065. 
Johnston, J. E., 885, 898, 976. 
Mississippi, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 927. 
Mississippi Legislature, 259. 
Pemberton, J. C., 510, 513. 
Pillow, G. J., 760. 
Price, S., 33. 
War Department, C. S., 16, 178, 300, 334, 582. 
Deserters and absentees, 16, 17. 
Discharge of militia to plant crops, 468. 
Exchange of cotton for salt, 126. 
Messages to Legislature, 249-252, 259, 919-936, 
976-978. 
Prevention of distillation of grain, etc., 510, 
511, 513. 
Recommendations, organization, etc., of State 
troops, 976-978. 
Surgeons to attend Mississippi troops, 259. 
Mississippi and East Louisiana, Dept. of. 
Enforcement-of conscription acts, 677, 678. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Feb. 17, 403. 
Orders, General, series 1862: No. 7, 301. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
Dec. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
Mar. 31, 1863, 530. 
June 25, 1863, 615. 
Jan. 20, 1864, 1073. 
Mississippi Central Railroad. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 381, 382, 484, 486. 
Mississippi Legislature. 
Aid in strengthening C.S. Army, 763-765. 
Correspondence, Governor of Mississippi, 259. 
Impressment of negroes, 296, 297. 
Messages from the Governor, 249-252, 259, 919- 
936, 976-978. 
Resolutions of confidence in Jefferson Davis, 
1052, 1065. 
Mississippi River. 
Free navigation proclamations, 82. 
Measures for defense, 639, 697, 701, 707, 712, 713. 
Mississippi Troops (C.). 
Artillery, Heavy—Battalions: 11th, 935. 
Artillery, Light—Battalions: 14th, 935. 
Artillery, Light—Batteries: Wesson Artillery 
(Local Defense), 936. 
Artillery, Light— Regiments: 1st, 178, 935. 
Cavalry—Battalions : 1st Minute Men (State), 
935; 4th, 935; 16th (State), 677,936; Daven- 
port’s (State), 936; Perrin’s (State), 936, 976. 
Cavalry — Companies: Adams’ (State), 936; 
Boomerangs (Local Defense), 936; Buford’s 
(State), 936; Choctaw Reserves (Local De- 
fense), 936; Dunn’s (State), 936; Foote’s 
(Local Defense), 936; Forrest’s (State), 936; 
Foster Creek Rangers (Local Defense), 936; 
Gartley’s (State), 936; Gholson Guards 
(State), 936; Hall’s (State), 936; Hartin’s 
(State), 936; Herndon Rangers (State), 936. 


Mississippi Troops (C.)— Continued. 


Cavalry—Companies: Hightower’s (Local De- 
fense), 936; Knox’s (Local Defense), 936; 
Leake Rangers (Local Defense), 936; 
Mathews’ (State), 936; Maxwell’s (State), 
936; Mississippi Rangers (State), 936; Mor- 
gan Riflemen (Local Defense), 936; Neshoba 
Rangers (Local Defense), 936; Noxubee 
Home Guards (Local Defense), 936; Poite- 
vent’s, 83; Prince’s (State), 936; Red’s 
(State), 936; Saunders? (State), 936; Sem- 
ple’s (Local Defense), 936; Slate Springs 
(Local Defense), 936; Stillwell’s (State), 936 ; 
Thames’ (State), 936; Tola’s, 83; Weather- 
all’s (State), 936; Yalobusha Rangers (Local 
Defense), 936. 

Cavalry—Regiments: Ast (Adams), 935; 1st 
(State), 935; 2d, 934; 2d (State), 677,935; 3d 
(State), 936; 28th, 178, 982. 

Infantry— Battalions: 1st Minute Men (State), 
935; 2d Minute Men (State), 935; 3d Minute 
Men (State), 935; 4th Minute Men (State), 935; 
5th, 8th, 935; Sth (Sharpshooters), 935; 10th, 
935. 

Infantry—Companies: Barr’s (Local Defense), 
936; Burt’s (Local Defense), 986; Capitol 
Guards (Local Defense), 936; Choctaw Silver 
Grays (Local Defense), 936; Fant’s (Local 
Defense), 936; Gage’s (Local Defense), 936; 
Local Guards (Local Defense), 936; Stan- 
defer’s (Local Defense), 936; Terry’s (Local 
Defense), 936; Vaiden Guards (Local De- 
fense), 936; Williams’ (Local Defense), 936; 
Wilson’s (Local Defense), 936. 

Infantry—Regiments: 1st, 929; 1st Minute Men 
(State), 985; 2d, 929; 2d [238d], 929; 2d 
Minute Men (State), 935; 3d, 929; 3d Minute - 
Men (State), 935; 4th, 929; 4th Minute Men 
(State), 935; 5th, 930; 5th Minute Men 
(State) 935; 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 
930; 12th, 18th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 
18th, 931; 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, 
25th, 26th, 27th, 29th, 932; 30th, sist, 
82d, 83d, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 933; 38th, 
39th, 40th, 41st, 43d, 44th, 45th, 49th, 934. 

Miscellaneous—Jeff. Davis Legion, 242. 


Missouri. 


Measures for strengthening troops from, 805. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 69. 

Pay ot troops from, 496. 

Requisitions for troops, 702. 

Suspension of conscription act, 106. 


Mitchel, Charles B. 


Correspondence, War Department, C.5.., 85. 


Mitchel, John, 138. 
Mobile and Girard Railroad. 


Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 


Mobile and Great Northern Railroad. 


Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 


Mobile and Ohio Railroad. 


Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Impressment of rolling-stock, etc., 655. 


Mobile (Ala.) Committee of Safety. 


Correspondence, Governor of Alabama, 462. 
Protest against conversion of steamers to run 
blockade, 461-463, 472, 473. 


INDEX. 


Mobley, James M., 208, 264, 358, 397, 486. 

Modern Greece, Steamer, 52. 

Molyneux, Edward, 658. 

Montgomery, W. E., 936. 

Montgomery, William T., 936. 

Montgomery and West Point Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Montgomery Arsenal, Ala. 

Regulations, 379, 380. 

Moody, Daniel N., 932. 

Moore, Lieutenant-Colonel, 377. 

Moore, Andrew B. 

Correspondence, Governor of Alabama, 148. 
Mentioned, 148. 

Moore, B., 930. 

Moore, B. B., 935. 

Moore, Benning B., 988. 

Moore, G. D. 

Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 616,631. 
Mentioned, 899, 901, 902, 934. 

Moore, George, 67. 

Moore, J. G., 862. 

Moore, John B., 929. 

Moore, John C., 396. 

Moore, John T., 931. 

Moore, Patrick T., 248. 

Moore, Samuel D. J., 142. 

Moore, Samuel P. 

Correspondence. See Surg. Gen.’s Office, 0. S.A. 
Mentioned, 84, 294, 422, 564, 688, 794, 913, 945, 1074. 
Surgeon-General, C. S. A., 1074. 

Moore, Thomas 0. 

Correspondence. See Louisiana, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 152, 153, 242, 326, 357, 399, 731. 

Moore, William H., 930, 934. 

Mordecai, George W., 182. 

Morgan, C. C., 936. 

Morgan, Hiram, 933. 

Morgan, J«E., 899. 

Morgan, James B., 932. 

Morgan, John H., 284. 

Morgan, John T., 82, 361. 

Morgan, W. H., 929. 

Morny, Charles A. L. J. de, 100. 

Morton, T. J., 861, 964. 

Moseley, George M., 929, 936. 

Moses, Sidney A., 862. 

Mount Vernon Arsenal, Ala. 

Regulations, 379, 380. 

Mouton, Alfred, 153. 

Muldrow, Henry L., 862. 

Mules. 

Abandoned by enemy, 554. 

Measures to provide supplies, 417, 615, 616. 
Schedules of prices, 844. 

Substitution for horses, 552. 

Mull, James, 862. 

Mullins, James, 905. 

Mullins, John, 932. 

Munitions of War. 

Abandoned by deserters or stragglers, 736, 793, 
794, 

Abstract of shipments, 382-384, 

Appropriations, 112. 

Austrian rifle, 382. 

Blakely rifle, 382, 956. 


1109 


Munitions of War—Continued. 
British muskets, 382. 
Brunswick rifles, 382. 
Captured, 401, 406, 498, 499. 
Cavalry, 718-720. 
Congress, C.S., 80, 85, 299, 801. 
Cost, 80, 299, 1022. 
Damaged or unserviceable, 407. 
Distribution to States, 210, 225, 226, 702, 880, 914. 
Enfield rifle, 382. 
Establishment, purchase, etc., of manufactur- 
ing plants, 184, 291, 1043. 
Exemption of manufacturers, 161, 162. 
Fabrication of heavy ordnance, 143. 
Georgia powder loan, 208, 262. 
Impressment, 511. 
Increase in production, 1007, 1043. 
Lead, 29, 30, 122. 
Local defense troops, 603, 702. 
Losses, 65, 66. 
Manufacture or purchase, 80, 143, 291, 299, 363 
955-958, 1007, 1018, 1019, 1043. 
Mexico, 29, 122, 567, 568, 670, 793. 
Naval, 1046. 
Niter, 26-30, 83, 119, 122, 222-224, 228, 291, 392, 532, 
834, 1007. 
On hand, 80, 299. 
Operations of Ordnance Department, C. S. A. 
Sept. 30, 1862-Sept. 30, 1863, 955-960, 1007. 
Powder mills, etc., 957. 
Property of enlisted men, 365. 
Purchases abroad, Confederate, 105, 122, 177, 227, 
228, 233, 234, 236, 237, 335, 336, 382-384, 416, 482, 
538, 539, 567, 568, 601, 955, 956, 1030, 1031. 
Purchases abroad, Union, 1030, 1031. 
Purchase with cotton, 416, 550, 551, 793, 955, 956. 
Rate of production, 80, 299. 
Receipt and disposition, 85. 
Remarks: 
Beauregard, G. T., 391. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 48. 
Requisitions, 407, 702. 
Returns, 406, 965. 
Revolvers, 957. 
Sabers, 719,957. 
Sale by soldiers to civilians prohibited, 801. 
Seizure of State property by C. S. officers, 8, 26. 
Statements of issues, 80, 85, 299. 
Steamers and cargoes arriving Apr. 27-Aug. 16, 
1862, 52. 
Supply from States, 603. 
Transportation, 122. 
West Indian shipments, 18-20, 177, 227, 228, 233, 
234, 335, 336, 889. 
Williams breech-loading guns, 357. 
Murrah, Pendleton. 
Correspondence. See Texas, Governor of. 
Murry, John Y., 938. 
Muscogee Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Musicians. 
Bounty, 120. 
Muster in of Volunteers. 
Instructions to mustering officers, 365. 
Muster-Rolls. 
Instructions for making, 79, 84, 85, 365. 


5] 


? 


1110 


Mustian, J. L., 274. 
Myer, Sebastin, 366. 
Myers, Abraham C, 
Correspondence. 
Office, O. S. A. 
Mentioned, 6, 84, 139, 151, 166, 235, 236, 273, 294,386, 
453, 454, 456, 544, 551, 564, 578, 662, 755, 1074. 
Quartermaster-General, C.S. A., 1074. 
Myers, Samuel €., 934. 
Myers, Whitaker, 907. 
Napoleon III, 24, 25, 100-104, 257, 344, 1027,1031, 1034. 
Nash, J., 936. 
Nash, James A., 934. 
Nash, James H. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 77, 96. 
Nashville, C.S.8., 663. 
Nashville, Steamer, 52. 
Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Nashville and Northwestern Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Nautilus, Vessel, 589. 
Navy Department, C. S. 
Correspondence : 
Buchanan, F., 668. 
Davis, Jefferson, 662. 
Ingraham, D. N., 664. 
Tucker, J. R., 664. 
War Department, C.S., 90, 143, 697, 705, 706. 
Estimates of appropriations, 310. 
Navy of the Confederate States. 
Acts of C.S. Congress, 191, 192, 456. 
Condition and operations, 55, 1046. 
Details from the Army, 90. 
Enlistment of conscripts, 191, 192, 456, 457. 
Tron from railroads, 365, 256, 393. 
Searcity of crews, 662-664. 
Transfers from the Army, 138, 191, 192, 242, 662- 
664, 693, 697, 705. 
Nazarenes. 
Exemption from conscription, 122, 161, 166. 
Neal, 8S. J. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 247. 
Negroes. 
Congress, C.S., 420, 534, 691. 
Conscription for menial and mechanical service, 
978, 979. 
Fugitive or recaptured slaves, 35-38, 420, 421. 
Impressment, 35,175,176, 181, 211, 266-270, 278, 279, 
296-298, 306, 307, 385, 386, 390, 393, 394, 426-430, 
470, 471, 840, 841, 897, 898, 999, 1041. 
Laborers for fortifications, etc., 35, 266-270, 298, 
306, 307, 390, 426-430, 470, 840, 841, 897, 898. 
Memorial of citizens of Liberty County, Ga., 
35-38. 
Military service, 211, 691, 767, 947, 948, 998, 999. 
Pillow’s call for teamsters, etc., 421. 
Punishment for aiding enemy, 35-38. 
Removal from exposed districts, 133-137, 922, 923, 
999. 
Service of slaves with regiments, 86, 551, 552. 
Servile insurrection, 53. 
Tax upon, 64, 185, 321, 328, 332-334. 
See also Slavery. 


See Quartermaster-General’s 


See Congress, C. 8S. 


INDEX. 


Neil, James, 248. 
Neill, G. F., 933. 
Nelson, Patrick H., 815. 
Nelson, Thomas P., 929. 
Nelson, W. R., 933. 
Nelson, William, 1073. 
New Orleans, La. 
Operations against and pec Apr. 18-May 1, 
1862, 281. 


New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern R. R. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

New Orleans and Texas Railroad. 
Construction for military purposes, 107, 108. 

Newspapers. 

Exemption of editors and employés from con- 
scription, 161, 731. 
Publication of orders in, 69, 106. 

Niblack, S. L., 278, 277. 

Nicholson, Hunter, 362. 

Nicolai I, Vessel, 336. 

Niter. 

Appropriations, 119, 892, 532. 

Development of caves, 27, 30. 

Home production, 228. 

Importation from Mexico, 29, 122, 222. 

Impressment of caves, 83, 853. 

Supply and resources, 222-224. 

Workmen to be called from work only for local 
defense, 834. 

Niter and Mining Bureau, C. S. A. 
Appointment, selection, etc., of officers, 534. 
Conscript labor, 222-224, 228. 
Correspondence, War Dept., C.8., 26, 222, 223. 
Enforcement of contracts, 380, 381. 
Establishment, 594, 595. 

Officers of Ordnance Corps, C.8. A., 458. 
Operations, 1862-63, 26-30, 222, 223, 1007, 1043. 
Process of production and remelting of pig iron, 
778-780. 
Purchases abroad, 845. 
St. John, I. M., Superintendent, 1074. 
Niter Bureau, C. S. A. 
Organization, etc., 48. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.5., 291. 
Niter Corps, C. S. A. 
Organization, etc., 47. 

Nix, Francis M., 82. 

Noland, B. P., 971. 

Norman, F. S8., 933. 

Norris, M. E., 931. 

Norris, W. H., 248. 

North, James H. 

Correspondence, J. B. Ferguson, jr., 558. 
Mentioned, 544, 545, 557, 909, 981, 982. 

North Carolina. 

Armed bands of deserters, stragglers, etc., 460, 
461, 619, 674, 741, 765, 783-786. 

Calls for militia, 336, 596. 

Commencement of pay of troops, 531. 

Contracts for munitions of war, 184. 

Depredations by troops, 801, 1061, 1062. 

Destruction of cotton belonging to, 229. 

Disaffection among troops, 807. 


INDEX. 


North Carolina—Continued. 

Enforcement of conscription acts, 40, 67-69, 113- 
116, 146-148, 154, 180, 189, 210-212, 218, 226, 246- 
248, 308, 309, 375, 378, 379, 409, 411, 412, 441, 458, 
464-466, 617, 619, 632, 633, 686, 731-736, 783-786, 
796, 906, 907, 939, 940, 1070-1072. 

See also West, Department of the (C.). Opera- 
tions Volunteer and Conscription Bureau. 

Feeling toward C. 8. Government, 675. 

Finance, 184-186, 194, 195. 

Local defense troops, 210, 225, 226, 580-582, 596, 
617, 619, 631, 644, 796, 906, 907, 937. 

Measures for defense, 180, 181. 

Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959, 960. 

Men for old regiments, 32. 

Militia, 186. 

Niter caves, 27. 

Operations in. 
Feb. 8, 1862. 

Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 4, 31-33, 183, 210, 298, 
299, 308, 309, 377, 619, 631, 686, 796. 

Partisan rangers, 4, 31, 82, 83. 

Political prisoners, 188. 

Powder mills, 184. 

Reimbursement by C.S. Government, 112, 364, 

Requisitions for troops, 580-582, 766. 

Riotous conduct of C.S. troops, 801. 

Salt, 181, 182. 

Speculation in supplies, 181, 182. 

Subsistence, 413, 959, 960. 

Suspension of court sessions, 187, 188. 

Taxation, 62, 63, 112, 185, 186, 326, 332, 333, 575. 

Troops furnished, 939, 940. 

Union or Reconstruction Party, 665. 

Nerth Carolina, Adjutant-General of. 

Orders, General, series 1862: No. 5, 69. 

North Carolina, Department of (C.). _ 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 

May 31, 1863, 530. 
June 30, 1863, 615. 
Dee. 31, 1863, 1073. 
North Carolina, Governor of. 

Appointment, etc., of army officers, 188, 189, 375. 

Appintment of officer from another State as 
commandant of conscripts, 375, 379, 409, 411, 
412, 458, 

Assignment of conscripts to regiments, 114, 115, 
146-148, 154. 

Complaint of depredations of troops, 801, 1061, 
1062. 

Conscription of State officers or agents, 464-466, 
617, 632, 633. 

Correspondence : 

Bureau of Conscription, C. 8. A., 458, 465. 
Davis, Jefferson, 32, 40, 67, 146, 153, 154, 210, 212, 


See Roanoke Island. Capture, 


218, 246, 464, 552, 565, 617, 619, 631, 632, 644, 665, 


675, 684, 766, 801, 1068. 

Edwards, W.N., 85. 

Hinton, J. W., 906. 

South Carolina, Governor of, 741, 765. 

Stanly, E., 154. 

Treasury Department, C.S., 178. 

War Department, C. 8., 4, 5, 17,31, 71, 81, 113, 
114, 175, 225, 229, 298, 308, 336, 375, 377, 385, 393, 
4138, 458, 460, 547, 567, 569, 582, 674, 680, 765, 786, 
787, 807, 906, 937, 1061, 1066, 1072. 


1111 


North Carolina, Governor of—Continued. 
Desertion among North Carolina troops, 547, 552, 
565, 567, 569. 
Distillation of grain, 1072, 1073. 
Employment of State officers in conscripting, 
etc., 40, 67-69, 787, 788. 
Enlistment of deserters as local defense troops, 
674. 
Feeling of State toward C. S. Gov't, 675, 684. 
Funds for agents abroad, 178. 
Laborers for construction of railroads, 175, 176, 
385, 386, 393, 394. 
Messages to Legislature, 180-191. 
Partisan rangers, 4, 5, 31, 71, 72, 113. 
Peace propositions, 153, 154, 807. 
Proclamations, 214, 375, 551, 596, 794-796. 
Protest against independent acceptances, 81. 
Response to requisitions for troops, 619, 766. 
Return home of detailed men to harvest crops, 
595. 
Speculation in supplies, etc., 85, 86, 680. 
North Carolina and Southern Virginia, Dept. of. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
Dec. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
North Carolina Legislature. 
Discharge of members under exemption acts, 231. 
Impressment, 1066, 1067. 
Messages from the Governor, 180-191. 
Resolutions of loyalty to Confederacy, 378. 
North Carolina Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, ete., 484, 486. 
North Carolina Troops (€.). 
Cavalry—Oompanies: Cox’s, 83; Davis’, 83; 
Harris’, 88; Lawrence’s, 83; MeClenahan’s, 
83; MecIntire’s, 83; Mitchell’s, 83; Pitt’s, 83. 
Cavalry—Regiments: 4th, 82. 
Infantry—Regiments: 16th, 247; 
56th, 1071; 58th, 82. 
Northeastern Railroad. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 


21st, 739; 


Northern Virginia, Army of. 


Deserters from Alabama regiments sent to, 473, 
742, 830, 831, 853, 854, 869. 
Disaffection of North Carolina troops, 807. 
Measures to maintain strength, 678, 680, 689, 698, 
706. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. $5, 730; No. 
86, 736. 
Organization, strength, ete. : 
Dec. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
Mar. 31, 1863, 530. 
May 31, 1863, 615. 
Dec. 31, 1863, 1073. 
Rations, 595. 
Request of R. E. Lee to be relieved from com- 
mand, 698, 706. 
Reserve supplies for, 574, 575. 
Subsistence, 157-160, 193. 
Northrop, Lucius B. 
Com. Gen. of Subsistence, C.8. A., 1074. 
Correspondence. See Subsistence Dept., C. 8S. A, 
Mentioned, 84, 151, 218, 294, 385, 457, 565, 746, 848, 
851, 877, 945, 1007, 1008, 1074. 


1112 


Northwestern States. 


Annexation to Confederacy, 489-495. 

Efforts to secure co-operation or sympathy, 41. 

Proposed conference of Governors of, with Gov- 
ernors of Southern States, 137, 138, 179, 180. 

Nott, James D., 435. 

Noyes, A. B. 

Correspondence, G. D. Chaires, 973. 

Mentioned, 974. 

Nunn, S. A., 933. 


Nurses. 


Appropriations, 112, 120. 

Hospital, 199, 200, 210. 

Partially disabled conscripts, 95. 

Officers, Army. 

Absentees, 5-7, 211, 215, 388, 690, 707, 736, 828, 1042. 

Additional, of artillery, for ordnance duties, 47, 
85, 92, 96, 97, 110, 150, 151, 198, 243, 288, 289, 377, 
458, 459, 707, 708, 959. 

Amnesty to deserters and absentees, 707. 

Appointment, selection, ete., 1, 3, 47, 55, 82, 85, 92, 
96, 97, 109-111, 118, 114, 188, 189, 198, 201, 207, 
288, 364, 365, 375, 377, 424, 534, 573, 620-623, 671- 
674, 690, 737-739, 780, 788, 800-802, 834, 835, 854, 
912, 948, 1062. 


INDEX. 


Officers, Army—Continued. 


Pay, etc., 119, 120, 153, 201, 202, 377, 446, 531, 549, 
550, 690, 692, 693, 796, 797, 828, 1043. 

Personal expenses on special service, 511, 568, 
853, 875, 1021. 

Power to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 39, 83. 

Promotion, 45-47, 79, 97, 109-111, 206, 289, 446, 472, 
610, 611, 948-950, 1001, 1002. 

Promotion for skill and valor, 14, 252, 290, 948. 

Provost-marshals, 578, 574. 

Rank, 2, 418, 419. 

Reassignments, 913. 

Regimental, 79, 201, 204, 603, 620-623, 671-674, 690, 
736, 798. 

Regular versus provisional rank, 76, 198. 

Resignation, removal, etc., 205, 206, 243, 419, 499, _ 
571, 572, 675, 879, 880, 914, 1002. 

Retirement, 205, 206. 

Serving before receipt of commission, etc., 692, 
693. 

Supernumerary, 571, 572, 689. 

Transfers, 138, 365. 

Traveling expenses, 468, 469, 675. 

Vacancies, 14, 45-47, 108, 109, 113, 206, 364, 365, 446, 
610, 611. 


Arsenals and depots, 380. 

Assignment, etc., 26, 241. 

Bonded, 365. 

Captured before return of muster-rolls, 290. 

Conscription duty by partially disabled, 217. 

Consolidation of reduced organizations, 110,111, | 
1004, 1005, 1042. | 

Correspondence and reports, 308, 425, 579. | 

Cowardice or misbehavior before the enemy, 
252, 253. 

Deceased, effects, pay, ete., of, 150, 201, 202. 

Detachment from organizations, 424, 425. 

Disability, 205, 206, 364. 

Disbanded organizations, 290. 

Disbursing, 388, 796, 797. 

Efficiency reports, 205, 206. 

Election, 584, 690, 736, 948, 1062, 1063. 

Employment of enlisted men as servants, 406. 

Engineer, 511, 534, 565, 609, 610, 678, 679. 


Offutt, H. St. George, 274. 
Ogletree, Redmond D., 933. 
O’Hara, C. F. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Oladowski, Hypolite, 958. 
O’Neil, V. B., 359. 
Orange and Alexandria Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
| Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
| Ordnance Corps, C. 8S. A. 
Examinations for appointment, 85, 92. 
Increase of establishment, 47. 
Organization, etc., 47, 458, 459. 
Promotions, 97. 
Ordnance Department, C. 8. A. 
Appointment, selection, etc., of officers, 113. 
Appropriations, 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 
Artillery officers for ordnanceduties, 47, 85, 92, 96, 
97,110, 150, 151, 198, 243, 288, 289, 377, 458, 459, 


Examinations, 85, 92, 96, 97,110, 118, 150, 205, 206, 707, 708, 959. 
243, 288, 289, 377, 736, 959, 1001, 1005. Assignment of chiefs of ordnance, 593. 
General and staff officers, 3, 26, 46, 47, 56, 70, 114, Correspondence: 


195, 196, 204, 207, 424, 446-448, 593, 689, 913, 950, 
951, 1004, 10438. 

Hospital accommodations, 572. 

Incompetency, inefficiency, etc., 97, 98, 109-111, 
235, 206, 252, 253, 736. 

Leaves of absence, 380, 571, 913. 

Lieutenant-generals authorized, 198, 288. 

Medical, 2, 3, 18, 14, 51, 56, 79, 98, 99, 112, 117, 118, 
120, 163, 165, 166, 194, 232, 243, 364, 365, 380, 388, 
392, 408-410, 421-424, 467, 528, 533, 534, 569, 570, 
606, 677, 688, 693, 723, 794, 822, 913, 1024. 

Members of State Legislatures, 499. 

Mileage, 8. 

Minors, 495. 

Monuments, etc., to deceased, 357. 

Mortality reports, 150. 

Ordnance, 1, 47, 85, 92, 96, 97, 110, 118, 150, 151, 198, 

+ 243, 288, 289, 877, 458, 459, 568, 593, 707, 708, 

959, 965, 1018, 1019. 


Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A., 241. 
Crenshaw, J. R., 498. 
Cuyler, R. M., 416. 
Huse, C., 539, 567, 645, 670. 
McRae, C. J., 886, 889, 890. 
Rains, G. W., 636, 662. 
South Carolina, Governor of, 702. 
War Department, C. S., 65, 224, 227, 237, 299, 
363, 384, 498, 527, 556, 564, 644, 647, 662, 720, 979. 
Estimates of appropriations, 294. 
Exhibits, munitions, etc., manufactured or pur- 
chased, 80, 299, 955-958. 
Gorgas, J., Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, 1074. 
Impressment of iron, 594, 595. 
Increased production of munitions, etc., 1007. 
Inspections, 70. 
Interference with leather purchases by, 219. 
Operations, 1862-63, 955-959, 1007. 
Organization, etc., 289, 458, 459, 959, 1018, 1019. 


INDEX. 7 ° 


Ordnance Department, C. S. A.—Continued. 

Principal establishments, 957, 958. 

Purchase of supplies, 425, 453-456. 

Purchases abroad, 87, 106, 601, 634, 645-647, 845. 

Regulations, 458, 459, 552. 

Returns of stores, etc., 552. 

Transportation of supplies, 266. 

Organization, Equipment, etc., of Army. 

Acts of C.8. Congress: 

Feb. 26, 1861, 117. 
Mar. 6, 1861, 46, 117, 198, 202. 
Mar. 14, 1861, 202. 
May 8, 1861, 46, 204, 205. 
May 11, 1861, 46. 
Aug, 8, 1861, 46. 

Aug. 14, 1861, 117. 
Aug. 31, 1861, 201. 
Dec. 11, 1861, 45, 46. 
Jan. 22, 1862, 45, 46. 
Apr. 16, 1862, 495. 
Sept. 18, 1862, 198. 
Sept. 23, 1862, 201. 
Sept. 27, 1862, 199. 
Oct. 2, 1862, 201. 

Oct. 6, 1862, 202. 

Oct. 8, 1862, 202. 

Oct. 9, 1862, 202, 203. 
Oct. 11, 1862, 204, 205. 
Oct. 18, 1862, 206, 207. 
Mar. 20, 1863, 445, 446. 
Apr. 16, 1863, 690. 
May 1, 1863, 691, 692. 

Artillery, 153, 198. 

Cadets, 79, 205, 472, 853. 

Cavalry, 568, 718-721, 921, 1002, 1003, 1042. 

Competition between purchasing agents, 183,425, 
453, 454, 483. 

Congressional investigations, 80, 359, 390. 

Conscription service, troops for, 618, 659, 796, 798, 
799, 1022, 1023, 1070-1072. 

Consolidation of reduced regiments, 44, 45, 54, 55, 
109-111, 1001, 1004, 1005, 1042. 

Convict labor, 96. 

Corps organization authorized, 198, 202. 

Creole troops, 197, 941. 

Definition of term ‘‘army supplies,”’ 212. 

Disbandment of organizations, 42, 424, 425. 

Engineer Corps, C.S. A., 47, 198, 259-261, 289. 

Engineer troops, 445, 446, 565, 678, 679, 703. 

General and staff officers, 26, 46, 47, 70, 195, 196, 
204, 446-448, 593, 689, 690, 913, 950, 951, 1004, 
1042, 1043. 

Incomplete organizations, 204, 400. 

Indians, 467. 

Invalid corps, 1042. 

Light artillery, 153. 

Local defense troops, 113, 156, 157, 206, 207, 579- 
586, 590-599, 602-605, 631, 648, 674, 696, 796, 798, 
1005, 1006. 

Maryland Line, 42, 67. 

Medical directors, 410. 

Memorial from officers of Army of Tennessee, 
670, 671. 

Men for old regiments, 163, 164. 

Military courts, 80, 81,202, 203, 248, 288, 395, 396, 
691, 1003, 1004. 

Military store-keepers, 263-266, 691, 692. 


1113 


Organization, Equipment, etc., of Army—Cont’d. 


Minors, 495. 

Ordnance Corps, C.S. A., 458, 459. 

Ordnance officers, 1, 47, 85, 92, 96, 97, 110, 113, 150, 
151, 198, 243, 288, 289, 377, 458, 459, 707, 708, 959. 

Partisan rangers, 26, 48, 82, 83, 113, 249, 359, 585, 


1003. 
Proposition to raise troops in Europe, 777. 
Provost-marshals, 573, 574. 


Recruiting service, 21,67, 83, 193, 218, 236, 305-307, 


381, 400, 415, 639, 827, 875. 
Re-enlistments, 42, 43. 


Regimental officers, 79, 201, 204, 603, 620-623, 671-. 


674, 690, 736, 798. 

Reimbursement of States, 112, 232, 235, 364. 
Remarks: 

Bragg, B., 6. 

Chambliss, J. R., jr., 718-721. 

Cobb, H., 34, 35. 
' Davis, Jefferson, 680. 

Lee, R. E., 334, 446-448, 678. 

Melton, 8. W., 944-952. 


Secretary of War, C.S., 42-49, 259-261, 279-281, 


288-292, 671-674, 994-1016. 
Reserve corps, 656. 
Sharpshooters, 288. 
Staff corps, 202, 421-424, 446-448, 913. 
Supernumeraries, 571, 572. 


Surgeons and assistant surgeons, 56, 98, 117, 118, 
163, 165, 232, 365, 388, 392, 410, 570, 677, 688, 693, 


822. 


Territory occupied by enemy, 193, 218, 359, 381, 


400, 415, 639. 
Transfer of State troops to C. 8. service, 414. 


Transfers from general to local service troops, 


875. 
Troops from outside of Confederacy, 400. 
Troops furnished, 77, 80. 
See also — 
Army of the Confederate States. 
Independent Acceptances. 
Partisan Rangers. 
Provisional Army, C. 8. 
‘Signal Corps, C. S.A. 
And the respective States. 
Orr, Jehu A.W, 933. 
Osage Indians. 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Osceola, Schooner, 172, 173. 
Ould, Robert, 1007. 
Outzen, 5 355. 
Owen, Robert L., 274, 276, 277. 
Owens, William J., 935. 
sop, W. A”? Seo P. W. Alexander. 
Palmer, John B., 72, 82. 
Palmer, R. D., 929. 
Palmerston, Lord, 24. 
Papy, M. D., 651. 
Pardue, W. P., 936. 
Paris, G. W., 929. 
Paris (France) Constitutionnel, 24. 
Paris (France) Moniteur, 100. 
Paris (France) Orleans, 24. 
Paris (France) Patrie, 24. 
Paris (France) Pays, 24. 
Park, W. T., 79. 
Parker, D. H., 930. 


1114 


Parker, Edward L., 815. 
Parker, Francis S. 
Correspondence, W. P. Miles, 978. 
Parker, James P., 935. 
Parker, Tully F., 932. 
Parks, B. F., 381. 
Paroled Prisoners. 
Influence on Alabama elections, 727. 
Payment, 79, 84, 85. 
Parrott, William S., 934. 
Partin, Charles P., 933. 
Partisan Rangers. 
Anticipated advantages not realized, 4, 5, 48, 289, 
1003. 
Authorization, 4, 21, 31, 48, 303, 304, 359, 639. 
Composed of men from within enemy’s lines, 
303, 304, 359, 639. 
Congress, C.S., 48, 82, 83. 
Enlistments to avoid conscription, 31. 
Kentuckians, 359. 
Lists of organizations, 82, 83. 
Local defense, 113. 
Munitions, etc., captured by, 498, 499. 
Opposition of Governor of North- Carolina, 4, 5, 
ol, Wd, 02: 
Organization, equipment, etc., 585. 
Regulations, 26, 584. 
Remarks, Secretary of War, C.S., 289. 
To be outside conscription age, 26. 
Unfavorable effect upon conscription, 4, 5, 31, 71, 
72. 
Passports. 
Military regulations, 990. 
Patrick, Marsh M., 861, 964. 
Pattison, D.S., 923. 
Patton, John M., 248. 
Patton, William S., 933. 
Paul, Alfred, 366, 367. 
Payments to Troops. 
Absentees, 388, 424, 425, 690, 828. 
Commissioned officers, 153. 
Conscripts, 8. 
Discharged, 570. 
Furlough commutation, 406, 441, 442. 
General staff officers, 195, 196. 
Hospital service, 200, 209, 210. 
Price’s command, Missouri, 91. 
Regulations, 8, 91, 195, 196, 237, 406, 424, 425, 528, 
531, 549, 550, 568, 584, 796, 797, 822. 
Sick, convalescent, and wounded soldiers, 201, 
549, 550, 847. 
Payne, R. C., 273. 
Payne, T. F. M., 936. 
Pay of the Army. 
Absence without leave, 690. 
Appropriations, 112, 119, 120, 392, 3938, 531, 532. 
Cadets, C.S. military, 205. 
Congress, C.S., 91, 205, 446, 690-693. 
Date of enrollment to acceptance, 91. 
Deceased soldiers, 201, 202, 441, 442, 691. 
Detailed men, 194, 204, 459, 571, 577-580, 606, 607, 
822, 966. 
Engineer Corps, C.S. A., 261. 
Engineer troops, 446. 
Hospital service, 200, 209, 210. 
Increased pay of privates, 485, 486, 1043. 


INDEX. 


- 


Pay of the Army—Continued. 
Laundry charges excepted from forfeiture, 396. 
Militia in C.S. service, 300, 301, 618. 

Missouri troops, 91, 496. 

Ordnance officers, 377. 

Organization discontinued while on detail from, 
584. 

Prisoners of war, 291, 496. 

Rates, etc., 565, 571, 577-579. 

Regulations, 796, 797. 

Serving before muster in, 692, 693. 

Peace Propositions. : 

Communication from Governor of North Caro- 
lina, 153, 154. 

Proposed conference of Union and Confederate 
Governors, 137, 138, 179, 180. 


Remarks: 
Lee, R. E., 78. 


North Carolina, Governor of, 807. 
Peake, Humphrey, 930. 
Pearl, Steamer, 234, 336. 
Pearson, D. C. 
Correspondence, J.C. McRae, 734. 
Mentioned, 733. 
Pecquet, Mr., 89, 102. 
Peek, G. F., 930. 
Peery, W. B., 936. 
Peirce, W. W. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office, C. S. A.,483. 
Mentioned, 453. 
Pemberton, John C. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office , C.S. A., 403. 
Hatch, F. H., 169, 172. 
Mississippi, Governor of, 510, 513. 
Tennessee, Governor of, 193. 
War Department, C.5S., 218. 
Mentioned, 278, 300, 301, 380, 395, 403, 442, 530, 615, 
708, 713, 717, 751, 753, 754, 761, 926. 
Peninsular (Va.) Campaign. ‘ 
Operations, Mar. 17-Sept. 2, 1862, 282. 
Penitentiaries. 
Enlistment of convicts, 919, 920. 
Manufacture of clothing and equipage, 96. 
Pennington, A. A., 860, 964. 


Pennsylvania. 
Operationsin. See Gettysburg Campaign. June 
3-Aug. 1, 1863. 


Pensacola and Georgia Railroad. 
Construction for military purposes, 648-651. 
Perkins, John, jr. 
Correspondence, F. D. Conrad, 854. 
Perrin, Robert 0., 936, 976, 977. 
Perry, B. F., 899-901, 903, 906. 
Perry, Edward A. 
Correspondence, Governor of Florida, 839. 
Mentioned, 838. 
Perry, J. J., 934. 
Perryman, W. W. 
Correspondence, C. D. Melton, 817. 
Mentioned, 816. 
Perryville, Ky. 
Battle, Oct. 8, 1862, 285. 
Persigny, Jean G. V. F. de, 100. 
Petersburg, Va. : 
Call for militia for defense of, 689. 


INDEX. 


Petersburg Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Peterson, W. S. ' 
Correspondence, War Department; C.5., 437. 
Petrel, Vessel, 589. 
Pettus, John J. 
Correspondence. See Mississippi, Governor of. 
Mentioned, 150, 175, 242, 300, 306, 443, 510, 511, 677, 
682, 742, 758-762, 783, 927, 976. 
Peyton, E. A., 929. 
Phantom, Steamer, 955. 
Phillips, William, 964. 
Physicians. 
Exemption from conscription, 17, 161, 301. 
Pickens, Francis W. 
Correspondence. See South Carolina, Gov. of. 
Mentioned, 74, 1338, 155, 156, 178, 323, 326. 
Pickett, George E., 530, 1073. 
Piedmont Railroad. 
Construction, etc., for military purposes, 175, 
176, 393, 394. 
Pike, Albert, 354, 355. 
Pillow, Gideon J. 
Address to people of Tennessee, 362. 
Assignments to command, 359. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. 8. A., 681, 751, 
775, 805, 859, 873, 884, 963, 1019, 1063. 
Bragg, B., 361, 371, 387, 442, 449, 637, 638. 
Campbell, A. W., 374. 
Chalmers, J. R., 794. 
Dameron, W. H., 850. 
Gholson, 8S. J., 759. 
Johnston, J. E., 636, 680, 685, 693, 748, 774, 777, 
782, 847, 852, 859. 
Mississippi, Governor of, 760. 
Walthall, W. T., 727. 
War Department,C. S., 403, 433, 456,707,741, 758, 
819, 830, 848, 849, 853, 869, 911. 
Mentioned, 359, 415, 416, 431-434, 487-441, 444, 458, 
473-475, 482, 639, 677, 682, 726, 727, 743, 748-754, 
763, 797, 806, 807, 821, 847, 867, 869, 885, 910, 911, 
917, 918, 939, 1019, 1020. 
Pilots. 
Exemption from conscription, 161. 
Pinckney, Harriet, Steamer, 227, 1068. 
Pinkney, Robert F., 143. 
Pitt, William, 319. 
Pitts, Joshua T., 934. 
Pius IX, 100. 
Placido (Indian), 355. 
Pleasants, F. P., 933. 
Pleasants, James, 703, 730. 
Political Prisoners. 
Exchange, release, etc., 142. 
Investigation and determination of cases, 188. 
Polk, James K., 12. 
Polk, Leonidas. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 656, 670, 695. 
Mentioned, 65, 248, 1073. 
Polk, Lucius E. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. 
Polk, Trusten, 248. 


| 
| 


VUES 


Pollard, Charles T., 273-275, 277. 
Pool, J. P., 773. 


Pope, Henry, 930. 


Pope, John, 35, 282, 336. 
Pope, Joseph D. 


Correspondence : 
Treasury Department, C.5., 327. 
War-Tax Office, C.S., 64. 
Mentioned, 64, 327. 
Porter, S. G., 227, 233, 234. 
Porter, W. D., 137, 269. 
Port Hudson, La. 
Surrender, July 8, 1863, 991, 1024. 
Posey, Carnot, 931. 
Posey, W. K., 935. 
Postal Service. 
Condition, needs, ete., 55, 56, 349. 
Conscription of employés, 161, 363, 1054-1057. 
Occupation of territory by enemy, 55. 
Remarks, Jefferson Davis, 349. 
Trans-Mississippi, 1045, 1046. 


Postell, E. C., 932. 


Postlethwaite, A. J., 935. 
Post-Oflice Department, C. S. 
Estimates, 310. 
Operations, 1861-63, 55, 56, 349, 1046, 1047. 
Potter, Weyman H., 899. 
Potts, Richard. 
Correspondence, Surg.Gen.’s Oflice,C.S.A., 1024. 
Pound, M., 929. 
Powell, Richard H. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 258. 
Mentioned, 258. 
Powers, Virgil, 274. 


| Prairie Grove, Ark. 


Battle, Dec. 7, 1862, 991. 


| President, C. S. 


Appointments during recess of Congress, 109, 
113, 205, 524. 
Power to suspend writ of habeas corpus, 121. 
Salary, 310. 
See also Jefferson Davis. 
Preston, John S. 
Correspondence: 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. 5. A., 155, 176. 
Miles, W. P., 307. 
South Carolina, Executive Council of, 156. 
South Carolina, Governor of, 156. 
War Department, C.5., 433, 636, 648. 
See also Bureau of Conscription, OC. S.A. 
Mentioned, 16, 73, 74, 684, 686, 703, 706, 716, 722, 729, 
731, 736, 748, 792, 799-801, 808, 812, 822, 823, 827, 
830, 847, 874, 939, 946, 967, 968, 1020, 1022, 1023 
1064, 1074. 
Superintendent of Conscription, C.S. A., 684, 
1074. 
Preto, Steamer, 19. 
Price, H. J. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Oftice, C.S. A., 689. 
Mentioned, 639. 
Price, Sterling. 
Correspondence: 
Mississippi, Governor of, 33. 
War Department, C.5., 69. 


1116 


Price, Sterling—Continued. 
Mentioned, 70, 91, 678, 788, 926, 956. 


Proclamation to people of Pulaski County, 


Ark., 788. 
Price, Thomas H., 956. 
Price, William, 934. 
Prince, Samuel, 930. 
Prince, William B., 936. 
Prioleau, Charles K., 557, 987. 
Prioleau, William H. 
Correspondence, Surg. Gen.’s Office, C. S. A., 79. 
Prisoners of War. 
Appropriations for support, etc., 112, 120, 392. 
Captured before return of muster-rolls, 290. 
Clothing and equipage, 230. 
Local defense troops, 603. 
Pay, etc., 291, 496. 
Status of militia, 586. 


See also Hachange, Delivery, etc., of Prisoners. 


Pritchard, M. B., 148, 149. 
Privateers. 
remarks, Jefferson Davis, 339-343. 
Private Property. 
Appropriation, payment for impressed, 112, 120, 
392, 531. 
Depredations by troops, 1061, 1062. 
Destruction under military necessity, 124, 125, 
235, 349. 
Impressment, 39, 112, 120, 235, 392, 393, 441, 442, 
469-472, 477, 478, 511, 531, 534, 559-562, 594, 595, 
612, 616, 617, 631, 6382, 651-653, 743-746, 786, 787, 
835-838, 842-846, 863, 864, 875-877, 898-906, 912, 


915, 916, 937, 938, 943, 944, 969, 972-976, 988, 989, 


1008-1011, 1049-1053, 1066, 1067. 
Leases of sequestered, 468. 
Opinion of Attorney-General, C. §., 124, 125. 


Reimbursement for seizure or destruction, 124, 


125, 349. 

Seizure or confiscation, 389. 

Sequestration act, Apr. 2, 1863, 468. 
Proby, W. J., 930. 
Provisional Army, C. 8. 

Additional officers, 198. 

Congress, C.S., 198, 202, 206, 207. 

Engineer Corps, 47, 198. 

Line appointments of regular staff officers, 76. 

Local defense troops, 206, 207. 

Rank, 198. 

Termination of appointments, 38. 

See also— 
Army of the Confederate States. 
Orgn., Equip., ete., of Army. 

Provost-Marshals. 

Appointment, etc., 573, 574. 

Persons evading military duty, 9, 10. 
Public Property. 

Damaged or unserviceable, 230, 231, 358. 

Impressment or seizure of State, 26, 69. 


Leases or purchases by War Department, C.S., 


530. 
Loss or destruction, 358. 
Regulations, C.S. Army, 358. 
Quapaw Indians. 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Quartermaster-General, C. S. A. 
Pay and allowances, 690. 


INDEX. 


Quartermaster-General’s Office, C. S. A. 


Correspondence: 

Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C. S, A., 122, 241. 

Alabama, Governor of, 232. 

Bayne, T. L., 833, 874. 

Burton, J. B., 483. 

Calhoun, J. L., 483, 655. 

Chilton, W.P., 108. 

Cole, A. H., 615. 

Davis, Jefferson, 386, 417. 

Ferguson, J. B., jr., 556, 870, 895. 

Glover, J., 483, 655. 

Grice, G. W., 483. 

Hart, S., 483. 

Heyliger, L., 659, 834, 896. 

Lee, H., 654. 

McRae, C. J., 872. 

Mims, L., 655. 

Peirce, W. W.., 483. 

Sims, F. W., 881. 

Smith, L., 483, 575. 

Subsistence Department, C.S. A., 709. 

Teasdale, H. R., 483. 

Walker, N.S., 659, 872, 909. 

Waller, R. P., 658, 828, 895. 

War Department, C. S., 30, 96, 191, 231, 300, 301, 
304, 372, 385, 396, 397, 551, 555, 556, 576, 599, 616, 
682, 709, 755, 883. 

Winnemore, I. T., 483, 655. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Mar. 24, 453; 
June 30, 578; Aug. 8, 698. 


Quartermaster’s Department, C. S. A. 


Advantage of purchasing medical supplies 
through, 421-424. 

Allowances, 83, 84. 

Appropriations, 112, 119, 120, 392, 531, 532. 

Collection, etc., of tax in kind, 853. 

Commissaries’ duties devolved on quartermas- 
ters, 571, 572. 

Congress, C. S., 571, 683, 690, 692. 

Depots or posts under Q. M. Gen., 380, 739. 

Disbursing officers’ bonds, 796, 797. 

Employés, or detailed men, 455, 456, 683, 792, 808. 

Establishment, organization, etc., 683. 

Estimates of appropriations, 294. 

Forage, 1020, 1021. 

Hides of slaughtered beeves, 78. 

Interference with leather purchases of Ord- 
nance Department, C. 8. A., 219, 425. 

Iron impressment, 594, 595. 

Lawton, A. R., Q. M. General, 697, 698, 1074. 

Myers, A. C., Quartermaster-General, 1074. 

Operations, 1862-63, 1007-1011. 

Payments for supplies with cotton, 793. 

Purchase of supplies, 453-456, 483. 

Purchases abroad, 87, 106, 133, 555-558, 564, 600, 
601, 658, 659, 793, 828, 829, 833, 834, 845, 870-872, 
895, 896, 909, 910. 

Regulations, 453-456, 467, 483. 

Report of stations, duties, etc., 777, 778. 

Requisitions, 219, 599, 755. 

Resolutions of inquiry Georgia Legislature, 
396-398. 

Returns, 467. 

Schedules of prices, 453, 616, 617, 631, 632, 886-838, 
843-846. 


INDEX. 


Quartermaster’s Department, C. S. A.—Cont’d. 
Smith, L., Actg. Quartermaster-General, 6, 1074. 


Transportation, 231, 232, 266, 295, 296, 304, 305, 372, 


378, 467. 
Quin, W. Monroe, 934. 
Quincy (Fla.) Dispatch, 974. 
Quinn, D. H., 935. 
R. E. Lee, Steamer, 735, 955. 
Railroad Convention (Richmond, Va.). 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 508. 
Railroads. 
Alabama and Florida, 273, 484, 486, 655. 
Alabama and Mississippi Rivers, 106, 273, 486. 
Alabama and Tennessee, 273. 
Alabama Shelby Coal Mine Branch, 273. 
Atlanta and La Grange, 484, 486. 
Atlanta and West Point, 273. 
Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio, 274. 
Augusta convention of officials, Dec. 15, 1862, 
270-278. 
Brunswick and Albany, 495, 496. 
Brunswick and Florida, 274. 
Cahaba, Marion and Greensborough, 655. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 388, 389, 483-487, 
500. 
Charleston and Savannah, 273, 486. 
Charlotte and South Carolina, 274, 484, 486. 
Cheraw and Darlington, 274. 
Congress, C.S., 73, 107, 108, 200, 201. 
Conscripts in employ of, 296. 
Construction, etc., for military purposes,73, 106- 
108, 148, 149, 175, 176, 200, 201, 275, 385, 386, 393, 
394, 648-651. 
East Tennessee and Georgia, 273, 484, 486. 
East Tennessee and Virginia, 273, 484, 486. 
Exemption of employés from conscription, 161. 
~~~ Florida, 648-651. 
Florida, Atlantic and Gulf, 273. 
Georgia, 274, 484, 486. 
Georgia and Alabama, 139, 140, 144-146, 200, 201. 
Georgia Central, 273, 484, 486. 
Government loans, 189, 140, 144-146, 200, 201. 


“~~~ Impressment of rolling-stock and material, 348, 


365, 366, 393, 655, 809. 

Interference by military officers, 295, 296. 

Macon and Western, 274, 484, 486. 

Measures to prevent destruction, 563, 766, 879. 

Memphis and Charleston, 484. 

Military possession, 108, 109, 348, 373, 374, 430,495. 

Mississippi Central, 381, 382, 484, 486. 

Mobile and Girard, 274. 

Mobile and Great Northern, 484, 486. 

Mobile and Ohio, 274, 484, 486, 655. 

Molestation of fuel for, 551. 

Montgomery and West Point, 274, 484, 486. 

Muscogee, 274, 484, 486. 

Nashville and Chattanooga, 274, 484, 486. 

Nashville and Northwestern, 274. 

New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern, 274, 
484, 486. 

New Orleans and Texas, 107, 108. 

North Carolina, 73, 274, 484, 486. 

Northeastern, 484, 486. 

Operation and management, 54, 108, 109, 225, 231, 
232, 295, 296, 304, 305, 348, 372-374, 384, 385, 424, 
457, 499-510, 881-883. 


1117 


Railroads—Continued. 
Orange and Alexandria, 274, 484, 486. 
Organization of employés as local defense troops, 
642. 
Pensacola and Georgia, 648-651. 
Petersburg Railway Company, 274, 484, 486. 
Piedmont, 175, 176, 393, 394. 
Prevention of accidents, 424. 
Purchase of material abroad, 394, 395, 410, 841, 
842, 852, 866, 867. 
Raleigh and Gaston, 274, 484, 486. 
Rates for transportation, 271, 272, 274, 276, 277. 
Remarks: 
Davis, Jefferson, 348. 
Quartermaster-General, C.S. A., 108, 109. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 1012, 1013. 
Sims, F’. W., 881-883. 
Report of persons in service of, 792. 
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, 273, 
485, 486. 
Richmond and Danville, 73, 274, 484, 486. 
Richmond and Petersburg, 274, 484, 486. 
Richmond conventions of, 395, 499-510. 
Roanoke Valley, 846. 
Rogersville and Jefferson, 2738. 
Rolling-stock and material, 365, 366, 382, 388, 389, 
394, 395, 410, 501-513, 648-651, 841, 842, 852, 866, 
867, 881-883. 
Savannah, Albany and Gulf, 274, 648-651. 
Sequestered stocks and bonds, 495, 496. 
Shipments for Committee of Public Safety, New 
Orleans, La., 98. 
Sims, F. W., Supervisor of transportation, 579. 
South Carolina, 484, 486. ; 
Southern, 274, 484, 486. 
South Side, 274, 486. 
Southwestern, 274, 484, 486. 
Texas and New Orleans, 107, 108. 
Uniontown and Newbern, 655. 
Use of materials as fuel, 501, 551. 
Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, 274. 
Virginia and Tennessee, 274, 484, 486. 
Virginia Central, 274, 484, 486, 487. 
Wadley, W. M., in charge of transportation, 225, 
304. 
Western and Atlantic, 274, 484, 486. 
Wilmington and Manchester, 274, 484, 486. 
Wilmington and Weldon, 274, 484, 486, 766. 
See also Transportation of the Army. 
Rains, Gabriel J. 
Correspondence. 
O.S.A. 
Mentioned, 241, 266, 279, 294, 295, 334, 438, 440, 445, 
457, 463, 464, 483, 1074. 
Superintendent of Conscription,C.S.A.,241, 1074. 
Rains, George W. 
Correspondence : 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.8. A., 642. 
Ordnance Department, C.S. A., 636, 662. 
War Department, C. 8., 660, 684, 705, 746, 801. 
Mentioned, 208, 262, 662, 702, 705, 958. 
Raleigh, N. €. 
Riotous conduct of C.S. troops, 801. 
Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 


See Bureau of Conscription, 


1118 


Raleigh (N. C.) Siandard, 784. 

Ralston, George, 935. 

Ramsey, J. G. M., 327. 

Randell, Samuel J., 931, 935. 

Randolph, Benton, 396. 
Randolph, George W. 
Correspondence. See War Department, O. 8. 
Mentioned, 1, 2, 4-6, 8, 14, 17, 22, 26, 33, 42, 51,53-55, 
67-69, 72, 93, 95, 98, 106, 110, 121, 122, 133, 139- 
141, 146, 148, 155-157, 170, 176, 177, 179, 189, 207, 
219, 225, 302, 335, 358, 375, 414, 649, 1074. 
Resigns as Secretary of War, C.S., 179. 
Secretary of War, C.58., 1074. 

Raney, W. Y., 934. 

Rankin, W. J., 930. 

Ransom, Robert, jr., 530, 615, 1073. 

Rations. 

Commutation or money value, 209, 619, 972, 1053. 

Discharged soldiers delayed at hospitals, 619. 

Hospital, 98, 552, 555. 

Jurisdiction of commanding officers, 414, 675. 

Meaning of term, 31. 

Necessity for reduction, 694. 

Regulations, C.S. Army, 98, 414, 555, 619, 675, 972, 
1053. 

Salt, 675. 

Ratliff, William E., 929. 

Ray, J. E. R., 669. 

Ray, William, 933. 

Rayburn, J. Q., 936. 

Rayburn, William A., 935. 

Read, Isaac, 29. : 

Reagan, John H., 55, 277, 349, 363, 1045, 1046. 

Recruiting Service (C.). 

Kentucky, 236. 
Maryland Line, 67. 
Otiicers and parties, 305-307. 
Organization of new regiments, 400. 
Regiments in the field, 21. 
Regulations, 67, 83, 827, 875. 
Within enemy’s lines, 193, 218, 359, 381, 400, 415, 
639. : 
Recruiting Service (U.). 
Treland, 26. 
Recruits. 
Medical examination, 2. 
Men for old regiments, 21. 
Within conscript age, 400. 

Rector, Henry M. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 325. 

Red, Samuel W., 862, 936. 

Red, W. C€., 929. 

Reed, A., 930. 

Reed, A. C., 936. 

Regulations, C. S. Army. 

Absence without leave, 5, 388. 

Allowances, 83, 84. 

Ambulances, 69. 

Applications formilitary appointments, 364, 365, 
1062. 

Appointment, etc., of officers, 424, 425. 

Armories, arsenals, etc.,379, 380. 

Artillery, 194, 363, 364. 

Battle inscriptions on flags, 14. 

Captured munitions of war, 401, 406, 498, 499. 


See Arkansas, Governor of. 


INDEX. 


Regulations, C. 8S. Army—Continued. 

Citizens held in confinement, 459. 

Commissaries, 570, 571. 

Conscription, 8, 51, 83, 85, 98, 133, 160-168, 232, 243, 
294, 295, 363, 365, 389, 400, 401, 408, 409, 412, 413, 
419, 478, 648, 777, 827. 875, 910, 913, 972. 

Conscripts, 8, 78, 83, 192. 

Correspondence, 308, 425. 

Damaged or unserviceable munitions, 407. 

Deceased soldiers, allowances, etc., 441, 442, 459. 

Deserters, 5, 78. 

Details, 51, 79, 80, 84, 95, 98, 194, 364, 683. 

Disbandment of organizations, 424. 

Disbursing officers, 796, 797. 

Discharge of enlisted men, 1, 3, 39, 51, 87, 92, 98, 
99, 192, 527-529, 570, 571, 608. 

Elections of volunteer officers, 584. 

Encampments, 234, 235. 

Engineer officers, 609, 610. 

Engineer troops, 565, 678, 679. 

Field artillery of separate armies, 363, 364. 

Forage, 972, 1020, 1021. 

Foreigners, 2, 39. 

Fugitive or recaptured slaves, 420, 421. 

Furloughs, 3, 92, 98, 99, 106, 380, 406, 441, 442, 459, 
527-529, 570, 571, 619, 731, 913. 

Habeas corpus, writ of, 39, 83. 

Horses, 580. 

Hospitals, 98, 149, 209, 210, 552. 

Impressmentof property, 26, 39, 235, 441, 442, 469- 
472, 477, 478, 511, 594, 595, 786, 787, 897, 898, 912, 
937, 1052, 1053. 

Inspections, 70. 

Issue of whisky totroops, 497. 

Leaves of absence, 92, 571, 619. 

Loss or destruction of public property, 358. 

Martial law, 39, 83. 

Medical, 56, 194, 364, 408-410, 570, 571, 822, 913. 

Mileage, 8. 

Military courts, 375, 376. 

Money, effects, etc., of deceased soldiers, 568, 612. 

Mustering, 79, 84, 85, 365. 

Official reports, 579. 

Orders of Adjutant and Inspector General to 
have force of, 962. 

Ordnance officers, 1, 85, 92, 96, 97, 377, 568, 593, 
1018, 1019. 

Partisans, 26, 584. 

Passports, 990. 

Payments to troops, 8, 195, 196, 237, 406, 424, 425, 
528, 549, 550, 568, 584, 796, 797, 822. 

Pillaging, 253. 

Promotions, 14, 79, 97. 

Publication of orders in newspapers, 69. 

Public property, damaged or unserviceable, 358. 

Quartermasters, 571, 572. 

Rations, 98, 414, 555, 619, 675, 1053. 

Recruiting service, 67, 83, 827, 875. 

Regular and provisional rank, 76. 

Relative rank, 2. 

Requisitions, 219, 407, 675. 

Returns, 78, 92, 163, 552, 965, 966. 

Seizure of State supplies by C.S. officers, 8. 

Signal Corps, 371. 

Staff appointinents, 3, 364, 365. 

Staff officers, 689. 


INDEX. 


Regulations, C. S. Army—Continued. 
Subsistence, 78, 149, 232, 414. 
Substitutes, 2, 78, 168, 197, 412, 413, 608, 611, 648, 
654, 730, 913. 
Surgeons and assistant surgeons, 56, 194,364,408, 
410, 822, 913. 
Telegrams, 149. 
Transfers, 92, 98, 192. 
Transportation, 4, 8, 51, 69, 106, 197, 237, 406, 497, 
914, 915. 
Reid, H. J., 932. 
Reiley, J. J., 884. 
Rendezvous. 
Absentees, 5. 
Camps of instruction, 43, 44, 77, 78, 163, 202, 266, 
350, 966, 967. 
Commandants, 202. 
Deserters, 5. 
Drill-masters, 163. 
Establishment, etc., 163. 
Examination of enrolled conscripts, 163, 165. 
Inquiry of C.S. Congress, 77, 78. 
Kentucky recruits, 236. 
Returns, etc., of conscripts, 78, 155-157, 163. 
Reserves. 
Organization, 580-582. 
Retirement of Officers. 
Act of C.S. Congress of Oct. 13, 1862, 205, 206. 
Returns of Troops. 
Conscripts, 78, 155-157, 163. 
Preparation and rendition, 78. 
Reynolds, Arthur E., 932. 
Reynolds, George W., 932. 
Reynolds, Hugh A., 933. 
Reynolds, Reuben 0., 930. 
Reynolds, Thomas C. 
Correspondence, E. K. Smith, 702. 
Mentioned, 731. 
Rhea, Robert, 732. 
Rhett, Thomas S., 85. 
Rice, A. G. 
Correspondence : 
Beauregard, G. T., 152. 
. Young, W. H., 123. 
Mentioned, 132. 
Rice & Co., 846. 
Richards, William C., 935. 
Richardson, John, 934. 
Richardson, John M. 


Correspondenve, War Department, C.S.,739,768. — 


Mentioned, 918. 

Richardson, Robert V., 639. 

Richardson, Samuel M., 816. 

Richardson, William H. 

Jorrespondence. See Virginia, Adjt. Gen. of. 
Mentioned, 107, 123, 240. 
Richmond, Department of. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
May 1, 1863, 530. 
June 20, 1863, 615. 
Dec. 31, 1868, 1073. 

Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 485, 486. 

Richmond, Ky. 

Battle, Aug. 30, 1862, 284. 


BiLo 


Richmond, Va. 
Convention of railroad officials, December, 1861, 
and February, 1862, 395, 499-510. 
Local defense troops, 579, 631. 
Richmond and Danville Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 73, 484, 486. 
Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Richmond Armory, Va. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 
Richmond (Va.) Enquirer. 
Criticism of statements as Government organ, 
550. 
Mentioned, 69, 106, 150, 550, 845. 
Official publication of orders in, 69, 106. 
Richmond (Va.) Examiner, 386. 
Richmond (Va.) Whig. 
Mentioned, 106. 
Ofticial publication of orders in, 106. 
Ridley, Samuel J., 935. 
Riely, John W. 
Correspondence. See Adjutant and Inspector 
General’s Office, O. S.A. 
Rives, Alfred L. 
Chief of Engineer Bureau, C.5. A., 1074. 
Correspondence. See Engineer Dept., 0. S.A. 
Mentioned, 1074. 
Rives, James H. 
Correspondence. See Mississippi, Governor of. 
Roanoke, Steamer, 58. 
Roanoke Island, N. C. 
Capture, Feb. 8, 1862, 65, 66, 281. 
Ordnance, etc., lost at capture of, 65, 66. 
Roanoke Valley Railroad. 
Opposition to schedules of prices, etc., 846. 
Roberts, Henry, 932. 
Roberts, Hiram, 274. 
Roberts, Thomas B., 788, 803. 
Robinson, Henry €., 935. 
Robinson, John M. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 409. 
Mentioned, 394, 395, 841, 842, 866, 867. 
Robinson, M. D., 964. 
Robinson, Thomas H., 933. 
Robson, Robert, 932. 
Roddey, Philip D., 638, 775. 
Rodes, Robert E. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral of Alabama, 20. 
Rodman, William B., 248. 
Rogers, David P., 933. 
Rogers, F. M., 931. 
Rogers, S. St. George, 49. 


| Rogers, T. L., 9381. 


Rogersville and Jefferson Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 273. 
Rosecrans, William S., 818, 1025. 
Ross, John, 354. 
Ross, William E., 934. 
Rothrock, William, 273. 
Rowan, Montgomery M., 932. 
Rowland, John S., 274. 
Ruby, Steamer, 336. 
Rucker, A. C., 933. 


1120 _ INDEX. 


Ruffin, Frank @. Seddon, James A. ~ 


Correspondence, Subsistence Dept., C.S. A., 158. Correspondence. See War Department, C. 8S. 
Mentioned, 158, 480, 481, 537, 565, 567, 599. Mentioned, 213, 216, 218, 221, 222, 225, 228, 229, 232, 
Ruffin, James, 934. 241, 244, 246, 249, 253, 261, 270, 279, 294, 298, 300, 
Ruffin, Thomas, 248. 306, 307, 309, 325, 348, 357-359, 361, 363, 366, 367, 
Ruggles, Daniel. 370, 374, 379, 381, 393, 397, 398, 400, 406, 411, 415, 
Correspondence, J. KE. Jonnston, 677. 416, 433, 4385, 487-439, 442-445, 456, 458, 460, 471, 
Mentioned, 173, 615, 926. 475, 477, 483, 500, 508, 536, 537, 589-543, 553, 556, 
Runnels, Ellis J., 930. 560, 564, 568, 571, 575, 578, 579, 586, 589, 594, 595, 
Russ, John P. H., 1067. 606, 611, 618, 614, 619, 627-631, 636, 639, 642, 644, 
Russell, Daniel R., 932. 660, 662, 663, 675, 676, 684, 696, 698, 702, 703, 706, 
Russell, John, 238, 1027-1032. 708, 712-714, 726, 727, 736, 745, 759, 766, 775, 784, 
Russia. 792, 796, 803, 805, 809, 818, 838, 844, 847, 849, 859, 
Attitude toward Confederacy, 344. 863, 866-868, 870, 873, 878, 886, 889, 891, 893, 895, 
Rust, Armistead T. M., 248. 896, 898, 901, 903, 910-912, 916, 917, 922, 926, 937, 
Rutledge, B. Huger, 815. 938, 945-947, 949-951, 967, 971, 988, 989, 1019- 
Ryan, G. W., 930. 1021, 1041, 1043, 1044, 1051, 1057, 1063, 1064, 1074. 
Ryan, John G., 862. Secretary of War, C.S., 358, 1074. 
Ryan, John J., 156. Seibels, John J. 
Ryan, John S., 398. Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 603. 
Saffold, M. J., 911. Seixas, J. M., 498, 527, 566, 714-716, 829, 852, 875. 


St. John, Isaac M. 
Correspondence. See Niterand Mining Bureau, 
On Soe. 
Mentioned, 48, 224, 228, 365, 380, 393, 675, 853, 1074. 
Superintendent of Niter and Mining Bureau, 


Selma Arsenal, Ala. 
Regulations, 379, 380. 

Seminole Indians. 
Disaffection among, 353-355. 


C.S. A., 1074. Semple, Robert, 936. 
Salt. Seneca Indians. 
Barriere contracts to furnish, 173-175. Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 
Exemption of salt makers from conscription, 45. | Sequestration of Private Property. 
Measures to provide supplies, 21, 22, 126, 242, 243, Act of C.S. Congress, Apr. 2, 1863, 468. 
250, 251, 923, 924. Leases of sequestered, 468. 
Production, etc., 181, 182. Opinion of Attorney-General, C. S., 124, 125. 
Transportation, 175. Railroad stocks and bonds, 495, 496. 
Sanford, C. 0., 274, 277. See also Impressments. 
Sansom, James L., 930. Seward, William H., 346, 1027, 1028, 1031. 
Santos, A. F., 942. Shackelford, H. H., 862. 
Sarah Jane, Vessel, 173. Shaftesbury, Anthony A. C., 102. 
Saunders, Thomas, 936. Shannon, James J., 931. 
Savannah, Albany and Gulf Railroad. Shaw, Henry M., 66. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. Shawnee Indians. 
Construction for military purposes, 648-651. Affairs, condition, etc., 354. 


Savannah (Ga.) Republican. 
Annexation of Northwestern States, 489-495. 
Correspondence, P. W. Alexander, 489, 490. 


Shelby, W. B., 930, 934. 
Shenandoah Valley, Va. 


Mentioned, 489, 490. Operations, May 15-June 17, 1862, 282. 
Sawyer, Benjamin F., 439. Shepherdess, Vessel, 173. 
Scales, Junius I., 933. Shields, John C. 
Seally, John N., 933. ' Correspondence: 
Schlatter, Charles L., 274. Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
Schroeder, J. H., 626. C.S. A., 157, 171, 172. 
Schroeder, d+Mrs & 0.10 2G arn Bureau of Conscription, C.8. A., 722. 
Beotia, Steamer, A177: War Department, C. 8., 433. 
Scott, Charles L., 248. . Mentioned, 723, 881. 
Recoil teenie a Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Oct. 22, 880. 


Scott, John, 82. 

Scott, S. S. 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, C.S., 1074. 
Mentioned, 2938, 1017, 1074. 

Scott, Winfleld, 448. 


Shiloh, Tenn. 
Battle, Apr. 6-7, 1862, 281. 


Shipp, W. M. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 247. 


Scruggs, Lawrence H., 142. Shirley, John, 354, 355. 

Scurry, William R., 549. Shorter, Alfred. 

Seal, Daniel B., 934. Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 144. 

Seal of the Confederate States. Mentioned, 145. 
Adoption, 529, 530. Shorter, John Gill. 

Seawell, John T. Correspondence. See Alabama, Governor of. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 303. Mentioned, 20, 21,71, 218, 219, 256, 324, 325, 604, 612, 


Mentioned, 302. 613, 681, 750, 911, 919. 


INDEX. 


Sick, Convalescent, and Wounded Soldiers. 
Care, etc., 4, 16, 199, 200, 209, 210, 421-424, 533, 534. 
Certificates of disability, 2-4, 51, 27, 98, 99,163,165, 
166, 243, 364, 3880, 421-424, 527, 528, 538, 534, 570. 
Coftee not to be used as diet, 1021. 
Congress, C. S., 199-201, 209, 533, 534, 572. 
Detail to light service, 879. 
Discharge, 3, 4, 92, 98, 99, 527, 528, 570, 571, 608, 693. 
Furloughs, 4,16, 92, 98, 99, 106, 248, 380, 406, 527- 
529, 570, 571, 693, 846, 847, 913, 1021, 1053. 
Hospital consultation boards, 723. 
Invalid corps, 1042. 
Officers, 572. 
Pay, ete., 79, 84, 85, 201, 549, 550, 847. 
Rations, 98, 209, 552, 555, 1021,.1053. 
Regulations, 209. 
Remarks, Governor of South Carolina, 16. 
Transportation, 4, 106, 200, 210. 
Volunteers to secure horses, etc., during Lee’s 
advance into Pennsylvania, 615, 616. 
Siebe, Henry T., 933. 
Signal Corps, C. S. A. 
Duties confined to members, 371. 
Establishment, organization, etc., 47, 163, 289. 
Increase of establishment, 199. 
Pamphlet of instructions, 47. 
Regulations, 371. 
Silvery, Barbe, Vessel, 173. 
Simons, Thomas Y., 816. 
Simonton, Charles H., 815. 
Simonton, John M., 929. 
Simpkins, Mr., 651. 
Sims, F, W. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office,C. S. A., 881. 
Mentioned, 579, 883. 
Supervisor of railroad transportation, 579. 
Sinclair, Arthur, 981. 
Singleton, Otho R., 932. 
Slaughter, William M., 610, 620, 672. 
Slavery. 
Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, 345-347. 
Remarks, P. W. Alexander, 492-495. 
See also Negroes. 
Slaves. See Negroes. 
Slidell, John, 9, 25, 88, 100, 545, 587, 588, 624, 627, 629, 
980-982, 986, 987. 
Sloan, Benjamin, 85. 
Sloan, James, 971. 
Sloan, John T., 864, 1054. 
Smart, W. J. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 839. 
Smith, Captain, 273. 
Smith, B. B., 930. 
Smith, C. D. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 247. 
Smith, Charles H., 146. 
Smith, E. Kirby. : 
Conference of Trans-Mississippi Governors, 804. 
Correspondence: 
Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 190, 553, 680. 
Davis, Jefferson, 804. 
Greer, E., 1051. 
Magruder, J. B., 777. 
Reynolds, T. C., 702. 
Mentioned, 72, 81, 248, 278, 284, 369, 370, 380, 530, 
548, 615, 702, 716, 777, 789, 956, 982, 985, 1073. 


71 R R—SERIES IV, VOL II 


1121 


Smith, E. W., 933. 
Smith, Gustavus W. 
Acting Secretary of War, C.S., 1074. 
Mentioned, 92, 248, 278, 880, 968, 1074. 
Smith, J. F., 935. 
Smith, J. Little, 248. 
Smith, John D., 932. 
Smith, John F., 930. 
Smith, Larkin. 
Acting Quartermaster-General, C.S. A., 6, 1074. 
Correspondence, Quartermaster-General’s Office, 
C. 8. A., 483, 575. 
Seealso Quartermaster-General’s Office,O. S.A. 
Mentioned, 6, 453, 576, 1074. 
Smith, Preston. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Smith, Robert A., 930. 
Smith, Robert H. 
Correspondence, Governor of Alabama, 911. 
Mentioned, 910-912. 
Smith, Sidney. 
Correspondence, J. E. Joyner, 721. 
Smith, Solomon K., 933. 
Smith, Sumner J., 82. 
Smith, T. F. 


Correspondence, I. S. Begley, 19. 
Mentioned, 19. 
Smith, William T., 862. 
Smoot, L. R., 309. 
Solomons, S. S., 274. 
Sorley, James. 
Correspondence, Treasury Department, C.S., 18. 
Mentioned, 18. 
Soulé, Pierre, 138. 
South Carolina. 
Armed combinations of deserters, stragglers, 
etc., 741, 765, 768-774. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 17, 73-75, 155- 
157, 176, 177, 211, 212, 234, 307, 642, 644, 657, 665, 
709, 735, 736, 765, 768-774, 796, 811-817, 864, 865, 
867, 874, 939, 940, 1070-1072. 
Local defense troops, 156, 157, 580-582, 597,665,666, 
702, 793, 796, 802, 803, 807, 1058. 

Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959. 

Militia, 405. 

Niter works, 27. 

Operations in. See— : 
Charleston Harbor. Engagement, Apr. 7, 1863. 
Sumter, Fort. Expedition to re-enforce, Apr. 

10-12, 1861. 

Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 702, 788, 796, 803. 

Partisan rangers, 82, 83. 

Requisitions for troops, 580-582, 1058. 

Schedules of prices, 836-838. 

Taxation, 63, 323, 326, 327, 332, 333. 


Transfer of State troops to C.S. service, 152. 
Troops furnished, 788, 813-815, 939, 940. 
South Carolina, Adjutant and Inspector Generalof. 

Correspondence: 

Beauregard, G. T., 702. 

South Carolina, Governor of, 788. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 28, 665. 

. South Carolina, Executive Council of. 

Correspondence: 

Davis, Jefferson, 73. 

Preston, J.S8., 156. 


1122 


South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, Dept. of. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
Dec. 30, 1862, 278. 
January, 1862, 380. 
Apr. 23, 1863, 530. 
June 23, 1863, 615. 
Dec. 31, 1863, 1073. 
South Carolina, Governor of. 
Calls for troops, 405, 597. 
Correspondence: 
Beauregard, G. T., 138, 665, 793, 803. 
Davis, Jefferson, 73, 152, 212, 234, 642, 644, 657, 
1057. 
Georgia, Governor of, 802. 
North Carolina, Governor of, 741, 765. 
Ordnance Department, C.8. A., 702. 
Preston, J.S., 156. 
South Carolina, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 788. 
War Department, C. S., 16, 152, 266, 298, 306, 390, 
580, 597, 709, 807, 863, 864, 874, 875, 1058, 1059. 
Deserters and absentees, 16, 551. 
Exemptions from conscription, 17, 709, 866. 
Proclamations, 551, 597, 866. 
Response to requisitions for troops, 597. 
Sources of disorganization of troops, 16. 
South Carolina Convention. 
Correspondence, G. T. Beauregard, 133. 
Removal of negroes upon invasion by enemy, 
133-137. 
South Carolina Legislature. 
Negro labor for coast defense, etc., 266-270, 298, 
306, 307, 390, 840, 841. 
Resolutions of confidence in Jefferson Davis, 
1053, 1054, 1057. 
Resolutions respecting impressments, 840, 841, 
863, 864, 874-876. 
Use by C. 8. Government of vessels owned by 
State, 1059, 1060. 
South Carolina Railroad. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
South Carolina Troops (C.). 
Artillery, Light—Battalions : 
816, (Batteries), E, G, K, 816. 
Artillery, Light—Batteries: Ferguson’s, 816; 
Marion Artillery, 815. 
Artillery, Light—Regiments: 2d, 815. 
Cavalry— Battalions: 16th, 82; Rutledge Mounted 
Riflemen, 816. 
Cavalry—Oompanies: Boykin’s,769,770;Brooks’, 
83; Kirk’s, 83; Tucker’s, 815. 
Cavalry—Regiments: 3d, 4th, Sth, 815; 6th, 813, 
815. 
Infantry— Battalions: 1st, 815, 816; Ist (Sharp- 
shooters), 815; 7th, 815. 
Infantry—Regiments: Ast (Militia), 666; Ist 
(Provisional Army), 815; 1st (State), 666, 788, 
803; 2d (Militia), 666; 2d (State), 666, 788; 3d 
(Militia), 666; 8d (State), 666, 788,803; 4th 
(Militia), 666; 4th (State), 666,788; 5th (Mi- 
litia), 666; 5th (State), 666, 788, 803 ; 6th (Mi- 
litia), 666; 7th (Militia), 666 ; Sth (Militia), 
666; 9th (Militia), 666; 10th (Militia), 666; 
11th (Militia), 666; 12th (Alilitia), 666; 13th 
(Militia), 666; 14th (Militia), 666; 15th (Mi- 
litia), 666; 16th, 769; 16th (Militia), 666, 788, 
803; 17th (Militia), 666; 18th (Militia), 666, 
803; 19th (Militia), 666; 20th, 813, 815, 816. 


Palmetto, 815, 


INDEX. 


South Carolina Troops (C.)—Continued. 

Infantry—Regiments : 20th (Militia), 666; 21st, 
815; 2ist (Militia), 666; 22d,773; 22d (Mili- 
tia), 666; 23d (Militia), 666; 24th (Militia), 
666; 25th, 815; 25th (Militia), 666; 26th 
(Militia), 666; 27th (Militia), 666; 28th (Mi- 
litia), 666; 29th (Militia), 666; 30th (Militia), 
666; 31st (Militia), 666; 32d (Militia), 666; 
33d (Militia), 666; 34th (Militia), 666; 35th 
(Militia), 666; 36th (Militia), 666; 37th 
(Militia), 666; 88th (Militia), 666; 39th 
(Militia), 666; 40th (Militia), 666; 41st 
(Militia), 666; 42d (Militia), 666; 43d (Mili- 
tia), 666; 44th (Militia), 666; 45th (Militia), 
666; 46th (Militia), 666. 

Miscellaneous—Holcombe Legion, 815. 

Southern, John L., 774. 

Southern Express Company. 

Transportation of Government funds, 139. 

Southern Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 

Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

South Mountain, Md. 

Battle, Sept. 14, 1862, 283. 

South Side Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 

Capacity, 486. 

Southwestern Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 

Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Spann, S. G., 776. 

Sparrow, Edward. 

Correspondence: 

Conrad, F. D., 854. 
Lee, R. E., 446. 
War Department, C.S., 97. 

Mentioned, 447. 

Speculation in Supplies. 

Confederate Society's efforts to prevent, 809, 810. 

Government officers, 680. 

Impressment of medical supplies held for, 105. 

Measures to repress, 214, 809, 810. 

Remarks: 

Davis, Jefferson, 211, 809, 810. 
Hudson, R. S8., 856-858. 
North Carolina, Governor of, 85, 86, 680. 

Resolutions Augusta convention of impress- 
ment commissioners, 901, 902. 

Spence, James, 557, 589, 631, 909, 981, 987. 

Spratt, L.W., 248. 

Stacy, E. 

Correspondence, H. W. Mercer, 36. 

Stallworth, Lieutenant, 220, 221. 

Standefer, J. J., 936. 

Stanly, Edward. 

Correspondence: 

North Carolina, Governor of, 154. 
War Department, U.S., 154. 

Mentioned, 153, 154. 

Stansbury, Smith, 85, 243. 

Stanton, Edwin M. 
Correspondence. 
Mentioned, 142. 

Stanton, R. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. 8., 703, 730. 
Proposition to permanently remove prominent 

Union officials, 703, 730. 


See War Department, U.S. 


INDEX. 


Staples, William C., 932. 
Starke, Peter B., 932. 
State Department, C. S. 
Correspondence: 
De Leon, E., 23, 99. 
War Department, C. S., 835. 
Estimates, 310. 
State Governments. 
Consent to real estate purchases by C.S. Gov- 
ernment, 530. 
Exemptions from conscription, 22, 23, 73-75, 231, 
464-466, 617, 632, 633. 
Guarantee of Confederate debt, 219, 237; 238, 258, 
259, 314, 320, 321, 323, 376. 
Reimbursements by C. 8. Government, 63, 111, 
112, 232, 235, 326, 364, 407, 533. 
Resolutions of confidence and support, 233, 258, 
259, 378, 1052-1054, 1057, 1060, 1061, 1065. 
Statham, Winfield S., 931. 
Steele, Archibald, 930. 
Steele, S. P., 964. 
Steever, G@. G., 685, 710. 
Stennis, A. T., 930. 
Stephens, Alexander H. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.5., 6. 
Mentioned, 1061. 
Stephens, Marcus D. L., 933. 
Sterling, Robert, 935. 
Stevenson, Vernon K., 274, 275, 277. 
Stewart, Alexander P. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. 
Stewart, Asa A., 249. 
Stewart, L. R., 936. 
Stiles, Ed. C., 564, 567. 
Stiles, William H., sr. 
Correspondence, War Department, C.S., 810, 818. 
Mentioned, 713, 800, 802. ; 
Stillwell, Thomas, 936. 
Stone, J. J., 935. 
Stone, John M., 929. 
Stone, W. M., 860, 963. 
Stone’s River, Tenn. 
Battle, Dee. 31, 1862-Jan. 3, 1863, 293, 294. 
Strahl, Otho F. 
Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C.S. A., 670, 695. 
Street, Solomon G., 935. 
Stringer, Mr., 88. 
Strong, Cunningham & Co., 923. 
Stuart, J. E. B., 718, 720, 721. 
Stuart, Buchanan & Co., 175, 182. 
Sturm, J. J., 354, 355. 
Subsistence. 
Alcoholic stimulants, 189, 218, 497, 510, 511, 513, 
532, 971, 1072, 1073. 
Appeal of Jefferson Davis to the people, 475-477, 
611, 612. 
Appropriations, 112, 120. 
Cattle, 746, 755. 
Commissary returns, 92, 966. 
Commutation, 972. 
Congress, CO. S., 468, 475. 
Contracts for importation, 173-175. 
Deficiency of crops, 158. 
Encouragement of cultivation of food crops, 
376, 468, 475-477, 487-489, 611, 612. 


1123 


Subsistence—Continued. 

Establishment of reserve supplies, 182, 574, 971. 

Hospitals, 552. 

Impressment, 404-406, 441, 442, 612, 912, 1009-1011. 

Interference with ration by comdg. officers, 414. 

Issue to civilians, 149. 

Live stock in transit, 1053. 

' Measures to provide supplies, 158, 159, 350, 351, 

405, 412, 413, 746, 755, 968-972, 1008, 1009. 

Meat, 158, 159, 192, 198, 350, 351, 405, 412, 574, 575, 
852, 853, 877, 959, 960, 968-972, 1008. 

Mexico, 793. 

Payment for, in cotton, 793, 970. 

Private contributions, 405, 412. 

Provision returns, 966. 

Purchases abroad, 555, 589, 601, 845, 852, 853, 877, 
970. 

Rations, 414, 555, 694, 972. 

Regulation of crops, etc., 376, 487-489. 

Regulations, C.S. Army, 78, 149, 232, 414. 

Remarks: 

Commissary-General, C.8. A., 156, 157, 192, 193, 
350, 351, 574, 575. 

Secretary of War, C.S., 292. 

Return home of detailed men to harvest crops, 
595, 596. 

Salt, 21, 22,45, 126,173-175, 181, 182, 242, 243, 250, 
251, 923, 924. 

Sches.ules of prices, 449, 559-562, 651-653, 743, 744, 
836-838, 842, 843, 937, 938, 969, 1049, 1050. 

Sick, convalescent, and wounded soldiers, 209, 
552, 555, 1021, 1053. 

Speculation in supplies, 214, 969, 1008, 1009. 

Supplies and resources, 158, 159, 192, 193, 350, 351, 
574, 575, 968-972. 

Tax in kind, 698, 822, 853. 

Trading with enemy, 151. 

Transportation, 157, 158, 169, 175, 372, 457, 971. 

Utilization of fisheries, 916-918. 

Vegetables, 467. 

Wheat, 158, 969, 971. 

Subsistence Department, C. S. A. 

Appropriations, 112, 113, 120, 392, 531. 

Clerks, etc., 683, 808. 

Collection, ete., of tax in kind, 698, 822, 853. 

Conformity to schedules of prices of impress- 
ments, 616, 617, 631, 632. 

Congress, C. S., 571, 683, 692. 

Correspondence: 

Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office,C.S. A., 241. 

Davis, Jefferson, 405. 

French, 8. B., 960. 

Lee, R. E., 694. 

Locke, J. L., 989. 

Quartermaster-General’s Office, C.S. A., 709. 

Rufiin, F. G., 158. 

War Department, C. 8., 157, 169, 350, 384, 397, 
398, 405, 414, 551, 574, 709, 852, 912, 917, 938, 960, 
989. 

Detail of enlisted men, 683, 808. 

Estimates of appropriations, 294, 418, 938, 939. 

Hides of slaughtered beeves, 78, 232. 

Northrop, L. B., Commissary-General of Subsist- 
ence, C.S. A., 1074. 

Operations, 1862-63, 1008-1011. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1863: 
Aug. 8, 698. 


Apr. 15, 477; 


1124 


Subsistence Department, C. 8S. A.—Continued. 
Personal expenses of officers, etc., 1021. 
Regulations, 78, 79, 149, 158, 232, 414. 
Remarks, G. T. Beauregard, 391. 


Resolutions of inquiry Georgia Legislature, 


396-398. 
Returns, 92, 966. 
Substitutes. 

A ge, 78. 


Conscription of principals, 78, 412, 413, 613, 614, 


648, 654, 712, 911. 
Death of, 412. 
Disability, 608. 
Foreigners, 2, 45, 259, 611, 1054, 1059. 
For soldiers in service, 553. 


Fraud, irregularities, etc., 412, 413, 582, 583, 808, 


822, 823. 
Medical examinations, 913. 
Opposition to system, 670, 671, 946, 947, 966. 
Reception into partisan corps, 78. 
Refusal of T. C. Hindman to receive, 73. 


Regulations, 2, 78, 168, 197, 412, 413, 608, 611, 648, 


654, 730, 913. 
temarks: 
Adjt.and Insp. Gen., C.S. A., 696. 
Secretary of War, C.S., 655, 656. 
Stephens, A. H.., 6,7. 


Repeal of legislation recommended, 946, 947, 996, 


997, 1040, 1042. 


Reports of persons held as, 801, 822, 823, 827, 828, 


830. 
See also Conscription. 
Sulakowski, Valery, 777. 
Sumner, T. J., 274. 
Sumner, W. A., 929. 
Sumter, Fort, S. C. 
Expedition to re-enforce, Apr. 10-12, 1861, 338. 
Surgeon-General’s Office, C. S. A. 
Correspondence: } 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.S. A.. 241. 
Potts, R., 1024. 
Prioleau, W. H.., 79. 
War Department, C.S., 
Williams, T. H., 2, 13. 
Orders, Circulars, 
Sept. 24, 95. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1863: 


397, 1072. 


Dec. 2, 1021. 


series 1862: Aug. 18, 56; 


Mar. 19, 442; 
Apr. 1, 467; May 27, 569; Aug. 15, 723; 


INDEX. 


Tanners. 
Exemption from conscription, 17, 45, 161, 166, 167. 
Tate, Mitchel, 143. 


Tate, Samuel, 148. 
Tatom, J. S., 933. 
Taxation. 


Acts of C.S. Congress: 
Oct. 8, 1862, 111, 112. 
Apr. 24, 1863, 513-524, 
Dec. 28, 1863, 1065. 
Assessments and rates, 321. 
Assumption of war tax by States, 324-328, 330, 
331. 
Collectors, 115, 118, 323, 329, 808, 809. 
Expenses of collecting war tax, 331. 
Operation and results of war tax, 324-334. 
Quotas and credits by States, 324-334. 
Recommendations of Treasury Department, 
C. S., 314, 317-332. 
Redemption of real property sold for taxes, 329, 
330. 
Reimbursement of overpayments, 63, 111, 112, 
326, 407, 533. 
Remarks: 
Allan, T., 63-65, 324-332. 
Davis, Jefferson, 1034-1040. 
Resistance to tax collection, 794. 
Seizure of Texas war tax, 17, 18. 
Slaves, 64, 185, 321, 328, 332-334. 
States invaded by enemy, 324-327, 329. 
Tax in kind, 521-524, 575-577, 675, 698, 709, 786, 
787, 822, 853, 1011, 1012, 1065. 
Total values, assessments, etc., 332-334. 


| Tax in Kind. See Taxation. 


_ Taylor, John F., 932. 


Taylor, Richard. 
Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 198. 
Mentioned, 20, 153, 278, 380, 530, 615. 

Taylor, 8S. H., 936. 

Taylor, Samuel H., 929. 

Taylor, William H., 931. 

Teasdale, H. R. 
Correspondence, Q. M. Gen.’s Office,C. S. A., 483. 
Mentioned, 453. 

Telegraph Lines. 
Advisability of sending messages by, 149. 
Exemption of employés from conscription, 161. 
Persons in service of, 792. 
Regulations, 149. 


Surgeons. See Medical Oficers. 
Sutton, B. F., 935. 
Swaine, Jenny, Vessel, 173. 
Swan, William G. 
Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 138. 
Swanson, William G. 
Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription, C.S. A., 440. 
War Department, C.S., 70, 483. 
Mentioned, 21, 70, 223, 258, 432, 436, 438. 
Swinney, J. W., 933. 
Ta-hua-ea-ro Indians. 
Affairs, condition, etc., 354, 355. 
Talcott, Charles G., 274. 
Talcott, Thomas M. R., 703. 
Taliaferro, Alexander, 298. 
Tankersly, J. H., 933. 


Telegraph Operators. 


Exemption from conscription, 161. 
Pay, etc., 607. 


Tennessee, C.S.5S., 663. 
Tennessee. 


Enforcement of conscription acts, 76, 99, 126, 138, 
140, 141, 148, 190, 211, 367-371, 433, 441, 800. 
See also West, Department of the (C.). Opera- 
tions Volunteer and Conscription Bureau. 
Local defense troops, 580-582, 666-669. 
Men for old regiments, 21, 41, 99, 148. 
Niter caves, 28, 29. 
Operations in. See— 
Donelson, Fort. Stegeand capture, Feb. 12-16, 
1862. 
East Tennessee Campaign. Aug. 16-Oct. 19, 
1863. 


INDEX. 


Tennessee—Continued. 
Operations in. See— 

Henry, Fort. Capture, Feb. 6, 1862. 

Knoxville Campaign. Nov. 4-Dec. 23, 1863. 

Lookout Mountain. Battle, Nov. 24, 1863. 

Missionary Ridge. Battle, Nov. 25, 1863. 

Shiloh. Battle, Apr. 6-7, 1862. 

Stone's River. Battle, Dec.31, 1862-Jan. 3, 1863. 
Recruiting within enemy’s lines, 193. 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582. 

Taxation, 323, 327, 332, 333, 576. 

Tennessee, Army of (C.). 

Address of Jefferson Davis, 873. 

Orders, series 1863: Jan. 16, 359. 

Orders, General, series 1863: (Coltart) No. 1, 441; 
(Pillow) No. 96, 481, 433. | 

Orders, Special, series 1863: (Bragg) No. 32, 
435; No. 37, 486; (Pillow) No. 145, 441. 

Organization, strength, etc. : 

Dec. 10, 1862, 278. 

January, 1863, 380. 

Apr. 30, 1863, 530. 

June 20, 1863, 615. 

Dec. 31, 1863, 1073. 

Tennessee, Governor of. 
Correspondence: 

Davis, Jefferson, 21, 41, 99, 148, 211. 

Pemberton, J. C., 193. 

War Department, C.S., 582, 666, 752. 
Proclamations, 667-669. 

Response to requisitions for troops, 666, 667. 
Tennessee Legislature. 
Reserve corps, 669. 
Tennessee Troops (C.). 
Cavalry—Regiments: 8th (Dibrell), 371; 9th | 
(Bifle), 371, 820; 12th, 820, 884; 16th, 18th, 
884. 
Terral, James 8., 935. 
Terral, Samuel H., 933. 
Terrill, C. C., 933. 
Terry, L. S., 931. 
Terry, Nathaniel. 
Correspondence, J. B. Magruder, 709. 
Terry, P. P., 936. 
Tes-toth-cha (Indian), 356. 
Texas. 
Address of Trans-Mississippi Governors, 731. 
Confederate calls for militia, 259, 548, 549, 579, 
685, 1024, 1060. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 178, 211, 235, 
659, 685, 777, 1024 1051. 
Local defense troops, 937. 
Measures for defense, 789, 1024. 
Militia, 709. 
Munitions from abroad via Mexico, 29, 567, 568, 
670. 
Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 659, 685, 709, 783, 789, 
919, 1020. 
Requisitions for troops, 259, 548, 549, 579, 685. 
Retention of troops for the war, 944. 
Seizure of war tax by military authorities, 17, 18. 
Taxation, 17, 18, 63, 328, 329, 332, 333, 576. 
Transfer of State troops to C. S. service, 461. 
Troops furnished, 178. 


1125 


Texas, Governor of. 
Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 178, 211, 461. 
Magruder, J. B., 259, 548, 579, 685, 919, 944, 1024, 
1060. 
War Department, C.S., 235. 

Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, District of. 
Orders, General, series 1863: No. 149, 783. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 

Nov. 30, 1862, 278. 
May 31, 1863, 530, 615. 
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Northern Sub- 
District of. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Nov. 3, 937. 

Texas and New Orleans Railroad. 

Construction for military purposes, 107, 108. 

Texas Arsenal, San Antonio, Tex. 

Regulations, 379, 380. 

Texas Troops (C.). 
Cavalry—Regiments: 26th, 18. 

Thackeray, William M., 102. 

Thames, Captain, 936. 

Thayer, Clarence C., 942. 

Thistle, Steamer, 234, 336. 

Thomas, Charles B., 248. 

Thomas, Charles M., 936. 

Thomas, Cuddy, 931. 

Thompson, Captain, 862. 

Thornton, John J., 930. 

Thouvenel, Edouard A., 25, 100, 344. 

Tillman, L. H., 934. 

Tinnon, James M., 933. 

Tison, William H. H., 933. 

Tobacco. 

Cultivation of food crops instead of, 468. 

Toombs, Robert, 622. 

Toomer, B. F., 932. 

Topp, H. F., 933. 

Toulme, John Y., 929. 

Towner, W. L., 930. 

Townsend, William P., 248. 

Trade and Intercourse. 

Acts of C.S. Congress, 533, 689. 

Charleston, 8. C., foreign commerce, July 1, 1861- 
May 20, 1863, 562, 563. 

Clothing and equipage for Army, 109. 

Collie-Crenshaw contracts, 244, 245, 419, 478-482, 
497, 498, 525-527, 535-547, 554, 555, 565-567, 586— 
590, 599-602, 623-631, 646, 647, 658, 659, 682, 683, 
826, 870, 871, 874, 875, 896, 910. 

Cotton, 21, 22,57, 58, 105, 126, 151, 242, 245, 306, 381, 
382, 388, 389, 399, 400, 462, 463, 472, 473, 488, 489, 
585, 854-856, 983, 1016, 1059, 1060. 

Establishment of prices under martial law, 39. 

Exemption from duty, 245, 498, 526, 527. 

Importations of machinery, 111, 527. 

Mexico, 29, 122, 222, 257, 258, 399, 400, 567, 568, 670, 

| 793. 

Neutral ports, 388, 389. 

Percentage of cargoes to be on Government 
account, 714-716, 871, 874, 877. 

Ports of delivery, 533. 

Remarks, Secretary of War, C.S., 151. 

Restrictions upon exportations, 21, 22, 57, 58, 105, 
126, 306, 381, 382, 388, 389, 399, 400, 462, 463, 472, 
473, 547, 548, 854-856, 983, 1016. 


1126 


Trade and Intercourse—Continued. | 
Seizure of vessels trading with enemy, 169, 172- 
175. 
Speculation in specie, 10. 
Steamers arriving with munitions, ete., Apr. 27— 
Aug. 16, 1862, 52. 
Use of State vessels by C.S. Government, 1059, 
1060. 
With the enemy, 10, 21, 22, 151, 169, 172-175, 302- 
304, 334, 335, 459, 460, 547, 548, 854-856. 
Trans-Mississippi Department. 
Address to people by Governors, 731. 
Condition, needs, ete., 1016, 1017. 
Conference of Governors of States in, 680, 698, 
723, 731, 804. 
Enforcement of conscription acts, 7, 20, 73, 680, 
716. 
Martial law, 73. 
Niter production, 29. 
Orders, Generai, series 1863: No. 36, 716; No. 
42, 789. 
Orders, Special, series 1863: No. 125, 777. 
Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 
Nov. 30, Dee. 4, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
May 381, 1863, 530, 615. 
Jan. 1, 1864, 1073. 
Postal service, 1045, 1046. 
Powers of commanding general, 1045, 1046. 
Trans-Mississippi District. 
Congressional inquiry, 73. 
Orders, General, series 1862: No. 2, 7. 
Transportation of the Army. 
Ambulances, 69. 
Artillery and cavalry horses, 51. 
Cole, A. H., Inspector-General of Field, 126. 
Congress, C.S., 201, 689, 692. 
Contract to carry funds, 139. 
Control by Quartermaster’s Department, 231, 
232, 295, 296, 304, 305, 372, 378. 
Deserters, 14. 
Field, 914, 915. 
Furloughs, 106, 406. 
Honorably discharged enlisted men, 92. 
Horses and mules, 552, 615, 616, 914, 915. 
Hospital supplies, 69, 199, 209, 467, 497. 
Importations of uniter from Mexico, 122. 
Impressed, 560. 
Inspector of field, 270. 
Mustered troops, 689. 
Operation and management of railroads, 54, 108, 
109, 225, 231, 232, 295, 296, 304, 305, 348, 372-374, 
384, 385, 424, 457, 499-510, 881-883. 
Ordersand payments, railroads, 295, 304, 305, 372- 
374, 384, 385, 424, 457. 
Precautions against fraud, 237. , 
Rates, 271, 274, 276, 277. 
Regulations, 4, 8, 51, 69, 106, 197, 237, 406, 497, 914, 
915. 
Remarks: 
Commissary-General, C.S. A., 157, 158. 
Quartermaster-General, C. S. A., 231, 232, 295, 
296, 304, 305, 372, 3738. 
Schedules of prices, 560, 651-653, 746, 1051. 
Sick, convalescent, and wounded soldiers, 4 
200, 210. 
Special freight messengers, 296, 384, 385. 


b) 


INDEX. 


| Transportation of the Army—Continued. 


Subsistence, 157, 158, 169, 175, 372, 457, 971. 
Substitutes, 197. 
Substitution of mules for horses, 552. 
Superintendent of railroad, 48, 49. 
Tax in kind, 709. 
Teamsters, 69. 
Transferred troops, 201. 
Use for private property, 692. 
Wadley, W. M., placed in charge of railroad, 
225, 295, 296, 304, 305, 372, 373. 
Water, 500, 501. 
See also Railroads. 
Trapier, James H., 649-651. 
Travis, William E., 899, 900, 903. 
Treasury Department, C. S. 
Condition, needs, etc. : 
Ang. 18, 1862, 54, 59-65. 
Jan. 10, 1863, 309-334, 
Correspondence: 
Congress, C.S., 59. 
Dortch, W; T., 364. 
Hatch, F. H., 459, 
Helm, C. J., 942. 
McRae, C. J., 908, 980, 982, 986. 
North Carolina, Governor of, 178. 
Pope, J. D., 327. 
Sorley, J., 18. 
War Department, C. S., 17, 116, 121, 133, 236, 
459, 550, 576, 577, 789, 907, 941, 979. 
War-Tax Office, C.S., 63. 
Engraving and printing establishment, 62, 322. 
Estimates, 310. 
Legislation recommended, 313-323. 
Pay and allowances, deceased soldiers, 201, 202. 
Seizure of Texas war tax, 17, 18. 
Treasury Notes. See Finance. 
Tredegar tron-Works, Richmond, Va. 
Capacity, 512, 513. 
Employés organized as battalion for home serv- 
ice, 240, 241, 
Production of ordnance, etc., 956. 
Trenholm, George A., 137. 
Trezeyant, John T., 958. 
Troup, George M., 131. 
Truss, Thomas K., 862. 
Tucker, Beverly. ¢ 
Correspondence, War Department, ©. S., 87. 
Tucker, John H., 815. 
Tucker, John R. 
Correspondence, Navy Department, C. S., 664. 
Mentioned, 662, 663, 697. 
Tucker, William F., 930, 934. 
Tupper, T. €., 251, 928. 
Turchin, John B., 1047. 
Turman, 9 850. 
Turner, Edmund P. 
Correspondence. 
Turner, H. P., 935. 
Tarner, Whitman C., 923, 933. 
Turney, Peter, 141. 
Tuscaloosa, C.S.S., 663. 
Tyler, Alfred L., 273, 274. 
Uniform. 
Congress, C. S., 202. 
Regulations, 229-231. 
Sale to civilians prohibited, 801. 


See John B. Magruder. 


INDEX. 


Uniontown and Newbern Railroad. 
Impressment of rolling-stock and material, 655. 
University of Virginia. 
Conscription of students, 297, 298, 308. 
Upson, Judge C., 793. 
Vacancies. 

Legislation, 45, 46. 

Militia, 46. 

Promotion, 45-47, 206, 1001, 1002. 

Remarks, Secretary of War, G.S., 45-47. 

Valley District. 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops, Nov. 30, 

1862, 278. 
Vance, J. D., 935. 
Vance, Zebulon B. 

Correspondence. See North Carolina, Gov. of. 

Mentioned, 113, 148, 214, 248, 375, 378, 379, 411, 458, 
551, 595, 596, 686, 733, 768, 770, 783, 785, 786, 794, 
796, 1062, 1066, 1072. 

Van Dorn, Earl, 142, 678, 921, 926. 

Vattel, Emmeric de, 18. 

Venus, Steamer, 535, 536, 554, 589, 634, 658, 895, 896, 
910. 

Vicksburg, Miss. 

Operations against, Dec. 20, 1862-Jan. 3, 1863, 
2938, 336. 

Surrender, July 4, 1863, 991, 1024. 

Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 

Victor Emmanuel IT, 100. 
Victoria, Vessél, 173. 
Victoria Alexandrina, Queen, 239,756-758, 1026-1032. 
’ Vietory, Vessel, 173. 
Villeré, Charles J. 
Correspondence, G. T. Beauregard, 391. 
Virginia, Steamer, 852. 
Virginia. 

Assessment tables, 328, 332-334, 

Calls for troops, 73, 350. 

Camps of instruction, 350. 

Confederate calls for militia, 689. 

Disloyal militia officers, 107. 

Enforcement of conscription acts, 50, 75, 107, 123, 
124, 157, 171, 172, 211, 301-303, 309, 384, 335, 350, 
642-644, 796, 939, 940, 1070, 1072. 

Estimated wheat crop, 1862, 158. 

Exportation of subsistence, 86. 

Guerrillas, 21. 

Local defense troops, 240, 241, 580-582, 584, 642- 
644, 689, 796. 

Measures for defense, 689. 

Meat supply, Nov. 15, 1863, 959, 960. 

Militia, 33, 107. 

Niter caves, 27. 

Operations in. See— 

Bull Run. Battle, Aug. 30, 1862. 

Cedar Mountain. Battle, Aug. 9, 1862. 

Chancellorsville. Battle, May 1-3, 1863. 

Fredericksburg. Battle, Dec. 11-15, 1862. 

Peninsular Campaign. Mar. 17-Sept. 2, 1862. 

Shenandoan Valley. Operations, May 15-June 
17, 1862. 

Orgn., equip., etc., of vols., 90, 350, 796. 

Partisan rangers, 21, 82, 83. 

Population, 1860, 334. 


1127 


Virginia—Continued. 
Recruiting from State for C.S. service, 642-644, 
Requisitions for troops, 580-582, 584. 
Returns of conscripts, 157. 


Schedules of prices, 559, 560, 651-653, 743-746, 843- <==" 


846, 937, 988, 1049-1051. 
State troops, 90. 
Taxation, 62, 63, 827, 3828, 3382-334, 575. 
Transfer of State troops to C. S. service, 76, 414. 
Troops furnished, 939, 940, 995. 
Votes of soldiers or refugees, 472. 

Virginia, Adjutant-General of. 

Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 592, 597. 
Virginia, Governor of, 107, 240. 
Orders, General, series 1863: June 10, 584. 

Virginia, Governor of. 

Correspondence: 
Davis, Jefferson, 211, 426, 430, 642, 
Virginia, Adjutant-General of, 107, 240. 
Virginia Legislature, 107, 309. 
War Department, C. S., 123, 240, 582, 689. 
Messages to Legislature, 309. 
Proclamations, 33, 73. 

Virginia, Impressment Commissioners of. 

Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 559, 652, L- 
748, 842, 845, 937, 1049. 

Virginia aud Tennessee Railroad. ; 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, ete., 484, 486. 

Virginia Central Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad ofticials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, ete., 484, 486, 487. 

Virginia Legislature. 

Correspondence, Governor of Virginia, 107, 309. 
Inpressment of slave labor, 426-430. ~ 
Messages from the Governor, 309. 

Transfer of State troops to C.S. service, 414. 

Virginia Military Institute. 

Conscription, 123, 124. 
Entry of cadets into Army before graduation, 
592, 593, 597. 

Virginia Troops (C.). 

Cavalry—Battalions: 24th, 27th, 82; 37th, 808. 

Cavalry—Companies: Clopton’s, 301, 302; Lit- 
tleton’s, 301, 302, 334; Seawell’s, 302; 
Smoot’s, 83. 

Infantry—Battalions: 6th (Local Defense), 240. 

Infantry—Regiments: 62d, 82. 

Wade, James W., 931. 

Wade, William B., 930. 

Wadley, William M. 

Augusta convention of railroad officials, 270-278. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., of railroads, 483- 
487, 
Correspondence : 
Adjt. and Insp. Gen.’s Office, C.§. A., 270. 
War Department, C.S., 373, 457, 483, 486. 
Mentioned, 225, 231, 232, 272-277, 296, 304, 365, 372, 
385, 509, 579, 883. 
Supervisor of railroad transportation, 365, 366. 

Waggaman, Eugene. 

Commandant of conscripts for Louisiana, 416. 
Mentioned, 416. 
Wagner, Charles G., 958. 


1128 


Walker, Leroy P., 368, 95 | 
Walker, Norman S. 

Correspondence: 

Q. M. General’s Office, C. 8. A., 659, 872, 909. 
War Department, C.58., 910. 

Mentioned, 227, 647, 659, 735, 826, 889, 896. 

Walker, Thomas A., 273. 
Walker, Thomas D., 274. 
Walker, William €. 

Correspondence: 

Bryson, J. N., 732. 

Johnson, B. R., 732. 
Walker, William L., 936. 
Wall, Septimus T., 248. 
Wallace, Campbell, 273, 274. 
Wallace, George P., 934. 
Wallace, S. D., 274. 
Waller, Richard P. 

Correspondence: 

Q. M. General’s Office, C. S. A., 658, 828, 895. 
War Department, C.S., 896. 

Mentioned, 659, 833, 834, 870, 872, 896, 910. 
Walsh, Charles, jr., 980. 
Walsh, Smith & Co., 710. 
Walthall, Edward C., 932. 
Walthall, W. T. 

Correspondence: 

Bureau of Conscription, C. 
Marchbanks, G., 436. 
Pillow, G. J., 727. 

War Department, C.5S., 207. 

Mentioned, 87, 436. 

Walton, H. T., 933. 
Walworth, Douglas, 931. 
Ward, John W., 933. 
Ward, Matthew S., 935. 
Ward, William T., 930. 
War Department, C. S. 


S. A., 435, 438, 726. 


Appropriations, 112, 118, 119, 120, 392, 393, 531,532. 
Bledsoe, A. T., Assistant Secretary of War, 1074. 


Campbell, J. A.: 

Assistant Secretary of War, 1074. 

Resigns as Assistant Secretary of War, 179. 
Correspondence: 

Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 82, 153, 218, 220, 241, 272, 359, 390, 445, 
620, 623, 656, 682, 695, 705, 711, 748, 877, 941, 
1019, 1020, 1054, 1059, 1062. 

Ailsworth, J. D., 304. 

Alabama, Governor of, 21, 32, 87, 106, 143, 148, 
175, 196, 212, 226, 235, 242, 243, 258, 357, 367, 419, 
461, 472, 582, 598, 595, 632, 754, 910. 

Armstrong, J. D., 76. 

Ashe, T.S., 409. 

Atty. Gen.’s Office, C.S., 15, 124, 

August, T. P., 433. 

Avegno, B., 257. 

Barksdale, E., 655. 

Barriere, C. A., & Bro., 173, 174. 

Beauregard, G. T., 116, 121, 122, 216, 714, 715. 

Blake, E. D., 433. 

Blanchard, A. G., 7. 

Boteler, A. R., 718. 

Bragg, B., 433, 434, 444, 482. 

Bunch, R., 238. 

Burdett, J. D., 221 


126, 212. 


INDEX. 


War Department, C. S.—Continued. 
Correspondence: 

Bureau of Conscription, C.S. A., 375, 378, 411, 
430, 488, 445, 473, 573, 582, 608, 694, 716, 723, 731, 
747, 749, 752, 761, 768, 786, 811, 812, 867,966, 1070. 

Campbell, J. A., 623, 656, 662, 674, 695, 716, 743, 
763, 786, 979, 987, 988. 

Chesnut, J., jr., 152, 156. 

Clapp, J. W., 381, 388. 

Clark, M. R., 149, 433. 

Clay, C. C., jr., 141. 

Cobb, H.. 34, 365, 854, 877, 912. 

Colston, R. E,, 433. 

Congress, C.S., 1058. 

Crenshaw, J. R., 497. 525, 565. 

Crenshaw, W. G., 449, 478, 480, 535, 543, 554, 586, 
587, 599, 623, 625. 

Daniel, P. V., jr., 394, 395, 499, 511, 841, 852, 866. 

Dargan, E.S., 220, 550, 585, 664, 713. 

Davis, Jefferson, 33, 41, 68, 73, 77, 80, 95, 107, 109, 
113, 126, 132, 145, 148, 151, 153, 175, 178, 246, 370, 
402, 424, 619, 643, 644, 663, 713, 714, 763, 780, 786, 
811, 858, 918, 953, 1054, 1058, 1063. 

Dudley, P. G., 304. 

Ellis, J. W., 231. 

Engineer Department, C.S 

Ferguson, J. B., jr., 895. 

Florida, Governor of, 38, 97, 109, 582, 648, 650, 
879, 914. 

Floyd, J. B., 195. 

Foreacre, G.J., 9. 

Fullarton, A., 835. 

Georgia, Governor of, 22, 23, 218-220, 225, 262, 
582, 584, 586, 590, 592, 595-597, 610, 614, 620, 632, 
671,737, 753, 777, 780, 788, 915, 943, 988, 1023, 
1063. 

Godwin, D. J., 301, 334. 

Goodman, W.., 382. 

Hart, B. W., 190. 

Hart, 8., 793. 

Hatch, KF. Heni242) 

Heyliger, L., 8, 18, 177, 233, 335, 633, 852, 877, 897. 

Friese 

Hitchcock, D. H., 399. 

Huse, C., 106. 

Impressment Commissioners’ Convention, 915. 

Irwin, D., 262. 

Johnson, H. V., 244. 

Johnston, J. C., 236. 

Johnston, J. E., 415,445,449, 682,748,797, 806, 868. 

Jones, J. B., 412. 

Jones, S§., 126. 

Kenney, D. Hie 655. 

Lee, R. E., 75, 97, 116, 124, 334, 768, 786, 807. 

Loring, W. W.., 50. 

Louisiana, Governor of, 306. 

Lyon, F.S., 425. 

McRae, C. J., 824, 845, 885, 918, 1067. 

Magee, J., 67, 70, 84. 

Magruder, J. B., 366. 

Martin, A. H., 616, 631. 

Martin, J. G., 115. 

Mason, J. M., 244. 

Maupin, S., 297, 308. 

Maury, D. H., 685, 710, 715. 

Melton, S. W., 944. 


S. A., 145, 259. 


INDEX. 


War Department, €. S.—Continued. 
Correspondence: 

Mercer, H. W.., 35. 

Miles, W. P., 359, 390. 

Mississippi, Governor of, 16, 178, 300, 334, 582. 

Mitchel, C. B., 85. 

Moore, G. D., 616, 631. 

Navy Department, C.S., 90, 143, 697, 705, 706. 

Niter and Mining Bureau, C.S. A., 26, 222, 223. 

North Carolina, Governor of, 4,5, 17, 31,71, 81, 
113, 114, 175, 225, 229, 298, 308, 336, 375, 377, 385, 
393, 4138, 458, 460, 547, 567, 569, 582, 674, 680, 765, 
786, 787, 807, 906, 937, 1061, 1066, 1072. 

Ordnance Department, C.S. A.,65, 224, 227, 237, 
299, 363, 384, 498, 527, 556, 564, 644, 647, 662, 720, 
979. 

Pemberton, J. C., 218. 

Peterson, W.S.., 487. 

Pillow, G.J., 403, 433, 456, 707, 741, 758, 819, 830, 
848, 849, 853, 869, 911. 

Preston, J.S., 433, 636, 648. 

Price, S., 69. 

Quartermaster-General’s Office, C.S. A., 30, 96, 
191, 231, 300, 301, 304, 372, 385, 396, 397, 551, 555, 
556, 576, 599, 616, 682, 709, 755, 883. 

- Railroad Convention, 508. 
Rains, G. W., 660, 684, 705, 746, 801. 
‘Richardson, J. M., 739, 768. 

Robinson, J. M., 409. 

Seawell, J. T., 303. 

Seibels, J. J., 603. 

Shields, J. C., 433. 

South Carolina, Governor of, 16, 152, 266, 298, 
306, 390,580,597, 709, 807, 863, 864, 874, 875, 1058, 
1059. 

Sparrow, E., 97. 

Stanton, R., 703, 730. 

State Department, C.S., 835. 

Stephens, A. H., 6. 

Stiles, W. H., sr., 810, 818. 

Subsistence Department, C.S. A., 157, 169, 350, 
384, 397, 398, 405, 414, 551, 574, 709, 852, 912, 917, 
938, 960, 989. 

Surgeon-General’s Office, C.S. A., 397, 1072. 

Swanson, W.G., 70, 433. 

Taylor, R., 198. 

Tennessee, Governor of, 582, 666, 752. 

Texas, Governor of, 235. 

Treasury Department, C. S., 17, 116, 121, 133, 
236, 459, 550, 576, 577, 789, 907, 941, 979. 

Tucker, B., 87. 

Virginia, Governor of, 123, 240, 582, 689. 

Virginia, bmnpressment Commissioners of, 559, 
652, 748, 842, 845, 937, 1049. 

Wadley, W. M.., 373, 457, 483, 486. 

Walker, N.S., 910. 

Waller, R. P., 896. 

Walthall, W. T., 207. 

Weems, J. B., 169, 177, 228. 

Whiting, W. H. C., 547, 631, 715, 735. 

Wilkinson, U. B., 616, 631. 

Wright, A. R., 397. 

Deas, G., Actg. Asst. Secty. of War, 139. 
Deserters, 5-7, 16, 17, 22, 23. 


‘ld pens 


War Department, C. S.—Continued. 
Establishment, organization, etc., 594, 595. 
Estimates of appropriations, 294, 310, 418, 938, 939, 

1017. ; 
Instructions governing impressments, 469-472, 
477, 478. 
Kean, R. G. H., Chief of Bureau of War, 1074. 
Lease or purchase of real estate, 530. 
Operations, 1862-68, 42-49, 54, 55, 279-294,990-1018. 
Orders, Circulars, series 1862: July 17, 7. 
Principal officials, 1074. 
Randolph, G. W.: 
Resigns as Secretary of War, 178. 
Secretary of War, 1074. 
Seddon, J. A., Secretary of War, 358, 1074. 
Smith, G. W., Acting Secretary of War, 1074. 
Vacancy in office of Assistant Secretary, 113. 

War Department, U. S. 

Correspondence, E. Stanly, 154. ~ 

Warren, James C., 907. 

Warren, Wiiliam S., 933. 

War-Tax Office, C. S. 

Correspondence: 

Pope, J. D., 64. 

Treasury Department, C.S., 63. 
Recommendations of legislation, 63-65. 

Washington, T. A., 453. 

Waterhouse & Bowes, 184. 

Waters, J. C., 931. 

Watie, Stand, 353, 354, 467. 

Watkins, George C., 248. 

Watkins, William, 930. 

Watson, J. M., 931. 

Watson, John W. C., 899, 900, 902, 903, 905, 906. 

Watson, L. G., 536, 633, 634, 852. 

Watson, P. H., 255. ~ 

Watts, Thomas H. 

Correspondence. See Atty. Gen.’s Office, O. 8. 
Mentioned, 33, 34, 41, 42, 189, 623, 713, 738. 

Wayne, Henry ¢. 

Correspondence. See Georgia, Adjutant and 
Inspector General of. 
Mentioned, 28, 169, 170, 264, 657, 790, 811, 818, 819. 

Weatherall, John T., 936. 

Webb, R. R., 933. 

Webb, Thomas W., 936. 

Weedon, John, 435, 

Weems, John B. 

Correspondence: 
Bureau of Conscription, C. 8. A., 812. 
Georgia, Adjt. and Insp. Gen. of, 170. 
War Department, C.S., 169, 177, 228. 
Mentioned, 96, 812. 

Weir, John, 930. 

Weitz, Stephen, 366. 

Welborn, J. W., 932. 

Welles, Gideon, 1028. 

Wells, B. E., 274. 

Wells, Elem M., 929, 932, 935. 

Wells, Joseph M., 929, 932. 

West, A. M. 

Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 697. 
Mentioned, 922-924. 


1130 


West, Department of the (C.).* 

Operations Volunteer and Conscription Bureau, 
359, 361, 362, 371, 374, 387, 388, 403, 404, 415, 416, 
430-445, 449, 450, 456, 458, 473-475, 482, 483, 636- 
639, 675-677, 680-682, 685, 686, 693, 694, 707, 726- 
728, 741-743, 748-754, 758-765, 774-777, 782, 783, 
794, 797, 805-807, 819-822, 830, 831, 847-852, 859- 
863, 867+869, 873, 884, 885, 910-912, 939, 963-965, 
1019, 1020, 1063, 1064. 

Orders, General, series 1863: 
675; No. 2, 676. 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops, Dec. 10, 

20, 1862, 278. 
Western and Atlantic Railroad. 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Western Department (C.). 

Orders, Special, series 1862: No. 1, 76. 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops, June 20, 
18638, 615. 

Western Rivers. 

Measures for defense, 531, 639, 697, 701, 707, 712, 
713, 754, 765, 766. 

Western Virginia, Department of (es 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops: 

Dec. 31, 1862, 278. 
January, 1863, 380. 
Apr. 30, 1863, 530. 
May 31, 1863, 615. 
Western Virginia and East Tennessee, Dept. of. 

Organization, strength, etc., of troops, Dee. 31, 
1863, 1073. 

West Florida, Department of. 

Orders, Circulars, series 1863: Noy. 20, 974. 
Weston, J. Alden. 

Correspondence, J. Enders, 735. 
West Virginia. 

Operations in. See Harper's Ferry. Siege and 

capture, Sept. 12-15, 1862. 
Wharton, John A., 371. 
Wheeler, Joseph, 387, 800. 
Wheeler, Samuel J., 72. 
White, Edward B., 815. 
White, J. E., 930. 
White, J. F.. 934. 
White, James L., 958. 
White, John, 195, 545. 
White, John F., 934. 
White, P. W., 918. 
White, Thomas W., 860, 963. 
White, W. L., 936. 
Whiting, Jasper S. 

Correspondence. 

General's Office, OC. 8. A. 
Whiting, William H. C. 
Correspondence, War Department,C. S., 547, 631, 
715, 735. 
Mentioned, 278, 380, 784, 1073. 
Whitthorne, William C., 99, 667. 
Wichita Indians. 

Affairs, condition, ete., 354. 
Wicks, M. J., 359. 
Wier, George T., 930. 
Wier, R. Stuart, 931. 
Wier, William W., 933. 


(Pillow) No. 1, 


See Adjutant and Inspector | 


INDEX. 


Wigg, George, 234. 

Wiggins, Mr., 651. 

Wilbourn, Christopher C., 861, 929, 964. 

Wilhelm, Mare, 366. 

Wilkins, M. F., 983. 

Wilkinson, George B., 395. 

Wilkinson, John C., 930. 

Wilkinson, U. B. 

Correspondence, War Department, C. S8., 616,631. 
Mentioned, 899, 903. ; 

Williams, J. Shelby, 248. 

Williams, James H., 788, 803. 

Williams, Joseph P., 934. 

Williams, Josiah B., 930. 

Williams, Parham B., 930. 

Williams, R. S., 357. 

Williams, Thomas, 936. 

Williams, Thomas H. 

Correspondence, Surg. Gen.’s Office,C.S.A.,2, 13. 

Williamson, George, 66. 

Williamson, Henry E., 931. 

Williamson, Robert W., 931. 

Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, 
Augusta convention of railroad officials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 

Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. 

Augusta convention of railroad oflicials, 274. 
Capacity, condition, needs, etc., 484, 486. 
Measures for defense, 766. 

Wilson, Daniel A., 248. 

Wilson, H. C., 936. 

Wilson, J. McH., 936. 

Wilson, J. R., 934. 

Wilson, Thomas F., 932. 

Wilson, W. H., 935. 

Winder, John H., 278, 335. 

Winefield, James H., 82. 

Winnemore, Isaac T. 

Correspondence, Quartermaster-General’s Office, 
C.S. A., 483, 655. 
Mentioned, 453, 829. 

Wise, Henry A., 66. 

Withers, John. 

Correspondence. See Adjutant and Inspector 
General's Office, C. S.A. 

Withers, Jones M. 

Correspondence, Adjutant and Inspector Gen- 
eral’s Office, C. S. A., 670, 695. 

Withers, William T., 40, 935. 

Witherspoon, James H., 156, 788. 

Witherspoon, William W., 933. 

Wofford, Jefferson L., 935, 

Wofford, William T., 804. 

Womack, Mark S., 930. 

Wood, D. H., 273. 

Wood, Robert C., jr., 935. 

Woodfin, N. W., 182. 

Woods, Granville A., 933. 

Worth, D. G., 181. 

Worth, General, Vessel, 173. 

Worth, Jona. 

Correspondence, W. T. Dortch, 364. 

Worthington, Edward S., 248. 

Wren, William. 

Correspondence, Jefferson Davis, 708. 


* General Joseph E. Johnston’s geographical command. 


Wright, Augustus R. 


Correspondence, War Department, C. S., 397. . 


Mentioned, 988, 1061, 1063. 
Wright, Daniel B., 933. ; 
Wright, Moses H., 65, 958. 
Writ of Habeas Corpus. 
Congress, C.S., 121. 
Standing counsel for Government, 967, 968. 
Suspension, 39, 83. 
Yates, Alexander, 933. 


INDEX. 


Yates, J. H., 935. 

Yates, J. P., 936. 

Yonge, George, 274. 

Young, Samuel, 933. 

Young, W. H. 
Correspondence, A. G. Rice, 123. 
Mentioned, 116, 121-123, 152. 

Young, William, 929. 

Yulee, David L., 649-651. 


1131 


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